<![CDATA[Technological advancements are reshaping global geopolitics toward cyberspace dominance, creating a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) world order. Amid this anarchic system, China faces strategic vulnerabilities stemming from Western technological dominance. This study analyzes the rationale behind China’s Digital Silk Road (DSR) initiative as an instrument of digital power through John Mearsheimer’s Offensive Realism theory. Using a descriptive-analytical qualitative method with a literature review, the study finds that the DSR is a “necessary choice” for ensuring China’s survival. Facing a VUCA environment, China rationally transforms its self-help mechanisms to maximize power by mobilizing Big Tech companies as latent power bound by domestic law. Digital hegemony is achieved through two synergistic capabilities. Materially, expanding physical infrastructure such as 5G networks, undersea cables, and data centers locks partner nations into structural dependence. Ideationally, China exports Cyber Sovereignty norms and “China Standards 2035” to undermine Western open internet governance. In conclusion, the DSR converts commercial advantages into an offensive instrument, manifesting China’s ambition to reconstruct a Sino-centric cyber order and achieve digital hegemony as the sole guarantee of absolute security amid global geopolitical uncertainty.]]>
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