China As A Double Bind Regulatory State
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China as a Double-Bind Regulatory State
This book explores the dynamics of the Chinese regulation of internet firms. Sitting at the crossroad of regulation studies, communication studies, political economy, and the social movements, it conceptualises China as a “double-bind regulatory state”, defined as a two-step autonomy-enabling process. First, the party-state’s pursuit of competiting objectives creates a predicament for regulators. In the second step, private internet firms consciously exploit regulators’ predicament to enlarge their maneuvering room. The approach of “double-bind regulatory state” challenges some current academic accounts that exaggerate the capacity of the Chinese party-state to establish seamless control. This book is of interest to scholars of Chinese politics, digital law, political economy, and more.
China as a Double-Bind Regulatory State
This book explores the dynamics of the Chinese regulation of internet firms. Sitting at the crossroad of regulation studies, communication studies, political economy, and the social movements, it conceptualises China as a “double-bind regulatory state”, defined as a two-step autonomy-enabling process. First, the party-state’s pursuit of competiting objectives creates a predicament for regulators. In the second step, private internet firms consciously exploit regulators’ predicament to enlarge their maneuvering room. The approach of “double-bind regulatory state” challenges some current academic accounts that exaggerate the capacity of the Chinese party-state to establish seamless control. This book is of interest to scholars of Chinese politics, digital law, political economy, and more.
“Double Bind Regulation" of the Internet and Social Media in Contemporary China
Rather than studying how the Chinese party-state is all powerful, this thesis focuses on how Chinese citizens and the Chinese civil society more broadly are not powerless. Building on and developing a genuinely interdisciplinary approach, the thesis studies the mechanisms in and through which Chinese Internet and social media (ISM) firms and netizens have reclaimed a certain autonomy from the increasingly authoritarian regulatory stance of the Chinese state. Located at the crossroads of communication studies, regulation studies, political economy, and social movements theory, the thesis advances a new perspective on state regulation, conceptualized as the “double bind regulatory state”. This concept denotes a state in which autocracies' pursuit of competing objectives, called respectively as “regime-friendly objectives” (RFO) and “society-friendly objectives” (SFO), pushes autocrats to switch between the two sides alternatively, thus generating autonomy for the society. Investigating the regulation of the ISM in China from 1987 to 2020 with qualitative research methods, I argue that although the party-state has strong state capacities, these capacities are not unlimited because the “double bind logic” places limits on its freedom of action. With respect to the RFO, the party-state reinforces its control over firms and netizens, such that it can efficiently ward off any destabilizing forces. However, it cannot afford to privilege exclusively the RFO because systematic control hinders firms' technological innovation and lowers citizens' support for the regime (and hence regime legitimacy). It needs simultaneously to deliver SFO as well. The party-state's predicament conversely becomes a source of relative autonomy for private ISM firms and netizens against the increasingly authoritarian backdrop of China.