ABSTRACT
Since the information technology (IT) revolution in the 1970s, communication has been the most active economic sector, spurring an outburst of novel products, competitive businesses, and consumption fads. Digital networks have also made the world a much smaller place, crisscrossed by the footprint of global capital. Although China is a latecomer to this digitized capitalism, its communication industries have undergone the most spectacular development. The country boasts the largest number of telephone, internet, and television subscribers, hosts production capacities on a global scale for all the major electronic products, and features a huge domestic market in the range of a few million consumers. Amidst the 2008 economic recession, industry pundits, mainstream economists, and policy makers around the world turned to communication for a growth comeback. Through a slew of national plans, including the Electronics and Information Industry Revitalization Plan, the Culture Industry Boosting Plan, and the National Broadband Plan, Chinese leadership has likewise embarked on a “communication-driven” path of economic restructuring to improve their economic profile and to stimulate domestic demand. 1
