THE CHINESE MODEL OF CYBER SOVEREIGNTY: MAIN PRINCIPLES AND IMPLEMENTATIONS

Year 2021, Volume: 1 Issue: 2, 149 - 163, 28.12.2021

Enescan Lorci

Abstract

The invention of the internet by a group of engineers in the United States of America in the late 1990s caused enormous changes in people's lives and brought some major debates in the international arena. Undoubtedly, one of the most important of these debates was what should be the scope and limits of states' sovereignty in cyberspace that emerged with the use of the internet. This issue caused a serious disagreement between the US with a techno-optimistic approach, and authoritarian states such as China, Russia, and Iran. While the countries adopting the techno-optimistic view opposed the hegemony of the states in cyberspace, authoritarian states including China argued that cyberspace is a reflection of the physical territory of the state and that states should have full sovereignty in cyberspace. In this context, this article explains China's position in this debate through the explanation of the existence, development, and implementation of China's concept of cyber sovereignty.

Keywords

China, The United States, Internet, Cyberspace, Cyber Sovereignty

References

• Ayers, C. E. (2016). ‘Rethinking Sovereignty in the Context of Cyberspace’ ( 2nd ed.). United States Army War College. https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=802916.
• Creemers, R. (2020). ‘China`s Conception of Cyber Sovereignty: Rhetoric and Realization.’ in Broeders, D. & Berg, B. (Eds), Governing Cyberspace: Behavior, Power and Diplomacy. London, England: Rowman & Littlefield. 10.1007/978-3-319-60405-3. (pp. 107-145).
• Chandel, S., Zang J., Yu Y., Sun J., and Zhang Zhipeng. (2020). ‘The Golden Shield Project of China: A Decade Later An in-depth study of the Great Firewall,’ 2019 International Conference on Cyber-Enabled Distributed Computing and Knowledge Discovery, (pp. 111-119). 10.1109/CyberC.2019.00027
• Negro, G. (2017). ‘The internet in China: From infrastructure to a Nascent Civil Society.’ Gham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing AG. DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-60405-3
• Tai, Z. (2005). The Internet in China: Cyberspace and Civil Society. New York, USA: Routledge Taylor & Francies Group.
• Çiftçi, K. (2018). ‘Millet - System Versus Westphalia - System and International Politics in The Post -Cold-War Period.’ Karadeniz Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 8325, 0– 2. (pp. 1-21). 41531/501301
• Gravett, W. (2020). ‘Digital neo-colonialism: The Chinese model of internet sovereignty in Africa.’
• African Human Rights Law Journal, 20(1) (pp. 125–146). https://doi.org/10.17159/1996-2096/2020/v20n1a5
• Gravett W. H. (2020). ‘Digital Coloniser? China and Artificial Intelligence in Africa’, Survival, 62(6): (pp. 153-178), DOI: 10.1080/00396338.2020.1851098
• Goldsmith, J. L. (1998). The Internet and the Abiding Significance of Territorial Sovereignty. Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, 5(2), 475–491. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25691116
• Jiang, M. (2010). ‘Authoritarian Informationalism: China’s Approach to Internet Sovereignty.’ SAIS Review of International Affairs, 30(2): (pp. 71–89). https://doi.org/10.1353/sais.2010.0006
• Morrison, A. H. (2009). ‘An impossible future: John Perry Barlow’s “Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace.’ New Media and Society,11(1–2):(pp. 53–71). https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444808100161
• Zeng, J., Tim S., and Yaru C. (2017). ‘China’s Solution to Global Cyber Governance: Unpacking the Domestic Discourse of “Internet Sovereignty.’ Politics and Policy, 45(3): (pp. 432–464). https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12202
• Internet Censorship in China Explained. (2020, May 11. Daxue Consulting - Market Research China. Retrieved from https://daxueconsulting.com/internet-censorship-in-china/
• Tiezzi, S. (2014, June 24). China’s ‘Sovereign Internet’ .The Diplomat. Retrieved from https://thediplomat.com/2014/06/chinas-sovereign-internet/
• Tai, Z. (2005). The Internet in China: Cyberspace and Civil Society. New York, USA: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
• Thomala, L. L. (2021, February 11). Internet usage in China - statistics & facts | Statista. Statista. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/topics/1179/internet-usage-in- china/
• Tsui, L. (2003). ‘The panopticon as the antithesis of a space of freedom: Control and Regulation of the Internet in China.’ China Information, 17(2): (pp. 65–82). https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X0301700203
• Dong, F.(2012). ‘Controlling the internet in China: The Real Story.’ The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 21(4): (pp. 1-23). 10.1177/1354856512439500