The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China’s global investment plan to build a complex infrastructure network connecting the world, has extended to frontier areas such as fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks, the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), big data, smart cities, data centres and cloud computing in the digital economy era. The transition began with the Digital Silk Road (DSR), launched in 2017, which has evolved into a crucial part of the BRI.

This paper goes into depth on the strategy behind China's approach to influencing international standardisation.