HORIZON ADVISORY
CHINA STANDARDS Series
CHINA STANDARDS 2035
April 2020
Beijing’s Platform Geopolitics and “Standardization Work in 2020”
by
Actionable Geopolitical Insight
Emily de La Bruyère & Nathan Picarsic
HORIZON ADVISORY Horizon Advisory, an independent strategic consultancy, helps businesses, investors, and government actors understand and respond to geopolitical, economic, and technological change. Visit us at www.horizonadvisory.org to learn more. Reach us at info@horizonadvisory.org.
China Standards 2035
CHINA STANDARDS Series
Table of CONTENTS ABOUT HORIZON ADVISORY THE CHINA STANDARDS SERIES
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INTRODUCTION
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The CHINA STANDARDS 2035 Project 5 SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITY
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BUILDING ON MIC 2025
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SEIZING THE NEXT GENERATION
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FROM STANDARDS TO PLATFORMS
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A GLOBAL VISION
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Full-Text Translation
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Main Points of National Standardization Work in 2020
HORIZON ADVISORY
ABOUT
Horizon Advisory
Horizon Advisory brings a new approach and unparalleled sources and methods to understanding geopolitics. Horizon Advisory was formed with the mission of applying its key personnel’s expertise in analyzing Chinese strategy and implications for critical security and economic challenges. Decision-makers across sectors – national security leaders, stakeholders from the private sector, US partners and allies – face uncertainty associated with geopolitical, technological, and economic changes activated or impacted by China. Beijing wields new type powers in ways and for effects that traditional analysis risks misunderstanding. Leveraging unprecedented primary sources, we apply updated strategic frameworks and novel analysis techniques to generate differentiated insights for clients including businesses and investors grappling with geopolitical, economic, and technological uncertainties.
Emily de La Bruyère Emily de La Bruyere is a co-founder of Horizon Advisory. She has led extensive China research programs and developed novel analysis tools and techniques. She received her BA summa cum laude from Princeton University and her MA summa cum laude from Sciences Po, Paris, where she was the Michel David-Weill Fellow. Her public commentaries have been published in The New York Times, Bloomberg, and the Wall Street Journal. Her expertise has been cited in sources ranging from Tech Crunch to Politico. Recent Commentary: The Octavian Report, 24 March 2020
REPORT ATUHORS
Nathan Picarsic Nate Picarsic is a co-founder of Horizon Advisory. His research focuses on the development of competitive strategies and longitudinal trend analysis to monitor and benchmark competitive dynamics across sectors and domains. His public commentaries have been published in a range of outlets including The Octavian Report and the US Navy CIO’s journal CHIPS. He holds a BA from Harvard College and has completed executive education programs through Harvard Business School and the Defense Acquisition University. Recent Commentary: The National Interest, 26 March 2020
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The China Standards Series Since the 1990s, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has codified its global ambition in the “Go Out” (走出去战略) strategy: targeted integration into the international system designed to capture market influence and advantages.1 Go Out rests on the principle of “two markets, two resources” (两个市场两种资源 ). The domestic market is to be protected and the international one penetrated; domestic resources are to be insulated and foreign ones siphoned.2 Unilateral protection of the domestic market, and strategic exploitation of external ones, has fueled Beijing’s rise. “Two markets, two resources” has been reiterated in the lineage of economic programs derived from “Go Out,” including the Belt and Road Initiative (一带一路 ), Strategic Emerging Industries (战略性 新兴产业) Initiative, and Made in China 2025 (中国制造 2025). Those plans have positioned Beijing asymmetrically to profit from and influence the international system. Now, the CCP is launching a new phase in its grand strategy. This phase is no longer about asymmetric integration into international systems. It focuses on subverting them. It begins with China Standards 2035, the CCP’s new industrial strategy. Beijing has just concluded the research phase of China Standards 2035. The plan will be officially initiated this year. It is to extend, propel, and internationalize the National Standardization Strategy, launched by the CCP upon accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. Beijing sees standards as the key to control over the international order, with it “leapfrog” of the incumbent hegemon, the United States. Standards determine global movement, exchange, and information, across sectors and boundaries. They do so not only at low cost, but often at a profit. Standards also do so in an enduring fashion: Once established, they are difficult to uproot. These
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形成经济全球化条件下参与国际经济合作和竞争新优势 [Form a New Advantage of Participating in International Economic Cooperation and Competition under the Conditions of Economic Globalization], December 13, 2007, Ministry of Agriculture. The Go Out Strategy was formally launched by Jiang Zemin in the 1990s; made national-level strategy in 2000. “We must not only actively attract foreign companies to invest in China and set up factories, but also actively guide and organize powerful domestic enterprises to go abroad, to invest in foreign countries to set up factories, to leverage local markets and resources,” Jiang declared at the National Foreign Investment Working Conference in 1997. That tasking was further developed in the 2001 Tenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development, released as China entered the World Trade Organization: “Encourage foreign investment that can make use of China’s comparative advantages; expand the fields, channels, and methods of international economic and technological cooperation; continue to develop foreign contracting projects and labor service cooperation; encourage enterprises with competitive advantages to develop overseas processing trade to promote the export of products, services, and technologies; support overseas cooperation in developing domestically scarce resources; encourage enterprises to use foreign intellectual resources to set up research and development institutions and design centers abroad.” 2 Emily de La Bruyère and Nathan Picarsic, Viral Moment: China’s Post-COVID Planning, Horizon Advisory, March 15, 2020, https://www.horizonadvisory.org/news/coronavirus-series-report-launch-viral-moment-chinas-postcovid-planning.
