Communism Redefined: the Internet and Social Change in China

1. Communism Redefined:the Internet and Social Change in China Randy Kluver Confucius Institute Texas A&M University Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

2. Main objectives • Discuss China’s recent political changes, and the accompanying changes in media • Discuss the role of the Internet in social and political change in China • Discuss the future of the Internet in China Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

3. Recent political transition • 1980’s and 90’s-from “politics in command” to “economics in command” • Breakdown of central government control, towards regional and local officials • Dramatic changes in society and culture have made politics less important, to most Chinese • Commercialization and proliferation of media have changed the priorities of the press. • New media outlets have altered the dynamics of news production. Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

4. China’s Internet Growth Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

5. China and the Internet: 3 sets of goals • Economic goals • Cultural goals • Political goals Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

6. Economic goals of IT: • Early 80s: development of information strategies • Goal: to double IT sector by 2005 • 5% of GDP • IT as critical element of economic integration into global community • Development of E-Commerce Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

7. Cultural goals in IT • Globalization of Chinese culture • Using “new media” to advance new media agenda in global portrayal of China • Internet and “Advanced culture”-use Internet to remake Chinese culture with a technological logic Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

8. Political/Governmental goals for IT • Inversion of traditional emphasis on politics • “economics in command” • Reinforce Party line through new propaganda channels • Strengthen integrity and responsiveness of the Party (E-government) • Overcome endemic corruption • Strengthen central control • Overcome problems of geographical dispersion • Golden Projects 4. Strengthen legitimacy of CCP • CCP as guarantor of economic growth • Legitimation by technical achievement Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

9. The political control of the Internet • Direct mechanisms: • Raids on cybercafes, arrest of “Internet dissidents.” • “Kill the monkey to scare the chicken” • Indirect mechanisms, including • Great Firewall: national intranet- • Self Censorship and regulation of ISPs • Ambitious network of Chinese sites Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

10. Presumptions of political change through technology • Giddens: “the spread of democracy…has been strongly influenced in the recent period by the advance of global communications.” • De Sola Pool, “technologies of freedom” • Locke: “the Internet invents new forms of democratic activity” • Clinton, “like nailing jello to the wall.” • Albright, “It is now impossible to have a hermetically closed information system.” Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

11. The arguments for democratization • “free flow of information” argument • “inherent characteristics” argument • “Integration” argument • “Civil Society/ Social sphere” argument Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

12. What have we learned about the “democratization thesis?” • Polls show that most Chinese believe that some governmental control over the Internet is necessary, and willingly accept it. • Availability of information doesn’t change basic predisposition towards government. • Although Internet does make it easier for dissidents to spread their message, it has not prompted political movements. • “Entertainment superhighway,” instead of information superhighway. Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

13. Who is using the Internet in China? Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

14. The Internet and education Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

15. What we think they are like: What they are really like: Internet cafés in China Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

16. The Internet and E-government • China’s investment in e-government is unprecedented among developing nations, with an investment of at least one trillian yuan ($121 billion US), and is growing at about 40% per year. • E-gov has primarily been an outgrowth of advanced economies with two key purposes, improve services to citizenry and cost savings • e-government is ‘material that would aid an average citizen logging onto a governmental site,’ including information, services, and databases. Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

17. China’s goals in E-gov • to add stability and order to a chaotic governing process and social change, • to reestablish the control of the governing authorities, • Improving the quality of surveillance and data gathering, and hence policy-making, • the elimination of corruption, • the re-legitimation of the Communist Party of China. Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

18. China’s governing context • Governing “crisis” is driven by at least three key factors • Renegotiation of most aspects of social and political life, as economic growth contributes to individual changes in lifestyles and loss of governmental regulation in many areas of life. • Crisis of confidence in CCP due to corruption and ineffectiveness. • “structural disincentives for telling the truth,” • And yet, good information is absolutely critical in good governance. Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

19. The promises of e-government • China sees many of the same promises of e-government as other governments around the world. • Linking to the citizen • Providing citizens with important information • Improving governmental processes Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

20. Strengthening the government • To “strengthen the center” • To bring rationalization and normalization to citizen-gov interactions, where these are currently in disarray • ‘ e-government shall help to transform the function of government, enhance its working efficiency and supervision effectiveness, and provide better services to citizens so as to adapt to the changes brought about by reform and opening-up and meet up with the newly-emerging requirements of modernization’. Nat’l Informatization Steering group. • Zhu Rongji: “to transform government in terms of management systems, management values, management patterns, and management methods’ Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

21. Eliminating corruption • High profile campaigns to eliminate corruption have been notoriously ineffective in eliminating a culture of corruption. • Direct strategies of establishing “reporting corruption” abilities via egov. • Indirect strategy is perhaps more effective, in that, it minimizes possibility of lower level deception. • Golden tax project as an example of eliminating corruption in restaurants. • Xinhua argues that cheating has declined, but is this evidence of effectiveness, or of finding ways around it? Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

22. Removing ability to distort information • Minimize the possibility of distortion of information up the hierarchy • ‘ the pace of constructing an uncorrupted, diligent, practical and efficient government . . . so as to maintain the stability of economic and social development’ Nat’l Informatization Steering group • Snellen (2003) argues that e-government dis-empowers “street level bureaucrats,” and takes over decision making powers • Golden Sea Project: to link up all information from ministries under central control, so that top decision makers have direct access to information. • Examples include taxes, customs, etc Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

23. The paradox of e-government • Using technological means to address non-technological problems. • China’s governing problems are better understood as cultural and institutional. • Using technological means to establish, rather than refine and improve, governing relations. • Thus, untested assumptions built into the system. • The architecture that has been designed gives tremendous oversight ability to the central authorities, but almost none to citizens. Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

24. Conclusions • China’s relationship to the Internet is far more positive than normally assumed. • China’s Internet accompanies widespread social changes, but does not precipitate political unrest. • China’s Internet definitely links their citizens more closely with the outside world, but doesn’t necessarily help the outside world better understand China. Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University