Cited by 353Social Media and PoliticsMedia Influence and PoliticsChina's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance

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Why Does China Allow Freer Social Media? Protests versus Surveillance and Propaganda

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Qin, Bei, Strömberg, David, Wu, Yanhui·2017·Journal of Economic Perspectives

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Abstract

In this paper, we document basic facts regarding public debates about controversial political issues on Chinese social media. Our documentation is based on a dataset of 13.2 billion blog posts published on Sina Weibo—the most prominent Chinese microblogging platform—during the 2009–2013 period. Our primary finding is that a shockingly large number of posts on highly sensitive topics were published and circulated on social media. For instance, we find millions of posts discussing protests, and these posts are informative in predicting the occurrence of specific events. We find an even larger number of posts with explicit corruption allegations, and that these posts predict future corruption charges of specific individuals. Our findings challenge a popular view that an authoritarian regime would relentlessly censor or even ban social media. Instead, the interaction of an authoritarian government with social media seems more complex.

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economist.com/news/special-report/21574628- internet-was-expected-help-democratise-china- instead-it-has-enabled. Freedom House. 2012. "Freedom on the Net: China." https://freedomhouse.org/report/ freedom-net/2012/china. Freedom House. 2015. "2015 Freedom of the Press Data." https://freedomhouse.org/ report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2015#.
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See all 353

Authors: Qin, B., Strömberg, D., & Wu, Y.
Affiliations: University of Hong Kong (HK)
Stockholm University (SE)
University of Southern California (US)
ORCID: Qin, Bei
Strömberg, David
Wu, Yanhui
Venue: Journal of Economic Perspectives
Publisher: American Economic Association
Published: 2017-02-01
Volume: 31
Issue: 1
Pages: 117-140
ISSN: 0895-3309 (ISSN-L)
DOI: 10.1257/jep.31.1.117
OpenAlex: W2581925873
Cited by: 353
References: 179
Citations by year: 2026: 27 · 2025: 36 · 2024: 50 · 2023: 60 · 2022: 42 · 2021: 49 · 2020: 34 · 2019: 29 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 7
FWCI: 55.17
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: bronze
doi.org
Locations: The Journal of Economic Perspectives (publishedVersion)
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
The HKU Scholars Hub (University of Hong Kong) (submittedVersion)
Topics: Social Sciences › Communication › Social Media and Politics
Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Media Influence and Politics
Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance
Keywords: social media regulation, authoritarianism, censorship, Weibo, microblogging, protest, political surveillance, propaganda, corruption allegations, online political discussion

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Why Does China Allow Freer Social Media? Protests versus Surveillance and Propaganda

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