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

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 policy makers 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 multi-polar 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.