Challenging the Regime, Defending the Regime: Contesting Cyberspace in China By Rongbin Han A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Kevin J. O’Brien, Chair Professor Christopher Ansell Professor David Collier Professor Rachel Stern Professor Thomas Gold Fall 2012 Challenging the Regime, Defending the Regime: Contesting Cyberspace in China © 2012 by Rongbin Han Abstract Challenging the Regime, Defending the Regime: Contesting Cyberspace in China By Rongbin Han Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science University of California, Berkeley Professor Kevin J. O’Brien, Chair Drawing on twelve months of fieldwork and over two years of in-depth online ethnographic work, the dissertation examines state management and popular activism on Chinese internet forums as a window onto China’s authoritarian state. Through examination of state management and popular activism on Chinese internet forums, I find not only a conventional cat-and-mouse censorship game in which the party-state, intermediary actors and forum users struggle over the limits of online expression, but also discourse competition in which the regime, its critics and netizens engineer popular opinion to their advantage. I find that censorship is more complicated than the usual picture of state-society confrontation. It involves the fragmented state, many intermediary actors and netizens with diverse purposes and motivations. To understand the mechanism of the censorship, I trace the evolution of the state censorship system, and explore its external challenges and internal fragmentation (Chapter 2). I also examine forum managers’ censorship responsibilities and their “discontented compliance” as a response to state control and netizens’ demands (Chapter 3). My examination of netizen activism shows that forum users engage in “pop activism” that blurs the boundary of political participation and popular entertainment (Chapter 4). In the censorship game, though state coercive power establishes the basic logic of censorship, technological know-how and expressive creativity enable forum managers and netizens to counterbalance state control. In discourse competition, both the regime and its critics have attempted to engineer popular opinion through anonymous public relations strategies. The state’s attempts to turn propaganda into public relations through mobilization of paid internet commentators – popularly known as the “fifty cents army” –frequently backfire and chip away at its legitimacy (Chapter 5). However, regime critics’ efforts in discourse competition have produced the political framing of regime challengers as saboteurs of the nation rather than freedom fighters (Chapter 6), leading to the rise of pro-regime netizen communities that voluntarily defend the authoritarian regime. By examining how these regime-defending netizens adopt their identity, construct a community and sustain pro-regime discourse, I challenge assumptions about the internet's democratizing power (Chapter 7). My dissertation presents a nuanced picture of internet politics and a complex pattern of state-society interaction in a reforming authoritarian regime. Unlike earlier work which assumes a control-liberalization relationship between the state and the netizens, both of which are implicitly treated as single entities, my dissertation highlights the internal fragmentation of Chinese state and challenges the assumption of a monolithic internet that is inherently liberalizing and democratizing. 1 These findings also speak to both the literature on authoritarian resilience as well as recent work on technological empowerment. As scholars devote more attention to understanding varieties of authoritarianism and authoritarian resilience, my work suggests that the "authoritarian resilience" literature focuses too heavily on the regime’s adaptability without sufficient attention to the nature and impact of challenges towards the regime. My findings also propose that work on "technological empowerment" overemphasizes the emancipatory character of the internet while neglecting the limitations of internet mobilization. