Governing Digital China, with Daniela Stockmann and Ting Luo

About this episode

The episode discusses how an authoritarian state governs a digital ecosystem it doesn't fully control, featuring insights from the authors of 'Governing Digital China'.

This week on Sinica, I speak with Daniela Stockmann and Ting Luo, co-authors of Governing Digital China , a new book that examines how an authoritarian state governs a digital ecosystem it doesn't fully own, can never fully control, and yet fundamentally depends on. Danie — a professor of digital governance at the Hertie School in Berlin and a returning Sinica guest, having joined us way back in 2014 to discuss her earlier book on media commercialization and authoritarian rule — and Ting, associate professor in government and artificial intelligence at the University of Birmingham, together offer a richly empirical account of the triangular relationship between the Chinese state, major platform companies, and ordinary internet users. Rather than treating firms as mere instruments of party control or citizens as passive subjects of surveillance, they develop a framework they call "popular corporatism," which captures how bargaining, incentives, and user preferences shape what is and isn't permissible in China's digital spaces — including the endlessly misunderstood social credit system. 4:32 — The digital dilemma: how digital platforms simultaneously empower economic development…

People in this episode

Host: Kaiser Kuo

Guests: Daniela Stockmann, Ting Luo

Topics covered

• digital governance
• authoritarianism
• China
• digital ecosystem
• social credit system
• platform companies
• user engagement

Keywords

• digital platforms
• political risk
• command-and-control model
• popular corporatism
• internet users
• Chinese state
• economic development

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Hertie School, University of Birmingham, Tencent, Sina

Books & works: Governing Digital China

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