Between Policy and Market: The Role of China’s Alliance of Industrial Internet in Industrial Digitalization

Existing research on the digital transformation of production in China has largely examined the roles of government, market, and industry associations in isolation, failing to integrate them into a unified analytical framework. This study addresses this gap by investigating how the Chinese state advances manufacturing digitalization through the Alliance of Industrial Internet (AII), an institutional innovation designed to connect with the market and facilitate the digital transformation of production. Established in 2016 with government backing, the AII operates both as a political instrument for implementing national strategies and as a commercial industry association that connects, guides, and evolves the market. The findings reveal that the AII’s effectiveness is shaped by global and domestic challenges. Industrial digitalization remains uneven across sectors and regions, and the market is far from mature. Although the AII plays a significant role in coordinating state and market actors, its limited power and autonomy constrain its capacity to fully realize the overarching industrial upgrading agenda.