Abstract
This chapter discusses the early, formative period of the Chinese approach to governing the internet from 1994 when China got connected to the global internet to the country’s participation in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in 2005. It examines and compares the Chinese academic discourse on cyber/information sovereignty and official policies of this period. It shows that the academic discourse preceded the official discourse in theorising and explicitly articulating cyber/information sovereignty, and that while the academic discourse was broadly compatible with the official stance, important differences existed between the two in terms of argumentative tonality and conceptual and theoretical orientation. Our sources reveal that the official policy of that time is decidedly pragmatic and characterized by Bu Zhenglun (不争论), a turn away from theoretical debate; in this context, particularly digitalization was uncritically promoted as a means to further economic development. In contrast to that, the academic debate of that time was critical of digitalization and underlined the need to develop a form of cyber/information sovereignty to protect Chinese society from the negative side-effects of digitalization, which were connected to fears regarding regime change and even imagined as ‘cyber colonialism’.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Henry Gao observes that the Chinese internet regulation has evolved from the regulation of the hardware and then software, to the regulation of content and data (Gao 2021).
- 2.
These include “Speeding Up the Development of the Electronics Industry, Embracing Challenges of the New Technological Revolution” (加快电子工业发展,迎接新技术革命挑战), an interview of Jiang with the newspaper Economic Daily on Feb 10, 1984, “Gradually Exploring a Chinese Path to the Development of the Electronics Industry” (逐步探索出一条中国式的电子工业发展之路), a report made by Jiang at the National Electronics Department on Feb 2, 1984; “Foreign Trade of the Electronics Industry and Its Development Principles”(电子工业对外贸易及其发展方针), published on the journal Intertrade (国际贸易) on August 1984; “Promoting Electronics Industry, Advancing the Construction of Four Modernizations” (振兴电子工业,促进四化建设) published in the CCP journal Hongqi (predecessor of Qiushi) on September 16, 1984.
- 3.
The two transformations were set out by the CPC in 1995 and refer to the transformation from a planned economy to a socialist market economy, and the transformation from an extensive to an intensive model of economic growth. See, http://keywords.china.org.cn/2018-10/30/content_69091890.html
- 4.
Full text available at: https://flk.npc.gov.cn/detail2.html?ZmY4MDgwODE2ZjNjYmIzYzAxNmY0MTI4ZGVhNDFhNWI%3D
- 5.
Full text available at: http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/2020-12/26/content_5574802.htm
- 6.
Interim Regulations on the Management of International Networking of Computer Information Networks, Article 6.
- 7.
Interim Regulations on the Management of International Networking of Computer Information Networks, Article13.
References
Baek, Seung-Wook. 2007. Does China Follow ‘the East Asian Development Model’? Journal of Contemporary Asia 35 (4): 485–498.
Bambauer, Derek E., Ronald J. Deibert, John G. Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski, Nart Villeneuve, and Jonathan L. Zittrain. 2005. Internet Filtering in China in 2004–2005: A Country Study. SSRN Scholarly Paper. Rochester. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.706681.
Benshu Bianxiezu, ed. 2002. Studies on Jiang Zemin’s Important Discursions [江泽民同志重要论述研究]. Beijing: Renmin Press.
Chander, Anupam, and Haochen Sun. 2021. Sovereignty 2.0. Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works. https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/2404.
Cheng, Weidong. 1998. The Influence of Transborder Data Flow on State Sovereignty and Responses [跨境数据流动对国家主权的影响与对策]. Law Science Magazine [法学杂志] 2: 22–23.
Cong, Wanshu. 2022, July. Contesting Freedom of Information: Capitalism, Development, and the Third World. Asian Journal of International Law: 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2044251322000467.
Cong, Wanshu, and Johannes Thumfart. 2022. A Chinese Precursor to the Digital Sovereignty Debate: Digital Anti-Colonialism and Authoritarianism from the Post–Cold War Era to the Tunis Agenda. Global Studies Quarterly 2 (4): ksac059. https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksac059.
