CFP96 Paper
CFP96 PaperMy contribution to the panel will be to show how the deployment, control, and use of information and telecommunications technologies in China is heavily influenced by the system of political economy. I wish to take strong exception to the position, often advocated by figures as diverse as Nicholas Negroponte to Rupert Murdoch, that information technology is intrinsically liberating. Toward this end I will trace the evolution of the economic reform process in the telecommunications sector, and show that while there is some tension between market forces and the degree of political control desired by the regime, the basic object of China's reform process is now and always has been to maintain the control and legitimacy of the ruling Communist Party. Reform of the telecom sector is not allowed to transgress the boundaries established by this goal. More recently, there is an interesting interplay between the CP's desire for political control and the "reformed" state enterprises desire to protect themselves from foreign and domestic competition. State enterprises such as the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, Xinhua News Agency, and the Ministry of Electronics gain economic advantages by connecting their essentially economic lobbying to the political concerns of the CP. Sometimes this leads to more reform and openness, as when the Electronics Ministry convinced the State Council to allow it to enter telecom markets in competition with MPT. At other times, the same process leads to restrictions on reform and openness, as when Xinhua convinced the State Council to give it control over foreign financial information services. In all cases, however, the degree to which Chinese society is permeated by information technology is very much under the control of China's unique political structure, which combines piecemeal economic liberalization with centralized political dictatorship.