Internet And The Chinese Communist Party

Internet And The Chinese Communist Party

To the communist party and internet are two entities that are linked by issues of information access and censorship. The communist maintains its political power but suppressing all imagined criticism and opposition that is directed towards the regime. Lipset argued that political legitimacy could convince those being ruled that the political system of the day is desirable without considering how effective the regime can meet people’s basic needs. However, allowing citizens to freely access the internet and share their opinion without censoring does not mean that the Chinese society has transitioned to democracy or the fall of the communist party. The government on many occasion has been  put into spotlight with have it respond to certain issues and events that happen within the society and the ruling party has been forced to address it and assure the public that such an event will not occur again. In such cases, the citizens have felt that they have been heard and cared for and this has an indirect effect of raising the legitimacy of the ruling party. The ruling party deserves some credit for it has lead china through rapid economic prosperity that has increased the living standard, life expectancy, and literacy levels.

Many Chinese are not involved in politics especially of opposing the policies of the ruling party and therefore, they are not affected by censorship as some in the western world have projected. Even if there was free access of internet, the most crucial aspect for the ruling party to continue ruling is to prove that, the political system of their country is legitimate. Enforcing better security processes and solving social issues can improve the legitimacy and effectiveness of the ruling party. Therefore, free internet has enabled the population to demand for more human rights and freedom. The government on the other hand has been forced to respond to some of the people’s demand to win their belief that the party and its policies are still important for the welfare of its citizen.

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However, rights groups and answers from the respondent indicate that people are actively debating online about the issues that affect them. Lipset argued that, ‘‘A crisis of legitimacy is a crisis of change’’  and there is no doubt that the ruling communist party will one day face a crisis of legitimacy and be removed from power by force or by stepping down. Democratic value willing the long run be enforced as many people continue to seek freedom of their self but Limongi argue that there is a significant indication that democracy will emerge from conflict, war or economic crisis. Therefore free access information through the internet can be the first step towards democracy but in some cases, this has less impact to the autocratic of the day.

It is clear from the study that many Chinese want to be given more freedom to express their views without being censored but at the same time, they are not willing to challenge the government for they fear the consequences of opposing the government and the resultant benefits that will be lost. However, the study has indicated that, the overall population is willing to demonstrate and demand change on issues that they feel they are not adequately addressed. This shows that public has become more aware of their rights through interaction on the new media but this is not enough to make concrete changes in a society of Chinese caliber  has been under communism rule or over seventy years. This is where the issue of legitimacy comes in. With tremendous improvements that have been carried out by the ruling communist party to improve the Chinese society, the public cannot take them for granted and they view the ruling party as effective and legitimate. Nevertheless, the question here is how long the ruling party can sustain the improvement made so far before the public demand for more. Currently, the ruling party has sustained its legitimacy by addressing issues such as crimes and war on terror and preventing them from happening again. The terrorist event brought out the lime light of information sharing in the internet by use of blogs and network forums up to traditional media that are controlled by the government. This made sure that the government could not ignore but had to acknowledge the tragedy that had happened. With the advent of globalization, events censored in china can still reach other countries and this rises awareness outside china of what is going on. The ruling party find it difficult to dismiss criticism from foreign countries and as such, when there are violation of human rights, the ruling party will always promise to handle them but executing their promise becomes an issue.

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Market analysis 
five forces of Porter will to analyse market characteristics of the social networks in China.

Power of buyers

Social networks sell advertising space and those whose who advertise on this this sites are the buyers. Furthermore, online advertisement is not a preserve of the social networks alone but it also involves platforms. For example, twitter and Facebook are the main competitors of Google and yet they don’t offer the same services. The prospect of competition for online advertisement in china is high because many multinational companies are entering the Chinese market be causing of the booming economy. Because of these, competition for online space will increase and this will reduce the power of buyer

 New entrant power

Government restrictions have reduced the power o new entrants in the market. Foreign companies find it difficult to compete favourably with domestic companies because of strict censorship and regulatory policies imposed by the ruling communist party. In addition to political patronage of the government, other social factors for example the language is a great barrier to foreign companies that want to enter Chinese market. This leaves the big Chinese markets to local media companies and therefore, foreign companies and therefore foreign entrants enough to compete favourably with domestic companies that are well established. Furthermore, foreign companies that have no right connections and fairly to conform to strict censorship policies have negligible probability by obtaining necessary authorization to enter the Chinese market.
Substitute threat
there are many players ranging from social networks, blog and search engines in the Chinese market. Blogs are popular in china and the country has over 50 million bloggers. Therefore, we cannot say that social network are the only platform where users can exchange and share information. The structure of social networks and blogs is different but they are similar in that they can substitute each other and serve the same function of passing and sharing information.  However, many internet users in china are loyal to social networks because of their personalized nature. Social networks that require user to use their real name have the highest loyalty and this reduces the completion rom bloggers and other form of social media.

