A Critique of U.S. Digital Hegemony from the Perspective of Digital Imperialism

In the era of the digital economy, the real world is continuously digitized and simulated in digital space. The digital world, presented with data as its basic element, is both a mirror image of the real world and an extension of it. When data becomes a form of power, imperialism also penetrates from real space into digital space; digital imperialism becomes the latest manifestation of imperialism, and U.S. digital hegemony becomes the main form of digital imperialism. Hegemony in the state system refers to the ability of a major power to impose its principles and will in economic, political, cultural, military, and diplomatic spheres to a significant degree within the state system. Wallerstein argues that since the emergence of the capitalist world-system, the state system has experienced three main hegemonic cycles, producing three hegemonic states: the Netherlands in the mid-17th century, Britain in the mid-19th century, and the United States in the mid-20th century. Each hegemonic state, during its period of dominance, opposed restrictions on trade and pursued global liberalism in order to facilitate the smooth conduct of unequal exchange. The productive forces brought by digital technology will widen the gap between wealthy countries and those lacking investment in digital technology, digital resources, and digital infrastructure. The total digital economy of developed and high-income countries accounts for over 70% of the global total. The scale of the U.S. digital economy ranks first in the world, reaching $15.3 trillion in 2021, and it holds a commanding lead in the global competitiveness of digital enterprises and the research and development strength of digital technology. On a global scale, U.S. digital hegemony has widened the North-South digital divide, signifying an intensification of global developmental inequality.

在数字经济时代，现实世界被持续地数字化并在数字空间中得以仿真，以数据为基本要素呈现出来的数字世界既是现实世界的镜像，又是现实世界的延伸。当数据成为一种权力，帝国主义也从现实空间渗透进数字空间，数字帝国主义成为帝国主义的最新表现形式，美国的数字霸权成为数字帝国主义的主要表现形式。国家体系的霸权指的是一个大国能够在很大程度上将它在经济、政治、文化、军事、外交上的原则和意愿强加于国家体系之中。华勒斯坦认为，自资本主义世界体系产生以来，国家体系主要经历了三个霸权周期，产生了三个霸权国家，即17世纪中期的荷兰、19世纪中期的英国和20世纪中期的美国。每个霸权国家在其称霸期都反对限制贸易，奉行全球自由主义，以促进不平等交换的顺利进行。数字技术所带来的生产力会扩大富裕国家和那些缺乏数字技术、数字资源和数字基础设施投资的国家之间的鸿沟。发达国家和高收入国家的数字经济总量占全球的比重超过七成。美国数字经济规模稳居全球第一，2021年达到15.3万亿美元，在数字企业全球竞争力、数字技术研发实力上遥遥领先。就全球范围来看，美国的数字霸权造成了南北数字鸿沟的扩大，意味着全球发展不平等的加剧。

I. The Basis for the Emergence of U.S. Digital Hegemony: Digital Capital and Digital Oligarchs

一、美国数字霸权的产生基础：数字资本与数字寡头

Basic scientific research and development in the United States are primarily funded by government departments and non-profit organizations. The foundational knowledge and technology of the digital world are largely driven by state-led research and development. The United States was the earliest country in the world to plan for digital transformation. As early as 1998, the U.S. Department of Commerce published a special report on the digital economy, pointing out that the development of information technology, the internet, and e-commerce would give rise to new forms of the digital economy. U.S. digital monopoly capital is the foundation for the emergence of U.S. digital hegemony. The "digital enclosure movement" [1]1 The "digital enclosure movement" (数字圈地运动) refers to the process by which large digital capital groups, analogous to the historical enclosure movement in agriculture, claim and monopolize digital spaces, data resources, and user attention as private property for capital accumulation. carried out by U.S. digital oligarchs is a new model of capital accumulation under the conditions of digital imperialism.

美国的基础科学研究和开发主要是由政府部门和非营利部门资助，数字世界的基础知识和技术在很大程度上是由国家主导的研究和开发推动的。美国是全球最早布局数字化转型的国家。早在1998年，美国商务部就发布了数字经济的专题报告，指出信息技术、互联网和电子商务的发展会产生新的数字经济形态。美国数字垄断资本是美国数字霸权产生的基础，美国数字寡头进行的“数字圈地运动”是数字帝国主义条件下资本积累的新模式。

1. Digital Capital Possesses the Dual Characteristics of Tendency toward Concentration and Outward Expansion

1．数字资本兼具趋于集中和向外扩张的特性

In a narrow sense, digital capital refers to the capital invested by companies researching and developing digital technology; it is a form of capital aimed at profiting by providing digital products. The monopolistic nature of digital capital stems mainly from two sources: first, the data-driven mechanism of digital capital's operation, and second, the network effects brought about by this data-driven mechanism. From the perspective of the data-driven mechanism, data is the core of digital technology systems. Digital technology makes it possible to collect and analyze large-scale real-time data from users. This data is used to improve product quality and refine personalized customization plans, which in turn further enhances the digital system's ability to collect and analyze data. Thus, a virtuous cycle is formed in collecting and using data, becoming a driving force that strengthens the "winner-takes-all" effect of digital capital. Due to their digital nature, platforms can connect various platform endpoints through digital interfaces, thereby utilizing more data and external resources at low cost, or even for free, to develop related data-driven products and further perfect their own products. From the perspective of network effects, digital technology can facilitate matching between different users, ease transactions, and thereby create value. By reducing various costs of matching, transacting, and innovating, platforms achieve rapid expansion. Strengthening data integration across industries can enhance the network effects of data, thereby creating more value. Network effects are an important driving force accelerating the expansion of digital platforms. Robert Metcalfe, the designer of the Ethernet protocol and a pioneer in computer networking, proposed that the value of a network is roughly proportional to the square of the number of users; the more users, the greater the value. This is known as "Metcalfe's Law." The more people use a certain software, network, standard, or game, the higher its value, and the more it attracts additional users. Therefore, platform developers can attract users with low prices or even for free. Once the number of users reaches a critical point and network effects grow geometrically, developers can then raise charges for users. This is contrary to the law of diminishing returns in the traditional economy. Digital products are non-rivalrous; their unit cost is inversely proportional to the scale of production, and the marginal cost of replicating digital products is nearly zero. Digital products are experiential goods. Mastering unfamiliar new systems and software increases the switching costs for users to change to other digital products. Furthermore, there are incompatibility issues between product ecosystems of different companies; for example, some of Apple's products can only be used on iOS and not on the Android system. The network effects of digital platforms increase their brand value and enhance user loyalty.

从狭义上来看，数字资本指的是研究和开发数字技术的公司所投入的资本，是旨在通过提供数字产品而获利的资本样态。数字资本的垄断性主要源自两个方面，一是数字资本运行中的数据驱动机制，二是由数据驱动机制所带来的网络效应。从数据驱动机制来看，数据是数字技术系统的核心。数字技术使得对用户的大规模实时数据的收集和分析成为可能，这些数据被用来改进产品质量和完善个性化定制方案，这又进一步提升了数字系统收集和分析数据的能力，于是在收集数据和使用数据上形成了一个良性循环，从而成为加强数字资本“赢者通吃”效应的驱动力。由于其数字化特性，平台可以通过数字接口连接各个平台端，从而以较低的成本甚至无偿利用更多的数据和外部资源来开发其相关的数据驱动性产品，以进一步完善自身的产品；从网络效应来看，数字技术能够促进不同用户之间的匹配，便利交易从而创造价值。通过降低匹配、交易和创新的各种成本，平台实现了迅速的扩张。加强各产业间的数据联合可以增强数据的网络效应，从而创造更多的价值。网络效应是加速数字平台扩张的重要推动力。计算机网络先驱以太网络（Ethernet）协定的设计者罗伯特·梅特卡夫（Robert Metcalf）提出，网络的价值大致与用户数量的平方成正比，用户越多，价值就越大，这被称作“梅特卡夫定律”（Metcalf's Law）。越多人使用某种软件、网络、标准或游戏等，其价值就越高，也就越能吸引更多的用户。因此，平台的开发者可以用低价甚至免费的方式来吸引用户，一旦使用者的数量达到了临界点，网络效应以几何级数增长以后，开发者就可以对用户提高收费。这和传统经济的报酬递减法则相反。数字产品具有非竞争性，其单位成本与产品规模成反比，复制数字产品的边际成本几乎为零。数字产品是一种体验性产品，掌握不熟悉的新系统和软件会增加用户改用其他数字产品的转换成本，而且还存在不同公司产品生态之间的不兼容问题，例如苹果公司的一些产品就只能在iOS上使用，而不能在安卓（Android）系统上使用。数字平台的网络效应增加了其品牌价值，提升了用户的忠诚度。

These characteristics of digital capital give it a dual inherent nature of tending toward concentration and outward expansion, promoting the globalization of the digital economy, especially the platform economy, and the international monopoly of U.S. digital capital. From 2006 to 2020, digital attributes, data assets, and platform business models led to the rapid growth in market capitalization of large U.S. digital technology companies such as Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, making them the largest and most influential companies globally. Considering factors such as data collection and analysis capabilities, economies of scale, network effects, and user switching costs, once a digital technology company occupies a dominant market position, it becomes very difficult to replace. As of the end of 2021, all of the world's top five digital platform enterprises were U.S. companies, accounting for approximately 70% of the total global market value. They also held 31 data platforms valued at over ten billion U.S. dollars, with a total value scale as high as $11.4 trillion. The "polarized" asymmetric pattern of global digital platforms is further intensifying.

数字资本的这些特点使其兼具趋于集中和向外扩张的自然本性，推动了数字经济特别是平台经济的全球化和美国数字资本的国际垄断。从2006年到2020年，数字属性、数据资产和平台商业模式使得美国大型数字技术公司如苹果、亚马逊、谷歌、微软和脸书的市值迅速增长，成为全球范围内最大、最有影响力的公司。考虑到数据的收集和分析能力、规模经济、网络效应和用户转换成本等因素，一旦某家数字技术公司占据了市场主导地位，它就很难被取代。截至2021年年底，全球排名前五的数字平台企业全部是美国企业，约占据全球市场价值总额的70%，并拥有31家超百亿美元的数据平台，价值规模高达11.4万亿元美元，全球数字平台“极化”的非对称格局还在进一步加剧。

Most of these digital technology companies started with a single intermediary business; for example, Google began merely as a search engine company. As their scale expanded, these digital technology companies began to enter related or adjacent business fields (e.g., Facebook acquiring Instagram), and even industries that seemed completely unrelated at first glance (e.g., Google acquiring Waymo), setting out to build their complete platform ecosystems. Digital technology incorporates direct local commercial activities into the global economic system, thereby accelerating the pace of globalization of the world economy. In the early stages of digitalization, large U.S. digital capital groups relied on their strong capital strength to implement global expansion strategies. Taking the Amazon e-commerce platform as an example, its initial business scope was relatively concentrated, focusing on online book sales. However, once it achieved global expansion in the book market, empowered by digital technology, Amazon gained the ability to expand into other business areas and thus began continuously expanding its product coverage to obtain more profit points. Besides horizontal expansion of business areas, mergers and acquisitions are also a means for large digital capital groups to maintain market dominance. Taking the field of artificial intelligence as an example, from January 1, 2016, to January 22, 2021, there were 308 merger and acquisition transactions worth $28.4 billion. By the number of acquisitions, the top five globally were all large U.S. technology companies: Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon. The emergence of digital technology has also meant that the scale of commodity markets is no longer limited by geographical location, thus achieving unlimited spatial expansion. Survey data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development shows that in 2019, Amazon held approximately 40% of the share in global retail activities, Facebook occupied two-thirds of the global social media market, and Google held about 90% of the global internet search market.

