The Chinese politics of communication technology: utility, state building and control

This study provides an examination into the formulation and construction of information and communication technology policy in China. It traces the rise of information technology and the “informatization” drive in China’s political rhetoric, and identifies the changes and trajectory of information and communication technology in China’s overall policy scheme. It then asks and provides an explanatory account on why information and communication technology has risen as a central component of China’s modernization campaign, and through the this analysis, discusses what the rise of information technology informs us about Chinese political culture, practice and institutional framework. The research finds that unlike in western states, in China, the state takes a central role in deploying and diffusing communication technologies. In this process, the state embedded its values and goals into the design of an information society, and into how a specific form of communication technology should be utilized and managed. In this process, the state has made its transition from bureaucratic and ideological control to a form of “soft control” that rests on scientism, professionalism and system-based rules. The utopian vision of an “information society”, the nationalist pride in China’s technology achievement, and the shared experience of cohesion and unity enabled by information and communication technology contribute to the formation of a collective national identity, in which boosts political legitimacy, and defuses the conflicts and tensions that arise from rapid economic development and socio-structural changes. Adding to the current body of research on communication technology and its impact on China, this research shifts the focus from the effect of technology, to the meaning of it. And rather than viewing communication technology as a “tool” for the ruling party to propagate its dominant agenda and directives, this study uses technology as an analytical vehicle and medium to examine the larger political system that gives meaning and significance to the behavior of its people and the organization of social movements. It opens the political utilization of communication technology to critical inquiry, and broadens the discussion of technological problems (and solutions), both practical and symbolic, to China’s political and communication systems.Ph. D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Dan S