The Evolution of Chinese Technological Standards as a Tool for Foreign Policy Legitimation of Sovereignty

This paper examines the strategic transformation of the People’s Republic of China's approach to international standardization, which has evolved from passive adaptation to Western norms to the active export of its own technical regulations. The study investigates the mechanism of using national industrial, construction, and digital standards as a “soft power” tool to strengthen state sovereignty on the international stage. Particular attention is paid to the integration of Chinese technical norms into the legal systems of partner countries within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Digital Silk Road strategy. The focus is on the process of legitimizing the Chinese technological model through large-scale infrastructure projects, the export of high-tech equipment, and the localization of the regulatory framework in developing countries in Asia and Africa, which is shaping a new architecture of global technological governance. The methodological foundation is based on a systematic analysis of regulatory documents and corporate cases of Chinese state-owned corporations (PowerChina, CRBC), as well as a comparative analysis of national and international standardization systems using content analysis of specialized industry publications. The scientific novelty of the research lies in identifying a hybrid strategy for the internationalization of Chinese standards, which combines adaptation to local conditions with the institutional entrenchment of Chinese norms as national regulations in recipient countries. It is proven that the export of standards has moved beyond the purely technical task of overcoming trade barriers and has transformed into a key element in ensuring technological sovereignty, allowing China to reshape the rules of global competition. It is concluded that the integration of Chinese standards into foreign projects creates long-term technological dependence for partners and effectively grants Beijing the authority to formulate the “technical constitution” of entire industries in developing economies. This significantly enhances the geopolitical weight of the PRC and legitimizes its sovereign ambitions in the fields of high technology and infrastructure construction.