Reverse Dependency: Making Europe’s Digital Technological Strengths Indispensable to China

Contributions from Sanne van der Lugt, Frans-Paul van der Putten, Rogier Creemers and John Lee.

A report of: Digital Power China: A European research consortium

This report uses 12 case studies to analyse reverse dependencies of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the European Union and the United Kingdom. In adapting to growing geopolitical competition over digital technology, the EU and the UK are striving for economic security and technological sovereignty. European policies focus on reducing critical over-dependencies on China. This de-risking is a necessary process of adaptation to the new geopolitical realities. The previous Digital Power China report contributed to this policy objective by differentiating between diverging risk profiles across several emerging and foundational technologies, and proposing concrete policy instruments.