A new approach to the geopolitics of Chinese internets

ABSTRACT

This introductory essay summarizes how our understanding of Chinese internets – in the plural – has shifted in the past two decades. The incumbent approach sees ‘Chinese tech’ as a unitary and statist monolith, an incomplete view whose utility has declined. By contrast, the articles in this special issue collectively substantiate a novel geopolitical approach that analyzes ‘Chinese internets’ as internally diverse and externally border-crossing; as both public (governmental and non-governmental) and private (e.g., corporate); as discursive and policy entanglements beyond the dichotomy of multistakeholderism and multilateralism; and as global, regional, and local formations that are connected to, but not entirely constrained by, their national counterparts. Pluralist and multilayered, this new approach to analyzing Chinese techno-geopolitics shall provide a better fit for contemporary internet research involving state and nonstate actors in China, including Chinese companies operating both overseas and globally.

KEYWORDS:

• Geopolitics
• China
• Chinese internets
• internet governance
• US-China tech war

Acknowledgements

This special issue benefits from the insights provided by the global network of scholars who have participated in the annual Chinese Internet Research Conference (CIRC) and whose support and contributions have helped overcome the increasing challenges of geopolitics. The editors and contributors would like to express their sincere thanks to the reviewers, whose topical expertise and constructive feedback were critical to improving the articles and the overall structure of this special issue.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jack Linchuan Qiu

Jack Linchuan Qiu is Professor in the Department of Communications and New Media, the National University of Singapore. He has published more than 120 research articles and chapters and 10 books in English and Chinese including Goodbye iSlave: A Manifesto for Digital Abolition (2016, University of Illinois Press). He is a co-founder of CIRC and an elected Fellow of the International Communication Association [email: [email protected]].

Peter K. Yu

Peter K. Yu is Regents Professor of Law and Communication and Director of the Center for Law and Intellectual Property at Texas A&M University. He is a co-founder of CIRC and Vice-President and Co-Director of Studies of the American Branch of the International Law Association. Born and raised in Hong Kong, he previously held the Kern Family Chair in Intellectual Property Law at Drake University Law School and was Wenlan Scholar Chair Professor at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law in Wuhan, China [email: [email protected]].

Elisa Oreglia

Elisa Oreglia is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London. She is the principal investigator for the European Research Council-funded project DIGISILK, which looks at Chinese digital investments and technological influence in neighboring countries [email: [email protected]].