Zhao, Bo --- "Digitalization and democracy in China: the new Hunger Games" [2017] ELECD 1218; in Prins, Corien; Cuijpers, Colette; Lindseth, L. Peter; Rosina, Mônica (eds), "Digital Democracy in a Globalized World" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 301

Book Title: Digital Democracy in a Globalized World

Editor(s): Prins, Corien; Cuijpers, Colette; Lindseth, L. Peter; Rosina, Mônica

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781785363955

Section: Chapter 14

Section Title: Digitalization and democracy in China: the new Hunger Games

Author(s): Zhao, Bo

Number of pages: 24

Abstract/Description:

Many observers have been mush impressed by the escalating, tough suppression of democratic activities by the Chinese State authorities in recent years. However, this could also be read as a strong response to some critical development in China’s democracy, which is enabled by new information and communications technology and substantially threatens China’s authoritarian regime. This chapter reviews how digitalization has made a solid contribution to China’s democracy development and the multiple responses from China’s one-party State in a trapped political transition since 1989. It explains why China’s democratization, though slow, is irresistible and irreversible in the long run, particularly in view of China’s present economic and social circumstances.