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The Palgrave Handbook of Local Governance in Contemporary China pp 421–440Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Governing by the Internet: Local Governance in the Digital Age

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Abstract

In what ways has the expansion of the Internet transformed local governance in China? Through analysis of over 2000 leaked official emails from a district-level Internet propaganda office, this chapter finds that the Internet has served more as a tool to enhance control rather than to improve governance at the local level. In particular, local authorities have prioritized Internet commentating tasks assigned from upper levels while keeping a close watch on negative publicity of both national and local problems. Their occasional responses to online complaints are often more likely meant to satisfy superiors and pacify the public rather than to address citizens’ concerns. Such a “ruling by the Internet” strategy may bring short-term gains such as preserving social stability on the surface but may harm the regime in the long run with accumulated social dissatisfaction.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Following the suggestion of a reviewer, this study anonymizes all specific administrative units to avoid potential controversy.

  2. 2.

    This email archive was released by an anonymous blogger “Xiaolan” in 2014 and has been publicly available since then. Gary King at Harvard University and his colleagues are the first group of political scientists using these data in scholarly research (King et al. 2017). According to them, based on the size and complexity of the archive, as well as the result of reference verification by the researchers, the authenticity of the archive should not be a concern. Since the dataset is publicly available and it provides scholars with unprecedented amount of valuable information, they believe it is appropriate to use the dataset strictly for scholarly research. The authors agree with them on this point.

  3. 3.

    ZIPO, 2013 niandu Z Qu yuqing xinxi gongzuo qingkuang huibao (District Z 2013 work report on public opinion monitoring), December 20, 2013, email communication in ZIPO Dataset.

  4. 4.

    See Qiugongdao, Z Qu S Zhen H Cun: Tudi bei zhengyong cunmin yaoqiu buchang (Village H, Township S, District Z: Land expropriated with villager asking for compensation), available at: goo.gl/HZf6Gq.

  5. 5.

    ZIPO, Z Quwei Bangongshi guanyu “Z Qu S Zhen H Cun Cunmin tudi beizhengyong yoaqiu buchang zhengdikuan” de yuqing diaocha qingkuang huibao (Public opinion investigation report by District Z Party Committee Office regarding “Village H, Township S, District Z: Land expropriated with villager asking for compensation”), May 25, 2014, email communication in ZIPO Dataset.

  6. 6.

    ZIPO, Guanyu jinyibu jiaqiang quangqu wangluo xuanchuan gongzuo de yijian (Suggestions to further strengthen online propaganda work in our district), May 14, 2014, email communication in ZIPO Dataset.

  7. 7.

    ZIPO, Qu wangxuanban 2013 nian gongzuo zongjie he 2014 nian gongzuo silu (ZIPO’s work report for 2013 and work plan for 2014), December 20, 2013, email communication in ZIPO Dataset.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of International Affairs, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Rongbin Han & Linan Jia

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  1. Rongbin Han
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Correspondence to Rongbin Han .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

    Jianxing Yu

  2. Department of Political Science, and Center for US-China Policy Studies, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Sujian Guo

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Han, R., Jia, L. (2019). Governing by the Internet: Local Governance in the Digital Age. In: Yu, J., Guo, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Local Governance in Contemporary China. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2799-5_21

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