China’s Digital Authoritarianism: A Governance Perspective

Speaker: Monique Taylor (University of Helsinki)

Moderator: Julie Yu-Wen Chen (University of Helsinki)

Venue: Main Building, Room U4072, University of Helsinki

Time: Monday 14 November, 10:15-11:30 AM Helsinki Time

Monique Taylor, our senior lecturer in World Politics, has written a new book on China’s digital authoritarianism. This book provides a governance perspective on China’s digital authoritarianism by examining the political and institutional dynamics of the country’s internet sector in a historical context. Using leading theories of authoritarian institutions, it discusses China’s approach to the internet and methods of implementation in terms of party-state institutions and policy processes. This provides a much-needed ‘inside out’ perspective on digital authoritarianism that avoids the perception of China as some coherent and static monolith.  The study also offers a powerful rationale for China’s cyber sovereignty as an externalisation of its domestic internet governance framework and broader political-economic context. As China shifts from rule-taker to rule-maker in world politics, the Chinese Dream (zhongguo meng) is now going global. Beijing’s digital authoritarian toolkit is being promoted and exported to other authoritarian regimes, making China a major driver of digital repression at the global level.

Come to meet the author and learn about her book! No need for registration.