The Digital Silk Road traces China’s rise as a digital superpower and provides a sobering analysis of its challenge to American technological leadership, economic competitiveness, and national security. Jonathan Hillman shows how private entrepreneurship and government support have enabled a technologically backward country to acquire leading-edge communications capabilities long thought to be the exclusive preserve of rich democracies. This important and well-crafted book should be required reading for American policy makers and industry leaders.” — Minxin Pei, Tom and Margot Pritzker ’72 Professor of Government and George R. Roberts Fellow, Claremont McKenna College

“A timely and fascinating account of how China is shaping the digital universe, redrawing the connections that carry data from the ocean floor to outer space, and harnessing the means by which both commerce and warfare will increasingly be conducted, framed in a century-defining contest for control.” — Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky, former U.S. trade representative

“Essential reading for understanding one of the greatest geostrategic challenges of our age: China’s technological rise and global push to dominate the vital systems upon which militaries, markets, and modern societies depend.” — Admiral James Stavridis, sixteenth supreme allied commander at NATO and author of 2034: A Novel of the Next World War

“An urgent, engaging look at China’s push to build digital influence and leverage, project by project, as it makes a play for global dominance.” — Ambassador Jon M. Huntsman Jr.

"A probing look at China’s quest to dominate the technosphere. . . . Hillman refutes the notion that with internet connectivity comes increased freedom. . . . A cogent warning that the West has much work to do if it is to contain Chinese expansion into cyberspace." — Kirkus Reviews

“Hillman warns against complacency and underestimating China's technological ambitions. His writing is lucid and nuanced, and his warning that America needs to wake up is timely and compelling.” — Booklist

“Fine prose and telling case studies...take the time to dive deep into this well-written account of the biggest technological transformation of the 21st century.” — Financial Times

Hillman warns against complacency and underestimating China's technological ambitions. His writing is lucid and nuanced, and his warning that America needs to wake up is timely and compelling.

The Digital Silk Road traces China’s rise as a digital superpower and provides a sobering analysis of its challenge to American technological leadership, economic competitiveness, and national security. Jonathan Hillman shows how private entrepreneurship and government support have enabled a technologically backward country to acquire leading-edge communications capabilities long thought to be the exclusive preserve of rich democracies. This important and well-crafted book should be required reading for American policy makers and industry leaders.

An urgent, engaging look at China’s push to build digital influence and leverage, project by project, as it makes a play for global dominance.

Fine prose and telling case studies...take the time to dive deep into this well-written account of the biggest technological transformation of the 21st century.

A timely and fascinating account of how China is shaping the digital universe, redrawing the connections that carry data from the ocean floor to outer space, and harnessing the means by which both commerce and warfare will increasingly be conducted, framed in a century-defining contest for control.

Essential reading for understanding one of the greatest geostrategic challenges of our age: China’s technological rise and global push to dominate the vital systems upon which militaries, markets, and modern societies depend.

Hillman warns against complacency and underestimating China's technological ambitions. His writing is lucid and nuanced, and his warning that America needs to wake up is timely and compelling.

"China’s Belt and Road is reshaping the world’s economic and strategic landscape, and in this sweeping and thought-provoking tour, Jonathan Hillman reveals the gaps between Beijing’s grand rhetoric and ground reality. Required reading for the C-Suite and the Situation Room.

"An outstanding book by one of the most interesting and original thinkers about the rise of China, the Belt and Road Initiative and what both mean for the rest of the world. Filled with insights into the changing world of the 21st century—essential reading.

Jonathan Hillman offers an insightful contribution that helps cut through the noise on one of the most important projects of China’s foreign policy.

2021-08-18
A probing look at China’s quest to dominate the technosphere.

Hillman, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, specializes in monitoring the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative, intended to extend the Silk Road of old all the way to the Atlantic and to control commerce and resources around the world. This involves the digital world as well. “The CCP [Chinese Communist Party],” he writes, “is harnessing communications technology to cement its control at home and expand its influence abroad.” The mechanisms of this control should worry civil libertarians and geopoliticians alike: Two Chinese companies produce 40% of the world’s security cameras, another is one of just four companies that supply the fiber optic submarine cables that carry almost all international data, and China manufactures components that American missiles require. Hillman refutes the notion that with internet connectivity comes increased freedom. Instead, he observes, China has been putting much of its energy into security technology such as AI–driven facial recognition systems. And not just against its citizens: Kenya, it turns out, is one of the world’s up-and-coming surveillance states, armed with Chinese technology. China has been active throughout Africa in particular, securing rare earth minerals and other commodities and reinforcing infrastructure among its partner and client states, while the West has been turning its back on a continent that is projected to grow economically in the near future. Hillman argues that the “U.S. government must become more entrepreneurial in how it approaches foreign markets and emerging technologies,” developing a venture capital fund to outdo Chinese financial intervention. The government also needs to get a better handle on the fire hose of data that China has been putting to good work analyzing world shipping traffic, farm yields, energy use, and other points that indicate weak spots and market and strategic opportunities.

A cogent warning that the West has much work to do if it is to contain Chinese expansion into cyberspace.