这些数字技术公司大多从某个单一的中介业务起家，比如谷歌一开始仅仅是一家搜索引擎公司。随着规模的扩大，这些数字技术公司开始进入相关或相邻的业务领域（例如脸书收购Instagram），甚至是乍一看完全不相关的行业（如谷歌收购Waymo），着手构建其完备的平台生态。数字技术把直接的地方性商业行为纳入全球经济体系，从而加快了世界经济的全球化步伐。在数字化初期，美国的大型数字资本集团凭借其雄厚的资本实力推行全球扩张战略。以亚马逊电商平台为例，其最初的业务范围较为集中，专注于网络图书售卖，但是一旦实现了全球图书市场的扩张，在数字技术的赋能下，亚马逊具有了向其他业务领域扩张的能力，于是开始持续不断地扩充产品覆盖面以获得更多盈利点。除了横向扩张业务领域外，兼收并购也是大型数字资本集团维持市场主导地位的手段。以人工智能领域为例，2016年1月1日至2021年1月22日共有308笔并购交易，价值284亿美元。按并购数量计算，全球排名前五的都是美国的大型科技公司，分别是苹果、谷歌、微软、脸书、亚马逊。数字技术的出现也使得商品市场的规模不再受到地理区位的限制，从而获得空间上的无限扩张。联合国贸易和发展会议的调查数据显示，2019年亚马逊在全球零售活动中拥有40%左右的份额，脸书占据了全球三分之二的社交媒体市场，谷歌更是在世界范围内拥有了约90%的互联网搜索市场。

2. The Formation of the Digital Ecosystem and Digital Oligarchs

2．数字生态与数字寡头的形成

Under the global expansion of digital capital, a new mode of capital accumulation has emerged: the “digital enclosure movement” carried out by digital oligarchs under the conditions of digital technology. A small number of technology giants and monopoly capital that possess advanced digital technology compete to build digital economic ecosystems, striving to expand their data territories and achieve the expropriative possession of data resources. According to World Bank statistics, six U.S. companies (Google, Netflix, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon) account for approximately 43% of global internet data traffic. The “digital enclosure movement” unfolds by constructing a digital ecosystem whose three main pillars are software, hardware, and network connectivity. Taking the development of operating system software as an example, the operating system is essentially the allocator of software and hardware resources and a core component that connects the upper and lower layers. The task of the operating system is to orderly control the allocation of processors, memory, and other I/O interface devices among competing programs. As the soul of a computer system, the operating system is the core of the industrial ecosystem and the cornerstone of security in the information age. Being dependent on others for the operating system ecosystem is not merely an information security issue but also a matter of the development rights of the information industry. Looking at the history of operating system development, although a large number of excellent operating systems have emerged, Windows and Mac OS have today almost entirely divided the desktop operating system market share. In 2020, Microsoft, Apple, and Google held 98.8% of the global operating system market share, with Windows covering 80.5% of that share.

在数字资本全球扩张格局下出现了资本积累新模式，那就是数字技术条件下的数字寡头进行的“数字圈地运动”。少数掌握着先进数字技术的科技巨头和垄断资本，竞相打造数字经济生态圈，竭力扩张数据领地，实现对数据资源的剥夺性占有。据世界银行统计，6家美国公司（谷歌、网飞、脸书、微软、苹果、亚马逊）占有着全球互联网数据流量约43%的份额。“数字圈地运动”通过构建以三大支柱即软件、硬件和网络连接为主要组成部分的数字生态系统来展开。以操作系统软件的发展为例，操作系统本质上是软硬件资源的分配者，是承上启下的核心部件。操作系统的任务是在互相竞争的程序之间有序地控制对处理器、存储器以及其他I/O接口设备的分配。作为计算机系统的灵魂，操作系统是产业生态的核心，也是信息时代安全的基石，操作系统生态受制于人不仅仅是一个信息安全问题，更是信息产业的发展权问题。从操作系统的发展史来看，尽管涌现了大量优秀的操作系统，但时至今日，市场上Windows和Mac OS几乎瓜分了整个桌面操作系统的份额。2020年微软、苹果、谷歌三家企业占据全球操作系统98.8%的市场份额，而Windows系统覆盖了80.5%的市场份额。

The “Wintel” alliance (the Windows-Intel architecture) is a commercial alliance between Microsoft and Intel, referring to personal computers composed of the Microsoft Windows operating system and Intel CPUs. This alliance successfully replaced IBM’s dominant position in the personal computer market. In hardware, the Wintel alliance, through bundling sales, firmly grasped control over downstream producers in the industry; Intel, as a chip IDM manufacturer, gained market discourse power. Additionally, among the global supercomputer Top500 list, supercomputers using Intel CPUs accounted for as many as 360 units, or 72%. In software, Microsoft launched products at different levels in professional application software and gaming to compete with companies such as Adobe, SAP, Oracle, and SAS, for example, Dynamic, SQL Server, and Skype. In the developer ecosystem, due to the high penetration rate of the Windows platform, it has attracted a large number of developers. At this point, Microsoft has formed an absolute advantage over application software developers in the software market, while Intel has become the most technologically powerful enterprise in the entire semiconductor industry. The Wintel alliance deeply binds Microsoft’s Windows system with Intel’s CPUs, constructing on this basis technical barriers to software-hardware compatibility, forcing other manufacturers to depend on it. If they try to start anew, they may face the risk of being marginalized and becoming non-mainstream products. These digital oligarchs, relying on their dominant position in the digital ecosystem, have accumulated substantial profits. These technologies enable them to control the flow of information, control the social activities of people worldwide, and perform a host of other political, economic, cultural, social, and military functions influenced by their digital technology.

“文泰来”联盟（即Wintel联盟，指Windows-Intel架构）是微软与英特尔的商业联盟，指由微软 Windows操作系统与英特尔CPU所组成的个人计算机，该联盟成功地取代了IBM公司在个人计算机市场上的主导地位。在硬件上，“文泰来”联盟通过捆绑销售，牢牢把握住对产业下游生产商的控制权；而英特尔作为芯片IDM厂商，获得了市场话语权。此外，全球超级计算机Top500榜单上使用英特尔CPU的超算也高达360台，占比72%。在软件上，微软在专业级应用软件及游戏方面推出不同层次的产品来与奥比多（Adobe）、思爱普（SAP）、甲骨文（Oracle）、赛仕（SAS）等公司竞争，如Dynamic、SQL Server、Skype等；在开发者生态上，由于Windows平台渗透率高，因此凝聚了大批的开发者。至此，微软在软件市场中形成对应用软件开发商的绝对优势，英特尔则成为整个半导体产业中技术实力最强的企业。“文泰来”联盟将微软的Windows系统与Intel的CPU深度绑定，在此基础上建构软硬件兼容技术壁垒，逼迫其他厂商必须依附其上，如果想另起炉灶，可能面临被边缘化的风险，成为非主流产品。这些数字寡头凭借其在数字生态中的主导地位积累了大量利润。这些技术使他们能够控制信息流动，控制全世界人们的社交活动，还发挥其他大量受其数字技术影响的政治、经济、文化、社会和军事功能。

II. The Concentrated Manifestation of U.S. Digital Hegemony: Control over Other Countries’ Data and Digital Space

二、美国数字霸权的集中表现：对其他国家数据和数字空间的控制

As a result of the “digital enclosure movement,” the United States has begun to control the data and digital space of other countries. In the earlier era of imperialism, Britain controlled the seas for its own interests. In the digital age, data is a form of power. Just as Britain once controlled the seas, if a country controls data, data as a means of controlling the international environment will be selectively blocked or disseminated. So, how do U.S. digital oligarchs control the data and digital space of other countries?

作为“数字圈地运动”的结果，美国开始了对其他国家数据和数字空间的控制。英国在较早的帝国主义时代为了其利益对海洋加以控制。在数字时代，数据就是一种权力。如同早前英国控制了海洋一样，如果一个国家控制了数据，数据作为一种控制国际环境的手段将会被有选择地封锁或散布。那么，美国的数字寡头如何对其他国家的数据和数字空间进行控制？

1. The Digitalization of Unequal Exchange

1．不平等交换的数字化

The first method by which the United States controls the data and digital space of other countries is through control via software that is authorized to translate raw data into a usable form. In classical imperialism theory, the core countries obtain cheap raw materials and market access from the peripheral countries, and then sell processed manufactured goods back to the peripheral countries at high prices. In the digital age, this unequal exchange unfolds in new forms. The United States uses digital network systems to collect various data and information from peripheral countries, then processes and refines this collected raw data, and sells it back to the peripheral countries at a higher price.

美国控制其他国家数据数字空间的第一种方法是借助于经授权被用来把原始数据译为有用形式的软件来进行控制。在经典帝国主义理论中，中心国从外围国获得廉价的原材料和市场准入，将经过加工后的制成品以高昂的价格返销给外围国。在数字时代，这种不平等交换以新的形式展开。美国借助于数字网络系统来收集外围国的各种数据信息，然后将这些收集来的原始数据进行加工处理，并以更昂贵的价格返销给外围国。

Microsoft, or other U.S. software companies and consulting firms, are often permitted to collect data from other countries concerning commercial or even military operations in this manner, “processing” the data and information before selling it back to these countries in the form of “recommendations.” Such consulting firms dominated by the United States are spread all over the world, with their main business being to provide consulting services to enterprises in different industries in their host countries. These companies have gradually expanded their scope to include areas involving national security, such as policy research, national defense and military industry, and energy resources, under the guise of “consulting.” In reality, these “consulting” companies act as intelligence agencies or their agents for certain Western countries, conducting “consultations” with experts in various fields in the host country via telephone, video, etc., which is actually a form of espionage and theft of relevant data and information. This data and information may also involve a country’s political, economic, diplomatic, military, and other aspects, some of which may even be top-secret, classified, or confidential state secrets and intelligence. Microsoft, by permitting its software to integrate raw data into a usable form, then sells this processed information back to other individuals and entities at a higher price. Although the products sold back to peripheral countries appear in the form of non-material products such as “recommendations” or software, rather than material products, this is still essentially a form of unequal exchange. In the world market, there is a huge digital divide between developed and underdeveloped countries. Among the top ten countries in digital service export scale, six European and American countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, France, and the Netherlands) together account for 48.9% of global digital service export share. Countries that hold the dominant position in digital trade also hold the dominant position in setting the rules for digital economic and trade rules. By the end of 2020, the top ten countries in digital service trade had signed approximately 70% of digital economic and trade agreements, and barriers in digital economic and trade rules have gradually formed. Relying on its leading level of digital economy and trade, the United States formulates and promotes digital economic and trade rules that are conducive to its unequal exchange, further strengthening its hegemonic position.

