Whose Vision Is It Anyway? The “Free Internet” in Chinese State Media

Stefan Brehm

doi:10.1177/1868102621998084

Abstract

This study seeks to explain how Chinese state media bolster the use of visions in global internet governance. The empirical data for the article consist of 1,158 internet-related articles published in the Global Times between 2009 and 2018. I develop a theoretical perspective that distinguishes between grand and strategic narratives. Based on a mixed-methods approach, I show that “internet sovereignty” has qualified as a grand narrative since the second half of 2013. State media facilitate this shift with strategic narratives that push the content and context of “internet sovereignty” from domestic political rationales towards a matter of global affairs. The article contributes to theoretical and methodological advancement in textual analysis.

Highlights

The global internet has changed during the last decade
The results suggest that China’s sovereign internet has emerged as an architectonic impulse and as a re-o rdering force since the 2013 internet crackdown
The latter represents a grand narrative with the power to order political phenomena, which in turn is a prerequisite for identifying strategic shifts of field frames

Summary

Introduction

The global internet has changed during the last decade. The majority of users no longer resides in the wealthy industrialised democracies of Europe and North America. Field frames of the free and open internet in China gradually shift attention from introspective policies focusing on national institutions towards outward- oriented and self-assertive politics that propagate internet sovereignty as a model for global internet governance. To become an architectonic impulse, a vision needs to provide a value system independent of the political order and allow it to consistently interpret all relevant political phenomena within a new order These stylised facts suggest that the formation and transformation of a Chinese state vision most likely become tangible when we can rely on data sources that are sufficiently homogenous to be characterised as voices of proponents, entail individual opinions (agency), and stretch over a long period to capture shifting viewpoints over time. A search for all articles entailing the term “internet” in the title resulted in a total sample of 1158 articles for the period 2009–2018

Method

Findings

Conclusions