The Flying Geese and China’s Bri in Indonesia

The digital rise and its economic implications for China through the Digital Silk Road under the Belt and Road Initiative

“…China has taken the path of BAT-Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent, which promote the technological goals of Beijing (Farhat, 2021). BAT of China has launched a digital revolution that evolved from hardware (Lenovo, ZTE, Huawei, Lenovo) to software (e-payments, robots, AI), establishing a platform for the commercial ecosystem in China while competing in the global arena with US platforms (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google (FAANG)) (Keane and Yu, 2019).…”

“…Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent have influenced the digital market of China, whereas the vibrant leaders, including Robin Li (Baidu), Jack Ma (Alibaba), and Ma Huateng (Tencent), are seen as innovators who have raised the living standards of the people of China (Leong, 2018). The digital revolution of China started in 2016, when Lee Sedol, generally regarded as the finest Go player of the last decade, was defeated by Google DeepMind's AlphaGo (Borowiec, 2016), which immediately stimulated China to reconsider enhancing its AI strategy pertinent to its national development planning to expand the digital footprints of China (Farhat, 2021). In 2018, China launched the “New Infrastructure” Plan to boost the digital economy through AI, 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT), and the industrial internet as a high-tech infrastructure (Sun, 2022).…”

“…Tencent, the largest tech company in China, was founded in 1998 and is based in the Chinese province of Shenzhen which has further expanded in Seoul, Tokyo, Palo Alto, California, and Amsterdam. It promotes innovation and sustainable growth, and is actively helping industries in shaping their digital future through its products, which are not limited to one domain but rather function in a variety of technology-related areas such as social media, video games, streaming, and cloud services, entertainment, and advertising (Farhat, 2021). An average of 45 billion messages are exchanged daily on WeChat by 1 billion active users (Liu, 2021).…”

“…The DSR provides next-generation digital technology in the shape of soft and hard infrastructure, which will increase the trading efficacy of China (Dutta, 2020). China intends to reconstruct the global digital order through this strategic endeavor (Farhat, 2021).…”

“…Alibaba is commonly referred to as China's equivalent of Amazon, founded by Jack Ma in 1999 while leading a group of 18 entrepreneurs (Farhat, 2021). Since its inception, the core aim of Alibaba has been to make it business-friendly by leveraging the internet to enhance the competitiveness of SMEs as well as to open the doors for Chinese SMEs and consumers through the development of now-commonly-used e-commerce platforms (Seoane, 2019).…”