Reputation Collectives: How International Industry Associations Influence China's Safety Standards in High-Risk Technologies

Reputation Collectives: How International Industry Associations Influence China’s Safety Standards in High-Risk Technologies

Emerging economies face significant challenges in managing safety risks from powerful technological systems. Indeed, many analysts have identified China as the most likely source of a major accident linked to emerging technologies. Yet, contrary to these expectations, China has achieved a remarkable safety record in certain technological domains, such as civil aviation and nuclear power. How? We theorize that, for industries in which one firm's accident damages the reputation of all others, international industry associations can contribute to improved safety standards in emerging economies. When firms share a collective reputation, industry associations exert positive peer pressure by subsidizing laggards’ efforts to raise their safety standards and protecting members from public naming and shaming. This departs from existing theories of international private regulation on certification clubs that set strict quality, safety, and environmental standards to deny association benefits to non-members. To demonstrate differences between these two mechanisms, we examine interactions between international industry associations and Chinese firms in three high-risk technological domains: nuclear power, civil aviation, and chemicals. Our findings have implications for scholars interested in the interdependencies between international public regulation and private regulation as well as policymakers trying to manage the safety risks of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.

Jeffrey Ding is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at George Washington University. Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation, sponsored by Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. He researches great power competition and cooperation in emerging technologies, the political economy of innovation, and China's scientific and technological capabilities. His book, Technology and the Rise of Great Powers (Princeton University Press, 2024), investigates how past technological revolutions influenced the rise and fall of great powers, with implications for U.S.-China competition in emerging technologies like AI. Other work has been published or is forthcoming in European Journal of International Relations, European Journal of International Security, Foreign Affairs, International Studies Quarterly, Review of International Political Economy, and Security Studies, and his research has been cited in The Washington Post, The Financial Times, and other outlets.

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Lecture Series: AI Governance in China

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming societies, economies, and political systems worldwide, and China is emerging as a central actor in shaping the governance of these technologies. This lecture series explores the multiple dimensions of AI governance in China, from state regulation and the role of AI in public administration to societal engagement with AI technologies.

Join us online and in person for six lectures featuring leading scholars, including: Jinghan Zeng (City University of Hong Kong), Hui Zhou and Genia Kostka (Freie Universität Berlin) and Angela Huyue Zhang (USC Gould School of Law), Eddie Yang (Purdue University), David Yang (Harvard University) and Jeffrey Ding (George Washington University).

Hosted by the Berlin Contemporary China Network (BCCN), the China Competence Training Center (CCTC) and SCRIPTS, the 2025/26 winter term lecture series is conceptualized by Prof. Dr. Genia Kostka and Anton Bogs from Freie Universität Berlin.