Outsourcing Surveillance: Online Opinion Management in China (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781009631990)

The digital age has afforded the governments new technologies of control, allowing them to co-opt, pre-empt and repress dissent. But, what if they lack the technical capacity to access digital tools of control? In what ways have digital technologies altered the way governments conduct statecraft? Based on an analysis of more than 3,000 public procurement documents, and a dozen elite interviews with various stakeholders, we found that the Chinese state has outsourced various functions of online surveillance to private and for-profit arms of state-owned corporations. We found that outsourcing surveillance is intended to augment state technical capacity to moderate and fine-tune the conduct of digital repression. Outsourcing digital repression opens a Pandora's box of state-business collaborations. This Element contributes to the literature on outsourcing repression, state‒business relations, and conduct of digital statecraft.

Author: Lynette Ong,Huihua Nie,Jesslene Lee
ISBN-10: 1009631993
ISBN-13: 9781009631990
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 05/21/2026
Pages: 80
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.26lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.17d