Internet et Politique En Chine (Internet and Politics in China)

Severine Arsene, Internet et politique en Chine (Internet and Politics in China), Paris, Karthala, 2011, 420 pp.China has already had for many years the largest population of In- ternet users (564 million at the end of 2012), way ahead of the United States (245 million) and even farther ahead of India (137 million). Furthermore, the Chinese communist regime represents a polysemous counterpoint to the Idea that any modernisation process would Inevitably be conducive to a democratic political transformation: the period under the "reform and open door" policy that started In 1978 has gone on longer than the period of repeated tragedies of revolution without leading to any formal proposition on political reform. The Internet In China Is thus challenging the effects associated with the unrealistic "technologies of liberation:" (1) If the new electronic means of communi- cation speed up and deeply transform social relations and the Individuali- sation processes, they do not necessarily guarantee the triumph of liberty over the dark forces of an authoritarian Party-state. Does this mean that politics do not exist on the digital highways of Information In China? Does the apparent omnipotence of fierce censorship forbid any public display of Interest In public affairs? If there Is any political expression, can It be freed from Its official function as a highly valued tool for technocratic gov- ernance? This book by Severine Arsene addresses all these Issues and ad- mirably succeeds In reconstructing the complex expectations of what she calls the "ordinary Internet users. "If the aim Is to "analyse the formation of Chinese public opinion online as a product of a dominant Ideology In urban China," It Is In order to demon- strate that beyond censorship and the self-censorship, "the legitimate meth- ods for speaking out Individually and collectively on the Internet" (p. 47) allow original forms of mobilisation that gain a certain autonomy simply because today the regime builds Its legitimacy partially on the existence of this public opinion. Beyond the famous causes of virtual mobilisations, from the Sun Zhlgang case to the provocative outrage of Ai Welwel over the dis- proportionate number of school collapses during the Sichuan earthquake In 2008, or from the pugnacity of the cyber-journalist Zuola to the " discor- dant" blog of Fu Jianfeng at Nanfang zhoumo (STUl/ff) when the scandal over the melamine-tainted milk began to emerge, Severine Arsene focuses on the multiplicity of the "small daily actions that the Internet users do on- line almost incidentally," which represent "such a smooth form of partici- pation that It Is almost unconscious" but nevertheless "powerful" (p. 411). After a very (too) long Introduction setting out the political context (an authoritarian state governed by a monopolistic party) and the social one (modernisation through the development of middle classes If not "invented" then at least "patronised"), highlighting the balance of power between the state and society, going beyond the dichotomy liberation/repression and taking the usual precautionary academic steps In explaining her sampling of 50 seml-dlrected Interviews with "ordinary Internet users" (young, edu- cated, and urban. In this case exclusively Beijing dwellers), Severine Arsene unravels her main findings In three broad sections, closely combining long excerpts of the stories gathered with more high-profile cases. The first sec- tion focuses on the Issue of modernity and on the form that the affirmation of Individualism takes In China, and ends with the sad statement that the standards Imposed by the dominant Ideology necessarily lead to a distrust of political affairs, which Severine Arsene skilfully refers to as the " evapora- tion of politics. " Nevertheless, the second section emphasises the " respon- sibilising" nature of speaking out online, In whatever form It takes, and the necessity to observe the forms of expression In "chiaroscuro," would avoid the constraints that prevent public speech. …