Abstract
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) hosts a unique online system, a national “inverse intranet” that was developed as a distinct unit within the global Internet. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) created this “intranet” using a double-pronged strategy: control and growth. The government exerts strong control over access, online content production and distribution, and ownership of online companies. Meanwhile, it blocks access to key foreign websites, thus creating a huge market for domestic online services. To cultivate politically acceptable content, the CCP established a plethora of state-owned news portals (i.e., the People’s Daily, Xinhua News Agency, and CCTV) and co-opts large, privately owned commercial websites to advance the Party line. As a result, successful Chinese companies dominate the domestic online market and collaborate with state agencies to censor content.
China’s “intranet” policies have enabled the CCP to exert strict political control, minimize public discontent, and encourage a booming online economy. These policies may also be seen as the constituting elements of Internet sovereignty, creating a strictly Party-controlled, state-centered information regime. This presents a robust alternative model to the original, U.S.-based Internet, pointing to the power of a national government in reshaping what was once envisioned as borderless, global network commons based on free speech principles.
Since China’s first Internet connection in 1994, a self-sufficient, gated digital universe has emerged within the global Internet. This gated universe boasts the world’s largest national online population.
This chapter conceptualizes China’s Internet as an “inverse intranet”
with limited access from inside to the external world. In their original organizational context, intranets are defined as “the application of Internet technology for a prescribed community of users” (Dasgupta, 2001). They use
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) protocol to allow
computers to communicate, restricting external access with passwords and firewalls. Staff members working outside the organization may be able to access the intranet using a virtual private network (VPN).
Intranets were originally designed to facilitate information sharing within an organization while blocking outsiders' access. The opposite happens with China’s large domestic “intranet” universe. China’s “Great Firewall” limits domestic access from the inside out, to foreign websites. However, external Internet users may access China-hosted content from abroad. This is why we developed the specific notion of “ inverse intranet”. Only Chinese netizens with access to foreign VPNs can “jump over the wall” from the inside out.
By conceptualizing the online space of the PRC as an “inverse intranet,” this chapter does not suggest that the Chinese web fits all technological characteristics of an intranet. Nor does it indicate that the China’s “intranet” has no blind spots for information spillovers.
Instead, the technological metaphor of “inverse intranet” enables us to capture the key feature of China’s Internet—that is, the peculiar combination of centralized control and growth. The strategic intent behind China’s unique online policies is to create a sovereign, fully controlled digital universe that represents an alternative to the rest of what of what is known as the global internet.
China’s “intranet” policies have enabled the CCP to exert strict political control, minimize public discontent, and encourage a booming online economy. These policies may also be seen as the constituting elements of Internet sovereignty, creating a strictly Party-controlled, state-centered information regime. This presents a robust alternative model to the original, U.S.-based Internet, pointing to the power of a national government in reshaping what was once envisioned as borderless, global network commons based on free speech principles.
Since China’s first Internet connection in 1994, a self-sufficient, gated digital universe has emerged within the global Internet. This gated universe boasts the world’s largest national online population.
This chapter conceptualizes China’s Internet as an “inverse intranet”
with limited access from inside to the external world. In their original organizational context, intranets are defined as “the application of Internet technology for a prescribed community of users” (Dasgupta, 2001). They use
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) protocol to allow
computers to communicate, restricting external access with passwords and firewalls. Staff members working outside the organization may be able to access the intranet using a virtual private network (VPN).
Intranets were originally designed to facilitate information sharing within an organization while blocking outsiders' access. The opposite happens with China’s large domestic “intranet” universe. China’s “Great Firewall” limits domestic access from the inside out, to foreign websites. However, external Internet users may access China-hosted content from abroad. This is why we developed the specific notion of “ inverse intranet”. Only Chinese netizens with access to foreign VPNs can “jump over the wall” from the inside out.
By conceptualizing the online space of the PRC as an “inverse intranet,” this chapter does not suggest that the Chinese web fits all technological characteristics of an intranet. Nor does it indicate that the China’s “intranet” has no blind spots for information spillovers.
Instead, the technological metaphor of “inverse intranet” enables us to capture the key feature of China’s Internet—that is, the peculiar combination of centralized control and growth. The strategic intent behind China’s unique online policies is to create a sovereign, fully controlled digital universe that represents an alternative to the rest of what of what is known as the global internet.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | Policy and Marketing Strategies for Digital Media |
| Number of pages | 22 |
| Place of Publication | New York and London |
| Publisher | Routledge |
| Publication date | 1 Jan 2014 |
| Pages | 170-191 |
| Chapter | 19 |
| ISBN (Print) | ISBN: 978-0-415-74771-4 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | ISBN: 978-1-315-79430-3 |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2014 |
| Externally published | Yes |
| Series | Routledge Studies in New Media and Cyberculture |
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