The Digital Silk Road: China's Quest to Wire the World and Win the Future

(Paperback, Main)

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'One of the most interesting and original thinkers about the rise of China' - Peter Frankopan

Its vast infrastructure projects now extend from the ocean floor to outer space, and from Africa's megacities into rural America. China is wiring the world, and, in doing so, rewriting the global order.

As things stand, the rest of the world still has a choice. But the battle for tomorrow will require America and its allies to take daring risks in uncertain political terrain. Unchecked, China will reshape global flows of data to reflect its own interests - and the lives of countless individuals enmeshed in its systems.

Taking readers on a global tour of these emerging battlefields, Jonathan E. Hillman reveals what China's digital footprint looks like on the ground, and explores the dangers of a world in which all routers lead to Beijing.

Reviews

'Hillman is surely right that Chinese tech makes the world a more dangerous place than we once hoped ... The prospect that [he] sets up is terrifying' - Emma Duncan

'A probing look at China's quest to dominate the technosphere [and] a cogent warning that the West has much work to do if it is to contain Chinese expansion into cyberspace' - Kirkus

'Engrossing ... Hillman weaves together academic research with on-the-ground journalism to paint a vivid picture of China's Digital Silk Road efforts' - Jonathan A Knee

'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' - Minxin Pei, author

'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, 16th Supreme Allied Commander at NATO and author

Author Bio

Jonathan E. Hillman is a Senior Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State, where he works in the Office of Policy Planning. He was formerly a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. He has also served as a policy advisor to the U.S. Trade Representative, testified before Congress, briefed Fortune 500 executives, and his commentary has been published in the Washington Post, the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal.