Control Through the State of Exception: Opposition, Surveillance, and Fragmentation under Chinese Digital Authoritarianism

To understand the mechanism of social governance employed to facilitate surveillance and exert control over popular contention and organized opposition in the People’s Republic of China by and beyond the law, we introduce the concept of “rightful control”. Based on a theoretical exploration illustrated by typical cases, we examine the impact of the legal and political order constraining opposition in China. We show that the flexible use of information technology in China and its normalization by law enhance social control beyond traditional modes of dispute resolution. While digital technology opens vectors of mobilization for opposition movements, its governance empowers preventive repression, significantly restricting the potential of collective activism. Further, we explore the typology and theory of those state responses to social conflict between legality and the state of exception. The findings provide a theoretical understanding of the legal and political mechanisms of digital authoritarianism and its implications for political opposition in China.