{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]],"date-time":"2026-04-29T09:51:39Z","timestamp":1777456299454,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":25,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,17]],"date-time":"2025-10-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1760659200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,17]],"date-time":"2025-10-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1760659200000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Big Data &amp; Society"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,12]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>How can \u201cChina\u201d serve as a productive analytical tool for understanding the relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and society? This commentary proposes a conceptual typology to answer that question. We offer four ways to use China as an analytical lens\u2014China as Mirror, China as Prototype, China as Counterpoint, and China as Global Actor. Each concept illustrates how China's particularities and global entanglements can help reframe core sociotechnical questions about AI's political economy, labor, subject formation, ideology, and global circulation. 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