Beijing Different technology standards could lead to China becoming increasingly decoupled from the rest of the world, warns the EU Chamber of Commerce in Beijing. China’s state-driven standard-setting and its rapidly growing role in international standardization have led to “an increasing politicization of technical standardization,” according to the report published on Thursday, which the chamber produced together with the Swedish Institute of International Affairs.
This increases the “risk of a dichotomy, fragmentation and decoupling of standards at the international level”. “Standards could be a mechanism to reinforce decoupling,” warned EU Chamber of Commerce President Jörg Wuttke.
For companies, the subject of technical standardization is becoming more and more important, especially with a view to increasing networking in the context of digitization.
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In a recent survey by the EU Chamber of Commerce, more than 87 percent of the companies surveyed with business in China stated that technical standards play an important to very important role in investment decisions.
Internationally active companies in particular need uniform standards worldwide so that they can sell a product in different markets. Companies that develop the standard themselves also have a time and financial advantage over those who have yet to adapt to the standard.
Key to economic advancement
So far, technological standards have mainly come from Europe and the USA. But China has identified standard-setting as a key factor in its further rise to economic superpower and is investing enormous resources in developing its own standards and disseminating them internationally.
With the “China Standards 2035” initiative launched in 2018, Beijing has set itself the goal of setting industry standards worldwide. China’s influence on international standardization has increased significantly, according to the report by the EU Chamber, which was written in the lead by standard-setting researcher Tim Rühlig.
According to experts, China is already successful in exporting standards in some areas. This is also because Chinese companies are market leaders in some sectors and have the most advanced technology in these areas.
One example is face recognition technology, which in China is massively used and promoted by the state. In addition, China is increasingly exporting its technologies abroad, for example through the Silk Road Initiative.
China’s standard-setting is state-centered
Unlike Western nations, where technological standardization is privately driven, in China – despite some recent reforms – it is state-centered.
“There is growing concern that China will continue to take a state-driven approach to setting technical standards in order to meet its industrial policy agenda, which aims to become a world leader in strategic technologies,” said Björn Fägersten, Director of the European Program at Swedish Institute of International Affairs. “Policymakers in Europe need to recognize this and make standards an integral part of trade and industrial policy while continuing to take a private-sector approach to standard setting.”
EU Chamber of Commerce President Wuttke also called on companies to become more active in setting standards themselves. But in the paper, the economic organization also makes it clear that this involves considerable hurdles in China, depending on the industry.
The barriers to participation in Chinese standardization are particularly evident in the pharmaceutical, petrochemical, automotive, IT and telecommunications industries.
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