A Dilemma or Hope for China’s Democratization: A Research on Cyberpolitics Participation of Chinese Citizen Based on Chai Jing Event

Abstract

This article examines the main characteristics of Chinese cyber-politics participation and reveals the deep reasons behind those characteristics of Chinese cyber-politics participation through a recent heated discussion online on an investigation of the Chinese environmental problem conducted by a Chinese popular journalist Chai Jing. In theory, with the development of internet technique and improvement of political system in China, more and more Chinese citizens could be provided with quite number of opportunities to conduct political participation broadly through cyberspace, and then a new real era of democracy in China should come gradually. However, the real situation of citizen cyber-politics participation in China may not bring real democracy for China in a short span of time for China’s political cultural tradition and the limitations of political practice which slow down the course of democratization. This article explores the internal logic between the features of Chinese cyber-politics participation and the reasons behind. The analysis of reasons mainly develops in three respects that respectively are the construction of virtual identity of cyber-politics participation subject under the effects of the transitional period in contemporary China firstly; the relationship among the disordered internet violence of cyber-politics participation, the monarchy-subject political culture and civic education problem in China secondly; the adverse impacts and several limitations exerted by China’s authoritarianism towards the free-speech rights of citizens in cyberspace lastly. This article also explores a new way to categorize the cyber-politics participation subject in China in order to analyze the main traits of cyber-politics participation precisely and profoundly.



Author Information
Shu Qi, China University of Political Science and Law, China
Jingya Sun, University of Bordeaux, France

Paper Information
Conference: ACCS2015
Stream: Political Theory

This paper is part of the ACCS2015 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon