Book review: Gerald Chan. China’s Digital Silk Road: Setting Standards, Powering Growth
| Published date | 01 March 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/23477970241230361 |
| Author | Ramnath Reghunadhan |
| Date | 01 March 2024 |
148 Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs 11(1)
risks, it is also important to explore the opportunities that exist for cooperation in
areas such as climate change, economic development and global governance.
Overall, The Avoidable War is a timely and valuable contribution to the ongoing
discussion on the US–China relationship. Kevin Rudd’s insights and recommendations
provide a roadmap for policymakers and scholars to navigate the complex geopolitical
landscape and find a path towards a more stable and peaceful future. It is a highly
recommended book for anyone interested in the US–China relationship and the
potential risks associated with their escalating tensions. Kevin Rudd’s expertise and
insights offer a valuable perspective on the geopolitical landscape and the urgent need
for a new strategic framework to avoid a catastrophic conflict.
ORCID iD
Sanoop Sajan Koshy https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9000-4456
Reference
Mahbubani, K. (2022). Has China won? The Chinese challenge to American primacy.
Public Affairs.
Sanoop Sajan Koshy
Department of Humanities and Social Science,
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
E-mail: sanoopsajan@gmail.com
Gerald Chan. China’s Digital Silk Road: Setting Standards, Powering
Growth. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022. 196 pp.
(hardback). ISBN: 9781803921204.
DOI: 10.1177/23477970241230361
The book China’s Digital Silk Road: Setting Standards, Powering Growth by
Gerald Chan provides a collation of variegated facets and aspects related to
China’s Digital Silk Road (DSR) project and the related shifts as well as ripples
created by it in the global order. The book undertakes a detailed examination,
analysis and articulation of China’s DSR project, which evolved with the
prominence of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in infrastructure building.
According to the author, ‘[I]nfrastructure building has become the centre stage of
global development; and digital infrastructure the centre of the centre stage, as it
has become the brain of the body of infrastructure’ (p. viii).
In Chapter 1, the author introduces and defines the DSR as a ‘hi-tech arm of the
BRI’, whilst recognising that a precise categorisation often ‘depends on the
ideological disposition of the observer’ (p. 1). The digital dimension is effective and
efficient in the functioning of the ‘brain power’, with data as the ‘building block
of information that flows through the DSR’ (Ibid.). The book analyses the impact
of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the greater strides in technological
interconnectedness and the facets related to Sino-US decoupling to analyse the
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