Polarised Security: How do Chinese Netizens Respond to the Securitisation of Terrorism?

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe heightened securitisation of Islamic terrorism has received significant attention in Western countries, but little is known about the extent to which netizens in centralised political systems such as China have responded to this threat. This article seeks to address this gap by examining the localisation of the globalised fear of terrorism in China. It analyses online posts about international terrorism that appeared on Sina Weibo in China between 2011 and 2016, and shows how the opinions about terrorism expressed in the Chinese digital media sphere are strongly polarised. We argue that in China’s online sphere the localisation of the “war on terror” frame generates two key polarised public responses – “negotiated acceptance” and “negative re-utilisation” – and that this polarisation of opinions about terrorism stems, in part, from China’s stability-oriented approach to managing terrorism. These findings point to both an acceptance of and a resistance to the securitisation of terrorism and the globalised fear that it (re)produces. Moreover, the findings offer insights into the extent to which local security concerns and beliefs in the Chinese political system can create a divergence between the local perspectives on terrorism and the Western experiences and practices of security labelling.