The specialized school “Cyberspace Governance in China” was held in Tehran on February 15 and 16, 2019, by the Cyberspace Research Institute and in cooperation with the National Governance System Think Tank, the House of Thinkers, and the Iranian Institute for Belt and Road Studies. This program was attended by university professors, researchers, and experts in the field of China and digital governance.
On the final day of this course, Eng. Ebrahim Yousefnejad, President of the Iranian Institute for Belt and Road Studies and Head of the Business Center of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Shanghai, along with Dr. Amir Mohammad Esmaeili, Secretary General of the Iranian Institute for Belt and Road Studies and a PhD graduate in International Relations from Shanghai International Studies University, presented specialized topics online from China.
During the meeting, various dimensions of China’s cyber governance model and its relationship with the country’s economic development and technological power were examined. The topics discussed were a combination of research analyses and theoretical concepts alongside field experiences of the digital ecosystem in China, which provided a clear picture of the nexus of government, platforms and the digital economy.
Topics such as the formation of native digital ecosystems, the concept of “government within the platform”, data governance, supporting the digital domestic market and the role of large technology companies in China’s national development strategy were among the main areas of discussion. The opportunities and challenges of this model for countries in the global south and the possibility of its comparative use in Iran were also examined.
The final part of the session was dedicated to expert questions from the attendees. Participants asked questions about the legal and infrastructural requirements for the development of digital governance, the difference between distributed systems and integrated ecosystems, the path to the formation of powerful national players in the field of technology and China’s experiences for Iran, which were accompanied by analytical and experience-based answers from the professors.
