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Regime Transition and the Chinese Politics of Technology: From Mass Science to the Controlled Internet

Abstract The article employs the concepts of the politics of technology and regime transition for analysing the connection between political power and the application of technology in contemporary Chinese history. Examining the Maoist policy of ‘mass science’ and the contemporary Chinese Communist Party (CCP) policies on information and communication technologies, and Internet control, shows how regime-determined policy goals, namely social transformation and political security, have been reflected in the politics of technology during the Maoist and the post-Maoist eras. Through this examination, the article shows how controlling technologies has always been closely connected to the political order in China and how this diagram of power has changed through time. The transition from a totalitarian to a post-totalitarian political order has shifted the Chinese politics of technology from the hard core of the political order to its protective belt. Accordingly, the criteria set for allowed forms of technology have been reduced from the Maoist plural must-nots to the single must-not: technology must not be allowed to jeopardize the position of the CCP as the exclusive holder of the ultimate political power in China. Still, maintaining a post-totalitarian autocratic system requires engaging in a distinct type of politics of technology.