Will the government ‘serve the people’?

In the wake of globalization, the idea of electronic government (e-government) has become an integral part of modernization efforts undertaken by countries with a variety of political systems. This article will examine how it is being pursued in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), in order to contribute to our understanding of how e-government works in a non-liberal democratic polity. The analysis will start by focusing on the issues of how the Chinese understand the concept of e-government, continue by looking at what is actually being done by the state for the purpose of establishing it, and finish with a discussion of the methods that can best be used to assess the achievements and problems that are being met.