CHINA'S ROAD TO DIGITAL LEADERSHIP

Abstract

The article discusses the characteristics of China's advance to the position of the world digital leadership. The objectives of the study are the identifying of the most dynamically developing areas of digital transformation based on the integration of modern technologies, big data, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, 3D printing, cloud technologies into supply chains for implementation in production processes. The impact of digitalization processes on the formation of a new society based on both traditional  cultural  values  and  high  susceptibility  to  Western  innovations  is analyzed. There  is  a  reversal  of  China's  global  strategy  from  a  development  model  based  on external factors to a wider use of internal regional reserves, which, in particular, is facilitated by the confrontation with the United States and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is concluded that achieving digital leadership in the competition with the United States for China is hardly possible in the foreseeable future. There are still insurmountable barriers on the way: the lack of economic freedoms, including in the field of using the Internet, environmental challenges that require structural restructuring of the economy, the presence of regional and social imbalances, a decline in economic growth, uncertainty in relations with the United States.