微软或美国其他软件公司以及顾问咨询公司常常被允许以这种方式来收集其他国家有关商业甚至军事行动的数据，对数据信息进行“加工”以后再以“建议”的形式卖回给这些国家。由美国所主导的这类咨询公司遍布世界各地，其主要业务是为所在地不同行业的企业提供咨询服务。这些公司逐步将政策研究、国防军工、能源资源等涉及国家安全的领域也纳入“咨询”的范畴，以“咨询”作为掩护，“咨询”公司实际上是某些西方国家的情报机构或其代理人，通过电话、视频等方式与所在国各个领域的专家进行“咨询”，实则是刺探和窃取相关数据信息。这些数据信息还可能涉及一国政治、经济、外交、军事等方面，其中有些甚至是绝密级、机密级和秘密级的国家秘密和情报。微软通过准许其软件将原始数据整合成一种可用的形式，再将这些被加工过的信息以更加昂贵的价格返销到其他个人和单位。虽然返销给外围国的产品以“建议”或软件等非物质产品而不是物质产品的形式出现，但这本质上仍然是一种不平等交换。在世界市场中，发达国家和不发达国家之间存在巨大的数字鸿沟，在数字服务出口规模排名前十的国家中的6个欧美国家（美国、英国、爱尔兰、德国、法国、荷兰）共占据全球48.9%的数字服务出口份额。掌握着数字贸易主导权的国家同时也掌握着数字经贸规则制定的主导权，截至2020年年底，数字服务贸易排名前十的国家签署了约70%的数字经贸协定，数字经贸规则壁垒逐步形成。美国凭借着领先的数字经贸水平，制定并推行有利于其进行不平等交换的数字经贸规则，进一步强化其霸权地位。

For example, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software is a core system indispensable for enterprise operation and management, managing and running enterprises’ core data. Before deploying ERP, enterprises need to invite ERP vendors to provide consulting on enterprise management processes and carry out transformation in accordance with the standard ERP process. ERP vendors will take this opportunity to obtain a large amount of enterprises’ raw data, continuously optimize their ERP products by analyzing enterprise data, and rely on massive enterprise data to create more mature, high-performance products that are then sold back to enterprises. In China’s high-end ERP market, the European and American enterprises SAP and Oracle hold product market shares of 33% and 20% respectively, ranking first and second in the industry, thereby gaining control over the data of a large number of Chinese enterprises, especially large and medium-sized ones. Another example is Palantir Technologies, founded in 2003, which received support from In-Q-Tel, a venture capital firm under the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. It is the preferred company for mining massive datasets for intelligence and law enforcement applications, possessing a smooth software interface and programmers stationed at client headquarters to customize programs, capable of transforming a chaotic information swamp into intuitive maps, histograms, and link diagrams. Its “forward-deployed engineers” can capture, tag, and integrate every fragment of client data within days, thereby clarifying such disparate issues as terrorism, disaster response, and human trafficking. Palantir Technologies mainly comprises four platforms: Gotham, Foundry, Apollo, and AIP, and has become an indispensable big data analytics company for the U.S. government. According to Palantir Technologies’ 2021 annual report, the average annual revenue per government client grew from $6.8 million in 2020 to $10 million in 2021. Against the backdrop of growing geopolitical threats, Gotham, Foundry, and Apollo will work together to provide AI command decision-making across all operational domains, including logistics, combat readiness, operations, planning, and intelligence. In 2021, its commercial revenue in the United States exceeded $200 million, while non-U.S. commercial revenue grew by 16%. Palantir Technologies completed a large number of transactions in Europe, including cooperation with Merck KGaA; established a partnership in South Korea with Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s largest shipbuilder; and achieved cooperation with Komatsu and Fujitsu in Japan. The capitalist world economic system is an unequal system based on unequal exchange. The core regions possess powerful state apparatuses, and this state power leads to unequal exchange, meaning that powerful core states can appropriate the surplus of the entire world economy. “The ‘world economic system’ is a huge, unequal chain of integrated production divided by various political structures, whose basic logic is that accumulated surplus value is distributed unequally to support those who can obtain various temporary monopolies in the market system. This is a ‘capitalist’ logic.”

例如，ERP（Enterprise Resource Planning的简称，指企业资源计划）软件是企业经营管理必不可少的核心系统，管理和运行着企业的核心数据。在部署ERP之前，企业需要邀请ERP厂商对企业管理流程等内容进行咨询并按ERP标准流程开展改造，ERP厂商将借此机会获取大量企业的原始数据，并通过分析企业数据不断优化其ERP产品，依托海量企业数据打造出更为成熟、性能优越的产品从而返销给企业。在我国的高端ERP市场中，欧美企业思爱普和甲骨文的产品市场占有率分别是33%和20%，分别处于行业第一和第二的位置，从而掌握了我国大量企业特别是大中型企业的数据。又如，于2003年成立的帕兰提尔技术公司（Palantir Technologies）得到了美国中央情报局旗下创投机构In-Q-Tel的支持，是情报和执法应用程序挖掘大量数据集的首选公司，拥有流畅的软件界面和派驻客户总部定制程序的程序员，可以将混乱的信息沼泽变成直观的地图、直方图和链接图。其“前沿部署工程师”用几天时间来抓取、标记和整合客户数据的每一块碎片，就可以阐明恐怖主义、灾难应对和人口贩运等截然不同的问题。帕兰提尔技术公司主要包含Gotham、Foundry、Apollo和AIP四大平台，已成为美国政府不可或缺的大数据分析公司。2021年帕兰提尔技术公司年度报告显示，每个政府客户的年平均收入从2020年的680万美元增长到2021年的1000万美元。在地缘政治威胁不断增长的背景下，Gotham、Foundry和Apollo将携手合作，在所有作战领域中提供包括物流、战备、行动、规划和情报方面的人工智能指挥决策。2021年，其在美国的商业收入超过2亿美元，非美商业收入增长16%。帕兰提尔技术公司在欧洲完成了包括与默克集团（Merck KGaA）合作在内的大量交易；在韩国与全球最大的造船商韩国现代重工集团（Hyundai Heavy Industries）建立合作伙伴关系；在日本实现与小松（Komastu）和富士通（Fujitsu）的合作。资本主义世界经济体系是一个建立在不平等交换基础上的不平等体系，中心地区拥有强大的国家机器，这种国家实力导致了不平等交换，即强大的中心国家能够占有整个世界经济的剩余。“‘世界经济体系’是巨大的由各种政治结构分割的一体化生产的不平等的链条，其基本逻辑是积累的剩余价值被不平等地加以分配，以支持那些在市场体系中能够获得各种暂时垄断的人。这是一个‘资本主义’的逻辑。”

2. Controlling the Passageways to Digital Space

2．控制通往数字空间的通道

The second method by which the United States controls the data and digital space of peripheral countries does not require directly obtaining data, but only controlling the passageways to digital space. The passageways to digital space are analogous to the maritime laws and ocean laws enacted by Britain in the era of industrial imperialism. In the era of digital imperialism, the United States also dominates the formulation of various rules concerning the information superhighway, the internet, and digital space, led by “symbolic analysts” who use the network to specialize in buying and selling ports, information, and advice. American advertisers are providing various online slogans containing the “American Dream”; American marketers are using big data to analyze global consumers’ preferences; and American engineers are also providing advice for global commercial networks. Operating systems are a specific component of the passageways to digital space. Microsoft Windows, Google Android, Apple iOS, etc., are all representative operating systems commonly used internationally. The global industrial ecosystem has three main players: Microsoft for desktop operating systems, Google Android for mobile terminals, and RedHat for servers. When users use these operating systems, their data is collected by the enterprises that own these systems. Therefore, the Chinese government requires Apple to store its user data within China.

美国控制外围国的数据和数字空间的第二种方法并不需要直接去获取数据，而只需要控制通往数字空间的通道就可以了。数字空间的通道类似于工业帝国主义时代英国所制定的海事法和海洋法等，数字帝国主义时代的美国也在主导着有关信息高速公路互联网和数字空间的各种规则的制定，它由利用网络来专门从事买卖端口、信息和建议的“符号分析家”们来主导。美国的广告商们正在提供着各种内含“美国梦”的网络口号，美国的市场营销者们正在借助大数据分析着全球顾客的消费偏好，美国的工程师们也正在为全球性的商业网络提供建议。操作系统是通往数字空间的通道中的一个具体组成部分。微软的Windows、谷歌的Android、苹果的iOS等，都是在国际上常用的、具有代表性的操作系统。全球的产业生态里面有三驾马车：桌面操作系统是微软，移动终端谷歌的Android是巨头，服务器端属于RedHat。用户使用这些操作系统，用户的数据就会被这些系统的所属企业采集，所以中国政府要求苹果公司将其用户数据存储在中国境内。美国则不满于各国的数据本地化政策措施，一方面对外主张数据流动自由主义，极力推进个人数据的跨境流动，另一方面却以出口管制、外资审查等形式严格限制部分数据出境。另外一种常见的通往数字空间的通道是路由器、网关、交换机等网络设备，这些设备一般都部署在运营商的机房中。用户上网、通信时产生的数据必然会经过这些设备，用户数据就有可能被采集和留存。

For example, AWS (the abbreviation for Amazon Web Services, i.e., the Amazon cloud platform) has become an important infrastructure element for many industries around the world, seemingly providing a natural precedent for developing industry-specific products and services on this platform. As demand for cloud services in the Asia-Pacific region expands, cloud service providers such as AWS, Microsoft, and Google currently have more than one-third of their availability zones deployed in the Asia-Pacific region, with AWS alone having built over 40 availability zones in India, Singapore, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and elsewhere. By virtue of its infrastructure technology, AWS has gained digital access to most areas of commercial activity, possesses a large volume of related data, and monitors business activities across various sectors. At the same time, AWS cloud services are also the most common choice for deploying Web3 applications at present. In 2018, Apple provided the "Health Record API" for developers and researchers of medical data-related app ecosystems. In 2020, Apple, together with Google, developed a COVID-19 contact tracing technology for their respective mobile operating systems. In this way, all relevant medical data of users of these two mobile operating systems could be captured. Major U.S. technology platform companies such as GAFAM (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft) also set up digital barriers by constructing digital ecosystems, hindering the competitive compatibility of rival products. For example, Apple, using its technology in platform connectors or infrastructure (especially APIs and SDKs), has developed an application ecosystem compatible with its hardware. By virtue of its user base of devices and core platforms (iOS and the App Store), Apple can obtain a large amount of data, which becomes its important asset. Another example is the free services provided by Google—search engine, Gmail, YouTube, Android operating system, Chrome browser, Google Maps, and others—which help Google collect a vast amount of user information, and then use this information to precisely target advertisements for its own profit.

例如，AWS（Amazon Web Services的简称，即亚马逊云平台）已经成为世界各地许多行业的重要基础设施元素，似乎顺理成章地为该平台开发特定行业的产品和服务提供了一个先例。随着亚太地区云服务市场需求的扩大，目前AWS、微软、谷歌等云服务商均有1/3以上的可用区部署在亚太地区，AWS更是在印度、新加坡、澳大利亚、日本、韩国等地建设了40余个可用区。凭借其基础设施技术，AWS获得了进入大部分商业活动领域的数字通道，掌握了大量的相关数据，并监控着各个领域的业务活动。同时，AWS云服务也是目前Web3应用部署中最常见的选择。2018年，苹果公司为医疗数据相关APP生态的开发者和研究者提供了“健康记录接口”（Health Record API）。2020年，苹果联合谷歌为各自的移动端操作系统开发了一种新冠病毒追踪技术。这样一来，这两个移动端操作系统的所有用户的相关医疗数据都能够被捕捉到。美国的主要技术平台公司如GAFAM（谷歌、亚马逊、脸书、苹果、微软）等还通过构建数字生态来设置数字障碍，阻碍竞争性产品与其的竞争兼容性。例如，苹果利用其在平台连接器或基础设施方面的技术（尤其是API和SDK），开发了一个与其硬件兼容的应用程序生态系统。凭借其设备和基础平台（iOS和App Store）的用户群，苹果公司可以获取到大量数据，这些数据成为其重要的资产。又如，谷歌公司提供的免费服务——搜索引擎、Gmail、YouTube、Android操作系统、Chrome浏览器、谷歌地图等服务，可以帮助谷歌公司收集到大量的用户信息，然后再根据这些信息精准投放广告从而为自身谋利。

3. Practicing digital technology colonization through "digital technology assistance"

3．以“数字技术援助”的方式实行数字技术殖民

The third method is for the United States to implement digital colonization by providing “digital technology assistance” to peripheral countries. Under traditional colonialism, colonizers established colonies through violence, controlled sea routes, built infrastructure such as railways to serve military power and economic plunder, monopolized heavy machinery used for economic and military purposes, seized materials and shipped them back to the core countries for production, and transported cheap goods back to peripheral countries to undermine local markets, thereby making peripheral countries dependent on core countries and creating an unequal global division of labor. Frank argued that in the process of transition from the stage of industrial capitalism to the stage of imperialism, the exchange relations and modes of production of the underdeveloped countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America changed, the unequal development of countries intensified in a more concealed manner, and the metropolitan countries also exercised control and exploitation over satellite countries in a more concealed manner. Relying on their unique technological advantages and strong capital strength, the metropolitan countries launched foreign aggression mainly through capital export, and under the banner of “increased contact, enhanced integration, the diffusion of capital, technology and institutions, etc., which can only lead to the development of these regions,” they began to carve up the world on a large scale, causing the capitalist mode of production to develop everywhere, so as to penetrate deeply into the colonial dependencies to extract value, further turning various countries into their own appendages, and also greatly changing the economic structure of the dependencies. Under conditions of digital colonization, colonization does not necessarily mean the loss of sovereignty and the occupation of territory, but is mainly manifested as dependence in terms of technology, economy, politics and social development. The process of digital colonization can be basically divided into four stages: first, providing data infrastructure services to peripheral countries and their enterprises; second, directly or indirectly (through cooperation with primary service providers) obtaining various types of data from the industrial development of peripheral countries; third, providing data-driven insights; and fourth, the design and transaction of new products and services.

