Digital China and its implications for Europe

Alibaba, the e-commerce giant created 16 years ago by Jack Ma, is increasing its presence in the European Union in a move which will immediately benefit Sino-European trade relations. However, when European companies export to China through trading platforms conceived by Alibaba they become dependent on a new kind of vehicle upon which they have no direct control.

A long-term view of European interests in the Information Age commands to put the development of an ambitious European digital strategy at the top of Brussels' priorities. In the 21st century a power which ignores the centrality of cyber-politics condemns itself to irrelevance.

Europe would deserve better than linguistic variations on the Google main theme and should be able also to grow e-commerce platforms capable of competing with Amazon or Alibaba. In that context, the European Commission's team in charge of the Digital Agenda of the EU should certainly work at the regulatory level for the "Digital Single Market" but it should also help to shape the conditions for the emergence, beyond startups, of European digital global businesses.

Any long-term European digital strategy has to take into account the creativity of the Silicon Valley but the vision of a "New Digital Silk Road" would allow Europe to keep pace with the evolving Chinese cyberspace. While cyber-mistrust is not an issue in the relations between Brussels and Beijing, a converging Sino-European Internet has to complement the Belt and Road Initiative's connectivity.

The discovery of America marked the beginning of "Globalization 1.0" and, equipped with the instruments of the Industrial Revolution, Europe played a preeminent role in world affairs. At the dawn of "Globalization 2.0", an expansion into unlimited e-territories is combined with the injection of new digital technology into the production process.

Could the civilization which was at the center of "Globalization 1.0" end at the periphery of "Globalization 2.0"? Even if it is too early to tell, Europeans should nonetheless indulge in some introspection.

If Europe does not find the political wisdom to deepen its integration and the strength to fully enter the Information Age as one of its co-creators, it would risk, after a gradual marginalization, ending at the periphery of a new global order which would have been shaped without her effective participation.

Romano Prodi is former prime minister of Italy (1996-1998, 2006-2008) and former president of the European Commission (1999-2004), and David Gosset is director of the Academia Sinica Europaea at China Europe International Business School and founder of the Euro-China Forum and of the New Silk Road Initiative.