The Big Data revolution has advanced beyond industry and business into public administration and policy over the past years in China. As a response to this latest development, a wave of organizational reform has been underway across the country’s local government administrations. With the establishment of hundreds of local Big Data Authorities (BDAs, 大数据治理机构) and the emergence of corresponding data-driven policy innovation, the local state aims to lay the cornerstone for the future Big Data governance where local government plays a leading and integral role. As the primary objectives, this doctoral project examines the origins, features, and functions of these newly emerged BDAs as well as their regional variation; based on the observation, it further explores and unravels the underlying trend which can be potentially coined as “digital technocracy”.