Europe–China Digital Commons Observatory 中文

Europe–China Digital Commons Observatory

Europe and China both treat open source as public infrastructure, and both depend on the same global commons. This independent observatory maps what each side does and where they complement each other. Our aim is non-competitive cooperation that makes digital commons stronger for everyone.

v0.1 · work in progress · November 2026

Why now

Two new strategies were adopted in the same season, and no one has yet read them side by side.

Europe

The EU Open Source Strategy (June 2026). The Digital Commons EDIC adopted its 2026–2027 Implementation Strategy on 16 October 2026: Connect, Deploy, Maintain. Sovereignty is defined as the ability to understand, adapt, deploy, support and replace critical capabilities.

China

MIIT's AI + Software plan (September 2026) and new open-source plans in Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangdong and Chongqing. A Shanghai declaration in September 2026 used the language of digital commons (数字公地).

The shared ground

Linux, RISC-V, Matrix, Apache projects and open licences: the global upstream that both blocs depend on and neither can secure alone. Caring for it jointly reduces dependency on both sides.

Strengths that are not used today

Assets that already exist on both sides but are not connected. Each is backed by the sources in the catalogue and our research notes.

1 · Mirror-image funding

Europe funds the maintenance of what exists (Sovereign Tech Agency, EU-STF Pilot). China funds creation and adoption (regional grants, adoption subsidies, venture funds). Each side has what the other lacks, but they never compare notes.

2 · A precedent that already works

Eclipse Oniro and OpenHarmony have been "sister projects" since 2021: separate governance, coordinated technology and a shared licence translation. It is the most concrete foundation-level model, yet it is still treated only as a risk.

3 · Licences that already interoperate

Mulan PSL v2 is OSI-approved, and the Eclipse Public License has an agreed Chinese translation. The legal plumbing for shared code exists.

4 · Two annual evidence reports

The DC-EDIC State of Digital Commons and KAIYUANSHE's China Open Source Report cover the same subject from two sides and never cite each other.

5 · Reuse by law vs reuse by incentive

Europe has legal reuse obligations and public catalogues (for example Italy's art. 69 and publiccode.yml). China has strong demand-side incentives and developer scale. Each is a missing piece of the other's model.

6 · A non-zero-sum definition of sovereignty

When sovereignty means the ability to replace a component, open standards and conformance tests serve both sides at once. One side's autonomy does not reduce the other's.

7 · People who already collaborate

Chinese and European developers already work together daily in the Linux kernel, the Apache Software Foundation, RISC-V International and Eclipse, with no government involved. That collaboration is real but invisible.

Priorities

Small, evidence-first steps that need no new treaty and no shared sensitive infrastructure.

Policy

  • Frame cooperation as resilience of the global open-source upstream, not as a bilateral technology partnership.
  • Each side funds maintenance of the same critical components through its own instruments ("parallel funding, shared upstream"). No money crosses borders.
  • Shared conformance tests for open standards (document formats, Matrix, SBOM); implementations stay separate.

Governance

  • A bilingual glossary: digital commons / 数字公地, open source vs open weights, steward, maintainer, sovereignty / autonomy.
  • A shared rubric for project health: licence, contributor rights, fork capability, release authority, security process.
  • Anti-capture safeguards and the right to publish critical findings, written in from the start.

Advocacy & outreach

  • Cross-review of the two annual reports, each with a "view from the other side" chapter.
  • Maintainer tracks at existing conferences (FOSDEM, COSCon, Open Source Summit, OSPO events).
  • Evidence offered to the EU–China High-Level Digital Dialogue and to the DC-EDIC State of Digital Commons.

Catalogue of successful actions

Public-sector reuse, funding and governance cases from both sides, plus collaboration that already exists. Each case links its sources and shows whether it is verified. The catalogue is open: propose a case, and we verify it before publishing.

Governance & funding

Two questions: how Europe and China govern and finance digital commons, and how this observatory itself is governed and financed.

How the two sides compare

  • Europe: a consortium of member states (DC-EDIC); evidence-gated pilots; maintenance financing through the Sovereign Tech Agency; open, non-discriminatory access.
  • China: national foundations (OpenAtom), national platforms (AtomGit), regional plans with targets, grants, adoption subsidies and venture funds. These are announced envelopes; disbursement is still to be verified.
  • Gap on both sides: stable funding for existing upstream maintainers, wherever they live.

Our charter (draft)

  • Independent: not affiliated with the DC-EDIC, the European Commission or any government.
  • Every claim is labelled as fact, commitment, inference or proposal, with archived sources.
  • We publish negative findings. No funder has editorial review or veto.
  • A balanced advisory board: Europe and China; academia, industry and community.

Our funding policy (draft)

  • We seek plural support from European and Chinese sources: foundations, public research programmes, open-source foundations and companies.
  • No single funder above about 30%. All funders and amounts are listed publicly.
  • Legal screening (sanctions, entity lists) before accepting any contribution.

Roadmap

A call to institutions

Digital commons are global infrastructure. No single bloc can secure them alone. We call on public institutions to build strategic and operational bridges for non-competitive cooperation on the commons both sides depend on.

To European institutions

  • European Commission and the DC-EDIC: include international evidence, Chinese included, in the State of Digital Commons and in critical-dependency assessments.
  • Put the resilience of the global open-source upstream on the agenda of the EU–China High-Level Digital Dialogue.
  • Let maintenance funding consider globally shared components, wherever their maintainers live.

To Chinese institutions

  • MIIT, OpenAtom and provincial governments: publish disbursement-level data on open-source funding, so it can be compared with European instruments.
  • Extend funding from incubation to the long-term maintenance of shared upstream components.
  • Open the governance of foundation projects to international contributors, building on the Eclipse–OpenAtom model.

To national and provincial governments

  • Pair comparable programmes, such as European national OSPOs with Chinese provincial open-source plans, for evidence exchange.
  • Share public-sector reuse practice: Europe's reuse-by-law and catalogues; China's demand-side incentives.
  • Support joint conformance tests on open standards; implementations stay separate and replaceable.

Open call for collaboration

This observatory is meant as a starting point toward digital commons that work globally. We are looking for:

Academics

Co-authors and reviewers for the working paper; datasets on funding, adoption and project health; students who read Chinese or European sources.

Diplomats & policy-makers

Informal exchange on what is feasible, and channels to the High-Level Digital Dialogue and to national OSPOs.

Industry

Real cases of cross-border reuse, maintenance needs, and support for the observatory under our funding policy.

Ecosystem builders

Foundations, communities and maintainers who already work across both sides. Your story belongs in the catalogue.

Explore the research

Contact

Fabio Pietrosanti, founder and editor.

fabio.pietrosanti.it LinkedIn X @fpietrosanti GitHub contact@eu-china-commons.eu