ABSTRACT
The introduction of the World Wide Web with its user-friendly surface made the Internet potentially accessible to a mass audience in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the mid-1990s. This triggered the interest of Western analysts and journalists in the future role of this technology with regard to its influence on the media and the political transformation of China.1 In particular, the Internet boom at the end of the 1990s and during the first years of the new millennium increased speculation about the degree of change that could be expected in Chinese politics, with a technology-deterministic view very often prevailing. The perspective of this volume places a strong focus on the societal and political effects that accompany the technological changes. As a result of this work, we are introducing the term “e-policy” as a concept combining the twin pillars of egovernment and e-commerce. The volume is positioned with regard to Internet Studies in general and problems related to the research on China’s Internet development in particular.
