Rules on delivery

The SCO's cooperative 'small yet smart' approach to the digital economy is delivering tangible benefits to people in Central Asia and beyond

In recent years, digital sovereignty has become a central concept in global digital governance. The European Union has built a regulatory system centered on its General Data Protection Regulation and the Artificial Intelligence Act, championing privacy protection and ethical governance. The United States, leveraging its technological advantages and export controls, has deeply entwined digital issues with national security. What these approaches share is that rules are shaped by a handful of developed economies, leaving latecomers with a binary choice: either to accept them or to be excluded.

For Global South countries, such frameworks pose real challenges. These countries are asked to adopt cross-border data rules and AI standards drafted without their participation, often lacking the technical capacity and institutional infrastructure to implement. When they attempt to develop their own digital industries, they often encounter limited access to technology, incompatible standards and supply chains already locked into specific ecosystems. Some researchers describe this as a form of digital dependency, where developing countries’ digital industrial policies and technical standards are systematically defined by Western powers.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is exploring a different model rooted in building sovereignty and connectivity to enhance capacity. The centerpiece of this year’s SCO Digital Economy Forum was the ministerial closed-door session, which discussed a proposed list of key cooperation priorities in the digital economy over the next year. With this list, cooperation has moved beyond consensus on paper to tangible targets and tasks.

These have already been set in motion. The China-SCO Digital Economy Cooperation Platform, inaugurated in Tianjin a year ago, operates with a workflow of monthly updates and quarterly progress reviews. It has generated concrete cooperation items with Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The China-SCO Digital Technology Toolbox, released in 2025, includes 50 digital public goods categorized into digital infrastructure, digital technology solutions and digital empowerment applications. These are “small yet smart” projects delivering real impact.

The advantage of this approach lies in reversing the traditional rule-driven cooperation model. Member states begin with specific collaborations instead — smart agriculture, telemedicine, cross-border e-commerce — and when they encounter standard incompatibility or data flow obstacles, they sit down to solve the problem together. At that point, rule alignment is driven not by political bargaining but by practical necessity. Rules first emerge from projects, then go to negotiation tables.

The ultimate test of any digital cooperation is whether it drives economic development and improves people’s livelihoods. In 2024, China’s cross-border e-commerce imports from SCO member states grew by 34 percent year-on-year. The inaugural Silk Road e-commerce campaign in 2025 helped over 80,000 small and medium-sized merchants from partner countries go global, creating more than 100,000 direct jobs. That is digital cooperation translating into real income for ordinary citizens.

Through the sharing of smart technologies and solutions drawn from operational experiences in China’s Xinjiang Uygur and Inner Mongolia autonomous regions, local herders in Kyrgyzstan’s Chuy Region have been introduced to the internet of things for monitoring, precision feeding and waste resource utilization. Shihezi University in Xinjiang and the Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers inaugurated a joint agricultural program in June, focusing on digital cotton cultivation, soil testing, smart planting management and digital processing. Meanwhile, Karamay Central Hospital in Xinjiang has established cooperation with 12 institutions across five countries including Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in telemedicine, academic exchanges and talent training, with traditional Chinese medicine gaining recognition among local patients through remote platforms.

These small yet smart projects are targeted and effective. They require neither complex multilateral negotiations nor unified regulatory frameworks — direct supply-demand matching suffices, and standards can be aligned gradually through practice.

This year’s forum, held in Urumqi, underscores Xinjiang’s strategic importance in SCO digital cooperation. Bordering multiple SCO member states with deep-rooted economic ties, Xinjiang has built solid foundations for digital collaboration. On infrastructure, Xinjiang is developing computing clusters in Urumqi and accelerating the construction of large-scale AI computing facilities, aiming to become a computing hub serving Central Asia and beyond. It currently operates 28 cross-border optical cables and 16 communication channels, and is pursuing faster deployment of international communication gateway stations and national internet backbone direct connection points.

Also noteworthy is Xinjiang’s progress in integrating digital technology with the real economy. AI, the internet of things and industrial internet technologies are already being applied in agricultural water conservation, energy management and mining safety. Digital technologies are being deployed across cotton farming, 5G factories, smart mines and new energy projects. These scenarios closely match the needs of Central Asian countries, which face similar challenges in water scarcity, agricultural efficiency and energy management. Xinjiang’s role is not to export technology unilaterally, but to share experience born from comparable geographic conditions and industrial structures.

President Xi Jinping announced the establishment of the China-SCO Digital Economy Cooperation Platform at the SCO Tianjin Summit, emphasizing deeper cooperation in the digital economy and artificial intelligence. One year on, the Tianjin Summit’s digital agenda is being translated into actionable projects and measurable progress. The Urumqi forum will provide further impetus to the digital cooperation commitments made at the SCO Bishkek Summit.

At a time when global digital governance faces fragmentation and bloc polarization, the SCO’s demand-driven approach demonstrates that a different path is viable: one built not on technological blockade, but on mutual connectivity that strengthens the entire SCO family.

The author is a researcher at the Center for Shanghai Cooperation Organization Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.