by John Keane, published by The New York Times, February 14, 2012
SYDNEY — James Madison famously remarked that a popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy. The present government of the People’s Republic of China has set out to disprove this rule. Continue reading »
Author: Min JIANG
Title: Internet Companies in China: Dancing between the Party Line and the Bottom Line
Published by: Asie Visions 47, January 2012
Download: here
Abstract: With over 500 million Internet users and 900 million mobile-phone subscribers by mid 2011, the Chinese Internet is an enormous market that has produced the spectacular rise of many Chinese Internet companies and attracted substantial foreign investment. This paper argues that, despite a great degree of liberalization of its market over the past 15 years, the Chinese Internet remains authoritarian in nature. Not only did the central government actively shape the infrastructure and rules of China’s information superhighways, but recently it has also vigorously built state-controlled Internet companies, including a national search engine. Continue reading »