第三种方法是美国通过对外围国进行“数字技术援助”的方式来实行数字殖民。在传统殖民主义之下，殖民者通过暴力建立殖民地，控制海上航线，修建铁路等服务于军事权力和经济掠夺的基础设施，对用于经济和军事的重型机械进行垄断，敛取物资将其运回中心国家用于生产，将廉价产品运回外围国以破坏当地市场，从而使外围国家对中心国家产生依赖，造成不平等的全球分工。弗兰克认为，在工业资本主义阶段转向帝国主义阶段的过程中，亚非拉不发达国家的交换关系和生产方式发生了变化，各国的不平等发展以更隐蔽的方式加剧了，宗主国也以更隐蔽的方式对卫星国进行控制和剥削。宗主国凭借着独有的技术优势和雄厚的资本实力开启了以资本输出为主要手段的对外侵略，打着“增加接触、加强整合、资本、技术和体制的扩散等等、只会导致这些地区的发展”的旗号开始大肆瓜分世界，使资本主义生产方式在各地发展起来，以便深入殖民附属国内部榨取价值，使各国进一步变成自己的附庸，也极大程度上改变了附属国的经济结构。在数字殖民的条件下，殖民不一定意味着主权的丧失和领土的被占领，而是主要表现为技术、经济、政治和社会发展方面的依附。数字殖民的过程基本可以分为四个阶段：一是向外围国及其企业提供数据基础设施服务，二是直接或间接（通过与初级服务商合作）获取外围国产业发展中的各类数据，三是提供数据驱动相关的见解，四是新产品和服务的设计和交易。

Conducting “digital technology assistance” is a means for the United States to compete for discourse power over technical rules and standards. By promoting U.S.-standard science and technology and establishing technology alliances, the United States can strengthen its dominant position in the formulation of global digital technology rules and standards. A report released by the Atlantic Council in October 2021 stated that the United States maintains a dominant position in 39 technical standards organizations and holds more than 50% of the votes in 11 organizations. In 2021, the World Bank and the United Nations Broadband Commission jointly released a report stating that Africa would need to invest $100 billion by 2030 to bridge the digital technology divide. The global average internet penetration rate is 51%, while that of countries in West and Central Africa generally does not exceed 30%. African countries face multiple difficulties in digital technology development, including low internet penetration, poor network quality, high operating costs, high investment risks, and lack of competition. If African countries allow the products of large U.S. digital technology companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft to enter the social sphere, the United States will gain enormous power in the African economy and create technological dependence, forming a dominant right to exploit African data resources. The United States is implementing this plan. Smartphone internet access in most parts of the African continent is dominated by Facebook’s Free Basics internet service. Through its “Google Station” plan, Google attempts to provide “free” Wi-Fi service under the cloak of benevolence in Nigeria, the country with the largest number of internet users in Africa, while its real goal is to capture the “next billion users” in Africa who are not yet connected to the internet.

进行“数字技术援助”是美国争夺技术规则和标准的话语权的手段，通过推行美国标准的科学技术和建立科技联盟可以加强美国在全球数字技术规则和标准制定中的主导地位。大西洋理事会在2021年10月发布的一份报告中称，美国在39个技术标准组织中保持着主导地位，在11个组织中拥有超过50%的选票。2021年，世界银行与联合国宽带委员会联合发布报告称，非洲如要消弭数字技术鸿沟，需在2030年前投入1000亿美元。世界互联网平均普及率为51%，而非洲西部和中部国家总体不超过30%。非洲国家在数字技术发展方面面临多重困难，包括互联网普及率低、网络质量差、运营费用高、投资风险高、缺乏竞争等。如果非洲国家允许谷歌、苹果、脸书、亚马逊、微软等美国大型数字科技企业的产品进入社会领域，美国将在非洲经济中获取巨大的权力并制造技术依赖，形成对非洲数据资源的开发主导权。美国正在实施这一计划，非洲大陆大部分地区的智能手机互联网接入由脸书的Free Basics互联网服务主导。谷歌通过其“谷歌站”（Google Station）计划，试图披着仁慈的外衣在非洲互联网用户数量最多的国家——尼日利亚，提供谷歌站“免费”Wi-Fi服务，而其真正目标则是获取非洲未连接互联网的“下一个十亿用户”。

III. Using Digital Technology Advantages to Consolidate U.S. Cultural Hegemony and Political Hegemony

三、利用数字技术优势巩固美国的文化霸权和政治霸权

U.S. digital oligarchs control digital technology and intellectual property, and more and more predatory acts are occurring in digital space. The power of digital monopoly capital is constantly expanding globally, exerting unprecedented influence on global economic, cultural and political development. U.S. digital hegemony is an important supporting force for maintaining its cultural hegemony and political hegemony. Digital oligarchs and the U.S. government form a community of interests, using digital technology to break through the limitations of time and space to further export U.S. values and ideology globally, in order to maintain its global cultural hegemony. The United States uses its advantages in digital technology to selectively intervene in the market through the state apparatus, providing monopoly political conditions for obtaining maximum profits in the world market. This is the political function of digital hegemony in the world system.

美国数字寡头们控制着数字技术和知识产权，越来越多的掠夺行径出现在数字空间之中。数字垄断资本的力量在全球不断扩张，对全球经济、文化和政治发展体现出空前的影响力。美国数字霸权是维系其文化霸权和政治霸权的重要支撑力量。数字寡头与美国政府组成了利益共同体，借助于数字技术突破时间和空间的限制将美国的价值观念和意识形态进一步向全球输出，以维持其在全球的文化霸权。美国利用其数字技术上的优势通过国家机器有选择地干预市场，为其在世界市场上获得最大利润提供垄断政治条件，这就是数字霸权在世界体系中的政治职能。

1. Using Digital Technology Advantages to Consolidate U.S. Cultural Hegemony

1．利用数字技术优势巩固美国的文化霸权

The reason why U.S. symbols and analytical insights can expand the world market and increase global demand lies in the tremendous development of digital communication and media systems worldwide. Digital systems integrate and package information such as news, presenting it in a convenient way for consumption. People are increasingly able to obtain information easily and the amount of information they obtain is also increasing. Digitalization has changed the specific operation mode of mass media, combining “pulling out” data with “pushing out” information. Then-U.S. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Mark Grossman pointed out at the second annual “Information Technology for Africa” conference: “We have to use these technologies to tell America’s story, to advance America’s interests, and to advance the cause of freedom and democracy around the world.” The United States uses digital platforms, social software and other digital communication and media systems to instill U.S. ideology and socio-political programs into the cultures of other nation-states, especially those of developing countries. Gramsci once pointed out that cultural hegemony is a way of ruling through the consent of the masses. Cultural hegemony already contains economic elements. Economic dependence will transform into a subordinate position in the field of communication and dissemination, and into dependence in culture and ideology. So-called “network imperialism” or “surveillance imperialism” are merely specific manifestations of digital imperialism, and digital imperialism characterized by digital hegemony is the root cause of their emergence.

美国的符号和分析见解之所以能扩大世界市场、提高全球需求，原因在于其在世界范围内数字通信和媒介系统的巨大发展。数字系统对新闻等信息进行整合打包，使其以一种便捷的消费方式呈现出来，人们获取信息越来越容易，获取到的信息量也越来越多。数字化改变了大众传播媒介的具体运行方式，将“拉出”数据和“推出”信息相结合。时任美国副国务卿马里克·格罗斯曼曾在“非洲信息技术”第二届年会上指出：“我们已不得不使用这些技术来讲述美国的故事、增进美国的利益，并进而在全世界推行自由与民主的理念。”美国利用数字平台和社交软件等数字通信和媒介系统把美国的意识形态和社会政治方案灌输到其他民族国家的文化中，尤其是发展中国家的文化中。葛兰西曾指出，文化霸权是通过大众同意而进行统治的方式。文化霸权中已经包含了经济要素。经济上的依附会转变为在通讯和传播领域的从属地位，转变为文化和意识形态上的依附。所谓“网络帝国主义”或“监控帝国主义”不过是数字帝国主义的具体表现形式，以数字霸权为特征的数字帝国主义是其产生的根源。

The digital space created by the development of digital technology can affect the spiritual space of human beings themselves. The free use of digital platforms is intended to collect more user data; based on this data, digital platforms push relevant information to users, thereby controlling users’ thoughts by controlling the information they access. Users of digital platforms such as search engines, social software, and video websites are both consumers and producers; their process of consuming and using digital platforms is also a process of leaving traces and producing data. The process by which these “prosumers” produce data constitutes non-wage labor, and is also a form of unpaid labor; this data is typically used without compensation by platform developers to obtain profit. Moreover, the free search engine or email services provided by digital platforms are merely sophisticated surveillance tools. Take, for example, the music software developed by the US streaming music service provider Pandora; it can convert user preferences into a song selection algorithm. The software has 200 million users, who have pressed the like and dislike buttons 35 billion times; all of this data is used for analysis in order to sell more products. It not only transforms people’s desire for music into a desire for more commodities, but also, through algorithms, analyzes the political beliefs, social issues, religious beliefs, etc., reflected in the tastes of different users, and on this basis uses its own political advertising targeting system to influence political election campaigns. Data is a major component of “surveillance imperialism.” Large US digital technology multinational corporations have extended the tentacles of “surveillance imperialism” into the Global South, inferring the individual and group characteristics of internet users in Southern countries through data, achieving the “extraction” of data, thereby analyzing their religious beliefs or political stances. Then, this analyzed data is used by digital platforms to precisely “push” information to users, exporting US values and socio-political programs to users, in order to manipulate various organizations and individuals, thereby seeking economic and state power interests. The United States ostensibly advocates for information freedom and network transparency, yet in reality it spares no effort in developing and deploying various network communication surveillance technologies, wantonly trampling on the data privacy rights of citizens of other countries.

数字技术的发展所营造的数字空间会影响到人类自身的精神空间。数字平台的免费使用是为了收集更多的用户数据，数字平台会根据这些数据向用户推送相关信息，从而通过控制用户了解到的信息来控制用户的想法。搜索引擎、社交软件、视频网站等数字平台的用户既是消费者也是生产者，其消费使用数字平台的过程也是其留下痕迹、生产数据的过程。这些“产消者”生产数据的过程属于非雇佣劳动，也是一种无酬劳动，这些数据通常被平台开发商无偿使用以获取利润。而且，数字平台所提供的免费搜索引擎或邮箱服务不过是精巧的监控工具。以美国流媒体音乐服务商潘多拉（Pandora）开发的音乐软件为例，它可将用户偏好转化为歌曲选择算法。该软件拥有2亿用户，他们按下了350亿次喜欢和不喜欢的按钮，所有这些数据都被用来分析以销售更多产品。它不仅将人们对音乐的渴望变为对更多商品的渴望，同时它也通过算法将不同用户品味所反映出的政治信仰、社会问题、宗教信仰等进行分析，并基于此以自身的政治广告定位系统对政治竞选活动施加影响。数据是“监控帝国主义”的主要组成部分。美国的大型数字技术跨国公司将“监控帝国主义”的触角伸向了全球南方，通过数据推断南方国家网民的个体及群体性特征，实现“拉出”数据，从而分析其宗教信仰或政治立场等。然后，这些经过分析的数据被数字平台用于精准地向用户“推出”信息，向用户输出美国的价值观和社会政治方案，以操控各种组织和个体，从而谋取经济和国家权力方面的利益。美国表面上宣扬信息自由和网络透明，实际上却在不遗余力地开发和部署各种网络通信监控技术，肆意践踏其他国家公民的数据隐私权。

When we enter a word or short phrase into the Google search engine, Google’s response proceeds in four steps: analysis, selection, ranking, and display. For example, entering “best dog food”: first, the system analyzes the words “dog food” and “best”; during the analysis, it also references previously collected information about your address, dog-owning preferences, income level, consumption preferences, and much more. Then, the system uses crawler software to select some relevant webpages based on an index. Next comes a very important step—ranking. As for the criteria for ranking, we have no way of knowing; perhaps webpages are ranked according to Google’s profitability. Finally, all relevant webpages are displayed in order. In this way, search engines like Google significantly influence people’s consumption behavior. If what we enter into the search box is “How to understand the US sanctions against Huawei,” “Are Jews sinful,” or “Should Britain stay in the EU,” then how would Google rank the relevant webpages? US digital platforms or social software such as Google, Facebook, and YouTube are absolutely not merely cultural exchange software; they are also important channels for the implementation of the US cultural export strategy, incorporating economic democracy, individual freedom, individualism, private property, consumerism, etc., into the commercial ideological discourse of the digital economy. This discourse obscures the exploitation of digital laborers by digital monopoly capital, and obscures the expropriative accumulation of digital imperialism on a global scale. In the digital age, digital technology has been widely applied in the export of US culture and ideology. The United States possesses the world’s most visited search engine—Google; the largest video website—YouTube; and the most influential social media platforms—Facebook and Twitter. According to World Bank statistics, among the ten most visited websites globally, Facebook, Google, and YouTube are the three with the highest average daily time spent per user worldwide, reaching 17.42 minutes, 13.12 minutes, and 13.04 minutes respectively, far exceeding the average of 7.01 minutes for the remaining seven websites. These large US digital technology companies also monitor news, speech, and associations on foreign territories when they deem it appropriate; this is a violation of human rights in Global South countries.