Creemers, Rogier. 2020. China’s Approach to Cyber Sovereignty. Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. https://www.kas.de/documents/252038/7995358/China%E2%80%99s+Approach+to+Cyber+Sovereignty.pdf/2c6916a6-164c-fb0c-4e29-f933f472ac3f?version=1.0&t=1606143361537. https://www.kas.de/en/single-title/-/content/china-s-approach-to-cyber-sovereignty
Engineering Design CAD and Informatization [工程設計CAD及自動化]. 1996. State Council Leading Group on Informatization Created, Zou Jiahua Made Important Adress on the Construction of National Informatization [国务院信息化工作领导小组成立，邹家华谈我国信息化建设的有关问题发表重要讲话], 1996.
Ferguson, Niall, and Moritz Schularick. 2007. ‘Chimerica’ and the Global Asset Market Boom*: ‘Chimerica’ and the Global Asset Market Boom. International Finance 10 (3): 215–239. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2362.2007.00210.x.
Gao, Henry S. 2021. Data regulation with Chinese characteristics. In Big Data and Global Trade Law, ed. Mira Burri, 245–267. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108919234.017.
Gao, Zhengli. 2013. On Deng Xiaoping’s Thoughts on Zhenglun and Bu Zhenglun [邓小平‘争论’和‘不争论’思想研究]. Contemporary China History Studies [当代中国史研究] 1: 66–70.
Gong, Wenxiang. 1998. International Communication in the Information Age: News Problems Faced by International Relations. [信息时代的国际传播:国际关系面临的新问题]. International Politics Studies [国际政治研究] 2: 41–46.
———. 2005. Information Sovereignty Reviewed. Intercultural Communication Studies XIV (1): 119–135.
Guan, Shijie. 1996. International Legal Principles for International Communication [国际传播中的国际法原则问题]. Journalism and Communication Studies [新闻与传播研究] 2: 30–35.
———. 1997. The Implementation Strategy Of The US Global Information Superhighway – Analyzing US Scholars’ Strategic Recommendations to the US Government [美国‘全球信息高速公路’的实施战略——剖析美国学者向美国政府提出的战略性建议]. International Politics Studies [国际政治研究] 4: 82–91.
———. 1999. The Internet and Cultural Imperialism – Understanding the Impact on International Communication of the Internet from Its Features [因特网与文化帝国主义——从因特网的特点看它对国际文化交流的影响]. International Politics Studies [国际政治研究] 1: 118–127.
Han, Pugeng. 2000. Philosophical Questions in the Internet Age [网络时代的哲学问题]. Modern Philosophy [现代哲学] 4: 50–55.
Heisey, D. Ray, and Wenxiang Gong, eds. 1998. Communication and Culture: China and the World Entering the 21st Century. Brill. http://brill.com/display/title/28686.
Jiang, Min. 2010. Authoritarian Informationalism: China’s Approach to Internet Sovereignty. SAIS Review of International Affairs 30 (2): 71–89.
Jiang, Zemin. 2009. On the Development of China’s Electronics Industry [论中国信息技术产业发展]. Beijing: Central Party Literature Press, Shanghai Jiaotong University Press.
Kong, Xiaowei. 2000. Information Sovereignty in the Process of Globalization [全球化进程中的信息主权]. International Forum [国际论坛] 5: 13–17.
Li, Liuyuan, Hailian Zhu, and Jianghong Guo. 1995. Three Golden Projects’ and the Informatization of Our National Economy [‘三金工程’與我國國民經濟信息化]. Information System Engineering [信息系統工程] 1.
Li, Pan. 2001. The Global Cyber Hegemony and Resolving Measures of Developing Countries [全球网络霸权和发展中国家的消解措施]. Journalism Research [新闻大学] 1: 26–27.
