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  • Technological Empowerment: The Internet, State, and Society in China
  • Mian Rachel Wang (bio)
Technological Empowerment: The Internet, State, and Society in China. By Yongnian Zheng. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2007. Pp. 246. $50.

According to the China Internet Network Information Center, at the end of 2007 there were 156 million internet users in China. The internet is becoming increasingly accessible by means of DSL, cable modems, and mobile phones, and there is no doubt that it is playing a growing role in Chinese social life. Scholars are interested in understanding the impact of the internet on the authoritarian government, and vice versa. Technological Empowerment is an attempt to provide a framework for understanding the relationship between the state and a new technology.

Yongnian Zheng’s central argument is that the internet and the state have a fourfold symbiotic relationship: the internet empowers both the state and society because both benefit from its development; these benefits are dispersed throughout society; the internet has created a new system for conducting politics; and it has created a feedback relationship between the state and society. Zheng begins by noting that nineteenth-century political elites believed that science and technology were the keys to building a strong nation. Today, while science and technology are still seen as nation-building tools, the legitimacy of the ruling party derives from its ability to provide sustainable economic growth. The internet has become an important [End Page 1089] source of growth, and the impact of internet-driven economic development empowers the state as well as society.

Because innumerable social grievances have been generated, the internet provides a new space for diffusing them and forming new social organizations. The ruling party faces the dual task of fostering economic growth while minimizing political risks brought on by the internet. Exercising effective control is difficult, but information technology has provided more opportunities for political liberalization in China, and the internet has fostered political openness, transparency, and accountability. Moreover, political liberalization is in large part due to the rapid development of information space and accessibility to that space through the internet. Since the government no longer has a monopoly on information, citizens now participate in public discussion and form collectives. Once these collectives form, their success (or demise) lies in their strategy for opposing the political system. A strategy that the state regards as nonthreatening to its legitimacy is likely to succeed.

Without a doubt, the internet is transforming the relationship between the state and the society in China. Will information technology ultimately lead to democratization? Zheng argues that if democratization comes, it will be through gradual political liberalization rather than through external forces or domestic uprisings. Although information technology is currently creating meaningful changes in the Chinese regime, it is important to remember that its political impact takes place in a complex environment that includes the market economy, globalization, and capitalism.

Technological Empowerment is a great contribution to the study of information technology in China. Zheng provides not only a thorough analysis of the origin of the nation-building framework, but also case studies of interactions between the state and society that are facilitated through information technology. One caveat: Zheng tends to paint contemporary China as having a unified class of entrepreneurs. Other scholars such as Keelee S. Tsai argue that the private sector has grown increasingly diverse. The nature and characteristics of China’s middle class remain an area of contestation. [End Page 1090]

Mian Rachel Wang

Mian Rachel Wang is a Ph.D. student in the History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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