Media Politics in China: Improvising Power under Authoritarianism by Maria Repnikova, (2017). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Abstract

Maria Repnikova challenges the Western idea that there is a straightforward conflict between Chinese journalists and the Chinese Communist Party or the state. She describes a ‘web of complex negotiations’ (3), with critical journalists bargaining for more space within the ambiguous boundaries for reporting that are set by the Party-state. However, she emphasises that the Party has been the ‘band leader’ in this relationship and ‘consistently and uncompromisingly sets the tune’ (207). Consequently, she believes this fluid state-dominated partnership has benefited the Party without damaging its legitimacy. Repnikova argues that the changes in this relationship under Xi Jinping have been ones of degree. However, as the Party-state continues to move away from a strategy of adaptation and reform towards a greater focus on repression, the relationship does seem to be changing more fundamentally from the one she identified. The increasing curbs on critical journalism also suggest the Chinese Communist Party is less convinced that this relationship is benefiting the Party and has concluded that the ‘progressive, gradual change’ (24) that critical journalists hoped to achieve threatened its hold on power.

Keywords

• propaganda
• censorship
• media supervision
• Maria Repnikova
• Wenquan earthquake
• Chinese journalists