Understanding China's Digital Politics

This book examines the impact in China of the move to the digital sphere of public deliberation and discourse. It recognises that although there were great hopes that the internet, not just in China, would bring pluralism, tolerance, civility and rationality to public debates, and enhance the prospects for democracy in authoritarian countries, in practice the internet has, besides encouraging these virtues, also enabled much deplorable behaviour. Based on extensive original research, the book explores these more negative aspects of internet discourse in China, including polarization, conspiratorial discourses, disinformation, populist communication, and hate speech, outlining their nature and considering their consequences. As such the book goes further than many other books on the Chinese internet which tend to focus on the censorship versus resistance perspective.