The Platform State: China’s Governance Strategy for Tech Supremacy
Date & Time: June 18, 2026 (Thursday) 11:00-12:00
Venue: Room 824, 8/F Cheng Yu Tung Tower, The University of Hong Kong
Language: English
(In-person Event)
Abstract:
China’s innovation model is riddled with contradictions. The Chinese government is mobilizing whole-of-society efforts to stimulate innovation, yet periodically imposes heavy-handed measures on its firms. It walls off its domestic internet, yet promotes the global diffusion of open-source AI models. It is becoming dominant in electric vehicles and renewable energy, yet its firms in those sectors struggle to earn profits. Its AI firms trail the frontier AI labs, yet their valuations remain a tiny fraction of those of their U.S. counterparts. China has been quick to issue some of the world’s earliest AI regulations, yet enforcement has been scant. It appears attentive to workers displaced by automation, yet resists the idea of a welfare state.
This talk argues that these puzzles become less puzzling once we understand that the Chinese state operates its entire innovation ecosystem as a dominant platform. Like a platform owner, the Chinese state controls access to its ecosystem, sets the rules of interaction among participants, and maintains its competitive moat through control over exit. The talk will detail China’s strategies of innovation governance and explore what this model means for Chinese innovation, U.S.-China tech rivalry, and the global economy.
Speakers:
Angela Huyue Zhang is a professor of law at the University of Southern California. S. Alex Yang is Professor of Management Science and Operations at London Business School. Despite working in different fields, they have collaborated on four projects at the intersection of governance, regulation and innovation, two of which have appeared in Management Science. Their work on the platform state is their fifth joint project. A short opinion is available here: The Rise of the Chinese Platform State by S. Alex Yang & Angela Huyue Zhang – Project Syndicate
Moderator :
Professor Sida Liu, Professor and Associate Dean, Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong
This is an in-person event. Prior registration is required. Please visit https://bit.ly/3Q95JGQ to register. For inquiries, please email Louisa at .
To watch recordings of past CCL events, please subscribe to our YouTube channel: The Centre for Chinese Law – YouTube. To keep up with our activities, follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/CCLHKU. Philip K.H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law at The University of Hong Kong promotes legal scholarship with the aim to develop a deeper understanding of China and facilitate dialogue between East and West. For more information, visit: Philip K.H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law