The Perforated State: International Standards-Setting in a Globalized China

• In Event: Chinese Politics Mini-Conference: China And The World

Abstract

Standards-setting has emerged as a highly competitive arena in the global technology race and is increasingly the object of industrial policy, with growing concern being focused on Chinese "state capitalism" as a potential threat. This paper questions assessments of Chinese standards-setting as a product of a coordinated "China, Inc". I argue that economic integration and an uneven global regulatory landscape have deepened intra-state cleavages by raising the stakes of inter-agency competition and shifting the distribution of power within China's central bureaucracy. On the one hand, WTO rules on standards-setting have empowered regulatory ("techno-globalist") agencies who advocate the adoption of international standards. On the other hand, powerful developmental ("techno¬ nationalist") agencies have fought to retain their policy influence over key industries by exploiting gaps in global regulation on issues such as investment. In this way, intra-bureaucratic contestation over standards-setting has become intensified by, and intertwined with, global regulatory processes. I provide evidence and tests of these arguments using an original dataset of industrial policies spanning China's reform and opening period, combined with qualitative analyses of official policies, government journals and minutes of intergovernmental committee meetings at the WTO.

Author

• Yeling Tan, University of Oregon