ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how state actor, domestic internet companies and foreign capital have all played a part in shaping and governing the internet development in China. Focusing on China’s techno-nationalist pursuit of becoming a Cyber Superpower (网络大国), this chapter argues that Chinese state has employed a dual-track approach: On the one hand, it has tightened and stepped up control over online content; on the other hand, it has purposefully allowed domestic internet companies to access much-needed foreign capital through the variable interests entities structure. Such pragmatic approach helps achieve the Party’s ideological control and economic prosperity of the internet in China, meanwhile defying the common perception of an “all-controlling Chinese state.” However, the ongoing geopolitical confrontations and contestations between United States and China destabilise the transnational linkages between the Chinese internet industry and US structural power in global finance and technology, challenging China’s Cyber Superpower strategy.
