Artificial Intelligence and Authority. Unpacking China’s Tech Policy through Sage-King Governance

As China rises to become a high‐tech society and actively adopts strategic policies to embrace the Artificial Intelligence (AI) era, this paper argues that China’s bold practices in AI conform to the historical logic of state‐led technological development. China’s science and technology (S&T) policy framework has undergone three strategic paradigm shifts: military-industrial consolidation (1949–1978), market-oriented modernization (1978–2012), and comprehensive securitization (2012– present), with AI emerging as a pivotal frontier reflecting the transition from developmental statism to techno-security statecraft. This study employs the Sage-King Governance Paradigm and progressive Reductionist Framework to analyze China’s S&T policy evolution, demonstrating: (1) how China’s civilizational worldview and Sage-King tradition shape public perceptions of technological progress and legitimize strong state leadership; (2) this political-psychological culture underpins both the legitimacy and velocity of China’s AI-driven modernization; and (3) technology mediates the transition from present (A) to ideal future (A’), with the Great Union (datong) functioning as both founding myth and governance ideal. Ultimately, China’s AI trajectory is driven less by global dominance than inward-looking self-actualization. This paper advances international studies on technology politics by revealing how political-psychological logics and civilizational imaginaries-rather than material power-drive divergent national AI trajectories and shape endogenous visions of technology and statecraft.