THE COMMUNICATION HAVE-NOTS—Understanding communication control and “counter-publics” in contemporary China

This paper takes a new perspective on power and dominance in contemporary China by focusing on the Party-state’s control over communication. By looking at “counter-publics,” the voiceless in the Chinese public sphere, this paper investigates how the Party-state strengthens its controls over freedom of expression; deprives people of means of expression, interaction, and communication; and excludes or marginalizes their voices from the public sphere. It identifies three types of counter-publics—proactive counter-public, reactive counter-public, and potential counter-public—suffering from suppression of communication by the Party-state. As the discussion unfolds, furthermore, the control over communication has played a major role in ensuring regime resilience and solidifying the Party-state’s legitimacy. This paper therefore proposes the term “the communication have-nots” to describe the dominated, calling for more attention to struggles concerning communication, or specifically, means of communication and rights to communication in contemporary China.