China as a Double-Bind Regulatory State

“Authoritarian regimes smother internet and the social media. This book boldly argues this is not the case in China, where the party-state is torn between conflicting political and economic objectives. Taking advantage of this “double-bind regulation”, private internet firms have managed to secure zones of autonomy. A brilliant demonstration.” --Nonna Mayer, Sciences Po, Paris “In China as a Double-Bind Regulatory State, Aifang Ma provides an ambitious yet convincing framework to explain the puzzling coexistence of an all-powerful and unchecked party-state and the relatively autonomous space for private internet and social media firms to grow and thrive. This book is theoretically innovative, methodologically rigorous, and empirically rich. A must read for anyone curious about internet governance and regulation in China.” --Rongbin Han, University of Georgia “An extraordinarily interesting, highly provocative and deeply empirical piece of political analysis on a topic of staggering importance. Its achievement, above all, is to restore the agency of firms and netizens in its forensic reconstruction and de-mythologising of the saga of the ongoing birth of a digital public sphere in China.” --Colin Hay, Sciences Po, Paris “Through a detailed, provocative and insightful analysis of state-firm interactions, Aifang Ma shows how private internet firms in China carved out a space of relative autonomy. This book is a must-read for students of Chinese internet regulation.” –Guobin Yang, University of Pennsylvania This book explores the power dynamics in the Chinese regulation of internet firms. 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 its predicament. Second, private internet firms consciously exploit such predicament to enlarge their manoeuvring room. The double-bind regulation approach challenges some current academic accounts that exaggerate the capacity of the Chinese party-state to establish seamless control. Aifang Ma is currently a Boya postdoctoral scholar and a Lecturer at Peking University. She holds a Ph.D in political science at Sciences Po Paris.