当我们在谷歌搜索引擎中输入一个词语或者短句，谷歌的回应将分为四个步骤：分析、选择、排序和展示。比如输入“最好的狗粮”，首先系统会对“狗粮”“最好的”这些语词作出分析，分析过程中还会参考之前收集到的关于你的住址、养狗喜好、收入水平、消费偏好等诸多信息。然后，系统会利用爬虫软件根据索引选择一些相关的网页。接下来是非常重要的一步——排序。至于排序的标准我们不得而知，或许是按照谷歌的获利程度来对网页进行排序。最后，所有的相关网页按照顺序显示出来。如此一来，谷歌这类搜索引擎在很大程度上影响了人们的消费行为。如果我们在搜索框中输入的是“如何理解美国对华为的制裁”“犹太人是不是罪恶的”或者“英国应该留在欧盟吗”，那么谷歌会如何对相关网页排序呢？谷歌、脸书和油管等美国数字平台或社交软件绝对不仅仅是一种文化交流软件，它们还是美国文化输出战略实施的重要渠道，将经济民主、个人自由、个人主义、私有财产、消费主义等纳入数字经济时代的商业意识形态话语，这些话语遮蔽了数字垄断资本对数字劳动者的剥削，遮蔽了数字帝国主义在全球的剥夺性积累。在数字时代，数字技术在美国文化和意识形态的输出上得到了广泛的应用。美国拥有全球访问量最大的搜索引擎——谷歌、最大的视频网站——油管、最具影响力的社交媒体平台——脸书和推特。据世界银行统计，在全球访问量最多的10个网站中，脸书、谷歌、油管是全球每个用户每天花费的平均时长最高的三个网站，分别达到17.42分钟、13.12分钟、13.04分钟，远高于剩余7个网站的平均时长7.01分钟。这些美国的大型数字技术公司还在它们认为合适的情况下监控外国领土上的新闻、言论和社团，这是侵犯全球南方国家人权的行为。

2. Using digital technology advantages to consolidate US political hegemony

2．利用数字技术优势巩固美国的政治霸权

After being elected president, Trump withdrew from various international organizations, emphasized “America First,” significantly reduced the provision of international public goods, weakened relations with traditional allies such as the European Union, and engaged in various forms of suppression of China’s development, in order to maintain US political hegemony worldwide. The foundation of US global hegemony lies in its technological hegemony. Digital hegemony is a powerful support for maintaining US technological hegemony, and is also an important component of US technological hegemony. In May 2019, the Trump administration established the “Cyberspace Solarium Commission,” named after the “Project Solarium” [7]7 Project Solarium was a US national security policy exercise initiated by President Eisenhower in 1953, which developed the strategy of containment against the Soviet Union. The Cyberspace Solarium Commission was named after it to signal a similar comprehensive strategic review. from the Cold War period against the Soviet Union, comprehensively introducing Cold War concepts such as adversary, ally, and deterrence. The Biden administration continued to follow this line of thinking, globally propagating a “new Cold War mentality,” while simultaneously launching a digital ecosystem war, a digital innovation war, and a digital governance war. The digital ecosystem war aims to establish a US-led digital ecosystem, comprehensively suppressing other countries in terms of hardware, software, and network connectivity; the digital innovation war aims to comprehensively block the sources of digital innovation in other countries, from supply chains to R&D chains, abusing domestic laws to suppress the digital technological progress of countries like China; the digital governance war aims to further consolidate the dominant position of the United States in the international political order through the formulation of digital technology standards and rules. During the Gulf War and NATO’s invasion of Kosovo, US electronic information warfare paralyzed almost all network communication systems in Iraq and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia; people witnessed the power of information warfare and also felt concern about Microsoft’s monopoly. In February 2021, in response to Australia’s proposed Media Bargaining Code, Facebook refused to pay for news content, banning Australian users from browsing and sharing news content on its platform, thereby turning a large country into an “information island” to a certain extent. After the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the stock prices of US military-industrial companies rose sharply. It can be said that wherever there is war in the world, there are US weapons, and there is the shadow of US military-industrial companies. As long as war continues, huge profits will flow continuously to military-industrial companies. Wars based on digital technology, with new digital weaponry at their core, are far more complex than traditional military warfare. In addition to new digital weaponry, the United States also attempts to use its soft power to dominate international public opinion. For example, YouTube blocked accounts such as “RT” within Ukraine, Twitter deleted Russian statements regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict, applying pressure on Russia from all directions. Trump’s use of the political role of social media was also pushed to the extreme, even being jokingly referred to as “governing by tweet.” During his term, he posted nearly 60,000 tweets, inciting supporters and gathering political energy, invisibly bringing massive traffic to US social media. Using digital technology to weaken the regulatory influence of other countries and shape platform-dominated power is also a means for the United States to consolidate its hegemony. Take the ride-hailing platform Uber as an example; Uber exploits the institutional weaknesses of the markets it enters, identifying and targeting regulatory loopholes and gray areas, seeking to escape state control as much as possible. The disruptive strategies of these platforms are particularly effective in some Southern countries, where public institutions, influenced by neoliberal doctrines, provide favorable conditions for laissez-faire platformization.

特朗普当选总统后，退出各种国际组织，强调“美国优先”，大幅减少提供国际公共产品，弱化与欧盟等传统盟友的关系，对中国的发展进行各种打压，以维持美国在世界范围内的政治霸权。美国全球霸权的根基在于其技术霸权。数字霸权是维系美国技术霸权的有力支撑，更是美国技术霸权的重要组成部分。特朗普政府于2019年5月成立“网络空间日光浴委员会”，得名于对苏联冷战时期的“日光浴计划”，全面引入敌国、盟国、威慑等冷战概念。拜登政府继续沿用该思路，在全球渲染“新冷战思维”，同时启动数字生态战、数字创新战和数字治理战。数字生态战旨在建立美国主导的数字生态，从硬件、软件和网络连接等方面全面打压其他国家；数字创新战旨在从供应链到研发链全面阻断其他国家数字创新的源头，滥用国内法打压中国等国家的数字科技进步；数字治理战旨在从数字技术标准和规则的制定等方面进一步巩固美国在国际政治秩序中的主导地位。在海湾战争和北约入侵科索沃时，美国的电子信息战使伊拉克、南联盟几乎所有网络通信系统陷入瘫痪，人们看到了一场信息战的威力，也对微软的垄断局面感到担忧。2021年2月，脸书为了回应澳大利亚拟推出的媒体议价法案，拒绝为新闻内容付费，通过禁止澳大利亚用户在其平台浏览和分享新闻内容，使得偌大一个国家在一定程度上成为“信息孤岛”。俄乌冲突爆发后，美国军工企业的股价大幅上涨。可以说，世界上哪里有战争，哪里就有美国武器，哪里就有美国军工企业的影子。只要战争不止，巨额利益就会源源不断地流向军工企业。以数字技术为基础的战争以新型数字武器装备为核心，其复杂程度远超传统军事战争。除了新型数字武器装备之外，美国还试图利用其软实力来主宰国际舆论。例如，油管在乌克兰境内封锁“今日俄罗斯”等账号，推特删除了俄方有关俄乌冲突的表述，全方位向俄施压。特朗普对社交媒体政治作用的利用也几乎做到了极致，甚至被戏称为“推特治国”。他在任期内发布了推特近6万条，煽动支持者、聚拢政治能量，无形中为美国的社交媒体带来了巨大的流量。运用数字技术削弱他国监管影响，形塑平台主导力量，也是美国巩固霸权的一种手段。以打车平台优步为例，优步会利用其所在市场的制度弱点，识别并定位监管的漏洞和灰色地带，尽可能摆脱国家控制。这些平台的颠覆性战略在部分南方国家特别有效，这些国家的公共机构受到新自由主义学说的影响，为自由放任的平台化提供了有利条件。

The United States pursues double standards, using its advantage in digital technology to maintain its political hegemony. It extracts data worldwide and conducts extensive surveillance of other countries’ digital spaces, while under the pretext of national security it suppresses other countries’ digital services and superior digital products. This practice of politicizing digital development violates the spirit of openness and sharing on the internet and also violates the most basic principles of fair competition in the international market. The United States has long styled itself as a “free” and “democratic” country, and in recent years it has gone to great lengths to promote the narrative of “democracy versus authoritarianism.” Yet the fact that the United States has fomented wars and conflicts all over the world has long since exposed the hegemonic truth behind the American-style “freedom” and American-style “democracy.” The United States has long waved the banner of so-called democracy and human rights, attempting to shape other countries and the world order according to American values and political institutions, and there are countless examples of its interference in other countries’ internal affairs. In today’s world, US hegemony is everywhere; it is hard to find any international affair in which the United States does not play some role. The most direct manifestation of US hegemony is political hegemony, and political hegemony serves the entire edifice of US hegemonism.

美国奉行双重标准，利用其数字技术的优势维护其政治霸权。美国在世界范围内进行数据攫取，对其他国家的数字空间实施广泛的监控，同时又打着国家安全的旗号对他国的数字服务和优势数字产品进行打压。这种将数字发展问题政治化的行径，违背了互联网开放共享的精神，也违背了最基本的国际市场公平竞争原则。美国长期以“自由”和“民主”国家自居，近年来更是极力渲染“民主对抗威权”的叙事。然而，美国在世界各地到处制造战争和冲突的事实，早已揭开了美式“自由”和美式“民主”的霸权主义真相。美国长期打着所谓民主和人权旗号，企图按照美国的价值观和政治制度塑造其他国家和世界秩序，干涉他国内政的例子比比皆是。在当今世界，美国的霸权无处不在，任何一件国际事务几乎都能或多或少地找到美国的身影。美国的霸权最直接的表现就是政治霸权，政治霸权是为美国整个霸权主义服务的。

IV. The Essence of US Digital Hegemony

四、美国数字霸权的本质

Digital oligarchs transform their technological advantages into digital hegemony, gaining a dominant position in every link of production, circulation, consumption, and distribution, as well as in every industry involved. The concentration of digital resources brings about extreme inequality in the possession of wealth. The logic of capital behind digital monopoly capital is the driving force behind the emergence and development of digital imperialism. Digital oligarchs, represented by large multinational digital technology companies, become the center of digital imperialism. They continuously expand their predatory occupation of global digital space, attempting to construct a new form of imperialism through data extraction, digital enclosure, capital fusion, and digital export.

