The politics of cyber participation in the PRC: The implications of contingency for the awareness of citizens' rights

This article addresses the issue of cyber participation in China, with particular emphasis on the implications of contingency for the awareness of citizens' rights. Two basic research questions are posed. First, is the Chinese government as much in control of public debate on the Internet as it is of debate in the traditional media? Second, does the Chinese government still control and manipulate public opinion as much as it has conventionally done? Authoritarian states like China are usually characterized as controlling and/or manipulating public opinion and as impeding or limiting forms of democratic participation. To answer the two questions above, this article incorporates two case studies - the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak of April 2003 and the BMW incident of October 2003 - that reflect the theme of the Internet and its implications for enhancing citizens' rights in China. It is expected that the exploration of these two contingencies will contribute to wider themes, such as the political impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) upon "virtual" public participation and political transformation both in China and other like-minded authoritarian states.