New Books in Science, Technology, and Society Daniela Stockmann and Ting Luo, "Governing Digital China" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
Feb 11, 2026
Ting Luo, an expert on Chinese digital governance and AI, and Daniela Stockmann, a scholar of internet governance and digital policy, discuss China’s distinctive state-company-citizen governance model. They outline popular corporatism, platforms’ mediating role, commercial versus political credit systems, limits to data integration, and how competition and user behavior shape platform-state relations.
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The Digital Dilemma Defined
- The "digital dilemma" frames how states balance digital economic growth with political stability.
- Governing Digital China studies how China manages that tradeoff via state, firms, and citizens.
Popular Corporatism Explains Chinese Governance
- Popular corporatism describes a tripartite balance among state, platform firms, and citizens.
- Platforms mediate top-down state goals and bottom-up citizen participation, constraining pure command-and-control.
Two Layers Of Social Credit
- China has both political (state) and commercial social credit strands that remain distinct in practice.
- Commercial scores like Tencent's serve market functions and only sometimes assist local governments.
