From Walled Garden to the Digital Silk Road

This paper investigates the explanatory factors underpinning the involvement of Chinese big tech companies in projects aligned with strategic national objectives established by the Chinese State, both domestically and internationally. The analysis begins with the observation that the Chinese context presents unique characteristics in two key respects: it has fostered the emergence of national market players with the capacity to challenge globally established monopolies; and it reveals corporate behavior that extends beyond models focused solely on the extraction of rent from intellectual monopolies. This study aims to characterize the initiatives undertaken by Chinese big tech that demonstrate alignment with state-defined objectives, while proposing that the relationship between these private entities and the power of the state can be understood as one of “symbiotic tension.”