The internet in China : a new arena for government individual interaction
Date
2002
Authors
Zhang, Rong
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Abstract
China has fallen in love with the Internet. The Internet not only promotes the new information economy, but also fosters Chinese political reform. The fact that millions of Chinese netizens have already access to the wealth of information challenges the traditional model of the governance, which was dominated by a centralized and propagandized approach to governance. The Chinese government is simultaneously promoting the development of the Internet and constructing a strict censorship and license system to limit network content and use. Internet technology will continue to evolve and will have an increasingly profound impact on Chinese society. But it is not likely that the technology will transform China into a Western-type liberal democracy even in the long run. A more probably outcome is that a modern Internet will have strong Chinese characteristics, and diverge from the capitalist-oriented model of the advanced industrial countries in significant ways.