Prof Jiang proposed the concept of “authoritarian deliberation” in last year’s CIRC and the concept has received much attention so far. We’d like to hear about her most recent research along this line.
Jiang worked for CCTV, China Radio International etc. The practical experience helped her to think about Chinese mass media. The question she tries to answer is “what is Chinese Internet”. Framings: 1. self-containing system that is censored by govn, which leads to protests against the censorship; 2. increasingly talk about civil society and public sphere, which are likely to emerge. She thinks Chinese internet may be sth in between. A better frame is to look at it as a different type of spaces.
She presents stats about Chinese Internet. 298 million internet users, 2/3 under 30, more than half of users are bloggers, 117 million mobile phone internet users, 700 mobile phone users.
Myths about censorship: great firewall is brought down then china will be free; under-represented internet population; Chinese leadership equals dictatorship.
“we Chinese need to be controlled?” – a case. Jackie Chen, the kung fu star, made a public quote that we Chinese need to be controlled. he blamed media for mis-quote. netizens demand him to be sent to north korea. Han Han, a famous blogger, criticized that he can read the emperor’s mind from jackie.
How does the Chinese government control people? Modern authoritarianism is deliberative in China. Patriotism + legitimacy is based on performance.
spaces of authoritarian deliberation (original from baogang he from Australia): 1 central propaganda spaces – gov websites, disclosure of info, online comm channels, law and enforcement, letters and visits (complaints against local govs), gov sponsored forums – gov is aware of the need to listen to ppl and guide public opinion. Deng Yujiao event.
2. gov-regulated commercial spaces – sina.com, tudou.com, tencent sms service, tianya forum. different techs of controlling. search engine tech to censor. fifty-cents party. fatianxia.com bullog.com closed down and reopened overseas. Liu Xiaoyuan’s blog.
3. Emergent civic space – Jet Lee’s fund-raising foundations. civic organizations. think tank groups such as transition institute and constitution initiatives. gov controls this space by registration regulation. bloggers need to register if you need ur own domain name. civic issues online. commercial sites such as xiaonei.com afford civic activities too.
international deliberative spaces – gov PR sites, immigrants sites such as mitbbs.com, EastSouthWestNorth.com, danwei.com, global voices and so on. translating foreign content into Chinese. economics magazine and desperate housewives for example.
future research – should we engage reform-minded bureaucrats? how to grow emergent civil society? patterns of online info sharing, civic discourse, and collective action? how to engage the young ppl who are the majority of internet users? what is the implication for authoritarian deliberation?
I have a friend Howard Guo who has a blog on the People’s Daily (the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)) in which he often critiques the Chinese communist party. What is interesting is that Howard was one of the leaders of the Tenniman Square Democracy movement and is watched closely every time he goes to China. Howard says that he often gets 100,000 hits a day on his blog and that the leaders of the CCP read his blog. He says he never criticizes the CCP on the Dalai Lama, but is often critical on other things.
People in the West don’t realize the amount of debate that goes on in the Chinese blogs. Certain things are taboo, but other criticism and debate goes. The blogs, particularly on the Peoples Daily are an important part of the CCP’s decision making process.