严少华、姚旭：中欧数字合作如何破局
Yan Shaohua & Yao Xu,
China-EU Digital Cooperation:
The Ways Forward,
EUobserver Magazine, December 2022
严少华
Yan Shaohua
复旦大学国际问题研究院中欧关系研究中心副研究员
姚旭
Yao Xu
复旦发展研究院青年副研究员
内容提要
数字世界中最重要的玩家曾一度被认为是中美两国，但在全球新一轮竞争与合作态势下，中国与欧盟在数字产业与数字治理领域对彼此的重要性不断凸显。虽然中欧双方在一些问题上依然“存异”，但在数字合作各相关领域都有巨大的“求同”空间与具体举措。中欧在自动驾驶、新能源汽车和人工智能等创新科技产业领域，在跨境数据流动、数据保护与科技监管政策领域，都业已形成良好的数字合作范例。未来应尽快推动重启下一轮中欧高级别数字对话，将合作范例打造成为一系列融合产业发展与规则互鉴的机制性合作框架，共建互联互通的中欧数字网络空间，共同为全球数字发展与经济复苏提供强大动力。
Introduction
As other countries step up their efforts to promote digital innovation and rule-making, China has put forward the Digital Silk Road (DSR) as an integral part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), in a bid to try to improve digital infrastructure and narrow the digital gaps in countries which are part of the BRI.
While the digital world is widely-perceived to be dominated by the US and China, the EU is also seen by China as a global digital power with unique advantages. The EU’s pursuit of “digital sovereignty” means more competition for China but it also presents opportunities for cooperation in areas where there are complementarities between China and the EU.
To tap the potential for cooperation, China and the EU have established a high-level digital dialogue, which provides a valuable platform for discussions between Brussels and Beijing on their respective approaches to digital transformation.
Despite the differences between China and the EU when it comes to terms like reciprocity, fairness and values, digitalisation remains one of the most promising areas for bilateral cooperation. It is thus necessary to identify priorities and new channels to move China-EU digital cooperation to the next level.
Digital innovation stands out as an area where China-EU cooperation could bring benefits to both sides. It is not only closely-related to investment in — and research of — a specific field, but also has a huge influence on the related high-tech industrial chains.
For instance, Volkswagen recently announced a €2.4bn investment to take a 60 percent stake in a joint venture with Horizon Robotics, a Chinese startup specializing in automatic driving and AI. Incorporating the technologies of AI, deep-learning and perception-control, automatic driving represents a future trend of the automobile industry and provides a broad stage for China-EU cooperation in digital innovation.
Digital cooperation is also changing business models and market perceptions in China and Europe as online fashion houses expand their business. Meanwhile, New Energy Vehicles (NEV) play a central role in both digitalisation and decarbonisation that have topped the agenda in China and Europe over the past few years.
Despite growing competition, there has been excellent cooperation on NEV between China and the EU. China is now the world’s largest NEV market, accounting for more than 60 percent of global sales volume. For European NEV companies and the related industrial chains, the Chinese market is key to their expansion. During the past decades, Chinese-EU cooperation in the automobile industry is largely a story of success, and this story should be continued in NEV industry.
There is also room for cooperation on digital rules and regulations. The EU is a leader in trans-border data flows and data protection. The GDPR adopted by the EU in 2016 has set a series of global standards for trans-border data flows, which also provide an example for China in creating and updating its regulatory frameworks in the digital world. Cooperation in digital rules and regulations would greatly benefit Chinese and Europe digital companies by connecting resources and markets on both sides.
In regulating cutting-edge technologies like AI, China and the EU face common challenges: of striking the right balance between civil rights, socio-economic development and national security. It is important that China and the EU could jointly develop the best practice in this regard.
The digital economy will continue to be a driver for global economic recovery and growth. It is therefore the right time for China and the EU to restart the next round of their recently-launched digital dialogue in order to open new avenues for cooperation. The EU and China have their differences but should work together on building a better and more connected digital world.
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https://magazine.euobserver.com/digital-eu-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/67418133
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来源 | Euobserver Magazine
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