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are well established truths in economics. Beijing is applying them to geopolitics. In the process, it is redefining the nature, mode, and boundaries of state power.3 This research report is the first in a series documenting the planning, mechanisms, and objectives of China’s standardization strategy – about to be enshrined in China Standards 2035. The standards project has long been at the core of Beijing’s competitive positioning. As a geopolitical strategy, it is novel. It integrates the principles of network science and the logic of platform business models into the rubric for international competition, updating that rubric for modern economic, technological, and environmental trends. The roots of China’s new-type standards mission date back to Reform and Opening-Up (改革开放). They are coming to fruition today. While Beijing’s competitors may have recognized the same economic, technological, and environmental trends that the standards strategy weaponizes, they have not diagnosed the same implications for state contests. They miss the grand strategy behind the CCP’s positioning. China’s strategy targets control of global networks, standards, and platforms. This does not simply mean rewriting international rules and norms; replacing the World Bank with the Asia Development Bank or the dollar with the renminbi. Beijing’s strategy is subtler and more costeffective than that. The CCP prefers to twist the incumbent system to its interests. It seeks to subvert existing systems so that those – usually surreptitiously; often at a profit – operate in its interests. China weaponizes integration. In joining existing systems, Beijing free rides off their infrastructure. Beijing profits from the exchange that takes place on them. Ultimately it claims leverage over them that allows it to shape their incentives, therefore their activity. This works for the United Nations. It also works for 3GPP, Wall Street, Hollywood, and international ports.4 It works because of China’s scale and scope: The huge, centralized player has outsize influence in otherwise flat networks. Network subversion defends against the risks and weaknesses that are traditionally perceived as China’s inevitable pitfalls. The CCP has learned from past great power competitions. Its economy is centralized, but not in the sense of the Soviet Union’s command model. Instead, Beijing deploys a “government led, enterprise driven” approach. It shapes company incentives and ensures connections to their information, but otherwise allows its firms to operate with relative freedom – and to be perceived by the outside world as independent actors. To the extent that that process still creates inefficiencies, China channels carefully curated foreign investment to shoulder much of the economic burden. Similarly, China’s military is not optimized for direct competition with its adversaries. Instead, China asymmetrically targets weaknesses and leverages efficiency and effectiveness redeemed from “military-civil fusion.” Western analysts might point to poor soldier training in China’s infantry as a sign of irresolvable weakness. Beijing’s logic contends that penetration of foreign strategic information systems and commercial innovation sources neutralize 3
Emily de La Bruyère, “The New Metrics for Building Geopolitical Power in a New World,” April 12 2020, The National Interest, https://nationalinterest.org/feature/new-metrics-building-geopolitical-power-new-world-143147. 4 Emily de La Bruyère and Nathan Picarsic, “Game of Phones: 5G is the Next US-China Standards Battleground,” The Octavian Report, Summer 2019, https://octavianreport.com/article/5g-us-china-standards-fight/.
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the capabilities of better-trained foreign infantries.5 China’s approach frees it carefully to target next generation domains of highest economic and security priority; to deliberately build the infrastructures that promise upper hand in tomorrow’s strategic contests. Beijing’s standards strategy promises to transform both the commercial and national security spheres. It presents tremendous threats to those competing with Beijing. It also creates opportunities. The reports to follow in this series will offer case studies of the commercial and national security implications of China’s approach as it already exists, as well as assessments of the relative balance in those and their implications for strategic action.
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Emily de La Bruyère and Nathan Picarsic, “Military-Civil Fusion: Crafting a Strategic Response,” CHIPS (Department of the Navy, Chief Information Officer Magazine), July-September 2019, https://www.doncio.navy.mil/chips/ArticleDetails.aspx?ID=12635.
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Introduction Made in China 2025 – China’s bid to define global manufacturing – caused a stir when it was launched in 2015. But that ten-year program is just the tip of the iceberg. It is not a stand-alone project. Rather, it provides the positioning for the next, bigger move; a program to define the rules of global production and exchange: China Standards 2035. China Standards will outline, explicitly, the strategic foundation that was largely overlooked in Made in China 2025. It will lay out Beijing’s plans to transfer “Go Out,” “Two Markets, Two Resources,” and “military-civil fusion” into global control.6 As the Chinese commentary puts it, “Made in China 2025 is an important program and development goal for manufacturing. It is now well known. But there is another plan and goal that is more important, that is deeper, that is more ambitious. It was officially launched on March 1, 2018. It is the China Standards 2035 project.”7 For the past two years, China Standards 2035 has been in the planning phase. Managed by the China Academy of Engineering, the China Standards 2035 working group has been engaged in research programs, workshops, and deliberations. The working group completed its two-year planning project at the beginning of March 2020. On March 16, the National Standardization Committee released its preliminary report, the “Main Points of National Standardization Work in 2020” (2020 年全国标准化工作要点). The Main Points of National Standardization Work in 2020 constitute the initial roadmap for the China Standards 2035; the set of actions to be taken, and positioning to be acquired, over the next year. Before the year is out, the roadmap will be expanded into the "National Standardization Strategy Outline” to frame China Standards 2035. For now, the 2020 program presents the next steps in China’s grand strategy.
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Emily de La Bruyère and Nathan Picarsic, Viral Moment: China’s Post-COVID Planning, Horizon Advisory, March 15, 2020, https://www.horizonadvisory.org/news/coronavirus-series-report-launch-viral-moment-chinas-postcovid-planning; Emily de La Bruyère and Nathan Picarsic, “China and the Great Network Power,” Providence Magazine, October 15, 2019, https://providencemag.com/2019/10/china-and-the-great-network-power/; Emily de La Bruyère and Nathan Picarsic, Military-Civil Fusion: China’s Approach to R&D, Implications for Peacetime Competition, and Crafting a US Strategy, 2019 USN/NPS Acquisition Research Symposium, May 2019. 7 知道“中国制造 2025”，了解“中国标准 2035”吗？这个更重要！[Do you know "Made in China 2025" and "China Standard 2035"? This is more important!], March 19, 2020.
