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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report examines the circumstances in which China’s efforts to develop its own technology standards are occurring and assesses the implications and prospects for success of the initiatives. MAIN ARGUMENT • In information and communications technologies (ICT), China is making a long-term commitment to the development of standards as part of an effort to promote domestic technological innovation and make China an “innovative society.” • China’s aspirations to become a standards setter in ICT should be seen against a background of institutional uncertainty in an international economy struggling to devise mechanisms of governance to accommodate rapid technological change and the emergence of large economies, and amidst a pluralism of views on techno-nationalist versus techno-globalist approaches. • China’s efforts to set and commercialize ICT standards domestically have met with only limited success due to inappropriate government intervention, failures to forge winning coalitions in standards-setting forums, and an inability to displace established international standards. Nevertheless, China is learning from experience, will push forward with standards development, and is likely to have greater success in the future. • Chinahasachievedsomesuccessinhavingitsdomesticstandardsadoptedinternationally and has made some contributions to jointly developed standards but has proven less capable of blocking standards initiatives that it opposes. Those elements of the Chinese government, research community, and industry that are most deeply integrated into the global economy have had the greatest chance for success because they have more quickly adapted to the global standards system. POLICY IMPLICATIONS • The techno-nationalist sentiments sometimes associated with China’s standards initiatives should be tempered with a techno-globalist vision, both to promote the technological progress of the Chinese economy and to contribute to the provision of international public goods. • The international community will want to monitor the implementation of China’s innovation and standardization strategies and work with China in developing its capabilities for standards development. • The international community can accommodate the emergence of a technologically dynamic, standards-setting China by facilitating Chinese participation in international standards bodies and consistently engaging Chinese experts, industry, and officials. 5 STANDARDS, STAKEHOLDERS, AND INNOVATION u KENNEDY, SUTTMEIER, AND SU S ince 2003, when China announced its mandatory WAPI standard as an alternative to the widely used Wi-Fi wireless communications standard, international interest in standardization in China has expanded rapidly.1 The growing size and influence of China’s economy, and China’s steadily improving technological capabilities, make analysis of Chinese standardization an ongoing challenge. This is especially true in light of recent trends. The first is China’s growing involvement with international standards organizations—formal standards development organizations (SDO) and various standards consortia that have become key forums for information and communications technology (ICT) standardization—and the increasingly differentiated and expanding institutional arrangements for standardization in China itself. China’s participation in international standards organizations has grown rapidly and indicates a commitment to a Chinese presence in governance mechanisms. China’s learning curve regarding the operation of international standards organizations is showing itself to be remarkably steep. A second important trend is the build-up of China’s science and technology, marked by the initiation in 2006 of China’s “National Medium- and Long-Term Program for Scientific and Technological Development (2006–2020)” (MLP), with its goal of creating an “innovative society” in China by 2020, and the complementary science and technology programs of the Eleventh FiveYear Plan.2 Both plans focus on “innovation,” now a ubiquitous buzzword in government policy statements and popular discourse, and take as measures of success in innovation the development of Chinese standards incorporating Chinese intellectual property (IP). Thus, the filing of patents 1 “China’s WTO Implementation and Other Issues of Importance to American Business in the U.S.-China Commercial Relationship,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce, September 2007, http://www.uschamber.com/publications/reports/0709us_china.htm. 2 For discussions of the MLP, see Cong Cao, Richard P. Suttmeier, and Denis Fred Simon, “China’s 15-Year Science Plan: Mapping Research and Innovation Strategies for the 21st Century,” Physics Today 59, no. 2 (December 2006): 38–43; Sylvia Schwaag Serger and Magnus Breidne, “China’s Fifteen-Year Plan for Science and Technology: An Assessment,” Asia Policy 4 (July 2007): 135–64; and Linda Jakobson, “China Aims High in Science and Technology,” in Innovation with Chinese Characteristics: High-Tech Research in China, ed. Linda Jakobson (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007): 1–36. SCOTT KENNEDY is Associate Professor in the Departments of Political Science and East Asian Languages & Cultures and Director of the Research Center for Chinese...

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