Table Of ContentIPP STUDIES IN THE FRONTIERS OF
CHINA’S PUBLIC POLICY
Media Power and
its Control in
Contemporary China
The Digital Regulatory Regime,
National Identity,
and Global Communication
Yanling Zhu
IPP Studies in the Frontiers of China’s Public Policy
Series Editor
Feng Zhang, South China University of Technology,
Guangzhou, China
IPP Studies in the Frontiers of China’s Public Policy combines original
research and theoretical innovation to provide fresh insights into the
fast-changing landscape of China’s public policy. Books in the series,
written by scholars based inside China or commissioned by the IPP,
draw on local Chinese experiences to generate empirical findings and
theoretical insights. The field of China’s public policy is broadly defined
to include all aspects of the country’s social, economic, technological
and foreign policies. The series encourage interdisciplinary approaches to
public policy, with a special but not exclusive focus on the study of south
China, especially the Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau Greater Bay Area,
one of the most vibrant regions of growth and innovation in China.
Yanling Zhu
Media Power
and its Control
in Contemporary
China
The Digital Regulatory Regime,
National Identity, and Global
Communication
Yanling Zhu
Institute of Public Policy
South China University of Technology
Guangzhou, China
IPP Studies in the Frontiers of China’s Public Policy
ISBN 978-981-19-6916-4 ISBN 978-981-19-6917-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-6917-1
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In memory of my grandmother Jin Peiling (1943–2021)
Preface
The nine chapters in this book engage with the key issues that have
marked our political and cultural scenes in the past decade: the tight-
ening of political control in the media sector; the presently resurgent
questions of the contemporary Chinese national and cultural identity;
the increasing global power rivalries and their impact on our policy
thinking. My interest in writing the book on media power and its
control goes back to the beginning of my research journey when I was
a student majoring in broadcasting and television at East China Normal
University (ECNU) in the early 2010s. As students and future media
professionals, we were told that media are messages and that we should
use the voice and its power with care and responsibility. Given my initial
interests in China’s cultural sphere, it comes as no surprise that my
questions and analysis will begin with a diagnosis of the broadcasting
industry. The focus on the media sector, however, serves as a starting
point for a broader discussion concerning China’s political, economic
and socio-cultural policies, as well as its soft power initiatives and its
public diplomacy in transition.
vii
viii Preface
The book seeks to offer a timely reassessment of the internal and
external tensions emerging in the interconnected, competitive digital
public sphere. In the past decade, the cultural projection of China
has become increasingly important to the Communist Party of China
(CPC) and to the state in terms of maintaining ideological unity
and social stability domestically while at the same time enhancing its
soft power amid global competition. Since 2012, with the tightened
regulatory framework of the state regulator, the National Radio and
Television Administration (NRTA), traditional and digital broadcasters
have increasingly engaged in the production and promotion of national
discourse, which has embodied the official ideology. At an international
level, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) (a global infrastructure strategy
initiated by the Chinese government in 2013 that seeks to connect Asia
with Africa and Europe to improve regional integration) articulates with
China’s policy of deploying soft power to manage international relations.
In investigating the ways in which national cultural content is being
produced and regulated, this book aims to capture this moment of policy
transition in China’s c ultural s phere. In the m eantime, it opens u p a
discussion about the collective political and cultural values of the nation,
which is manifested in the public discourse.
