The Chinese government has already jumped on the bandwagon of the metaverse, that immersive digital world that companies like Meta are developing. But the country’s leaders do not intend to compete with the US for primacy in this new race: they want to build a national metaverse tailored to the goals of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It is a vision that allows the private sector to develop key technology for the Asian giant, but also maintains what the government euphemistically calls “social peace.”

The wheels of the state machinery are already turning. In 2021, more than 10,000 metaverse-related trademarks were registered in China, compared to less than 1,000 in 2020 and 2019. So far in 2022, 16,000 trademark applications have been filed. China’s tech giants: Tencent, Alibaba…