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The China Standards 2035 Project China Standards 2035 is a national-level strategy to set global rules across industries, especially in emerging technologies. The plan is deliberate. It is the product of two years of workshops, research trips, and meetings organized by the Chinese Academy of Engineering, integrating the entire Alist of Chinese State champions, government entities, and academics.8 China Standards 2035 also exists as part of a deliberate, strategic lineage: It is the successor to, and amplification of, Made in China 2025. That plan sought to control the production of the world’s goods. This new one builds on that foundation to govern the systems according to which goods are made and transactions flow. The compound growth of these moves, taken in sequence, is intended to produce the coercive power necessary for Xi Jinping’s “decisive victory.”9 With China Standards 2035, Beijing intends to set the foundational rules that will define nextgeneration technologies, resources, and exchange writ large. What does this mean? China’s Standardization Administration describes it neatly: “First-class companies do standards. Second tier companies do technology. Third-tier companies do products.”10 Standards allow a company to control technologies and products – in an enduring, monopolistic manner: “Qualcomm once monopolized the world’s mobile phone standards through communication chip standards. It became the ruler of 3G and 4G.”11 The same argument holds for countries. If a country’s national champions, science and technology cooperation, and presence in multilateral bodies can set standards in strategic industries, it can rule the world: “The strategic game among big powers is no longer limited to market scale competition and technological superiority competition. It is more about system design competition and rule-making competition.” 12 Take Huawei. “Huawei has broken Qualcomm’s monopoly in the 5G situation. Huawei not only makes products, but also technology; not only technology but also standards. The Huawei mobile phone is a product. The mobile phone and AI chips are technology. And the Polar Code proposed by Huawei is the 5G standard. Currently, Huawei is planning and operating an AI standard. Huawei
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“中国标准 2035”项目讨论会在京召开 ["China Standard 2035" Project Discussion Meeting Held in Beijing], State Administration for Market Regulation, May 15, 2019. 9 Emily de La Bruyère and Nathan Picarsic, “China Wants to Dominate the Internet: Its new geopolitical strategy is a threat to open networks. America and its allies must respond.” Bloomberg, January 21, 2019, https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-01-21/china-wants-to-dominate-the-internet. 10 知道“中国制造 2025”，了解“中国标准 2035”吗？这个更重要！[Do you know "Made in China 2025" and "China Standard 2035"? This is more important!], March 19, 2020. 11 Ibid. 12 赵龙跃 [Zhao Longyoue], 李家胜 [Li Jiasheng]:“WTO 与中国参与全球经济治理” [WTO and China's Participation in Global Economic Governance], 国际贸易 [International Trade], 2016.
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did it. It also proved a truth: Chinese companies can establish Chinese standards in emerging areas where we have market, technology, and application advantages.”13 As Beijing sees it, Made in China 2025 has allowed it the strategic footing to target global standards. Beijing has successfully co-opted the global manufacturing sector14, with it multilateral standard-setting bodies. It has seized “market, technology, and application advantages” – through, of course, subsidies, regulatory arbitrage, and espionage.15 In its bid for global standards, Beijing prioritizes the emerging domains that will serve as foundations for next-generation global systems. The world is changing. A new set of technologies will prove revolutionary, transforming life, economics, and state power. The standards for these new technologies have yet to be claimed. Beijing intends to do so. As Dai Hong, director of the National Standardization Committee’s Industrial Standards Department put it in 2018, as China Standards 2035 was being launched: In today’s world, industry, technology and innovation are developing rapidly. The new generation of information technology industry represented by artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, etc. is emergent. International technology research and development and patent distribution have not yet been completed. Global technical standards are still being formed. This offers the opportunity to realize the transcendence of China's industry and standards.16 After two years of planning, Beijing has determined its priorities. The definitive, final China Standards 2035 strategic document has not yet been published. But the “Main Points of National Standardization Work in 2020” (2020 年全国标准化工作要点) offers a preview – and likely a roadmap for implementation of the eventual, final plan. The full text is translated at the end of this report. A few key points are addressed in the sections of this report that immediately follow.
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知道“中国制造 2025”，了解“中国标准 2035”吗？这个更重要！[Do you know "Made in China 2025" and "China Standard 2035"? This is more important!], March 19, 2020. 14 Emily de La Bruyère and Nathan Picarsic, “China, Coronavirus, and the Threat of Integration” The TribuneReview, March 9, 2020, https://triblive.com/opinion/nathan-picarsic-emily-de-la-bruyere-china-coronavirus-threatof-integration/. 15 知道“中国制造 2025”，了解“中国标准 2035”吗？这个更重要！[Do you know "Made in China 2025" and "China Standard 2035"? This is more important!], March 19, 2020. 16 国家标准委：正制定《中国标准 2035》 [National Standards Committee: China Standard 2035 is being formulated], China News Network, January 10, 2018.
