Page 34 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Feasibility Study of New Media Technology
on Constructing Online Public Sphere

wider national or political issues’ who ‘cooperate(d) with the state to provide services

to the needy’; however, it did not have ‘representative bodies which can make cases to
the rulers with the public backing of their members’ (De Burgh, 2020, p.221).
Scholars have argued that Chinese civil society has remained in its infancy be-
cause citizens have not experienced fully-fledged citizenship in terms of civic rights
and participation (Zhang, 2002), but also indicated that China was on track to become

a mature civil society if the state can play a positive role in bringing Chinese civil so-
ciety to its full capacity (ibid). Due to the deep-rooted centralism rule in China, the
omnipotence of the government is the primary factor that adjust the autonomy of social

forces. However, Chinese civil society differed from the tripartite model of civil society
promoted by neoliberals in the West (Tai, 2006). For the time being, since the economy
in China is gradually breaking away from the influence of the state, it is likely to be
the principal power in nurturing ‘free-wheeling and autonomous groups’ (ibid, p.64),
demonstrating that the media market is stepping out of the shadow of the government

and evolving into a role that actively interacts with both the public and the government.
There are three main points in the debate on civil society in modern China. First,
the unprecedented development of the 1990s and 2000s has been widely recognised as

the result of economic liberalisation (Tai, 2006). Second, although there is no particular
format for democracy in China at present, civil society is the emergent trend and will
be indispensable in the progression of democratisation in China (ibid). Third, compared
with the ‘civil society vs. state’ model in Eastern Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, civil
society in China is confronted with a more complicated situation, where on the one

hand it acts as a rival that takes on the power of the government, while on the other
hand it cooperates with the government to ensure its own survival through institutional
and legal protection that the government provides (ibid). As Tai (2006, p.64) clarified,

it is ‘a powerful force and will likely remain so for years to come’ in China.
The rapid rise of the internet was considered to be ‘the newest and perhaps the
most liberating’ channel that carries mass communication in China (Tai, 2006, p.79). It
has brought new opportunity to the foreground of civil society in shaping political ac-
tion and influencing social developments in the country. The prevalence of the internet

18
18