Abstract
Russia and China have both witnessed explosive growth in the use of the Internet, with Russia representing the fastest-growing Internet and social media market in Europe, and China near the top worldwide. In this chapter we consider the role of social networking tools in the creation of an online public sphere and as a means of initiating mass protests and uprisings in the authoritarian regimes of China and Russia. We argue that not only have these repressive regimes survived the advancement of the Internet and social media, but both states have shown skill in bending the technology to their own interests. Both cases help us understand how the potential democratising power of the social media is limited in autocratic states that manage to mute, constrain and control online debate, and even use it to promote their own agendas.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
See http://asozd2.duma.gov.ru/main.nsf/(SpravkaNew)?OpenAgent&RN=428884-6&02 (accessed 8 December 2014)
- 2.
See http://www.russiansearchtips.com/2012/01/russia-becomes-the-biggest-online-market-in-europe (accessed 29 December 2014)
- 3.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Soviet government was subject to criticism from opposition activists who were kept as political prisoners in camps in the Perm region.
- 4.
In 1966 Mao launched the ‘Cultural Revolution’, aiming to purge the country of ‘impure’ elements and revive the revolutionary spirit. However, 1.5 million people died, and much of the country’s cultural heritage was destroyed.
- 5.
The Tiananmen Square protests of spring 1989 were student-led demonstrations in Beijing, and received broad support from city residents but were forcibly suppressed by Chinese leaders, who ordered the military to enforce martial law in the country’s capital, resulting in many casualties among unarmed civilians.
- 6.
Numerous human rights groups have claimed that human rights issues in China have been mishandled, including the death penalty, the one-child policy, the dispute over the political and legal status of Tibet and the lack of freedom of the press in mainland China.
Bibliography
BBC News: China. 2014. China Censors Hong Kong Protest Posts on Social Media, September 29. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-29411270 (accessed January 2, 2015)
Cicero Group. 2014. Social Media in China, May. http://www.cicero-group.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Social-Media-in-China-V4.pdf (accessed December 29, 2014)
CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Centre). 2014. Statistical Report on Internet Development in China. January. http://www1.cnnic.cn/IDR/ReportDownloads/201404/U020140417607531610855.pdf (accessed December 29, 2014)
Curran J., and Myung-Jin Park. 2000. De-Westernizing Media Studies. London: Routledge.
Diebert R.J. et al. 2010. Access Controlled: The Shaping of Power, Rights, and Rule in Cyberspace. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Endeshaw A. 2004. “Internet Regulation in China: The Never-Ending Cat and Mouse Game”. Information & Communication Technology Law 13(1): 41–57.
Eremenko, A. 2014. “Russia Speeds Up Law to Ban Most Foreign Web Services”. The Moscow Times, September 25. http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russia-speeds-up-law-to-ban-most-foreign-web-services/507820.html (accessed December 29, 2014).
Esarey A. 2005. “Cornering the Market: State Strategies for Controlling China’s Commercial Media”. Asian Perspective 29(4): 37–83.
Fossato F., J. Lloyd, and A. Verkhovsky. 2008. The Web that Failed: How Opposition Politics and Independent Institutions are Failing on the Internet in Russia. Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
Gibbs J. 1999. Gorbachev’s Glasnost: The Soviet Media in the First Phase of Perestroika. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press.
Goodwin J. 1993. Eisenstein, Cinema History. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois.
Hallin D.C., and P. Mancini. 2004. Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ho V., and A. Fung. 2015. “Cultural Policy, Chinese National Identity and Globalization”. In Global Media and National Policies: The Return of the State, eds. T. Flew, P. Iosifidis, and J. Steemers. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Keane M. 2006. “From Made in China to Created in China”. International Journal of Cultural Studies 9(3): 285–296.
Koshkin, P. 2014. The Kremlin Gives the Green Light to Shut Down the Internet. September 29. http://www.russia-direct.org/analysis/kremlin-gives-green-light-shut-down-internet (accessed December 29, 2014)
Lagerkvist J. 2010. After the Internet, Before Democracy: Competing Norms in Chinese Media and Society. Bern: Peter Lang AG.
Levitsky S., and L. Way. 2002. “The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism”. Journal of Democracy 13(2): 51–65.
Lonkila M. 2008. “The Internet and Anti-military Activism in Russia”. Europe-Asia Studies 60(7): 1125–1149.
Michiewicz E. 1988. Split Signals: Television and Politics in the Soviet Union. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Michiewicz E. 1997. Changing Channels: Television and the Struggle for Power in Russia. New York: Oxford University Press.
Oates S. 2013. Revolution Stalled: The Political Limits of the Internet in the Post-Soviet Sphere. New York: Oxford University Press.
Paganini, P. 2011. ‘The business of Censorship. Golden Shield Project, but not only …’ 19 November. At http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/204/cyber-crime/business-of-censorship-golden-shield-project-but-not-only.html (accessed 7 March 2016).
Partlett, W. 2012. Can Russia Keep Faking Democracy? Brookings Institution, May 22. http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/2012/05/22-russia-democracy-partlett (accessed December 22, 2014)
Price M., B. Rozumilowicz, and S.G. Verhulst. 2002. Media Reform: Democratizing the Media, Democratizing the State. London: Routledge.
Rauchfleisch A., and M.S. Schafer. 2015. “Multiple Public Spheres of Weibo: A Typology of Forms and Potentials of Online Public Spheres in China”. Information Communication & Society 18(2): 139–155.
Ramo J.C. 2004. The Beijing Consensus. London: The Foreign Policy Centre.
Shambaugh D. 2007. “China’s Propaganda System: Institutions, Processes and Efficacy”. China Journal 57: 25–58.
Shirky, C. 2012. How the Internet Will (One Day) Transform the Government, June. http://www.chinaspeakersagency.com/2014/clay-shirky-internet-will-one-day-transform-government (accessed January 12, 2015).
Shoesmith, T.M. 2014. Internet Regulation in China, Data Privacy in China: Overview, January.
Social Media Fast Facts: China. 2014. http://www.emoderation.com/social-media-fast-facts-china (accessed December 30, 2014)
Sullivan J. 2013. “China’s Weibo: Is Faster Different?”. New Media & Society 16(1): 24–37.
The Economist (2013). ‘How Does China Censors the Internet?’ 21 April.
The Economist (2014a). ‘Dreams about Russia, 15 February.
Voltmer K. 2000. “Constructing Political Reality in Russia: Izvestiya—Between Old and New Journalistic Practices”. European Journal of Communication 15(4): 469–500.
Yu Hong. 2011. “Reading the Twelfth Five-Year Plan: China’s Communication-Driven Mode of Economic Restructuring”. International Journal of Communication 5: 1045–1057.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Iosifidis, P., Wheeler, M. (2016). Russia and China: Autocratic and On-line. In: Public Spheres and Mediated Social Networks in the Western Context and Beyond. Palgrave Global Media Policy and Business. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-41030-6_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-41030-6_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-41029-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-41030-6
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)