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Seizing the Opportunity COVID-19, China’s Global Reputation, and Beijing’s Information Regime The Main Points of National Standardization Work in 2020 calls in section 3.1 for internationally constructing “the relevant standard system for preventing and controlling COVID-19:” “Accelerate the development of COVID-19 prevention and detection methods and quality control standards, and promote standards for emergency response, social prevention and control, protective supplies….” This translates first to leading global responses and discourse, second to disseminating information systems and norms. This bullet reflects China’s larger bid to “seize” the opportunity of the COVID-19 crisis for geopolitical advantage; to use the world’s calamity to accelerate long-standing strategy.17 COVID19 emerged from China.18 Beijing’s cover-up permitted its global spread. That should be a scarlet letter. Instead, Beijing is using the epidemic to propel its interests. As the first to be hit by the virus, China is also the first to recover, and host to the most information on the disease. According to the Main Points of National Standardization Work in 2020, this positions China to set standards for the global response. At a first level, Beijing will be able at to define the multilateral landscape – as is already playing out through Beijing’s relations with the World Health Organization (WHO) – and therefore to improve its status as a global leader. At a second level, Beijing will use this window to proliferate information systems under the guise of relief efforts. “Prevention and detection methods” translate, in China, to large-scale surveillance and monitoring systems – systems that track populations, connect such tracking to facial recognition, dock in turn into the social credit system. This might sound benign, welcome even, when it comes to fighting a global pandemic. It is less benign when it reaches its eventual conclusion. When, as Chinese sources explicitly say that it will, it turns into a global technological regime for “smart cities” controlled by Beijing.” 19
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Emily de La Bruyère and Nathan Picarsic, Viral Moment: China’s Post-COVID Planning, Horizon Advisory, March 15, 2020, https://www.horizonadvisory.org/news/coronavirus-series-report-launch-viral-moment-chinas-postcovid-planning; Josh Rogin, “How China is Planning to Use the Coronavirus Crisis to its Advantage,” The Washington Post, March 15, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/16/how-china-is-planninguse-coronavirus-crisis-its-advantage/. 18 Emily de La Bruyère and Nathan Picarsic, “The Prestige: Sensible Questions about the Wuhan Lab,” Horizon Advisory Coronavirus Series, March 22, 2020, www.horizonadvisory.org/coronavirus. 19 Emily de La Bruyère and Nathan Picarsic, Viral Moment: China’s Post-COVID Planning, Horizon Advisory, March 15, 2020, https://www.horizonadvisory.org/news/coronavirus-series-report-launch-viral-moment-chinas-postcovid-planning
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Building on MIC 2025 Informatization of Industrialization Section 3.4 of Main Points of National Standardization Work in 2020 calls for a “high-end manufacturing standard system:” Chinese-set rules for intelligent manufacturing, green manufacturing, the industrial Internet of Things.20 The outline offered in Main Points of National Standardization Work in 2020 places standards for nuclear power, marine engineering and hightech ships, advanced rail, intelligent transportation systems, aviation, satellite and space, and aerospace under that umbrella, as well as smart vehicles, new energy vehicles, basic materials (e.g., steel), new materials, high-end manufacturing, and the “ecological industry.” These areas align with the Strategic Emerging Industries. They also align with Made in China 2025. Ten years of deliberate strategic planning – with it, subsidies, regulatory arbitrage, State investment, and predatory partnerships – have allowed China to claim critical leverage over these industries internationally. Now, Beijing is moving to set their rules. Doing so promises enduring, self-fueling control over the targeted industries it has so carefully co-opted. If you set the standards for how self-driving cars operate, you can make sure that your State champions – in selfdriving cars and in their batteries – win, with or without subsidies. And you ensure that they continue to do so.
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Emily de La Bruyere and Nathan Picarsic. “Worldwide Web: Why China is Taking Over the Internet of Things,” The Octavian Report, Spring 2019, https://octavianreport.com/article/why-china-is-taking-over-the-internet-ofthings/.
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Seizing the Next Generation Information Technology and Biotechnology China Standards 2035 is not just about the “real economy” emphasized in Made in China 2025. Beijing’s new bid is about pairing dominance over the “real economy” with a controlling stake in the “virtual economy:” Section 3.5 outlines a plan to “establish a standard system for the new generation of information technology and biotechnology.” It targets “key areas such as blockchain, the Internet of Things, new cloud computing, big data, 5G, artificial intelligence, smart cities, and geographic information.” It highlights the role of China’s “military-civil fusion” strategy and a system for “network security, data security, and personal information protection.” And it calls for China-developed standards 21 for “biological products, advanced medical equipment, and biobased materials.” These are the real focus areas of China Standards 2035. The goal here is not just to control the world as it exists, but to build the infrastructure for its future. “Chinese companies can completely establish Chinese standards in emerging areas where we have market, technology and application advantages.”22 According to Chinese strategic thought, modern technological systems will set the rules, and define operations, in the Internet of Everything era. They will provide the foundation for the developing virtual economy. Virtual economies have historically been the source of great power hegemony. They offer outsize return: They are the domain of standards. But virtual economies have also been the reason for great power collapse. Empire after empire has allowed its virtual economic weight to outstrip its real economic capabilities. As US wealth grew, labor costs did too. Manufacturing shifted elsewhere. The physical base that had supported Wall Street’s rise and funded the multilateral governance system disappeared. But in the Chinese telling, the Internet of Everything’s virtual economy can be captured according to a new rubric, one that skirts this trap. The standard power of modern information technology and biotechnology can be applied not to the virtual domain but also to the real one to integrate “informatization with industrialization,” “information technology and the energy system.”23 The real and virtual economies can be mutually reinforcing. A self-fueling cycle can be created. 21
Emily de La Bruyere and Nathan Picarsic. “The Threat of US-China Integration,” Washington Examiner, March 5, 2020, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/coronavirus-highlights-the-threat-of-us-chinaintegration. 22 知道“中国制造 2025”，了解“中国标准 2035”吗？这个更重要！[Do you know "Made in China 2025" and "China Standard 2035"? This is more important!], March 19, 2020. 23 Emily de La Bruyère and Nathan Picarsic, “The Bio-Economy: A Strategic Framing of the Coronavirus Stakes,” Horizon Advisory Coronavirus Series, April 2020, https://www.horizonadvisory.org/coronavirus.
