Don’t kick my ladder: how China transduces de facto RRI in the governance of facial recognition technology

Nearly a decade after Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) entered China's science, technology, and innovation (STI) policies, this study critically examines the transduction of RRI into technology governance through the case of facial recognition technology (FRT). At the policy level, the mapping of social responsibility and ethical governance created pathways for RRI's transduction into China. At the governance level, a critical policy discourse analysis of FRT policy documents reveals the emergence of a de facto form of RRI. However, this de facto RRI sits in tension with the original vision, posing challenges such as the “problem of many hands,” the over-concentration of state authority, and limited independence of ethics review processes. These tensions demonstrate that RRI is no off-the-shelf fix for responsible technology governance and underscore the need for societal alignment to achieve RRI's objectives of societal desirability, ethical acceptability, and sustainability.