I am an associate professor in the Department of International Affairs at the University of Georgia. My research interests center on the intersections of contentious politics, media, and Chinese politics. Address: 322 Candler Hall, Athens, GA 30602
Increasing tensions between the United States and China, a rise in anti-Asian sentiment, and the ... more Increasing tensions between the United States and China, a rise in anti-Asian sentiment, and the risk of government surveillance has dramatically altered the teaching and research contexts for scholars of Chinese politics. In this conversation, Dan Chen (University of Richmond), Rongbin Han (University of Georgia), and John Yasuda (Johns Hopkins University) discuss how questions of identity, politics, and security have affected classroom dynamics and their future research endeavors.
Author(s): Han, Rongbin | Advisor(s): O'Brien, Kevin J | Abstract: Drawing on twelve months o... more Author(s): Han, Rongbin | Advisor(s): O'Brien, Kevin J | Abstract: Drawing on twelve months of fieldwork and over two years of in-depth online ethnographic work, the dissertation examines state management and popular activism on Chinese internet forums as a window onto China's authoritarian state. Through examination of state management and popular activism on Chinese internet forums, I find not only a conventional cat-and-mouse censorship game in which the party-state, intermediary actors and forum users struggle over the limits of online expression, but also discourse competition in which the regime, its critics and netizens engineer popular opinion to their advantage.I find that censorship is more complicated than the usual picture of state-society confrontation. It involves the fragmented state, many intermediary actors and netizens with diverse purposes and motivations. To understand the mechanism of the censorship, I trace the evolution of the state censorship system, ...
Using a detailed case study of house eviction in peri-urban China as well as original data from a... more Using a detailed case study of house eviction in peri-urban China as well as original data from an online survey experiment, this article explores the opportunistic bargaining phenomenon in China in which citizens leverage the policy priorities of authorities with tactics that are not approved by the state to bargain for goals beyond those promised by the state. We find that opportunistic bargaining is widely accepted by Chinese citizens and that such an inclination is encouraged by successful precedents and clear signals of an opening through which to leverage government policy priorities; however, it is dampened by unclear signals and failed precedents. We also find that opportunistic bargainers tend to hold more negative perceptions of the current regime and are less likely to abide by state rules or social norms. The characteristics of opportunistic bargaining appear to be the opposite of the dominant “rightful resistance” framework.
Abstract Recent studies on internet politics in China have gone beyond the once dominant control–... more Abstract Recent studies on internet politics in China have gone beyond the once dominant control–liberalization perspective and directed intellectual attention to the varieties of online activism. Based on extensive in-depth online ethnographic work, this project explores the pluralization of online expression in Chinese cyberspace. Following a constituency of internet users who identify themselves as the “voluntary fifty-cent army,” the paper explores how these users acquire and consolidate their identity and combat criticism that targets the authoritarian regime. Analysis of the confrontational exchanges between the “voluntary fifty-cent army” and their opponents suggests that a perspective that goes beyond state censorship and regime-challenging activism is required in order to gain a better understanding of online expression in China. Close examination of why and how internet users may voluntarily defend the authoritarian regime also reveals how the dynamics in online discourse competition may work to the authoritarian regime's advantage. 摘要 近期对于中国网络政治的研究已经逐渐超脱了曾占主导地位的“自由化-控制”视角, 开始越来越关注网络行动主义的多样性。本文基于广泛而深入的网络志研究, 探讨中国网络空间表达的多元化问题。通过跟踪观察一群自称为“自带干粮的五毛” (简称“自干五”) 的网民, 本文试图探究他们如何获得并强化“自干五”的虚拟身份认同并与网络上批评现政权的话语进行论战。这种“自干五”群体与其对手之间的言辞交锋和话语竞争表明对于中国网络表达的理解不应该局限于国家审查与体制挑战的视野。仔细分析网民为何及如何自发维护中国的现政权也有助于我们了解多元化的网络话语竞争在何种情况下会对当前的威权体制产生有利的结果。
This article explores why the term “public intellectual” has turned into a disgraceful label in C... more This article explores why the term “public intellectual” has turned into a disgraceful label in Chinese cyberspace. Through examining how netizens have constructed the negative perception of “public intellectuals,” it shows that the Internet has not only empowered regime critics, but also promoted pluralization of expression by bringing different values, beliefs and identities into contact with an unprecedented frequency and intensity. The denigration of public intellectuals illustrates the contestation between digitally expressed civility and incivility, which has yet to be sufficiently discussed. Findings in this study also suggest that “authoritarian resilience” depends on the regime’s adaptability as well as the dynamics between its supporters and challengers.