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Rivalry degree

In spite of the act that there are many online companies operating in china, competition on online arena is not up to the maximum and this is mainly because of restrictions that have been imposed by the government. These restrictions have made so many western companies unable to operate and compete with the domestic Chinese rivals. Major western companies like twitter and Facebook it difficult to compete in Chinese market with a culture inconsistent with what they are used to from their home country. Therefore as much as we can say that the use of internet in china is a sophisticated processes, it appears that market competition is low.
Conclusion

Chinese political system accentuates the fact that the Chinese communist dominates the state and other societal value through its permanent power monopoly. The autocratic policies of the Chinese government are embodied in controlling coverage of both the new and old media. The communist party uses the media to pass out propaganda of uniting the people against unforeseen challenges to international status and sovereignty of the state. The terrorist event that occurred in china exposed to us how fragile Chinese media is and how it is affected by the politics of the

In this photo taken July 20, 2015, Chinese veteran Sun Yibai, 97, looks at materials from his youth at his home in Beijing. Veterans such as Sun have long found themselves on the wrong side of the Communist historical narrative. Their service with the Nationalists led to imprisonment, persecution and often death in the years after the 1949 communist revolution. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

day. The authority not only control coverage of sensitive issues by old and new media but also require foreign providers to comply with strict restriction to track down offenders and suppress political dissents.

China is one of the BRICS country (Brazil, Russia, India, china and south Africa) (Machael Anti {2012, June}). The emerging economies of BRICS countries is providing a new economic power zone that will not only challenge the United States but also the European Union. Ironically, Machael Anti also ridicule for being one of the SICK countries (Syria, Iran, china and Korea North). These are the only four countries in the whole world with no access to Facebook. Michael observation is an irony of the current state of the new media in Chinese society that has experience dramatic socio-economic growth but with strict control of information disseminated on new media platform. China has the most sophisticated media censorship tools in the world that target both old and new media. Traditional media such as television, newspaper, radio and magazine are all the mouthpiece of the ruling communist party. New media censorship has limited debate on domestic social issues such as personal freedom of speech and poor Chinese human records that are considered topic that can disrupt social order.

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The Chinese government has a system called the great firewall of china that blacklist certain search engines, keywords and websites as a response to threats resulting from unrestricted internet access. This complex nationwide firewall is designed to block subversive and pornographic material in real time that can be tweaked by inserting additional keywords. In china, internet use is closely monitored and the content filter. Nevertheless, even with censorship climate, social networks in china are still growing at a highest rate. As over 600 million internet users in china embrace social media, the government has to constantly control  the use of internet by blocking political content that is sensitive as part of its great censorship strategy.

Thousands of army officers are employed by the government to police and control internet use. The government has established internet police bureau that constantly checks chat lines, spikes in internet traffic, screens, monitors blogs with sensitive material, websites, and blocks those who violates the rules. In addition to the army, nearly half of party members of the communist party are also employed by the government to monitor and delete online objectionable content that is a threat to the ruling party. Ministry of public security encourages Citizens are to report disastrous information ranging from banned political issues and dissents and pornographic display.

Furthermore, the government has imported technology such as Green Dam and Youth Escort software that are used to block international websites that are regarded as a threat to the ruling party. Much of the filtering and spying tools that are used the communist government were imported from United States from companies such as Dynamic internet technology, Cisco Systems and Juniper Network. The exchange of uncensored information through the internet is a new kind of revolution for the citizens of china whose lives and mind-set have been tested by domestic social media that have Chinese texture and provide a channel for those who cannot be heard to express their views and opinion and make their voice heard. In china, petition systems without judicial supervision exist on domestic social sites and provides platform for peasants, petitioners and victims to petition the government online instead of going to Beijing. This is done by tweeting their grievances and complain on social sites such as weibo that are then picked by reporters, professors and celebrities that have a high number of followers and this attract the attention of the whole public.

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Moreover, the exchange of uncensored information on new media has shaken the propaganda system of the ruling party and this has changed the relationship between the media and the government. The internet has become an important area for the government to monitor the concerns of the citizens. When the terrorist event happen, the new media reacted very fast to emergency and rapidly reported in more depth the news of the event rom multiple perspectives and transferred the information on  a transparent way to democratic channels than the old media. This enabled the public to be together and help each other to address the calamity. In addition, new media has encouraged the citizen the probe the government on the issues of censorship system while at the same time motivating the state to reflect deeply about openness, accountability and transparency as revealed on the new media to bring more benefit to the Chinese populace, stabilize political situation, and serve the interests of the ruling party. The influence of new media has made it hard for the ruling party to completely supress sensitive news. However, popular western social sites like tweeter, Google, YouTube, Facebook and Tumblr have all been blocked.

In old china media was an arm of the government and it was used as a tool to achieve total dreams of domination. In contrast to old days, the new china has experienced tremendous socio-economic development with high numbers of Chinese reaching higher education level that were brought by socialist reforms of opening up. In a new china, a high number of people have sought to be granted freedom of speech and expression so that they can express their views and opinions. The emergence and development of new media in china has enabled Chinese to achieve some degree of freedom of expression in the virtual environment and this has reshaped public opinion within the Chinese society.

The new media has affected culture to appoint to constructing democratic structure by allowing the citizen to have a platform where they can express their views and opinion while at the same time enabling the government to know what is going on throughout the country. The ruling party has been criticised on many occasion for lack of openness and transparency. Growth and development of new media will spur economic development by stimulating economic growth, increase in productivity, job creation, and improve the quality of services and life. The government needs to have a positive attitude towards the development of new media and grant the citizens freedom of speech and expression by abandoning information censorship on the new media. Moreover, even though information on new media I s restricted by the Chinese censors, it is highly probable that some time in future, the new media will have a great political influence by actively debating, recommending and influencing certain policy actions  and prepare the public for a possible rise of democracy.