Virtual China: The Internet as Threat or Opportunity?

This paper assesses the challenges that China-its government and people-face by embracing the Internet. It considers how a state apparatus determined to cling on to power and contain the democratic potential of the information revolution is increasingly challenged by a dispersed and fragmented, yet vocal and politically agitated 'critical mass' equally determined to balance and sometimes confront the Communist Party's (CCP) monopoly on communication. This brings to the surface critical questions about the authority over discourse and narrative in modern China, and presents for governance there serious problems and opportunities in equal measure.