Supplemental Material, sj-pdf-1-prq-10.1177_10659129211064536 for Scaling Authoritarian Informati... more Supplemental Material, sj-pdf-1-prq-10.1177_10659129211064536 for Scaling Authoritarian Information Control: How China Adjusts the Level of Online Censorship by Rongbin Han and Li Shao in Political Research Quarterly
Increasing tensions between the United States and China, a rise in anti-Asian sentiment, and the ... more Increasing tensions between the United States and China, a rise in anti-Asian sentiment, and the risk of government surveillance has dramatically altered the teaching and research contexts for scholars of Chinese politics. In this conversation, Dan Chen (University of Richmond), Rongbin Han (University of Georgia), and John Yasuda (Johns Hopkins University) discuss how questions of identity, politics, and security have affected classroom dynamics and their future research endeavors.
Author(s): Han, Rongbin | Advisor(s): O'Brien, Kevin J | Abstract: Drawing on twelve months o... more Author(s): Han, Rongbin | Advisor(s): O'Brien, Kevin J | Abstract: Drawing on twelve months of fieldwork and over two years of in-depth online ethnographic work, the dissertation examines state management and popular activism on Chinese internet forums as a window onto China's authoritarian state. Through examination of state management and popular activism on Chinese internet forums, I find not only a conventional cat-and-mouse censorship game in which the party-state, intermediary actors and forum users struggle over the limits of online expression, but also discourse competition in which the regime, its critics and netizens engineer popular opinion to their advantage.I find that censorship is more complicated than the usual picture of state-society confrontation. It involves the fragmented state, many intermediary actors and netizens with diverse purposes and motivations. To understand the mechanism of the censorship, I trace the evolution of the state censorship system, ...
Using a detailed case study of house eviction in peri-urban China as well as original data from a... more Using a detailed case study of house eviction in peri-urban China as well as original data from an online survey experiment, this article explores the opportunistic bargaining phenomenon in China in which citizens leverage the policy priorities of authorities with tactics that are not approved by the state to bargain for goals beyond those promised by the state. We find that opportunistic bargaining is widely accepted by Chinese citizens and that such an inclination is encouraged by successful precedents and clear signals of an opening through which to leverage government policy priorities; however, it is dampened by unclear signals and failed precedents. We also find that opportunistic bargainers tend to hold more negative perceptions of the current regime and are less likely to abide by state rules or social norms. The characteristics of opportunistic bargaining appear to be the opposite of the dominant “rightful resistance” framework.
Abstract Recent studies on internet politics in China have gone beyond the once dominant control–... more Abstract Recent studies on internet politics in China have gone beyond the once dominant control–liberalization perspective and directed intellectual attention to the varieties of online activism. Based on extensive in-depth online ethnographic work, this project explores the pluralization of online expression in Chinese cyberspace. Following a constituency of internet users who identify themselves as the “voluntary fifty-cent army,” the paper explores how these users acquire and consolidate their identity and combat criticism that targets the authoritarian regime. Analysis of the confrontational exchanges between the “voluntary fifty-cent army” and their opponents suggests that a perspective that goes beyond state censorship and regime-challenging activism is required in order to gain a better understanding of online expression in China. Close examination of why and how internet users may voluntarily defend the authoritarian regime also reveals how the dynamics in online discourse competition may work to the authoritarian regime's advantage. 摘要 近期对于中国网络政治的研究已经逐渐超脱了曾占主导地位的“自由化-控制”视角, 开始越来越关注网络行动主义的多样性。本文基于广泛而深入的网络志研究, 探讨中国网络空间表达的多元化问题。通过跟踪观察一群自称为“自带干粮的五毛” (简称“自干五”) 的网民, 本文试图探究他们如何获得并强化“自干五”的虚拟身份认同并与网络上批评现政权的话语进行论战。这种“自干五”群体与其对手之间的言辞交锋和话语竞争表明对于中国网络表达的理解不应该局限于国家审查与体制挑战的视野。仔细分析网民为何及如何自发维护中国的现政权也有助于我们了解多元化的网络话语竞争在何种情况下会对当前的威权体制产生有利的结果。
This article explores why the term “public intellectual” has turned into a disgraceful label in C... more This article explores why the term “public intellectual” has turned into a disgraceful label in Chinese cyberspace. Through examining how netizens have constructed the negative perception of “public intellectuals,” it shows that the Internet has not only empowered regime critics, but also promoted pluralization of expression by bringing different values, beliefs and identities into contact with an unprecedented frequency and intensity. The denigration of public intellectuals illustrates the contestation between digitally expressed civility and incivility, which has yet to be sufficiently discussed. Findings in this study also suggest that “authoritarian resilience” depends on the regime’s adaptability as well as the dynamics between its supporters and challengers.
