The tangled web: does the internet offer promise or peril for the Chinese Communist Party?

This paper seeks to address the divide between political rhetoric and reality on the question of the impact of the Internet on China. Many politicians and pundits steadfastly promote the Internet as a conduit for democracy, without empirical proof to support their statements. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the debate over information technology and the Internet in China. The Chinese Communist Party is employing a number of approaches to control the Internet, from introducing numerous regulations to encouraging self‐censorship, with some success. This paper will examine state‐coordinated measures to control the use of the Internet, look at how the Internet could be making CCP rule more effective, and consider the validity of the argument that the Internet represents a threat to CCP rule.