A whistle-stop tour of the whys, wherefores, looks and feels of the Chinese internet.

1. 伊甸之东
Online life beyond the Great Firewall
Miles Metcalfe – @mmetcalfe

2. 前言

3. Where in China?

4. Image: Citizen Pity

5. Image: Happy Zhangjiang @happyzhangjiang

6. Image: QQ News

7. Is China a Communist
Country?

8. The state sector
• UK: 18.2% employment in public sector
• China: 10.2% employment in the public sector
• Singapore: Almost 50% of GDP from SOEs
• China: Around 15% of GDP from SOEs
• Urban China: around 30% of population
employed in SOEs.

9. Leninist Government
• Democratic government: within limits set by “the
Establishment”, elections set goals and select
means.
• Leninist government: “popular will” established
the long-term goal through revolution. The party
sets milestones and chooses means.

10. Not so unfamiliar
Central Committee
Officials
People
Party

11. Now is it?
Board of Directors
Managers
Workers
Shareholders

12. The “C”word
• China is a Leninist autocracy that is run to benefit
its ruling class
• Who are nevertheless afraid of revolution
• Official ideology is a hybrid of state socialism and
nationalism
• What drives China’s growth is capitalism

13. Received politics
• The Mao years bankrupted Communist ideology
• People want to get rich - there is an equation of
money and power
• Some are believers
• Some are cynics
• Most are getting on with it

14. 中国互联网

15. Regulation and
Censorship

16. “When people are using social media for
violence we need to stop them. We are working
with the police, the intelligence services and
industry to look at whether it would be right to
stop people communicating via these websites
and services when we know they are plotting
violence, disorder and criminality.”
–British Prime Minister, David Cameron

17. Why censor?
• Control of the media is a touchstone of Leninist
government
• To prohibit mass organisation
• The West gave autocrats the excuse
• To protect senior leaders from scrutiny
• To protect domestic markets
• To protect foreigners

18. “The principal means by which the PRC
regulates the internet is through its jurisdiction
over value-added telecommunications service
providers whose operations or servers are
located in the PRC. It exerts this jurisdiction
through approval, licensing, permitting,
inspection and reporting obligations imposed on
internet content and service providers in the
PRC.”
–Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

19. How is censorship done?
• Control of the network - the great firewall
• Services providers must comply with monitoring
directives
• 50 cent party to “guide” public opinion
• Many Chinese people can’t read English, and
aren’t attracted to sites where their friends aren’t

20. Debate and dissent
• ZF stands for government
• Grass mud horses and river crabs
• Proxies and VPNs

21. Images: www.cfp.cn

22. Copy to China

27. Axes

30. Access
• Broadband penetration in cities is high, and very
affordable for the middle class
• Smartphones are ubiquitous in cities.
• Mobile phones are cheap
• Metro WiFi, Starbucks, and good signal on the
underground

31. Mobile
• State-owned service providers offer affordable plans, and WiFi services
• Phone hierarchy:
• iPhone - tasteful, sophisticated, “girlie”
• Foreign Android - one for the boys
• Foreign other Smartphone OS (eg, Nokia/Windows)
• Domestic Android - Xiaomi leads the style pack
• Shanzhai
• Anything with a micoSD slot - for side-loading porn

32. Money and power
• East coast cities are wealthier
• Provincial capitals are pretty well off
• Urbanisation is far from complete
• Restive, western provinces are heavily restricted

33. Some key sites

34. Organic Shanghai

35. Taobao

36. TMall

37. We Chat

38. Sina News Portal

39. Wait, what’s this?

40. Baidu Search

41. Baidu Search

42. Sina Weibo

43. Renren: China’s Facebook

44. Dianping

45. Douban

46. Liba

47. Liba Marriage

48. Meituan

49. Yihaodian

50. 谢谢大家

51. 材料

52. http://www.tealeafnation.com/
http://www.danwei.com/
http://cmp.hku.hk/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/
http://www.techinasia.com/tag/china/
http://www.chinalawblog.com/
http://www.chinasmack.com/