Weaving the Nation by Bundling Information: The Birth of the National Strategy of Informatization (1970s-1990s)

Weaving the Nation by Bundling Information: The Birth of the National Strategy of Informatization (1970s-1990s)

The reason why information has been at the core of governance in China is not merely a cultural preference, but because the very structure of state management has been supported by a bureaucracy that operates based on the accumulation of documents and reports. The reform and opening-up began in the late 1970s. At the same time, semiconductor, computer, and telecommunications technologies were rapidly developing in Western countries, and a nation's competitiveness came to depend not only on its industrial strength but also heavily on its information processing capacity and communications infrastructure. The Gulf War of 1991 was a decisive event that reinforced this perception. Precision-guided weapons and real-time command and control and information sharing changed the face of warfare and had a strong impact on the Chinese leadership and military. From then on, the Chinese military shifted its focus to maintenance for local warfare under information-oriented conditions, and t
he idea that maintaining information superiority would determine victory or defeat in a short-term, high-intensity conflict became firmly established. Informatization was not merely the introduction of equipment, but a plan to reorganize the economy, society, and military along a single axis, and to transform the nation into one that could manage the flow of information. Information was positioned as a resource, a force to be controlled, and the foundation that would support future warfare and national security.