China, Trust and Digital Supply Chains: Dynamics of a Zero Trust World

201 Pages·2022·1.744 MB·English

by  Warwick Powell

‘Blockchain technology can be mysterious for many, but Warwick Powell has
done a fine job of shedding light on it for those who are not particularly
technically minded. His ability to clearly weave a high level of technical
knowledge together with broader considerations of supply chains, cross border
trade, Chinese political economy and global trade dynamics provides the reader
with a lot of food for thought on what blockchains with Chinese c haracteristics
may mean for trading nations in the 21st century’.
Dr Kerry Brown, Professor of Employment and Industry,
Edith Cowan University
‘Warwick Powell presents a groundbreaking study of the development and
policy application of blockchain technologies in contemporary China. These
technologies are at the forefront of reforming many aspects of trade, business
and consumption in the world’s largest economy. Through extensive use of
primary Chinese language sources, deep engagement with cutting edge
economic, business and social theory, and years of face-to-face discussions with
policy makers and influencers, Powell’s study reveals a deep knowledge of this
emerging field. To know the past, ask a historian. To know the future, read
this book’.
Dr Gary Sigley, Faculty of Geographic Science, Beijing Normal University
‘Blockchain technologies will revolutionise business in the coming decades,
enabling a world of reliable but trustless transactions. Financial services, sales
and associated white-collar work will all mutate dramatically. A new tech
era is beginning. In this deeply informed book, Warwick Powell depicts the
emerging landscape lucidly and with verve and great insight’.
Peter Murphy, Adjunct Professor of Social Sciences at La Trobe University,
author of The Political Economy of Prosperity

China, Trust and Digital Supply
Chains
China, Trust and Digital Supply Chains presents a critical reflection on blockchain
technologies in the context of their adoption in China and the world that China
is engaged in and shaping. Approaching the issues of blockchain technology
adoption and development on China’s own terms is critical if policymakers and
others are to make effective sense of one of the key dynamics shaping the next
few decades of the global landscape.
The work challenges the ‘trust’ trope that dominates much discussion of
blockchain technology’s application. It argues, contrary to the predominant
trust trope, that blockchain is not about trust at all. It shows that China’s
re-imagining of the 21st-century global order is premised on driving intensified
cross-border economic interactions without the presupposition of trust,
and blockchain technology makes that possible. It also explores the paradox
of technological decentralisation being taken up with vigour by a centralist
polity, the role of blockchain technology as a critical condition of existence
for the successful globalisation of China’s digital currency initiative and the
need to devise governance institutions that are multilateral in nature, to reflect
the multipolar nature of decentralised information systems with domestic and
cross-border permutations.
This book is of significant interest to readers of political economy, public
policy, blockchain technology and Chinese studies.
Warwick Powell is Adjunct Professor at Queensland University of Technology,
Australia.
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China, Trust and Digital
Supply Chains
Dynamics of a Zero Trust World
Warwick Powell
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Warwick Powell
The right of Warwick Powell to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
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registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Powell, Warwick, author.
Title: China, trust and digital supply chains : dynamics of a zero trust world /
Warwick Powell.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. |
Series: Routledge frontiers of political economy | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022013161 (print) | LCCN 2022013162 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781032026817 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032026831 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003184614 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Electronic commerce—China. | Blockchains
(Databases)—Economic aspects—China. | Trust. | Technological
innovations—Economic aspects—China. | China—Commerce.
Classification: LCC HF5548.325.C6 P69 2023 (print) | LCC HF5548.325.C6
(ebook) | DDC 331/.1420951—dc23/eng/20220316
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022013161
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022013162
ISBN: 978-1-032-02681-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-02683-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-18461-4 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003184614
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
About the Author x
Preface xi
Acknowledgements xiv
Introduction 1
Blockchain Technology in Context 4
Emerging Global Contours of the 21st Century 7
Approaches and Principal Claims 11
Chapter Outline 19
1 A World Without Trust? 24
Trust Me, It’s Not About Trust 25
On Trust 27
On Supply Chains 39
On Common Knowledge 43
Strangers, Markets and Calculative Agents 45
Concluding Remarks: On Trust, Again 47
2 Blockchain With Chinese Characteristics – Healthy
China 2030, Supply Chains and Data Integrity 52
The General Reception 53
Healthy China 2030 and Biopolitics With Chinese
Characteristics 61
Supply Chains and Circulation of Capital 64
The Dual Circulation Policy 65
A Retreat to the Domestic Economy and Self-Reliance? 65
Go to the Source: An Alternative Interpretive Frame 69
Dual Circulation and Chinese Marxist Political Economy 71
viii Contents
Data Integrity and the End of Gilded Age 77
Concluding Remarks: Right Place, Right Time 80
3 A Monetary Evolution – Digital Currency, Circuits of
Capital Accumulation and Supply Chain Finance 89
Money and Circuits of Capital 90
Finance to Serve the Real Economy 96
Digital RMB 99
Supply Chain Finance 102
SCF: Conceptual Issues 102
SCF in China 105
The Role and Opportunities for Blockchain Technologies and
SCF: Chinese Perspectives 106
Case Studies 110
Concluding Remarks: A Future of Money in the Service of the
Real Economy 113
4 The Governance of Zero Trust – Cross-Border Data
Flows, Information Associations, New Global
Dimensions on the ‘Rule of Law’ and Blockchain-
Enabled Services Network (BSN) 122
Cross-Border Data Flows 124
Domestic Configurations 126
Establishing the Legislative Framework 126
Industry Governance and Implementation 131
Blockchain Industry Associations 133
Cross-Border and Global Dimensions 136
International Trade and Data Law 136
Standards 139
Blockchain-Enabled Services Network (BSN) 147
Concluding Remarks: Associationalism With Chinese Characteristics? 150
5 Trust Redivivus – The Chinese Citizen-Consumer as a
Driver of Transnational Entanglement 159
Demand Aggregation and New Modalities of Trust 160
Cultivating the Modern Economic Citizen: A Social E-Commerce
Case Study 163
Concluding Remarks: Consumer-Led Supply Chain Finance? 166
Contents ix
Conclusion: Blockchains With Chinese Characteristics –
Trustworthiness Without Trust in the Pursuit of
Common Prosperity 170
Common Prosperity and Dual Circulation 171
From America’s Lake to Multilateral Data Lakes? 175
A Modus Vivendi Based on Secrets 177
Trustworthiness Without Trust 179
Index 184