Friedrich Ebert Stiftung GERMAN ROBOTS IN CHINA AND THE ALIBABA VILLAGES


The ongoing global technology-driven industrial
and platform-based revolution has been variously
labelled as Industry 4.0, Intelligent Manufacturing,
digitalization, automation and robotization as well
as e-commercialization of the economy, or simply the
fourth industrial revolution. While China is waging a
massive national effort in this field, promoted under
the complementary strategies “Made in China 2025”
and “Internet+”, South East Asian nations have
initiated broad debates about the digitalization of the
economy as well. The German concept of “Industrie
4.0” has become a common reference point for these
efforts even if they differ in substantial ways from