U.S. Perception of and Response to the Digital Silk Road

U.S. Perception of and Response to the Digital Silk Road

[Author] ZHAO Minghao

[Abstract] The construction of the Digital Silk Road is an important part of Belt and Road international cooperation, which has a positive impact in promoting the development of the global digital economy and deepening digital connectivity.Therefore, it has been generally recognized and supported by the international community. However, in the context of the Trump administration's escalating strategic competition with China, the Digital Silk Road has attracted more and more attention,and has been given negative connotations. American strategic experts generally believe that the Digital Silk Road poses a major challenge to the economic, diplomatic and security interests of the United States, and they have put forward a series of policy proposals on how to strengthen competition with China in the fields of digital infrastructure construction and digital governance rules. In practice, the Trump administration has launched mechanisms such as the Digital Connectivity and Cybersecurity Partnership,which seeks to combine whole-of-government and whole-ofsociety efforts in counterbalancing the Digital Silk Road.Therefore, it is of practical significance to better understand how the U.S. perceives and responds to the Digital Silk Road, which will give us a better sense of the international environment facing it, particularly the strategies, means and characteristics of the American campaign to strategically compete with China in the digital age.

[Source] China International Studies, Vol.16, No.5, 2020, pp.84-106.