The Power of the Internet in China: Looking Beyond People's Power

Abstract

[ 171 ] book review roundtable • the power of the internet in china “popular nationalism” as the top issue among seven categories of online activism, the discussion of this subject is insufficient. Considering the fact that in 2005 one anti-Japan online petition collected over 40 million signatories, cyber-nationalism should be regarded as one of the most, if not the most, important developments in China’s online citizen activism. Although perhaps not conforming to the predisposition of technology determinists, such nationalism nonetheless showcases the most powerful aspect of online activism. The Power of the Internet in China: Looking Beyond People’s Power Evgeny Morozov To say that the world’s attention is fixed on the Chinese Internet is to understate the case. From alleged cyberattacks on Western technology companies to the powerful Green Dam censorship technology that was supposed to be installed on every computer sold in China to the country’s sprawling network of rehabilitation centers for Internet and gaming addicts, there is a palpable sense of universal fascination with China’s Internet culture. Guobin Yang’s book The Power of the Internet in China provides a meticulously researched account of one small corner of this digital metropolis, namely the world of activists, NGOs, and other representatives of what he calls the “e-civil society.” To gain a better grasp of how the Internet has transformed their activities, Yang spent several years on mailing lists, conducted several surveys, followed many important online conversations in popular Internet forums, and kept a blog of his own. Even seasoned observers of the Chinese Internet are likely to find a lot of rich and refreshing detail in every chapter. His intimate knowledge of this space is on full display when he describes spontaneous activist campaigns that have become a staple of the Chinese Internet: carriers of hepatitis B demanding the end to antidiscrimination practices, consumer rights advocates fighting to rid Chinese department stores of counterfeit goods, and bloggers raising money to help save the life of the mother of one of their peers. evgeny morozov is a Contributing Editor of Foreign Policy and runs the magazine’s Net.Effect blog, which focuses on the Internet’s impact on global politics. He can be reached at . [ 172 ] asia policy Yang believes that the country’s Internet culture is unique: “the large-scale and spontaneous online collective action (wangluo shijian) so common in China today happens much less often and on a much smaller scale elsewhere” (p. 119). It is the effervescent, carnivalesque, and ultimately contested character of China’s Internet culture—stemming from popular struggles that originate in the offline world—that Yang finds least appreciated by the academic and journalistic communities. Instead, they have been captivated by “two misleading images of the Chinese Internet”: one of control and the other of entertainment (p. 1). Through a series of colorful case studies and thorough empirical research, Yang strives to sketch a more refined third image: that of online activism. Yang conceptualizes online activism as the product of dynamic interactions between five distinct factors: state power, culture, the market, civil society, and transnationalism. This makes for a neat analytical framework, which Yang puts to good use to argue that Chinese citizens “have expanded culture, community, and political participation in the information age” (p. 3). Yang’s five-pronged model leaves very little maneuver space for the state: it can either shape (e.g., constrain) or adjust to online activism. When Yang asserts that “state power constrains the forms and issues of contention, but instead of preventing it from happening, it forces activists to be more creative and artful” (p. 7), he greatly understates the more proactive ways in which the Chinese government has been embracing technology. Even if one grants that the exercise of state power breeds more creativity among activists, there must surely be other points of intersection between state power and the Internet that lie outside of Yang’s narrowly defined framework. In addition to control, entertainment, and activism, Yang fails to consider a fourth possible perspective of the Chinese Internet: that of the state harnessing the power of the Internet to modernize itself and prolong its rule. Yang mostly glosses over the fact...