Chinese Firms’ Move to the Forefront in Digital Technologies

Abstract

In the past two decades, China has achieved impressive progress and built competence in digital technology–enabled products, processes, business models, and hyperscale e-infrastructure. Driven by the globally largest internet user scale and fast catching up of information technologies, China’s strategy has been transformed from survival to growth and is transforming to market leadership. Now China has built its competence not only in telecommunication, consumer electronics, and PCs but also in some complex technology products like supercomputer systems. China has also witnessed the rise of hyperscale internet giants and the establishment of super e-commerce and mobile payment systems. However, there are still some great challenges that need to be overcome in some “bottleneck” technologies like the semiconductor and software sectors. China is thus seeking ways to move beyond the “global factory” model and cultivate its own technology-intensive industries and innovation capabilities. In the future, it is critical to maintain an open strategy among fierce global competition.