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From Standards to Platforms The Social Credit System If the Internet of Everything is the focus, section 3.6 points to the preferred approach: Beijing will improve the standard system for the “service industry.” That means that China is targeting the standards that fuel exchange: E-commerce, finance, social credit, modern logistics, modern supply chains. Beijing wants to develop the rules according to which money and goods are traded. It also wants to develop the rules according to which things move: modern logistics, modern supply chain. And it wants to determine the rules of human value: The social credit system. In claiming these rules, Beijing also claims the power to build the information collecting and disseminating platforms in them. This reveals the asymmetry of Beijing’s approach to competing for 5G, and equivalent systems. Beijing connects its 5G infrastructure to government-controlled information platforms. Those gather data, monitor it, and disseminate it. They seek, explicitly, to shape individuals’ worlds, incentives, and behaviors.24 Huawei’s 5G infrastructure and the Chinese social credit system are increasingly well documented prongs of this ambition. But their tactical examples belie the scope, and extent, of Beijing’s positioning. Beijing’s standards for e-commerce, social credit, modern logistics, supply chains those already proliferate internationally through an integrated Chinese information platform. That platform is known as the National Transportation Logistics Platform in China; LOGINK abroad. Controlled by the Ministry of Transport, it aggregates rail, land, sea, air, freight, e-commerce, energy data from across Beijing’s domestic monitoring platforms and State champions. It also partners with international Chinese and foreign players – dozens of global ports, multinational shipping and logistics companies (e.g., COSCO shipping, Cainiao, E-Freight, Sinotrans, Cargosmart), multilateral bodies (e.g., the International Standards Organization [ISO], the World Bank, IPCSA) to extend its picture and standard across the world. LOGINK provides and shapes location and credit monitoring information. It offers services for supply chain management, logistics softwares, financial services. It seeks to revolutionize the CCP’s global information access and control, to propel Chinese companies’ and information systems’ positioning, and to cement international standards – itself as the standard for modern transportation’s information foundation, but also the applications built on it as standards in their domains (e.g., logistics software, e-commerce).
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Chinese Academy of Sciences [中国科学院]. The Science and Technology Revolution and China's Modernization [科技革命与中国的现代化]. Beijing: 2009
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A Global Vision Beijing’s standardization plan is not just about China. The China Standards outline is explicit about its intentions to proliferate standards internationally – and to do so by integrating with, and coopting, global standard-setting bodies. This ambition stems from the “Go Out” mandate, and the bid for international integration that Beijing’s planning and industrial action have accelerated since the 2008 financial crisis. Sections 3.12 and 3.13 explain that Beijing will use its roles in ISO and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) to ensure “Chinese practices” and “Chinese solutions” are adopted globally; that Beijing use its influence over developing countries to influence them; and that, more broadly, it leverage cooperative mechanisms with individual countries and their multilateral organizations to extend its reach. In short, Beijing will co-opt critical nodes and structures within the international system so that they pursue China’s strategy, for it. This ambition offers strategic context generally missing from discussion of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. These mechanisms also reveal the true nature of China’s security strategy. Beijing seeks a new type of power projection based not on traditional metrics of conventional strength, but on rules.25 Meanwhile China identifies and invests – according to its “government led, enterprise driven” model – in the new and emerging domains deemed core interests. The reports to follow in Horizon Advisory’s China Standards Series will unpack the prioritization logic by which Beijing selects targets; document case studies; and, ultimately, advance an argument about the comprehensive strategic response needed to seize opportunities afforded by China’s conception of new type power and to protect the vulnerabilities and asymmetries on which it is premised.
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Emily de La Bruyère, “China’s New Type Power Projection,” forthcoming in The National Interest, https://nationalinterest.org/profile/emily-de-la-bruyere.
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The following section of this report offers a full-text translation of the Main Points of National Standardization Work in 2020 released in early March 2020 by China’s National Standardization Committee.
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Full-text Translation Main Points of National Standardization Work in 2020 2020 is the year to build a well-off society in an all-round way; the close of the Thirteenth FiveYear Plan and the beginning of the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan, and the year to improve the effectiveness of standardized governance. The general idea of this year's standardization work is: Guided by Xi Jinping's thoughts on socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, comprehensively implement the spirit of the 19th Party Congress and the 2nd, 3rd, 4th Plenary Sessions of the 19th Central Committee and the Central Economic Work Conference, and earnestly implement the spirit of the China Central Committee Economic Work Conference. Promote the prevention and control of the novel COVID-19 epidemic and the deployment of economic and social development, thoroughly implement the spirit of the National Market Supervision Work Conference, adhere to the new development concept, closely follow the goal of building a welloff society in an all-round way, and modernize the national governance system and capacity to vigorously promote the implementation of the Standardization Strategy, continue to deepen the reform of standardization work, vigorously promote the opening of the standard system, accelerate the establishment of a standard system that promotes high-quality development, and give full play to the fundamental and strategic role of standardization in the modernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities. I. Strengthen the top-level design and improve the strategic positioning of standardization (1) Quickly study and compile the outline of the national standardization strategy. 1. Establish a drafting group of standardization strategy outlines including representatives from regions and industry sectors. Based on fully absorbing the research results of the "China Standards 2035" project, fully demonstrating and widely listening to the opinions of all parties, compile the National Standardization Strategy Outline. 2. Support the Chinese Academy of Engineering to carry out the "National Standardization Development Strategy Research" project.
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(2) Do a good job in the layout of the "14th Five-Year Plan" standardization work. 3. Actively promote the implementation of the standardization strategy in the “14th Five-Year Plan” of various regions and departments, take the construction of a standard system to promote high-quality development as an important content, and highlight the basic strategic role of standardization in the modernization of national governance systems and governance capabilities. 4. In accordance with the actual work, organize the compilation of the “14th Five-Year Plan” standardized development plan for all regions and departments. (3) Realize the interactive docking of the standardization strategy. 5. Strengthen the interaction between the standardization strategy and major national strategies, and accurately grasp the major needs for standardization in national strategies such as innovation-driven development, rural revitalization, regional coordinated development, and sustainable development. Continue to improve the general level of military-civil fusion standards. 6. Strengthen the interaction between China's standardization strategy and the international standardization strategy and help the high-level opening. 2. Deepen standardization reform and enhance the vitality of standardization development (1) Improve the management of mandatory national standards. 7. Do a good job in the implementation of the "Compulsory National Standards Management Measures." Actively build a co-authoritative and compulsory national standard management system. 8. Accelerate the integration of relevant mandatory industry standards and local standards into mandatory national standards, and initially form a mandatory national standard system of appropriate size and reasonable structure. 9. Strengthen law enforcement supervision of compulsory national standards to ensure the effective implementation of standards. (2) Optimize the management of recommended national standards. 10. Strictly control the scale of the recommended national standards. Focus on the development of standards that are basic and common with mandatory national standards, strengthen standard review, and further improve the efficiency of national standard project approval and release.
