Chinese politics of the internet: Control and anti-control

This article examines how the recent development of the Internet in China has had an impact on political control on the mainland. It argues that for China the Internet is a double‐edged sword, indispensable to economic modernisation but also confronting the authorities with unprecedented challenges. While the government has so far implemented powerful measures to control the Internet, the new media appears to be uncontrollable. As a consequence, Chinese politics has ventured into new and uncharted waters with both the state and dissident groups vying for on‐line power. With the prospect of joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO), China will find it even harder to address the challenges of the global communications revolution unilaterally, which could bring about a long‐term change in the political system

The Digital Revolution and Governance

© Xiudian Dai 2000. All rights reserved. This title was first published in 2000. This text examines the politics of the digital age, looking at topics including new industrial policies, the implications of the Internet and global governance of innovation

Politics of digital development: Informatization and governance in China

The much-debated rise of the post-war Japanese economy, described as a ‘miracle’, followed by the emergence of other Asian tigers such as South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong in the 1980s and onward, served as empirical evidence supporting the developmental state argument championed by Chalmers Johnson (1982: 3). Differing from a regulatory state, such as the US, that promotes competition and protects consumer interest through regulations and market, the developmental state industrializes and leads the industrialization drive, thus taking on developmental functions (Johnson 1982). Johnson’s developmental state theory is seen ‘as a causal argument linking interventionism with rapid economic growth’(Woo-Cumings 1999: 2). A developmental state is said to be ‘staffed by agents of change who are unified by a common purpose and technical orientation’, thus ‘able to develop and implement a program of national development’ (Chan et al. 1998: 2). The developmental state is characterised first by the absolute priority placed on economic development, second the pivotal role played by the state in coordinating government bureaucracy, and third a strong desire and usually high level of state intervention in the economy (Douglass 1994). Others are less convinced of the effectiveness of the developmental state’s interventionist approach towards indigenous innovation and its capacity to speed up technological development (Appelbaum et al. 2011). As an East Asian authoritarian state, China generally falls into the category of developmental state. Questions this raises include: does the developmental state help us understand the political economy of China’s development; and moreover, can the developmental state theory derived from East Asian, especially Japanese, experience of industrialization be extended to the information age

Towards a digital economy with Chinese characteristics?

There are two opposing views when considering economic development strategies in the digital age: some insist that the 'new economy' applies mainly to the industrialized countries and are doubtful that new information and communications technologies (ICTs) will allow developing countries to leapfrog to higher levels of development; others argue that 'jump-starting' development may not be as difficult as the pessimists think. Through a case study on Chinas 'twin-track strategy' for economic development, which involves merging industrialization and informatization, this article aims to investigate whether developing countries are able to play a significant role in shaping the digital revolution and the global 'new economy'. The evidence presented in this article suggests that China's status as a poor and developing country has not prevented its government from making effective preparations to embrace the opportunities and challenges associated with new ICTs in ways that are compatible with indigenous socioeconomic factors