Digital Platforms, situated between individual users and national governments, pose new issues for governance. They combine different governance models, drawing on but also undermining orthodox models. Platform governance—how platforms govern and how to govern powerful platforms—is an issue not only relating to the future of technology innovation, but also concerning the future of global economy and society.
Research Project led by Denis Galligan, Professor of Socio-Legal Studies Emeritus and Dr Jufang Wang, Deputy Director Oxford Global Governance.
Recent Research Report
European policies towards Chinese tech companies: European interests, risk analysis and policy recommendations
Summary: In this research report, we reviewed Europe’s policies towards Chinese tech companies, which have aligned closer with the United States in the last two years. Such policies raised questions: What are the core interests of Europe regarding global technology competition? How should Europe position itself amid US-China tech rivalry to optimise its own interests? To answer these questions, we identified two main core interests of Europe in the digital world: digital sovereignty and global technology leadership. While the US and Europe share many values, they have different interests and values in digital areas. We noted that, from the perspective of digital sovereignty, the US is “the biggest problem” for Europe. To achieve digital sovereignty, Europe has to reduce the reliance on non-European tech companies (mostly American companies) and protect data security from them. Meanwhile, to compete for global technology leadership, Europe needs to develop its technology policies independently, and aims to set the global technology standards and promote its own digital values around the world.
This report also conducted an analysis of the perceived risks associated with Chinese tech companies in Europe. It concludes that some of the perceived risks are real and reasonable, and others are not evidence-based and mostly geopolitics-driven. For example, due to the American sanctions on Chinese tech companies, their ability of continuing to provide the required level of service in European countries may be disrupted. However, the widely reported “backdoor” risks associated with Chinese companies seem to lack solid evidence so far. Based on the above analysis, we argue that while European countries’ concerns about Chinese tech companies are understandable, it is not in the interest of Europe to follow a geopolitical approach to exclude Chinese tech companies; instead, Europe should resort more to technical solutions to tackle potential risks, rely more on its regulatory power to foster innovation and growth of local tech companies; and adopt a more multilateral approach to set global standards for emerging technologies and to promote European digital values.