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11. Increase the integration and revision of recommended national standards, explore the establishment of a new evaluation mechanism for national standard review, and conduct a reevaluation of the national standard system according to professional fields. 12. Further improve the recommended national standard signature system. 13. Improve the rapid development of standards for new technologies, new industries, new formats and new models. 14. Promote a more open national standards development process. (3) Standardize the management of industry standards. 15. Strengthen the integration and optimization of industry standards, focus on the formulation of important industry, product technology, service and industry management standards, appropriately control the scale of new industry standards, and increase the coverage of individual industry standards. 16. Explore the gradual reduction of industry standards in general products and services, and encourage social groups to undertake standard supply in related fields. 17. Improve the industry standard filing system, gradually disclose industry standard filing information, and promote the disclosure of industry standard texts. 18. Do a good job of reviewing industry standards, carry out evaluation and optimization of industry standard codes, and further strengthen the effective management of industry standards. (4) Strengthen local standardization. 19. Focus on local economic and social development priorities and introduce a number of high-quality local standards. 20. Carry out a summary and evaluation of pilots for comprehensive reform of local standardization, and form pilot results that can be replicated and promoted. 21. Vigorously promote the standardized and coordinated development of the BeijingTianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and actively build an internationally advanced Xiong'an standard system. 22. Intensively promote the actions of “hundreds of cities, thousands of enterprises” (百城千 业万企) to promote and achieve standards, and link it with the reform of the international standard product labeling system, and encourage more enterprises to participate in the standard mission. Continue to promote standardized good behavior evaluations and third-party evaluations. 15
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23. Do a good job in propagating and implementing the "Administrative Measures for Local Standards" and strengthen supervision and management of local standards. (5) Promote the development of urban standardization and innovation. 24. Carry out comprehensive urban standardization pilots and explore new models and new paths of standardization work that take cities as carriers and the participation of governments, social groups, and enterprises. 25. Carry out standardization work such as land and space planning, transportation, ecological environment protection, safety production, and emergency linkage in metropolitan areas and urban agglomerations, explore new models and new paths for standardization to promote coordinated development of metropolitan areas and urban agglomerations, and foster new regional competition advantage. 26. Establish an international standardization platform for urban standardization to standardize and promote capacity cooperation and trade between domestic and foreign cities. (6) Standards for making excellent and strong collectives 27. Vigorously implement collectives standards training programs and application demonstrations, focus on new technologies, new industries, new formats and new models, and expand the supply of advanced and applicable collective standards. 28. Guide and standardize social collectives to carry out standardization work, strengthen the supervision and management of collective standards, and create a good environment for the healthy development of collective standards. 29. Encourage collectives to participate in international standardization activities and accelerate the international development of group standards. (7) Enhance the standard competitiveness of enterprises. 30. Further improve the corporate standard information public service platform. 31. Carry out the “leader� of corporate standards for 2020. 32. Strengthen the supervision and inspection of enterprise standards and improve the quality of enterprise standards. III. Strengthen the construction of the standard system and enhance the ability to lead highquality development
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(1) Strengthen the construction of the relevant standard system for the prevention and control of COVID-19. 33. Organize research on standard systems in areas related to epidemic prevention and control. 34. Accelerate the development of COVID-19 epidemic prevention and detection methods and quality control standards, and promote standards for emergency response, social prevention and control, protective supplies, epidemic prevention and control materials and industrial chain supporting equipment, urban management, rural communities, and resumption of production revision work. 35. Encourage social organizations to formulate relevant group standards for epidemic prevention and control, and increase the effective supply of standards required for enterprises to resume work and production. (2) Strengthen the construction of agricultural and rural standard systems. 36. Issue an action plan to strengthen agricultural and rural standardization work, accelerate the promotion of agricultural standardization demonstration and promotion system, focus on building the entire agricultural industry chain and green development standard system, and increase the development of safety, quality, service, and support standards for the entire agricultural industry chain. 37. Increase the formulation of ecological agricultural standards for safe use of agricultural land soils, emergency monitoring and ecological restoration of fisheries environment, and utilization of livestock and poultry manure resources. 38. Continue to carry out the construction of standardization pilot demonstration projects in the agricultural and rural areas, increase the standard supply in areas such as the improvement of rural human settlements, the improvement of the quality of villages and villages, the construction and renovation of rural household toilets, and basic rural public services. (3) Improve the safety standard system for food quality and consumption quality. 39. Implement the conclusions on the cleanup of food quality standards, abolish and revise a batch of food quality standards and plans, and promote the establishment of a food quality standard system. 40. Focus on consumer products such as children's products, cosmetics, textiles and clothing, household products, and decoration products, and further improve safety standards, basic general standards, important product standards, and supporting testing method standards.
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41. Continue to evaluate the consistency of consumer product standards, and promote the simultaneous development of national standards and international standards for key products such as air purifiers, children's toys, and children's furniture. 42. Promote the formulation of standards for elderly products, products for the disabled, and home medical device products, and study a standard system for grading consumption quality. Improve product quality traceability standards. (4) Promote the construction of a high-end manufacturing standard system. 43. Promote the construction of industrial foundation, intelligent manufacturing, green manufacturing, and service-oriented manufacturing standard systems. 44. Formulate smart manufacturing equipment, digital workshops, smart factories, industrial software and other standards, and carry out the construction of smart manufacturing standard systems in subdivided fields. 45. Improve the management standard system for the integration of industrialization and promote the establishment of an industrial Internet standard system. 46. Promote the construction of an independent nuclear power standard system. 47. Promote the development of standards for marine engineering equipment and high-tech ships, advanced rail transportation, intelligent transportation systems, aviation, satellite space infrastructure, and commercial aerospace. 48. Carry out the development of smart vehicle standards such as automotive information security, automotive operating systems, and communication protocols. 49. Promote the development of new energy vehicle safety, wireless charging, high-power charging, fuel cell and battery recycling and other related standards. 50. Improve the green packaging standards system, revise national standards that restrict excessive packaging of goods, and develop standards for packaging suitability grading and evaluation. 51. Accelerate the upgrading of standards in areas such as steel, non-ferrous metals, building materials, chemicals, and civil explosions, and eliminate low-end products and backward production capacity. 52. Continue the piloting of additive manufacturing standards and develop standards for special materials, processes and equipment, and test methods.
