An expert on China's global infrastructure expansion provides an urgent look at the battle to
connect and control tomorrow's networks. From the ocean floor to outer space China's Digital
Silk Road aims to wire the world and rewrite the global order. Taking readers on a journey
inside China's surveillance state rural America and Africa's megacities Jonathan Hillman
reveals what China's expanding digital footprint looks like on the ground and explores the
economic and strategic consequences of a future in which all routers lead to Beijing. If China
becomes the world's chief network operator it could reap a commercial and strategic windfall
including many advantages currently enjoyed by the United States. It could reshape global flows
of data finance and communications to reflect its interests. It could possess an unrivaled
understanding of market movements the deliberations of foreign competitors and the lives of
countless individuals enmeshed in its networks. However China's digital dominance is not yet
assured. Beijing remains vulnerable in several key dimensions the United States and its allies
have an opportunity to offer better alternatives and the rest of the world has a voice. But
winning the battle for tomorrow's networks will require the United States to innovate and take
greater risks in emerging markets. Networks create large winners and this is a contest America
cannot afford to lose.
