A new approach to the geopolitics of Chinese internets

Document Type

Book Section

Publication Date

2-2024

ISBN

9781032690049

DOI

10.4324/9781032690162-1

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.

Num Pages

144

Publisher

Routledge

Editor

Jack Linchuan Qiu, Peter K. Yu, & Elisa Oreglia

Book Title

The Geopolitics of Chinese Internets

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