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53. Deepen the piloting of new material standards, and promote the development of standards in carbon fiber, rare earth, and graphene. 54. The national high-end equipment manufacturing standardization pilot continued. (5) Establish a new generation of information technology and biotechnology standard system. 55. Promote the construction of standard systems in key areas such as blockchain, the Internet of Things, new cloud computing, big data, 5G, new artificial intelligence, new smart cities, and geographic information, and prepare and issue relevant guidance documents. 56. Speed up the development of standards for item coding and automatic identification. Develop military-civilian general material and equipment coding standards and promote the establishment of a military-civilian fusion general code system for material coding. 57. Improve ultra-high-definition video, new displays, virtual (augmented) reality, and integrated circuits. Improve the network security standard system, and study and formulate national standards for network security in areas such as key information infrastructure security protection, data security, personal information protection, and network security review. 58. Accelerate the preparation and revision of basic standards such as biological sample banks, enzymes, and biochemical tests, and encourage the development of common application standards for biotechnology applications such as biological products, advanced medical equipment, and biobased materials. (6) Improve the service industry standard system. 59. Upgrade the standard system of productive services and develop standards in areas such as e-commerce, green finance, social credit, modern logistics, logistics information services, and modern supply chain services. 60. Establish and improve the quality and safety traceability standard system for e-commerce transaction products, and develop national standards for information classification, coding and identification, information release, and quality traceability of e-commerce transaction products. 61. Carry out pilot work on standard research, supply and standardization in the field of integration of advanced manufacturing and modern service industries. 62. Issue guidance on standardization of green packaging for express delivery and accelerate the development of a number of national standards. 63. Improve the standard system of the living service industry, implement the special pilot project of standardization of domestic service, formulate and revise national standards such as 19
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domestic service, tourist resorts, and develop new services such as domestic education and training services, sports tourism, and urban travel services for digital transportation format standards. 64. Establish a basic public service standard system that coordinates urban and rural areas, and develop and issue a number of standards in urban and rural community services, childcare services, old-age services, social insurance, public health, public culture, public legal services, national fitness and services for the disabled. 65. Carry out special actions for the standardization of senior care services, advance the construction of the national basic public service standardization pilot, and do a good job of summarizing experiences and promoting them. (7) Strengthen the standardization of social governance. 66. Optimize the standard system of government service and accelerate the development of “good/bad reviews� for government service, a national integrated government service platform, and open-level government service standards. 67. Promote the development of standards for business environment assessment, protection of market entities, administrative law enforcement and supervision, and carry out trials of business environment standardization. 68. Develop a number of urgently needed standards for emergency management such as fire protection, safety in production, earthquake disaster risk prevention, personal protection, rescue supplies and equipment. 69. Improve the application standard system for public safety video surveillance and networking and promote the formulation of social safety standards such as explosives safety and criminal technology. 70. Promote the formulation of national standards in the fields of meteorology, surveying and mapping, and improve the unified standard of social credit codes. (8) Speed up the construction of the ecological civilization standard system. 71. Develop and revise standards for responding to climate change, natural resource survey monitoring and comprehensive utilization, green mine construction, green product evaluation, marine survey and utilization, ecological protection and restoration, seawater desalination and comprehensive utilization. 72. Optimize and improve pollutant emission and environmental quality standards, improve standards in energy efficiency, energy consumption, water efficiency and other fields, and improve the standard system for transportation energy conservation, such as vehicle fuel consumption.
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73. Promote the upgrading of traditional energy standards such as coal and oil products, and improve the full-chain standard system for the use of clean energy production and storage such as hydrogen and natural gas. 74. Promote the development of important standards such as grid connection of new energy generation, power storage, energy Internet, port shore power, and power demand-side management. 75. Promote the construction of ecological civilization standards with local characteristics to support the construction of ecological civilization pilot zones in Fujian, Jiangxi, Guizhou, and Hainan. (9) Further improve the national standard sample system. 76. Carry out the clean-up of existing national standard samples and plans, and further improve the national standard sample system by combining the requirements of product quality standards and test method standards. 77. Strengthen the development of standard samples around key areas such as agriculture and rural areas, consumer goods, resources and environment, biotechnology, equipment and materials. IV. Participate in the governance of international standards and improve the level of internationalization of Chinese standards. (10) In-depth participation in the governance of international standards organizations. 78. Actively fulfill China's responsibilities as a permanent member of ISO and IEC, provide service support for the IEC chairman's due diligence, share Chinese practices and propose Chinese solutions in the reform and improvement of governance capabilities of international standards organizations. 79. In terms of sustainable development, participation of developing countries, regional balance, and technical rulemaking, actively participate in the deliberations and decisions of international standards organizations, and promote the role of international standards in international trade and global governance. (12) Promote the negotiation, construction and sharing of international standards. 80. Give full play to the organizational and coordinating role of the Chinese National Committees of ISO and IEC, and carry out extensive international cooperation in the fields of new energy, new materials, quantum computing, digital production, intelligent manufacturing, industrial construction and engineering construction, and accelerate China's advantageous technical standards. Transform to the world and continue to promote the release of Chinese versions of ISO and IEC standards.
