The Limited Power of the Chinese People over the Internet

[ 175 ] book review roundtable • the power of the internet in china local corruption—may only bolster the regime’s resilience and prolong its longevity. Similarly, the fact that China’s youthful nationalists or hackers have developed aggressive online strategies may only bolster the legitimacy of the central government. Could the nonstate groups be helping to accomplish objectives that the government may not be able to accomplish on its own? Is it at all possible that the mounting national discourse on the Chinese Internet would strengthen the nationalistic undercurrent within the Chinese government? Such questions remain unanswered in Yang’s book. The power of the Internet in China cannot be understood without a thorough analysis of how the Internet has modernized and empowered the country’s state institutions. Online activism does play a growing role in China’s Internet culture, but its rise must be examined in the context of an ongoing transformation of both state power and citizen-state relations. The Limited Power of the Chinese People over the Internet Juntao Wang Given that both political contention and the development of the Internet in China have become hot issues for debate in academia today, Guobin Yang’s book The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online is a very timely work. Yang explores how Chinese activists are using the Internet in the realm of political contention. This review will focus on one aspect of the phenomenon, which, although perhaps not Yang’s own focus, will interest many people: what role will the Internet play in terms of political contention and regime change in China? Driven by 30 years of incredibly rapid economic growth, China is undergoing a great transformation. In the midst of this change, including rapid development of the Internet, the political regime has remained the country’s fundamental problem. How has the development of the Internet affected Chinese politics? Some experts argue that Chinese people enjoy much more freedom today, even though such freedom is still limited and unreliable compared to democratic countries in the West. Others, pointing to juntao wang holds a PhD in Political Science from Columbia University and is a leading activist in the Chinese democracy movement. He can be reached at . [ 176 ] asia policy major human rights and government corruption cases, argue that the Chinese government is as authoritarian and oppressive as ever. Yang’s work is a good place to examine these disagreements, though these are not his focus. Yang shows that online activists in China are quite vigorous in defending their interests and in resisting state oppression. These activists have been so successful in developing new strategies, mechanisms, organizations, and projects on the Internet that political contention seems to be entering into a newstageinChina,especiallycomparedtothestudentmovementinthe1980s. The power of the Internet in the realm of political contention, Yang argues, reflects the power of people to increase social awareness of citizens’ rights, restrain government control, demand greater transparency in government, and facilitate civic action more effectively in defending their own interests. Yang believes that Chinese cyber activities are becoming a form of “unofficial democracy” and will eventually speed up the process of democratization through the process of institutionalization. I have no doubt that the Internet provides people with new means for protesting government wrongdoing. But is China experiencing the dawning of a new era of political contention, one powered by the Internet? Put differently, how powerful is the Internet in shaping political contention in China? More specifically, does the Internet change power relations between the ruler and the ruled in China, and what role can online activists be expected to play in making political change? These questions test the limits of power that Chinese citizens actually have with the Internet. In any political power structure, a specific power is always limited and balanced by other powers or factors; some such powers are institutionalized whereas others are informal. To know the effectiveness of a given power, its limits in the power structure must be known. Cases of the successful use of a power, such as of the Internet, are not sufficient for understanding the role that this power plays in political contention. We need to also look into cases in which people failed...