Digital transformation is a top priority of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan. Having built a solid foundation for its digital economy, Beijing wants to reach the next phase: integrate digital technologies with the real economy, society and government functions to drive economic upgrading and modernize the Chinese Communist Party’s governance capabilities. Beijing’s vision, however, does not stop at home: it is global and builds on a decades-long strategic approach toward internet infrastructure in the Global South. 

Rebecca Arcesati, Analyst at MERICS focusing on China’s digital and technology policies, lays out the CCP’s vision for digital transformation and e-government, its promotion of this vision in the Global South and the implications for Europe. She recently published a MERICS Primer titled “E-government and Covid-19: Digital China goes global”. Questions were asked by Johannes Heller-John.