数字寡头将其技术优势转化成数字霸权，在生产、流通、消费、分配各个环节及其涉及的各个行业都取得了主导地位，数字资源的集中带来了财富占有上的极大不平等。数字垄断资本背后的资本逻辑是推动数字帝国主义产生和发展的驱动力，以大型跨国数字技术公司为代表的数字寡头成为数字帝国主义的中心，它们不断扩张其对全球数字空间的剥夺性占有，通过数据榨取、数字圈地、资本融合和数字输出试图构建起帝国主义的新形态。

1. The Exposition of the Essence of Imperialism by Classical Marxist Writers and Its Implications for Analyzing US Digital Hegemony

1．马克思主义经典作家关于帝国主义本质的论述及其对分析美国数字霸权的启示

Competition is one of the central themes of Marx’s analysis of the capitalist mode of production. The internal drive to pursue surplus value and the external pressure of capital competition compel each enterprise to maximize profits, seeking new methods of production, new markets, and new sources of raw materials. Marx did not use the term “imperialism,” but his analysis of the dynamics of capitalism points to the inevitable tendency of capitalist global expansion. Marx and Engels wrote in the *Communist Manifesto*: “The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere. The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilization.” The emergence of modern industry was a turning point in the history of capitalism and in the global expansion of capitalism. Modern industry was the highest stage of capitalist development that Marx discussed, because it was the highest stage reached in his era. Marx pointed out: “This splitting-up of the total social capital into many individual capitals or the repulsion of its fractions one from another is counteracted by their mutual attraction. This is no longer simple concentration of means of production and of the command over labor, identical with accumulation. It is concentration of capitals already formed, destruction of their individual independence, expropriation of capitalist by capitalist, transformation of many small into few large capitals.” Marx analyzed the concentration of capital and foresaw that the development of monopoly was an inevitable result of the competitive process, leaving it to his successors to identify monopoly capital as a new stage following modern industry.

竞争是马克思分析资本主义生产方式的中心议题之一。追逐剩余价值的内在动力和资本竞争的外在压力迫使各个企业追求利润最大化，寻求新的生产方法、新的市场和新的原料来源。马克思并没有使用“帝国主义”一词，但是他关于资本主义动力学的分析指出了资本主义全球扩张的必然趋势。马克思恩格斯在《共产党宣言》中写道：“不断扩大产品销路的需要，驱使资产阶级奔走于全球各地。它必须到处落户，到处开发，到处建立联系。资产阶级，由于开拓了世界市场，使一切国家的生产和消费都成为世界性的了。”现代工业的出现是资本主义历史以及资本主义全球扩张中的转折点。现代工业是马克思所探讨过的资本主义发展的最高阶段，因为这是他那个时代所达到的最高阶段。马克思指出：“社会总资本这样分散为许多单个资本，或它的各部分间的互相排斥，又遇到各部分间的互相吸引的反作用。这已不再是生产资料和对劳动的支配权的简单的、和积累等同的积聚。这是已经形成的各资本的积聚，是它们的个体独立性的消灭，是资本家剥夺资本家，是许多小资本转化为少数大资本。”马克思分析了资本集中，并且预见到垄断的发展是竞争过程不可避免的结果，留给其后继者的任务就是指明垄断资本是现代工业之后的一个新阶段。

The founding of the Marxist theory of imperialism was marked by Lenin’s answer to the question of the essence of imperialism. He revealed the monopolistic essence of imperialism and demonstrated that imperialism is the result of the concentration of production leading to monopoly. To directly grasp the core issue of imperialism, Lenin started from the characteristics of the development of social production, took monopoly as the basis for understanding imperialism, clarified the profound changes in capitalist relations of production, and regarded imperialism as a special stage of capitalist development. In terms of the operational mechanism of the capitalist mode of production, Lenin extracted the ontological determinations of the economic form of the imperialist stage. Monopoly, as the most central theoretical axis, supports Lenin’s theoretical system of imperialism. Lenin emphasized: “Imperialism emerged as the development and direct continuation of the fundamental characteristics of capitalism in general. But capitalism only became capitalist imperialism at a definite and very high stage of its development, when certain of its fundamental characteristics began to change into their opposites, when the features of the epoch of transition from capitalism to a higher social and economic system had taken shape and revealed themselves in all spheres.” Only by fully understanding Lenin’s analysis of the monopoly question can one understand the connotation of imperialism that Lenin revealed. This implies that our analysis of digital imperialism and its concrete manifestation, US digital hegemony, must take the emergence of digital monopoly capital as its logical starting point. Lenin believed that the combines of monopoly capitalism strive to seize all sources of raw materials, making them ardent supporters of colonial annexation by their respective national governments. The purpose of US digital oligarchs’ control over digital space and their digital technology colonization activities is, fundamentally, also to occupy sources of “raw materials.” “Imperialism is capitalism at that stage of development at which the dominance of monopolies and finance capital is established; in which the export of capital has acquired pronounced importance; in which the division of the world among the international trusts has begun; in which the division of all territories of the globe among the biggest capitalist powers has been completed.” The digital export and digital enclosure dominated by digital monopoly capital are the manifestations of “capital export” and “division of the world” under the conditions of digital imperialism.

马克思主义帝国主义理论创立的标志就是列宁对帝国主义本质问题的回答，他揭示了帝国主义垄断的本质，论证了帝国主义是生产集中与垄断导致的结果。为了直接抓住帝国主义的核心问题，列宁从社会生产发展的特点出发，以垄断为基点理解帝国主义，阐明资本主义生产关系发生的深刻变化，把帝国主义看作资本主义发展的一个特殊阶段。在资本主义生产方式的运行机理上，列宁抽取出了帝国主义阶段经济形态的具有本体意义的规定性，垄断作为最核心的理论中轴，支撑着列宁的帝国主义理论体系。列宁强调：“帝国主义是作为一般资本主义基本特性的发展和直接继续而生长起来的。但是，只有在资本主义发展到一定的、很高的阶段，资本主义的某些基本特性开始转化成自己的对立面，从资本主义到更高级的社会经济结构的过渡时代的特点已经全面形成和暴露出来的时候，资本主义才变成了资本帝国主义”。只有充分地理解了列宁对垄断问题的分析，才能理解列宁所揭示的帝国主义的内涵。这启示我们对数字帝国主义及其具体表现美国数字霸权的分析，要以数字垄断资本的产生作为逻辑起点。列宁认为，垄断资本主义的联合企业致力于夺取所有原材料的来源地，这使得它们成为其各自国家政府进行殖民地兼并的热切支持者。美国数字寡头对数字空间的控制和数字技术殖民活动，其目的从根本上来说也是为了占有“原材料”的来源地。“帝国主义是发展到垄断组织和金融资本的统治已经确立、资本输出具有突出意义、国际托拉斯开始瓜分世界、一些最大的资本主义国家已把世界全部领土瓜分完毕这一阶段的资本主义。”数字垄断资本所主导的数字输出和数字圈地便是数字帝国主义条件下“资本输出”和“瓜分世界”的表现形式。

Whether it is cultural imperialism, financial imperialism, ecological imperialism, or digital imperialism, the essence of all varieties of “imperialism” remains that revealed by the Marxist theory of imperialism. Greed and plunder remain the nature of all varieties of “imperialism.” The nature of digital imperialism, whose main manifestation is US digital hegemony, has not only not changed but has become even more monopolistic, exclusive, aggressive, and expansionary. Under the leadership of US digital oligarchs, the United States controls the data and digital space of other countries through the digitization of unequal exchange, control over access to digital space, and the practice of digital technology colonization in the form of “digital technology assistance,” and uses its digital technology advantages to consolidate US cultural and political hegemony globally. This shows that the Marxist theory of imperialism’s exposition of the laws of capitalist development and the essence of imperialism is not only not outdated but that only by applying the Marxist theory of imperialism can we recognize the essence of US digital hegemony.

不管是文化帝国主义、金融帝国主义、生态帝国主义还是数字帝国主义，各式各样的“帝国主义”变种的本质始终是马克思主义帝国主义理论所揭示的本质，贪婪和掠夺依然是各种“帝国主义”变种的本性。以美国的数字霸权为主要表现形式的数字帝国主义的本性不仅没有改变，而且具有更强的垄断性、排他性、侵略性和扩张性。在美国数字寡头的主导下，美国通过不平等交换的数字化、控制通往数字空间的通道及以“数字技术援助”的方式实行数字技术殖民等形式，对其他国家的数据和数字空间进行控制，并利用其数字技术优势巩固美国在全球的文化霸权和政治霸权。这说明马克思主义帝国主义理论关于资本主义发展规律以及帝国主义本质的论述不仅没有过时，而且只有运用马克思主义帝国主义理论才能认清美国数字霸权的本质。

2. Digital Monopoly Capital and the Capital Logic of the “Digital Rights World” [8]8 “数权世界” (shù quán shìjiè) — a term coined by the author to denote a world order structured around control over digital data and rights, analogous to the concept of “sovereignty” in the physical world.

2．数字垄断资本与“数权世界”的资本逻辑

Digital capital is the newest form of capital to emerge with the advent of the era of data-driven productive forces. In the era of the digital economy, data resources have become the most central factor of production, and the struggle for data resources has become the focus of competition between nations. For digital capital, the important foundation for realizing value augmentation is data. The digital economy, typically characterized by data-drivenness, has condensed data into a key strategic resource on a global scale, and this strategic resource is essentially digital rights. The core of digital rights is the value of data. Data becomes a factor of production first because of the value it contains, but even more so because of the support of information technologies such as big data and cloud computing. Therefore, the digital divide between countries is reflected not only in the volume of data but also in the capacity to participate in the data value chain. According to United Nations statistics, as of January 2021, nearly 80% of the world's 4,714 co-located data centers were located in developed countries. As of the end of 2020, the United States accounted for 39% of the world's 597 hyperscale data centers. The U.S. agricultural data analysis service provider Farmobile launched the industry's first "data store" platform, where any third-party enterprise with a demand for agricultural data can purchase relevant data. As farmers work in the fields, Farmobile automatically builds electronic field records of data, including planting dates, crop varieties, populations, harvest dates, total yield, average yield, and average moisture. Twice a year, at the end of the planting and harvest seasons, the data is certified and placed in data storage for purchase by equipment manufacturers, agronomists, insurance companies, and other interested parties. Data can be sold multiple times per quarter to different buyers. Only by mining, aggregating, tracking, analyzing, and integrating massive amounts of individual "small data" can "big data" with commercial value and social value be formed. The method of extracting economic value from data is not limited to selling data to other companies, which has enormous development value. Enterprises can also profit from data generated directly or indirectly through the use of big data analytics and artificial intelligence by improving customer experience, reducing costs, and finding new customers.

