TY - JOUR

T1 - China’s Solution to Global Cyber Governance

T2 - Unpacking the Domestic Discourse of “Internet Sovereignty”

AU - Zeng, Jinghan

AU - Stevens, Tim

AU - Chen, Yaru

N1 - This is the peer reviewed version of the following article:Zeng, J. , Stevens, T. and Chen, Y. (2017), China's Solution to Global Cyber Governance: Unpacking the Domestic Discourse of “Internet Sovereignty”. Politics and Policy, 45: 432-464. doi:10.1111/polp.12202 which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/polp.12202 This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.

PY - 2017/6

Y1 - 2017/6

N2 - Under Xi Jinping's leadership, China has actively promoted “Internet sovereignty” as a means to reshape the discourse and practices of global cyber governance. By analyzing Chinese‐language literature, this article unpacks the Chinese discourse of Internet sovereignty. Despite significant interest in promoting it as China's normative position on cyberspace, we find that Chinese formulations of Internet sovereignty are fragmented, diverse, and underdeveloped. There are substantial disagreements and uncertainty over what Internet sovereignty is and how it can be put into practice. This is principally due to the evolving pattern of Chinese policy formation, whereby political ideas are often not clearly defined when first proposed by Chinese leaders. This article argues that an underdeveloped domestic discourse of Internet sovereignty has significantly restricted China's capacity to provide alternative norms in global cyberspace. Appreciating this ambiguity, diversity, and, sometimes, inconsistency is vital to accurate understanding of transformations in global cyber governance occasioned by China's rise.

AB - Under Xi Jinping's leadership, China has actively promoted “Internet sovereignty” as a means to reshape the discourse and practices of global cyber governance. By analyzing Chinese‐language literature, this article unpacks the Chinese discourse of Internet sovereignty. Despite significant interest in promoting it as China's normative position on cyberspace, we find that Chinese formulations of Internet sovereignty are fragmented, diverse, and underdeveloped. There are substantial disagreements and uncertainty over what Internet sovereignty is and how it can be put into practice. This is principally due to the evolving pattern of Chinese policy formation, whereby political ideas are often not clearly defined when first proposed by Chinese leaders. This article argues that an underdeveloped domestic discourse of Internet sovereignty has significantly restricted China's capacity to provide alternative norms in global cyberspace. Appreciating this ambiguity, diversity, and, sometimes, inconsistency is vital to accurate understanding of transformations in global cyber governance occasioned by China's rise.

KW - Internet Policy

KW - China

KW - Cyber Governance

KW - Internet Sovereignty

KW - State Sovereignty

KW - U.S. Hegemony

KW - Globalizing Cyberspace

KW - Crossing Cyber Borders

KW - Internet Norms

KW - Information Control

KW - Obstacles to Global Governance

KW - Censorship

KW - Democratization

KW - Netizens

KW - Sina Weibo

KW - Social Management Policy

KW - Xi Jinping

U2 - 10.1111/polp.12202

DO - 10.1111/polp.12202

M3 - Journal article

VL - 45

SP - 432

EP - 464

JO - Politics and Policy

JF - Politics and Policy

SN - 1555-5623

IS - 3

ER -