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents i List of Abbreviations ii Acknowledgments iii Chapter One Introduction 1 Chapter Two Harmonizing the Internet: State Control over Online Expression 21 Chapter Three To Comply or Resist? : Sandwiched Forum Administrators 36 Chapter Four Pop Activism: Playful Netizens in Chinese Cyberspace 51 Chapter Five Manufacturing Consent: State-Sponsored Internet Commentators 66 Chapter Six Manufacturing Distrust: Political Opposition Online and the Backlash 81 Chapter Seven Defending the Regime: The “Voluntary Fifty Cents Army” 96 Chapter Eight Conclusion 110 Bibliography 118 Appendices 146 i LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CCP: Chinese Communist Party CCYLCC: Chinese Communist Youth League Central Committee COD: Central Organizational Department CPD: Central Propaganda Department CPPCC: Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference GAPP: General Administration of Press and Publication GFW: Great Firewall ICPs: Internet Content Providers ISPs: Internet Service Providers NGO: Non-Governmental Organization NPC: National People’s Congress MEI: Ministry of Electronic Industries MII: Ministry of Information Industry MIIT: Ministry of Industry and Information Technology MOC: Ministry of Culture MOE: Ministry of Education MPS: Ministry of Public Security MPT: Ministry of Postal and Telecommunications MSS: Ministry of State Security NPC: National People’s Congress SC: State Council SARFT: State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television SCIO: State Council Information Office ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation project was an intellectual long march of sorts, which could not have been accomplished without intellectual, financial and emotional support from many individuals and institutions. My academic career can be traced back to Peking University and National University of Singapore where professors provided me with solid training in political science and allowed me to develop my interests freely. I am particularly grateful to Dr. Ran Mei, Dr. An Chen, Dr. Yongshun Cai and Dr. Yusaku Horiuchi for their grate courses and mentoring. I am also grateful to these two institutions where I have made lasting friends who have continuously supported my intellectual pursuits. At the University of California Berkeley, I am lucky enough to have met Tom Gold, Chris Ansell, David Collier, Rachel Stern and Kevin O’Brien. Tom has helped me tremendously by referring me to relevant sources and people in the field. Chris has not only helped intellectually by providing guidance when I need, but also been extremely patient when I was working slowly on my chapters. David, a crystal sharp thinker, helped shape the dissertation project in critical ways from the beginning to the end. Rachel read and commented all chapters before they were polished thoroughly. Her sharp and critical input has been crucial in finalizing the project. Kevin has been my all-time and all-weather mentor. He saw me through the whole project and provided encouragement, advice and guidance through our numerous interactions, in person, via email, or over phone, or even on the hiking trails of Mount Diablo. I also received invaluable comments and suggestions from many other faculty members at Berkeley, particularly You-Tien Hsing, Peter Lorentzen, Lowell Dittmer, Steve Weber, and Qiang Xiao. I am grateful to them for their input to the project. Many of my friends and colleagues at Berkeley also helped me with the project in various ways. I benefited from comments and suggestions from Margaret Boittin, Crystal Chang, Sara Newland, Kristi Govella, Ivo Plsek, Alexsia Chan, Suzanne Scoggins, John Yasuda, Seung-Youn Oh, Julia Chuang, Jennifer Choo, Chris Sullivan, Lina Hu, Paulina Hartono, Zongshi Chen, Suowei Xiao, Li Shao, Xiao Liu, Gang Wang, Xiaohui Lin, Nicholas Bartlett, Emily Chua, Albert Wu, Shih-Yang Kao, Jonathan Hassid, Chungmin Tsai, Carsten Vala, John Givens, and many others. I am particularly grateful to Julia, Sara, Alexsia, Suzanne, and Paulina, who helped tremendously edit and polish my chapters. Many scholars outside Berkley also contributed to the project. My conversations with Guobin Yang, Yong Hu, Yunchao Wen, Jing Zhao at 2009 China Internet Research Conference inspired me a lot as the project was just gaining momentum. I am also truly grateful to Maria Repnikova, Ashley Esarey, Min Jiang, Bingchun Meng and many others, who offered great questions and comments from when I presented chapters at several conferences. I also want to thank many Chinese citizens and netizens who have helped me in data collection. I have preserved their anonymity to avoid causing them any trouble, but their contributions are an indispensible part of this project. They are anonymous heroes and I owe them my deepest gratitude. Special thanks also go to staff members in the Political Science general office, especially Andrea Rex, Janet Newhall, Gwen Fox, and Suzan Nunes for their help with various complicated administrative matters. This project was made possible by financial support from the Graduate School, Department of Political Science, Institute of East Asian Studies and Center for iii Chinese Studies at the University of California Berkeley, as well as Elvera Kwang Siam Lim Fellowship in Chinese Studies. Finally I would also like to thank my parents,