数字资本是伴随着数据生产力时代的到来而出现的资本的最新样态。在数字经济时代，数据资源已经成为最核心的生产要素，对数据资源的争夺已经成为国与国之间竞争的焦点。对于数字资本来说，实现价值增殖的重要依托就是数据。以数据驱动为典型特点的数字经济，已在全球范围内将数据凝练为关键性战略资源，而这种战略性资源本质上就是数权。数权的核心就是数据的价值。数据成为生产要素首先是因其蕴含的价值所在，但更在于大数据、云计算等信息技术的支持。因此，各国数字鸿沟不仅体现在数据体量上，还体现在参与数据价值链能力的层面。据联合国统计，截至2021年1月，全球4714个共同定位的数据中心中，近80%的数据中心位于发达国家。截至2020年年底，全球597个超大规模数据中心中，美国就占据了39%。美国农业数据分析服务提供商Farmobile公司推出了业界第一个“数据商店”平台，所有对农业数据有需求的第三方企业都能在该平台上购买相关数据。随着农民在田间工作，Farmobile自动建立数据的电子现场记录，包括种植日期、商品品种、种群、收获日期、总产量、平均产量和平均水分等。每年两次，在种植和收获季节结束时，数据经过认证并放置在数据存储中，供设备制造商、农艺师、保险公司和其他相关方购买。数据可以每季度多次出售给不同的买家。只有对海量的个体“小数据”进行挖掘、汇集、跟踪、分析、融合，才会形成具有商业利益和社会价值的“大数据”。从数据中获取经济价值的方法不是只有将数据出售给其他公司才具有巨大的开发价值。企业还可以通过改善客户体验、降低成本、寻找新客户等方式，从使用大数据分析和人工智能直接或间接产生的数据中获利。

Lenin believed that imperialism is the highest stage of capitalist development, and the emergence of monopoly is the foundation of imperialism. "Monopoly, which replaces free competition, is the fundamental economic feature, the essence of imperialism." [9]9 V. I. Lenin, *Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism* (1917), Chapter 7. Digital capital achieves the possession of data precisely through the monopoly of technology and platforms, and this is precisely the logical starting point of digital monopoly capital. Digital platforms skillfully use various means to achieve uncompensated use and possession, typically by directly or covertly embedding content in service agreements or privacy clauses that deprives users of their raw data. This raw data originally belonged to individuals or the public, but is transformed by digital capital into private possession, thereby completing the hidden exploitation of global platform "prosumers." [10]10 "Prosumer" is a portmanteau of producer and consumer, referring to users who both produce and consume content or data on digital platforms. According to statistics, more than half of low-income countries have no restrictions on the cross-border transfer of personal data, which also means that low-income countries are more likely to become digital colonies. The "GAFAM" alliance [11]11 GAFAM is an acronym for Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft, the five dominant U.S. digital technology companies. is a concrete manifestation of oligopolistic monopoly in the digital era. Digital oligarchs' continuous research and development of their technologies and ongoing optimization of their products constitute high barriers to entry for the industry and erect high ecological barriers. Coupled with high market concentration, potential and new entrants find it difficult to shake the existing market structure, and digital oligarchs become the hegemons of the digital information industry. The development of digital technology creates new "scarce" and high-profit-rate products, reduces the demand for living labor, the fruits of past social labor are manifested in the form of digital monopoly capital, and the general intellect of humanity appears as the power of digital monopoly capital.

列宁认为，帝国主义是资本主义发展的最高阶段，而垄断的出现是帝国主义产生的基础。“垄断代替自由竞争，是帝国主义的根本经济特征，是帝国主义的实质。”数字资本正是通过对技术与平台的垄断而实现了对数据的占有，这也正是数字垄断资本的逻辑起点。数字平台巧妙利用各种手段实现了无偿利用与占有，通常情况就是在服务协议或隐私条款中或直接或暗藏着剥夺这些原始数据的内容。这些原始数据原本属于个人所有或公共所有，却被数字资本转变为私人占有，从而完成了对全球平台“产消者”的隐蔽剥削。据统计，超过一半的低收入国家对个人数据的跨境传输没有任何限制，这也意味着低收入国家更容易沦为数字殖民地。“文泰来”联盟就是寡头垄断在数字时代的具体表现。数字寡头们对其技术的持续研发和产品的不断优化构成了行业较高的进入壁垒，并筑起了高高的生态壁垒，再加上市场集中度高，潜在的和新进入的企业难以撼动原有市场格局，数字寡头成为数字信息产业的霸主。数字技术的发展创造出新的“稀缺的”以及利润率高的产品，减少了对活劳动的需求，以往社会劳动的成果以数字垄断资本的形式表现出来，人类的一般智力表现为数字垄断资本的力量。

3. The Accumulation Mechanism of Digital Imperialism

3．数字帝国主义的积累机制

Luxemburg argued that when the accumulation process of capitalist countries encounters the limits of the domestic market, non-capitalist regions are incorporated into the global capitalist economy, thereby allowing the production and realization of surplus value to continue. Therefore, accumulation is not merely an internal relationship between various sectors of the capitalist economy; it is primarily a "transaction between the capitalist mode of production and non-capitalist modes of production." [12]12 Rosa Luxemburg, *The Accumulation of Capital* (1913), Section 3, Chapter 26. If financial monopoly capital was the core element in the accumulation process of imperialism in the early 20th century, then digital monopoly capital is the core element in the accumulation process of contemporary digital imperialism. Transnational digital oligopoly companies, by erecting digital ecological barriers, form a digital oligopoly alliance that carves up the global industrial chain, gradually playing a decisive role in global economic, cultural, and political life. Data extraction, digital enclosure, capital fusion, and digital output constitute the accumulation mechanism of digital imperialism.

卢森堡认为，当资本主义国家的积累过程遇到国内市场的限制时，非资本主义地区就会被资本主义全球经济纳入其中，从而使剩余价值的生产和实现得以继续。因此，积累不仅仅是资本主义经济各部门之间的内部关系，它主要是“资本主义生产形态与非资本主义生产形态之间的交易”。如果说金融垄断资本是20世纪初帝国主义积累过程中的核心要素，那么数字垄断资本就是当代数字帝国主义积累过程中的核心要素，跨国数字寡头公司通过筑起数字生态壁垒形成了瓜分全球产业链的数字寡头同盟，逐渐在全球经济、文化和政治生活中发挥决定性的作用。数据榨取、数字圈地、资本融合和数字输出是数字帝国主义的积累机制。

First, digital platforms become a new organizational form to achieve maximum data extraction. Platforms position their services as a way to transform idle resources into maximum productive assets and release the potential value of existing space. For example, Airbnb turns idle bedrooms into productive assets that generate rent, while Uber turns empty car seats into productive assets that generate fares. Digital platforms carry out "data extraction" on global platform users who act as "prosumers." The key technology for "data extraction" is software licensing, which grants software providers data ownership rights over an increasing number of physical objects used in our daily lives.

首先，数字平台成为新的组织形式以实现最大程度的数据榨取。平台将其服务定位为将闲置资源转化为最大生产性资产并释放现有空间潜在价值的一种方式。例如，爱彼迎将闲置的卧室变成了产生租金的生产性资产，而优步将空置的汽车座椅变成了产生票价的生产性资产。数字平台对作为“产消者”的全球平台用户进行了“数据榨取”。进行“数据榨取”的关键技术是软件许可，它使得软件提供者拥有了来自我们日常生活中使用的越来越多的实物的数据所有权。

Second, digital oligarchs achieve "digital enclosure" by constructing digital ecosystems. To seize and possess massive amounts of data, digital oligarchs use digital technology to build digital ecosystems by controlling software, hardware, and network connections, ensuring their dominant position in setting international rules for digital space. Through digital enclosure, they collect data and information on human production and life to achieve predatory possession of data and thus accumulate profits. Digital oligarchs achieve digital enclosure by controlling the channels of digital space, excluding other competitors from possessing data and digital space. With the help of digitalized software, hardware, and network connection systems, digital oligarchs do not even need to own land or physical assets to establish new mechanisms for extracting surplus value.

其次，数字寡头通过构建数字生态来实现“数字圈地”。为了攫取和占有海量数据，数字寡头利用数字技术通过控制软件、控制硬件和控制网络连接等方式构建数字生态圈，以确保自己在数字空间国际规则制定中占据主导地位，通过数字圈地来收集人类生产生活的数据信息，以实现对数据的剥夺性占有从而积累利润。数字寡头通过控制数字空间的通道来实现数字圈地，排斥其他竞争者对数据及数字空间进行占有。借助于数字化的软件、硬件和网络连接系统，数字寡头甚至不需要拥有土地或实物资产就可以建立新的剩余价值获取机制。

Then, in the process of digital industrialization and industrial digitalization, digital monopoly capital not only acquires an independent form but also gradually penetrates traditional forms of capital such as industrial capital and financial capital. The super-strong penetrative power of digital technology can connect seemingly unrelated industries, linking upstream and downstream through digital platforms to achieve efficient and convenient collaboration between industries. The trend toward de-bordering between the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries becomes more pronounced, and industries begin to develop in an intertwined manner under the integration of digital technology. For example, when old and new representatives of capital forms, such as hotels and platforms (e.g., Airbnb), come into direct contact, we can see the fusion of two types of capital: real estate capital investing in property and digital capital investing in digital platforms combine. With the emergence of internet finance, digital capitalists begin to invest capital in the production sphere alongside financial capitalists and industrial capitalists and share in the profits. Many platforms even bypass financial institutions to develop independent financial instruments. At the same time, data monetization and digital currencies are also steadily advancing in the United States. Data monetization is the act of taking action to generate measurable economic benefits from an organization's data. Companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Google have already monetized their data and used it to drive the growth of trillion-dollar businesses. The U.S. Congress passed the COVID-19 relief stimulus bill in March 2020, which for the first time proposed a development plan for a U.S. central bank digital currency, the digital dollar. The expansion of cryptocurrencies further strengthens the U.S. central bank's motivation to issue a digital currency to defend monetary sovereignty. Digital oligarchs will combine the forces of industrial capital and financial capital, striving to become the dominant force among all forms of capital by virtue of their technological advantages. The global capital operation chain is gradually being integrated by digital monopoly capital, and digital oligarchs, relying on their monopoly position, occupy a dominant position in the division of surplus value.

然后，在数字产业化和产业数字化的过程中，数字垄断资本不仅取得了独立的形态，而且逐渐向产业资本和金融资本等传统资本形态渗透。数字技术的超强渗透力可以使原本看似无关的行业连接在一起，通过数字平台打通上下游，使各行业之间实现高效便利的协作，第一、二、三产业间的去边界化趋势更加明显，产业之间开始在数字技术的整合下交织发展。例如，当资本样态的新老代表如酒店和平台（如爱彼迎）直接接触时，我们可以看到两种类型的资本的融合，即投资地产的房地产资本和投资数字平台的数字资本结合在一起了。随着互联网金融的出现，数字资本家开始与金融资本家、产业资本家一起向生产领域投入资本并瓜分利润，很多平台甚至绕过金融机构开发独立的金融工具。与此同时，数据的货币化和数字货币也正在美国稳步推进。数据货币化是采取行动从组织的数据中产生可衡量的经济利益。亚马逊、脸书和谷歌等公司已经将他们的数据货币化，并用它来推动万亿美元业务的增长。美国国会于2020年3月通过了新冠疫情纾困刺激法案，该法案第一次提出关于美国中央银行数字货币即数字美元的发展计划。加密货币的扩张进一步强化了美国中央银行发行数字货币以捍卫货币主权的动机。数字寡头将联合产业资本和金融资本的力量，力争凭借其技术优势成为所有资本样态中的主导者。全球资本运作链逐渐被数字垄断资本整合，数字寡头凭借其垄断地位在剩余价值分割中占据优势地位。

Finally, digital oligarchs achieve controlled possession of global digital space through digital output. Through the digital platforms they control, digital oligarchs can conveniently export physical and digital commodities, thereby realizing global transactions on a larger scale that break through the constraints of time and space. The unequal exchange between the North and the South is further deepened in digital form. In 2021, the share of digital service exports from developed economies in the world reached 77.8%, services trade 72.8%, and goods trade 55.6%. Digital oligarchs participate in global industrial chains by virtue of their digital resources, using their intellectual property rights and data ownership to control global modes of production. The tentacles of digital output have gradually extended from the economic sphere to infiltrate the cultural and political spheres, attempting to construct a new global social order. Just as traditional imperialism raised slogans such as “freedom” and “democracy,” digital imperialism trumpets slogans like “the Internet of Everything” and “personalized customization,” which are nothing but slogans masking its predatory accumulation. The advantages of digital technology enable digital oligarchs to control economic, political, cultural, social, and military activities affected by digital technology.

