China and the Internet: Politics of the Digital Leap Forward

by Christopher R. Hughes (Editor), Gudrun Wacker (Editor)

China and the Politics of the Digital Leap Forward is a comprehensive assessment of the political and economic impact of information and communication technologies (ITCs) on Chinese society. It provides in-depth analyses of topics including economic development, civil and political liberties, bureaucratic politics, international relations and security studies.

The book covers the aspirations of Chinese policy-makers using the Internet to achieve a 'digital leapfrog' of economic development. Avoiding technical jargon, the book is accessible to anyone interested in the social impact of the Internet and information and communication technologies, from those in academia to business and public policy-makers.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published April 11, 2003

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pubished in 2003, with most of the articles being written in 2000 and 2001 this book is already rather dated. It is interesting from a historical point of view to see how the PRC government responded to the internet, encouraging it's growth and infrastructure. There is very little about censorship here, rather the book focuses on economics and growth, it focuses on the business of providing the internet, rather than the social and cultural impact. What is ineresting about this book is the way that it looks at the growth of the internet beyond the English-speaking web. It was telling how the use of English language URLs can be seen as a new form of imperalism. It was also interesting to see how big multi-nationals would limit the export of technologies to countries, while at the same time trying to sell them software to monitor their citizens. I read this book as background reading for my dissertation and while on the whole it wasn't that usefull, I think I will be able to get a few good quotes from it.