Liang, Junlan. 1997a. Information Policy and Transborder Data Flow (TDF) [信息政策与越境数据流]. Information and Documentation Services [情报资料工作] 5: 33–37.
———. 1997b. Transborder Data Flow and Information Policy and Law [越境数据流与信息政策和信息法规]. Social Science Abroad [国外社会科学] 5: 62–66.
National Development and Reform Commission. 2002. The Tenth Five-Year Plan on the National Economy and SDevelopment and the Special Plan on Informatization Development [国民经济和社会发展第十个五年计划信息化发展重点专项规划]. https://www.ndrc.gov.cn/fggz/fzzlgh/gjjzxgh/200507/W020191104623866254322.pdf.
Nye, Joseph S., and William A. Owens. 1996. America’s Information Edge. Foreign Affairs 75 (2): 20–36. https://doi.org/10.2307/20047486.
Office of the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs, ed. 2000. Instructions of the CPC Central Committee on Making the Tenth Five-Year Plan on the National Economy and Social Development: Lectures [中共中央关于制定国民经济和社会发展第十个五年计划等建议:学习辅导讲座]]. Beijing: Renmin Press.
State Council of the People’s Republic of China. 1997. Ninth-Five Year Plan for the National Socio-Economic Development of the People’s Republic of China and the Programme for the Long-Term Objectives by 2010 [中华人民共和国国民经济和社会发展‘九五’计划和2010年远景目标纲要]. Gazette of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China. http://www.gov.cn/gongbao/shuju/1996/gwyb199607.pdf.
———. 2010, June 8. The Internet in China. http://www.china.org.cn/government/whitepaper/node_7093508.htm.
Tang, Xiaotian. 1998. The Right to Control Information in Contemporary World [当今世界的信息控制权]. Exploration and Free Views [探索与争鸣] 9: 16–18.
———. 1999. From the Kosovo crisis to Reassess National Security and the Right to Control Information. [从科索沃危机看国家安全与信息控制权]. Fujian Journal of Public Security College - Social Public Security Studies [福建公安高等专科学校学报——社会公共安全研究] 13(5): 45–48.
Thumfart, Johannes. 2021. The Norm Development of Digital Sovereignty between China, Russia, the EU and the US: From the Late 1990s to the Covid-Crisis 2020/21 as Catalytic Event. In: Enforcing Rights in a Changing World, ed. Dara Hallinan, Paul de Hert, and Ronald Leenes, vol 14, 1–44. Hart Publishing.
Zhong, Yixin. 1995. The Wave of the National Information Infrastructure and the Chinese Highspeed Information Network Action [国家信息基础设施-NII-浪潮与中国高速信息网络行动]. Chinese Information Review [中国信息导报] 8: 13–14.
———. 1996. The Declaration of the Information Age [信息时代宣言]. Today’s Electronics [今日电子] 7: 98–99.
Zhong, Zhuoxin. 1998. The Current State and Future of the Internet and China’s Modernization [因特网的现状、未来及中国的现代化]. Communications Technology [通信技术] 102 (3): 35–42.
Zhu, Weifeng. 2014. The Evolution, Challenge and Modernization of the CPC Internet Censorship [中共互联网监管等变迁、挑战与现代化]. Journalism and Communication Studies [新闻与传播研究] 7: 80–86.
Zou, Jiahua. 1997. Speed up the Advancement of National Informatization [加快推进国家信息化]. Qiushi [求是] 14: 2–6.
Acknowledgement
Johannes Thumfart received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 research programme under MSCA COFUND grant agreement 101034352 with co-funding from the VUB-Industrial Research Fund.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cong, W., Thumfart, J. (2023). Cyber/Information Sovereignty and the Internet’s First Decade in China: Academic Debates and the Official Bu Zhenglun. In: Timoteo, M., Verri, B., Nanni, R. (eds) Quo Vadis, Sovereignty? . Philosophical Studies Series, vol 154. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41566-1_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41566-1_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-41565-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-41566-1
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)