最后，数字寡头通过数字输出实现对全球数字空间的控制式占有。数字寡头通过其掌控的数字平台可以进行便利的实物商品和数字商品输出，从而实现更大规模的、突破了时间和空间限制的全球交易，南北之间的不平等交换以数字化的方式进一步加深。2021年发达经济体数字服务出口在世界中的占比达到77.8%，服务贸易达到72.8%，货物贸易达55.6%。数字寡头凭借其数字资源参与全球产业链，利用其知识产权和数据所有权控制全球生产方式。数字输出的触角逐渐从经济领域扩展到并渗入文化和政治领域，试图构建起一种新的全球社会秩序。就像传统帝国主义提出的“自由”“民主”等口号一样，数字帝国主义宣扬的是“万物互联”“个性化定制”等口号，无非是掩饰其剥夺性积累的口号。数字技术优势使数字寡头能够控制受数字技术影响的经济活动、政治活动、文化活动、社会活动和军事活动。

4. Digital Hegemony Is the Latest Manifestation of Imperialism

4．数字霸权是帝国主义的最新表现形式

Market differences are, to a certain extent, caused by artificial shortages resulting from military force or temporary shortages arising from complex production processes. Core countries sell goods that are relatively less “scarce” to peripheral countries where they are more “scarce,” and profits flow from peripheral countries to core countries. This unequal exchange is a concealed process, and the widespread application of digital technology further deepens this concealment. In the geographical structure of this economic movement, commodity prices and profits always appear to be dominated by non-human economic forces. Digital technological change creates new “scarcities” and digital products with higher profit margins. The development of digital technology reduces the cost of integrating peripheral regions into the world capitalist system.

市场差异在一定程度上是由于军事力量所引起的人为短缺或复杂生产过程的暂时短缺所造成的。中心国把较不“短缺”的货物销售给较“短缺”的外围国，利润从外围国流向中心国。这种不平等交换是一个隐蔽的过程，数字技术的广泛应用进一步加深了这种隐蔽性。在这种经济运动的地理结构中，商品价格和利润似乎总是通过非人为的经济力量来主导的。数字技术变革创造出新的“稀缺”以及具有更高利润率的数字产品，数字技术的发展降低了把远离中心的地区整合进世界资本主义体系的成本。

The capital accumulation of core countries provides a strong economic base and state apparatus for their hegemony, an important function of which is to maintain the relatively weak state of peripheral countries. In this way, core countries can exert pressure on peripheral countries, forcing them to lower their position in the commodity chain hierarchy. The geographical orientation of commodity chains and profit flows shows a trend of moving from the periphery to the center within the global capitalist economic system. At the beginning of this process, geographical differences in commodity chains are relatively small, and the degree of regional specialization is also relatively limited. However, these differences are strengthened and fixed within the global capitalist system with the accumulation of capital and the development of technology. A crucial point in this process is the intervention of violence in price determination within the commodity chain. Of course, in each individual transaction, it is not necessary to rely on the vast violent apparatus of the core country to ensure the smooth progress of unequal exchange. Whether in the era of industrial imperialism, financial imperialism, or digital imperialism, whenever the unequal exchange between core and periphery faces significant challenges, the violent apparatus of imperialist countries begins to function. U.S. digital monopoly capital, by virtue of its digital technology advantages, exercises economic, social, and political control over other countries or regions. Large U.S. digital technology companies establish their digital ecosystems and launch a “digital enclosure movement” through hardware and software equipment and network connection systems, through data possession and digital platforms. Although they have not established colonies through violent conquest, the purpose of their research and development of digital technology remains the same as that of hegemonic countries in the era of industrial imperialism: to obtain profits and engage in plunder, only now achieving this goal through more concealed technological forms.

中心国的资本积累为其霸权提供了强大的经济基础和国家机器，其重要职能就在于维持外围国相对软弱的状态。这样，中心国就能向外围国施加压力，迫使这些国家降低其在商品链等级中的地位。商品链和利润流向的地理方位呈现出从全球资本主义经济体系中的外围向中心移动的态势。在这一过程开始时，商品链的地理差别还比较小，地域专业化程度也相对有限。但是，这些差别会在全球资本主义体系中随着资本的积累和技术的发展而强化和固定下来。在这个过程中至关重要的一点是暴力介入了商品链中的价格决定。当然，在每一次单独的交易中，没有必要借助中心国庞大的暴力机器来确保不平等交换的顺利进行。无论是在工业帝国主义时代、金融帝国主义时代还是在数字帝国主义时代，只要中心-外围之间的不平等交换受到重大挑战，帝国主义国家的暴力机器就会开始发挥作用。美国的数字垄断资本凭借其数字技术优势对其他国家或地区进行经济、社会和政治等方面控制。美国的大型数字技术公司通过软硬件设备和网络连接系统、通过数据占有和数字平台建立其数字生态系统并展开“数字圈地运动”。虽然它们并未通过暴力征服来建立殖民地，但它们研发数字技术的目的仍然和工业帝国主义时代的霸权国家一样，是为了获取利润和进行掠夺，只不过是采取了更加隐蔽的技术形式来实现这一目的。

Digital hegemony, as a specific form of technological hegemony, is the latest manifestation of imperialism, the embodiment of capital power and imperial power in the digital age. The application and rise of digital technology have changed the forms of global power, but what remains unchanged is the predatory nature of imperialism. The United States holds an overwhelming position and absolute advantage in digital technology and investment fields, making digital hegemony the latest manifestation of imperialism. No matter how the specific manifestations of imperialism change, achieving predatory possession of global surplus value has always been its unchanging purpose, and technological progress provides ever-renewed advanced tools for the realization of this purpose. Marx believed that the fundamental contradiction of capitalism is the contradiction between the socialization of production and the capitalist private ownership of the means of production. The digitization of the means of labor widens the gap between labor income and capital income. The global digital divide widens the income gap between the North and the South. In the era of digital imperialism, the purchasing power of laborers has not changed significantly with the improvement of productivity levels, and the exploitation of digital laborers by digital monopoly capital has become more concealed. Digital imperialism, as a new manifestation of imperialism, is merely a “new plan” by the capitalist world attempting to use digital technology to resolve its own fundamental contradictions, but it ultimately cannot overcome the basic contradictions of capitalism.

数字霸权作为技术霸权的一种具体形式，是帝国主义的最新表现形式，是数字时代资本权力和帝国权力的体现。数字技术的应用和兴起改变了全球权力的表现形式，不变的是帝国主义的掠夺本性。美国在数字科技和投资领域占据压倒性地位和绝对优势，数字霸权成为帝国主义的最新表现形式。无论帝国主义的具体表现形式出现了怎样的变化，实现对全球剩余价值的掠夺性占有始终是其不变的目的，而技术进步为这一目的的实现提供不断更新的先进工具。马克思认为，资本主义的基本矛盾是生产社会化与生产资料的资本主义私有制之间的矛盾。劳动资料的数字化使劳动收入与资本收入的差距扩大。全球数字鸿沟使南北之间的收入差距扩大，数字帝国主义时代劳动者的购买力并未随着生产力水平的提升而发生显著变化，数字垄断资本对数字劳工的剥削也更加隐蔽化。作为帝国主义新的表现形式的数字帝国主义，不过是资本主义世界试图利用数字技术解决其自身基本矛盾的“新方案”，但终究无法克服资本主义的基本矛盾。

V. Conclusion: Accelerating the Construction of a Community with a Shared Future in Digital Space

五、结语：加快构建全球数字空间命运共同体

Data is a typical “renewable resource” that can only generate more and greater value through continuous use. The repeated use of data does not lead to the consumption of its own resources or the depreciation of its value; on the contrary, it is conducive to the iterative upgrading and real-time updating of data. Therefore, being utilized to the maximum extent and with high frequency is the essential requirement of data resources, and building a community with a shared future in digital space is the best way to achieve this requirement. A secure, stable, and prosperous digital space is of increasingly significant importance to the peace and development of a country and even the world. Countries around the world should actively promote the improvement of international rules for digital space, create forms of digital ecological cooperation, share the fruits of digital development, and accelerate the construction of a community with a shared future in digital space. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: “Maintaining cybersecurity should not have double standards; it cannot be that one country is secure while other countries are insecure, or that part of the world is secure while another part is insecure. Still less should one seek so-called absolute security at the expense of the security of others.” [13]13 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the Second World Internet Conference,” December 16, 2015. We should “let more countries and people board the express train of the information age and share the fruits of Internet development.” [14]14 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the Opening Ceremony of the First China International Import Expo,” November 5, 2018. We must take enhancing people’s well-being and realizing the comprehensive development of individuals as the starting point and ultimate goal, improve the fairness, effectiveness, and inclusiveness of global development, vigorously promote digital ecological cooperation, and ensure that the fruits of digital development better benefit the people of all countries.

数据是典型的只有不断使用才能衍生出更多、更大价值的“再生资源”。数据的反复利用不会导致自身资源的消耗或价值的贬损，反而有利于数据的迭代升级与即时更新，所以被最大限度、高频次地使用，才是数据资源的本质要求，而构建数字空间命运共同体是实现这一要求的最佳途径。一个安全、稳定、繁荣的数字空间，对一国乃至世界和平与发展具有越来越重要的意义。世界各国应积极推动完善数字空间国际规则，打造数字生态合作形态，共享数字化发展成果，加快构建数字空间命运共同体。习近平总书记强调：“维护网络安全不应有双重标准，不能一个国家安全而其他国家不安全，一部分国家安全而另一部分国家不安全，更不能以牺牲别国安全谋求自身所谓绝对安全”，要“让更多国家和人民搭乘信息时代的快车、共享互联网发展成果”。要将增进人民福祉、实现人的全面发展作为出发点和落脚点，提升全球发展的公平性、有效性和包容性，大力推进数字生态合作，让数字化发展成果更好地造福各国人民。

On April 19, 2016, at the Symposium on Cybersecurity and Informatization, General Secretary Xi Jinping had already pointed out: “Cybersecurity is relative, not absolute. There is no absolute security. We must ensure security based on our basic national conditions, avoiding the pursuit of absolute security regardless of cost. That would not only burden us heavily but might even attend to one thing and lose sight of another.” [15]15 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the Symposium on Cybersecurity and Informatization,” April 19, 2016. In September 2020, China issued the Global Initiative on Data Security, calling on all countries to follow the three principles of upholding multilateralism, balancing security and development, and adhering to fairness and justice, to accelerate the construction of a global data security governance system, strengthen comprehensive cooperation and common development among all countries in the field of the digital economy, and balance the relationship between technological progress, economic development, and the protection of national security and social public interests. The Global Initiative on Data Security emphasizes the need to view data security issues comprehensively and objectively, actively maintain the openness, security, and stability of the global supply chain for information technology products and services, and oppose the destruction of other countries’ critical infrastructure, the theft of important data, or large-scale surveillance of other countries and infringement of personal information. Just as in the real physical world, all countries are equal in digital space. Any country’s predatory possession of data, any form of data monopoly, digital technology colonization, or any disorderly competition among digital platforms should be opposed and resisted.

2016年4月19日，习近平总书记在网络安全和信息化工作座谈会上就曾经指出：“网络安全是相对的而不是绝对的。没有绝对安全，要立足基本国情保安全，避免不计成本追求绝对安全，那样不仅会背上沉重负担，甚至可能顾此失彼。”2020年9月，中国发出《全球数据安全倡议》，呼吁世界各国遵循秉持多边主义、兼顾安全发展、坚守公平正义三大原则，加快构建全球数据安全治理体系，加强世界各国在数字经济领域的全面合作与共同发展，平衡处理技术进步、经济发展与保护国家安全与社会公共利益的关系。《全球数据安全倡议》强调要全面客观地看待数据安全问题，积极维护全球信息技术产品和服务供应链的开放、安全、稳定，反对破坏他国关键基础设施、窃取重要数据或针对他国进行大规模监控、侵害个人信息。与现实的物理世界中的原则相同，数字空间中各国一律平等。任何国家对数据的剥夺性占有、任何形式的数据垄断、数字技术殖民、任何无序的数字平台竞争，都应遭到反对和抵制。

(Author’s bio: Hu Ying, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the School of Marxism, Sun Yat-sen University, Distinguished Researcher of the Guangdong Provincial Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era)

（作者简介：胡莹，中山大学马克思主义学院教授、博士生导师，广东省习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想研究中心特约研究员）

Online editor: Tongxin

网络编辑：同心