Supplemental Material, sj-pdf-1-prq-10.1177_10659129211064536 for Scaling Authoritarian Informati... more Supplemental Material, sj-pdf-1-prq-10.1177_10659129211064536 for Scaling Authoritarian Information Control: How China Adjusts the Level of Online Censorship by Rongbin Han and Li Shao in Political Research Quarterly
Chris Shei (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Chinese Discourse Analysis (Routledge), 2019
This chapter explores how pluralization of expression may have in some ways worked against democr... more This chapter explores how pluralization of expression may have in some ways worked against democratic discourses in Chinese cyberspace. Using a mix-method approach combining in-depth online ethnographic work and computer-aided content analysis, it investigates how ordinary netizens have engaged the discourse competition on “gongzhi,” an abbreviated term popularly used to refer to “public intellectuals.” The chapter finds that freer online expression has not only empowered criticisms of the authoritarian regime, but also brings those regime challengers under scrutiny and attacks. In particular, the rise of an anti-gongzhi discourse—by denigrating “public intellectuals”—has worked to the party-state’s advantage, helping it to defame its critics and to undermine the pro-democracy discourses they advocate.
Teresa Wright (ed.) Handbook of Dissent and Protest in China (Edward Elgar Publishing), 2019
Cyber nationalism in China is on the rise, with complex implications for authoritarian rule. On o... more Cyber nationalism in China is on the rise, with complex implications for authoritarian rule. On one hand, nationalistic netizens in general demonstrate pro-regime inclinations and side with the state in online debates. On the other hand, popular nationalism often directly contests the state's claims to nationalist legitimacy and runs the risk of collective mobilization. What happens when a nationalistic fever meets with the authoritarian state? This chapter explores the party-state's efforts to rein in cyber nationalism and netizens' reactions by examining the "Diba Expedition"-an online event in which Chinese nationalist netizens flooded the Facebook page of president-elect Tsai Ing-wen in early 2016 to defend the "One China" principle. This patriotic event was full of irony, given that Facebook is banned in China and the party-state made diligent efforts to censor relevant mobilizing threads. Such conflict between spontaneous patriotism and state repression calls into question both the legitimacy of the regime and nature of Chinese nationalism. However, content analysis of posts in the "Diba Expedition" finds that many nationalists seem to have found a way to reconcile authoritarian rule with their love of the nation.
Axel Bruns, Eli Skogerbø, Christian Christensen, Anders Olof Larsson, and Gunn Sara Enli (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics (Routledge), 2015
Building on existing studies, this chapter examines cyberpolitics in the world’s largest authorit... more Building on existing studies, this chapter examines cyberpolitics in the world’s largest authoritarian regime, China, and attempts to evaluate the impact of the Internet and social media on the authoritarian rule. Through analysis of cyberactivism and state adaptation in relation to each other, I argue that though the digital technology has empowered Chinese citizens in multiple ways, their general political inactiveness and the pluralization of cyberactivism, exacerbated by state censorship, have prevented regime transition from becoming the shared awareness. Moreover, the Chinese state has adapted far beyond censorship and propaganda. Its attempt to accommodate cyberactivism is also crucial to explain the authoritarian regime’s resilience.
The Internet was supposed to be an antidote to authoritarianism. It can enable citizens to expres... more The Internet was supposed to be an antidote to authoritarianism. It can enable citizens to express themselves freely and organize outside state control. Yet while online activity has helped challenge authoritarian rule in some cases, other regimes have endured: no movement comparable to the Arab Spring has arisen in China. In Contesting Cyberspace in China, Rongbin Han offers a powerful counterintuitive explanation for the survival of the world’s largest authoritarian regime in the digital age.
Han reveals the complex internal dynamics of online expression in China, showing how the state, service providers, and netizens negotiate the limits of discourse. He finds that state censorship has conditioned online expression, yet has failed to bring it under control. However, Han also finds that freer expression may work to the advantage of the regime because its critics are not the only ones empowered: the Internet has proved less threatening than expected due to the multiplicity of beliefs, identities, and values online. State-sponsored and spontaneous pro-government commenters have turned out to be a major presence on the Chinese internet, denigrating dissenters and barraging oppositional voices. Han explores the recruitment, training, and behavior of hired commenters, the “fifty-cent army,” as well as group identity formation among nationalistic Internet posters who see themselves as patriots defending China against online saboteurs. Drawing on a rich set of data collected through interviews, participant observation, and long-term online ethnography, as well as official reports and state directives, Contesting Cyberspace in China interrogates our assumptions about authoritarian resilience and the democratizing power of the Internet.
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Papers by Rongbin Han
Han reveals the complex internal dynamics of online expression in China, showing how the state, service providers, and netizens negotiate the limits of discourse. He finds that state censorship has conditioned online expression, yet has failed to bring it under control. However, Han also finds that freer expression may work to the advantage of the regime because its critics are not the only ones empowered: the Internet has proved less threatening than expected due to the multiplicity of beliefs, identities, and values online. State-sponsored and spontaneous pro-government commenters have turned out to be a major presence on the Chinese internet, denigrating dissenters and barraging oppositional voices. Han explores the recruitment, training, and behavior of hired commenters, the “fifty-cent army,” as well as group identity formation among nationalistic Internet posters who see themselves as patriots defending China against online saboteurs. Drawing on a rich set of data collected through interviews, participant observation, and long-term online ethnography, as well as official reports and state directives, Contesting Cyberspace in China interrogates our assumptions about authoritarian resilience and the democratizing power of the Internet.