This book deals with three main issues that are key to China’s
contemporary policy thinking. First, it investigates the evolving digital
regulatory regime in China – a rapidly changing political and cultural
phenomenon. To understand China’s contemporary cultural scene, the
recognition of a shared public space for political communication and
civic engagement is essential. Despite the significant impact of digital
globalisation on the communication model, the concept of the public
sphere still matters profoundly to the vitality of ideological contesta-
tions and competition. This constructed space allows government bodies,
commercial conglomerates, citizens and media professionals to interact
with one another in seeking to achieve a certain level of consensus over
the public discourse. Second, it explains the recomposition of China’s
national identity as part of the national policy framework that serves its
political, economic and diplomatic imperatives. How national culture
is reproduced and promoted in the present time and space is deeply
concerned with China’s policy goals of maintaining social stability at
Preface ix
home and containing ideological rivalries abroad – this justifies the policy
practices of establishing a centralised regulatory framework to create a
level playing field for traditional and digital media and developing the
international broadcasting network as tools for public diplomacy. Third,
it examines the current condition of China’s increasingly assertive diplo-
matic regime in seeking to articulate its national discourse and engage
in global communication. It examines the promotion of China’s cultural
values as the main policy objective associated with the soft power initia-
tive. Given the global contest for political and cultural power, however,
China’s cultural sector needs to build up a coherent discursive struc-
ture before trying to gain international audience trust. Although China’s
international broadcasters have engaged in cultural exchange activities
in the global audience marketplace, their role in facilitating public
diplomacy and affecting political discourse – is in need of reassessment.
Methodologically, this research takes an ethnographic approach to
discuss the policy practices within China’s broadcasting industry. It uses
document analysis, in-depth interviews and participant observation as
its main methods, to explore the gap between the contemporary policy
regime and its implementation in national broadcasters and streaming
services, taking into account the interplay between broadcasters, political
bodies, producers and audiences. Considering the difficulties in getting
access to the media industry, related to the unpredictable risks of political
sensitivities, the primary data of this research have provided the readers
with a unique opportunity to understand not only the mechanism of
production and regulation within China’s media institutions, but also
their interactions with the wider global marketplace. As discussed, the
objective of this book is to deal with the contemporary role of Chinese
national broadcasters in mediating the public discourse, the collective
reimagining of China’s national identity, and the recent policy initiative
of using state media as a means of nation branding. Cases investigated
include China Central Television (CCTV) Documentary, China Global
Television Network (CGTN), and the Shanghai Media Group (SMG),
as well as co-productions made by CCTV and international media firms,
including the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Discovery and
the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK). In the meantime, a wide
range of in-depth interviews were conducted: I have carried out a total
x Preface
number of 56 interviews during the initial fieldwork in 2019 and the
follow-up fieldwork in 2022 while editing the book. 46 in-depth inter-
views were conducted in 2019 during my fieldwork in China and the
UK, with media professionals (including 36 semi-structured interviews
and 10 unstructured in-depth interviews), and 10 follow-up interviews
(with 8 previous interviewees and 2 new participants) were conducted in
2022 during my second round of fieldwork. While the original field trips
focused on identifying and discussing the key challenges and possible
solutions of media production and regulation, the second round was
designed to illustrate the continuities and changes before and after 2020.
What, then, are the main takeaways of this research? Tensions emerge
not only between the tightening of control of a top-down production
framework and the growth of commercial and creative forces, but also
between the rise of a national regulatory agenda and a policy goal of
global engagement. Situated in an increasingly competitive, globalised
cultural sphere, this book argues that the state, the market and media
institutions in China are renegotiating a collective national cultural iden-
tity to overcome internal conflicts and enhance social stability; in the
meantime, the interplay between political, commercial and professional
forces continually shapes China’s policy response to global communica-
tion, which is now seeking the role of public diplomacy in state media.
These policy trends have emerged since 2010 and have continued to
develop since 2020 when Covid-19 marked an unprecedented challenge
regarding domestic politics and international affairs.
This book deals with the theories and practices of power in commu-
nication that connects the state, the market and the citizens, with a
particular focus on the predominance of political control and the expan-
sion of market forces in China, and on how the struggles involving media
may relate to the pressing question of national identity. Its conceptual,
theoretical and methodological framework is unified by the recognition
of contested processes of media production and regulation, considering
the role of China’s national media organisations in mediating the ideo-
logical conflicts at home and abroad. Situated in the interconnected,
competitive cultural arena, the questions of media power and its control
remain at the heart of digital communication and global governance.
