Danni Zhang on "Competing Digital Regulatory Models in Asia: The EU鈥檚 Diffuse-ability and China鈥檚 Digital Power in Regional Data Governance"
About the Talk
This seminar examines the competing diffusion of digital governance norms by the European Union (EU) and China across Asia, focusing on how each actor projects regulatory influence and constructs legitimacy in the regional digital order.
Building on my published research on the EU鈥檚 diffuse-ability in Japan and Singapore, the seminar explores how the EU extends its influence through mechanisms such as socialization, learning, and competition, grounded in its rights-based and human-centric model of data protection.
In contrast, China鈥檚 role as a digital power鈥攖he only non-Western actor comparable in scale to the EU and the United States鈥攈as reshaped the normative landscape of Asia鈥檚 digital governance. Through the discourse of digital sovereignty, state-driven innovation, and stability, China advances an alternative model that privileges control, developmental legitimacy, and technological autonomy.
By comparing these two pathways of normative expansion, the seminar argues that Asia has become a key arena where competing digital norms intersect, interact, and occasionally converge. It further reflects on how the coexistence of EU and Chines models shapes regional actors鈥� strategic choices and identity formation.
Event Details
Tuesday, 3rd of March 2026
3.00-5.00PM (UK Time)
R1.03, Ramphal Building and Microsoft Teams
Contact easg@warwick.ac.uk for a Teams invite
About the Speaker
Danni Zhang is a joint PhD researcher at Northeastern University London and the University of Kent, affiliated with the Institute of Cyber Security for Society (iCSS). She also serves as assistant coordinator of the UACES Research Network 鈥淒igital-EU.鈥� Her research focuses on global digital governance, with particular attention to the EU and China in the areas of data governance, AI governance, and cybersecurity. She has published in Politics and Governance and the Asian Review of Political Economy.
Danni鈥檚 work bridges constructivist IR theory with computational text and network analysis, examining how digital norms diffuse, interact, and contest across regions. Her current research explores how the EU and China project their regulatory models and normative influence across the Asia-Pacific region, shaping the evolving architecture of the global digital order.