Book description

China’s approach to digital governance has gained global influence, often evoking Orwellian ‘Big Brother’ comparisons. Governing Digital China challenges this perception, arguing that China’s approach is radically different in practice. This book explores the logic of popular corporatism, highlighting the bottom-up influences of China’s largest platform firms and its citizens. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and nationally representative surveys, the authors track governance of social media and commercial social credit ratings during both the Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping eras. Their findings reveal how Chinese tech companies such as Tencent, Sina, Baidu, and Alibaba, have become consultants and insiders to the state, thus forming a state-company partnership. Meanwhile, citizens voluntarily produce data, incentivizing platform firms to cater to their needs and motivating resistance by platforms. Daniela Stockmann and Ting Luo unveil the intricate mechanisms linking the state, platform firms, and citizens in the digital governance of authoritarian states.

Bio

Daniela Stockmann is Director of the Centre for Digital Governance and Professor of Digital Governance at the Hertie School. Her current research focuses on the interaction between government, platform firms, and citizens in the area of social media governance. She studies these interactions both in China and in Europe.

Dr. Ting Luo is an Associate Professor in Government and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Birmingham. Her research focuses on the intersection of technology and governance, with a particular emphasis on digital governance and AI governance. Her research interests include comparative politics, digital governance, authoritarian politics, and AI policy and governance.