Beyond control and resistance: The dual narrative of the coronavirus outbreak in digital China

ABSTRACT

China has grown into a digital authoritarian with sophisticated and mammoth social control apparatus. But control is set to be met with resistance. In the cyberspace, various actors contest in a nuanced state of coevolution, bringing out porous dynamics beyond control and resistance. This chapter discusses the complex and fluid dynamics in narrative contestation between state and non-state actors over coronavirus outbreak in digital China. Through a case study of ‘Fang Fang Diary’, the most prominent example of citizen-generated digital samizdat amidst the state’s rigid information control during the outbreak, this chapter examines how citizens are galvanized by the public crisis and social media affordances to contest with official narrative, and how the party-state grasps on its paramount control over the digital infrastructure and the participatory nature of social media to flood the cyberspace with official narrative and co-opt non-state actors to drown alternative narrative into ‘digital exodus’ and abeyance. The author thereby suggests ditch the oversimplified control-versus-resistance, or democratization-versus-authoritarianism dichotomous lens in political communication studies. © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Peter Van Aelst and Jay G. Blumler.