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81. Actively participate in the development of international standards, put forward more international standard proposals, promote the establishment of new international standard organization technical institutions, improve China's ability and level to assume responsibility for the technical bodies of the international standard organizations and the secretariat, and continuously improve the international standard system and make new contributions. (13) Promote standards interconnection. 82. Promote the establishment of standardized cooperation mechanisms among BRICS countries, continue to deepen the establishment of cooperation mechanisms with the EU, AU, ASEAN, Northeast Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia, and strengthen cooperation with France, Germany, Britain, the United States, Canada, Russia, Saudi Arabia and other countries Bilateral cooperation. 83. Strengthen the exchange of information on Chinese and foreign standards, pragmatically carry out standardization cooperation in professional fields, promote the comparison, recognition and adoption of Chinese and foreign standards, and promote the compatibility of standard systems. 84. Implement the Chinese Standard Foreign Language Action Plan and accelerate the development of mandatory national standard foreign language versions. 85. Implement the standard “China Unicom” “One Belt, One Road” action plan and promote the “One Belt, One Road” standard under construction “Soft China Unicom”. (14) Actively adopt international standards. 86. Carry out the transformation of international standards and promote the transformation and application of advanced and applicable international standards in China. 87. Speed up the conversion of relevant international standards for epidemic prevention and control to domestic standards, promote the convergence of export products in accordance with standards and domestic standards, and support the resumption of production and production of foreign trade export enterprises. 88. Establish an international standard tracking transformation evaluation work mechanism, and promote the simultaneous development of national standard acquisition and international standard development. 89. Strengthen the test verification of international standard transformation and improve the scientific basis and effectiveness of international standard transformation. V. Strengthen scientific management and improve the effectiveness of standardized governance
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(1) Strengthen the construction of standardization system. 90. Accelerate the improvement of the supporting laws and regulations of the Standardization Law, promote the revision of the implementation rules of the Standardization Law, and promote the revision of national standards, industry standards, group standards, and national standard samples. 91. Strengthen the management of domestic counterparts of the International Standards Organization, and study and formulate performance evaluation methods. 92. Develop and improve systems that are compatible with standardization laws in all regions and departments. 93. Research and promote the construction of management systems such as local-regional standard synergy and district/city local standards. (2) Strengthen the interactive support of standardization and technological innovation. 94. Actively strive for support from science and technology plans for the development and application of technical standards, and improve the mechanism for rapid standardization of projects in major science and technology plans. 95. Strengthen the service provided by the National Technology Standards Innovation Base for scientific and technological research and development, and accelerate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into technical standards. 96. Speed up the layout of standard verification points and build a standard verification technology support system. Carry out the construction of a comprehensive experimental verification platform for important national standards such as basic and cross-industry fields. 97. Organize the selection and commendation of the China Standard Innovation Contribution Award. (3) Improve the efficiency of standard formulation and revision. 98. Fully implement the national standard project video defense system to improve the efficiency of standard review. Strengthen the re-evaluation of the national standard plan, and adjust the overdue unfinished plan items in a timely manner. 99. Further optimize the national standard development and revision process, refine the general standard setting procedures for military and civilians, explore the establishment of dispute resolution mechanisms for standard formulation and revision, deepen the review and compilation system reform, establish a regular project progress notification system, and reduce the national standard formulation and revision cycle to 24 months. 23
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(4) Optimize the management and service of the technical committee. 100. Promote the normalization and institutionalization of technical committee assessments and conduct the 2020 technical committee assessments. 101. Select some areas to carry out optimization and reorganization of standardized technical organizations, increase joint efforts of military and civilian standardized technical organizations, and better meet the needs of technological innovation and industrial development. 102. Improve and perfect the Standardization Working Group (SWG) mechanism and promote innovation in technical organization and management. 103. Establish a mechanism for the simultaneous construction of technical institutions of domestic and international standards organizations to achieve mutual docking of international and domestic technical institutions. (5) Strengthen the implementation and application of standards. 104. Further develop the main role of standards in quality infrastructure, promote the coordinated development of standards and metrology, certification, and inspection, and strengthen the effective implementation of standards through the integrated application of NQI. 105. Carry out research on standardized statistical indicator systems, explore the establishment of standardized statistical monitoring systems, and focus on the application and implementation of standards in quality supervision and spot checks, law enforcement audits, and credit supervision. 106. Smoothly implement information feedback channels, improve the function of the feedback platform, and carry out statistical analysis of information. 107. Study and formulate methods for evaluating the effects of implementation, carry out evaluation of implementation effects, and strengthen the application of evaluation results. (6) Improve standard information consulting services. 108. Encourage standardized technical organizations and institutions to provide standard technical services such as standardized consulting around the resumption of business. 109. Optimize the full-text disclosure system of national standards, deepen the joint construction and sharing of standard information resources, and provide civilians with more comprehensive and convenient services.
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110. Use big data, cloud computing and other means to accelerate the development of standard information services and platform construction, and provide personalized and customized services to governments and markets. 111. Closely follow the information of international standards and advanced foreign standards, and provide timely and accurate services to facilitate economic and trade exchanges and international capacity cooperation. (7) Strengthen the construction of standardization talents. 112. Actively promote standardization education and personnel training, support more universities to develop standardization general education, and encourage qualified universities to open standardization majors. Strengthen standardization vocational education, and cultivate standardization professional skills. 113. Improve the standardization teaching material system and strengthen the construction of standardization teachers. 114. Carry out the activities of introducing standards into campus and popularize the popularization of standardization science. Actively organize and carry out the national youth standard competition. 115. Strengthen the training of grass-roots standardization managers and improve their standardization capabilities. 116. Promote and standardize education cooperation in the “Belt and Road� countries. 117. Bring into play the role of an international standardization training base and carry out various types of international standardization personnel training. National Standardization Management Committee Issued on March 10, 2020
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CHINA STANDARDS SERIES Actionable Geopolitical Insight
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