Chinese Cyber Nationalism: How China's Online Public
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CHINESE CYBER NATIONALISM: HOW CHINA’S ONLINE PUBLIC SPHERE AFFECTED ITS SOCIAL AND POLITICAL TRANSITIONS By XU WU A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2005 Copyright 2005 by Xu Wu To my beloved homeland—China ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Over the past five years my thinking on the topics related to Chinese cyber nationalism has benefited greatly from the insight and wisdom of my committee members and professors in the College of Journalism and Communications. Among them, Dr. Spiro Kiousis offered me from time to time the invaluable and indispensable suggestions on the design and analysis of this research. Our discussions and cooperation have been pleasant, inspiring, and fruitful. Dr. Dennis Jett, in spite of his busy work schedule, spared no time and effort in leading me through the most difficult conceptualization process. His course on American foreign policy has been one of the most important and memorable experiences in my graduate study. Dr. Lynda L. Kaid has been my role model and major motivational source throughout the whole project. Her comments and criticisms brought my understanding of social science research to a high level that will benefit me in my future academic career. Dr. Mary A. Ferguson was my first mentor who directed and supported my first voyages in the realm of mass communication research. Her generous assistance, both financially and spiritually, helped me overcome the obstacles in the earlier stage of my graduate study. Professor Mindy McAdams and Dr. Kathleen Kelly also contributed to this study in their special way. I am immensely grateful to all these individuals for their help and guidance in bringing this work into being. Dr. Marilyn Roberts, my committee chair, has been the person I felt most indebted to. She has been my mentor, editor, inspiration, and friend in my exploratory journey in iv the past five years. When I felt lost, she was always there to give me the guidance. When I needed support, she was always available to provide the much needed encouragement and assistance. When I was sick, she was as concerned as if I were a family member. When I had success, she was the first person I want to share the news with. There is no better way to express my gratitude to Dr. Roberts other than to make this work more meaningful and my future academic career more fruitful. I would also like to thank two Chinese coders in my college for their assistance in coding the online contents, and a dozen or so anonymous Chinese online users, Web masters, and foreign policy officials who granted me the opportunities to interview them on their online media use and political opinions. My parents, though thousands of miles away, provided the support that I can not properly write it out here on paper. They have not seen their son for five years, though they never lost for a second the faith in their child. My wife, Xingyu Liu, accompanied me through all the ups and downs in a foreign country where she had never planned to be. To them, I owe so much. v TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iv LIST OF TABLES...............................................................................................................x LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... xi ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................... xii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................1 Theoretical Structure ....................................................................................................2 Chinese Cyber Nationalism and China’s Ideological Structure............................2 Chinese Cyber Nationalism and China’s Modernization Process.........................3 Chinese Cyber Nationalism and China’s Taiwan Policy ......................................4 Conceptual Structure ....................................................................................................5 Chineseness ...........................................................................................................5 Cyber-Sphere.........................................................................................................5 Nationalism............................................................................................................6 Operational Structure....................................................................................................7 2 LITERATURE REVIEW...........................................................................................10 Chineseness.................................................................................................................10 Victors and Victims.............................................................................................11 Confucianism and Communism ..........................................................................15 Writing Is Believing ............................................................................................20 Implications of Chineseness................................................................................22 Cyber Public Sphere ...................................................................................................24 The Origin and Disintegration of the Public Sphere ...........................................25 Public Sphere, Printing Technology, and Print Media........................................28 Cyber Sphere as a Real Public Sphere ................................................................33 The Normative Features of the Public Sphere.....................................................35 A Vertical Comparison of Four Types of Public Sphere ....................................37 Conclusions and Discussions on Public Sphere ..................................................44 Nationalism.................................................................................................................46 Origin of Nationalism..........................................................................................49 vi Nationalism: A historical/economic consequence .......................................49 Nationalism: A cultural/ethnical consequence.............................................52 Nationalism: A military/political consequence............................................55 Nationalism: An ideological consequence ...................................................57 Characteristics of nationalism ......................................................................60 Reflections on Nationalism .................................................................................62 Nationalism vs. patriotism............................................................................62 Nationalism vs. ethnocentrism .....................................................................63 Nationalism vs. racism .................................................................................64 Chinese Nationalism...................................................................................................65 Chinese Nationalism and Chinese Communist Party..........................................68 Nationalism: The CCP’s survival strategy? .................................................69 Nationalism: the CCP’s ideological identity................................................73 Chinese Nationalism and Chinese People ...........................................................75 China’s grassroots nationalism.....................................................................76 China’s elite nationalism..............................................................................80 Chinese Nationalism and Taiwan Independence.................................................82 Chinese Nationalism and World Order ...............................................................87 Chinese Cyber Sphere.................................................................................................92 Three Developing Stages.....................................................................................94 Stage I: “Spring & Autumn Period” (April 1994 – November 1997)........95 Stage II: “Warring States Period” (November 1997—September 2000)...97 Stage III: “Great Unification Period” (September 2000—present)..........100 China’s New Online Media Order.....................................................................102 Study on China’s Internet development .....................................................104 China’s new Online media order................................................................108 China’s Online Public Sphere ...........................................................................120 To Conflict or to Compromise ..........................................................................124 Cyber Nationalism....................................................................................................127 Cyber-technology as the McLuhanite Medium.................................................130 Nationalism as a McLuhanite Message.............................................................134 Information center for nationalism information.........................................136