The Evolution And Future Choice Of China’s Internet Content Governance Policies

The Internet has become an important carrier for providing social public services and facilitating people’s production and life.Establishing,managing and using the Internet well has become a symbol of the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity.the Internet has become an important force influencing the world.Whether it can adapt to and lead the development of the Internet is already a key to determining the rise and decline of great powers.Internet content has multiple attributes and ideological characteristics in politics,economy,and culture,which affect the cognition and behavior of netizen groups.Internet content governance is directly related to national political security,ideological security,social harmony and stability,and the vital interests of cyberspace subjects.How effective it is depending direct on the selection and implementation of policies.After 28 years of practice and exploration,China has formed a relatively perfect network content governance policy system,but no matter from the changes in the internal and external situation,or from the perspective of the policy itself,it needs to be further optimized and improved,and needs systematic and indepth research to provide support.This thesis systematically combs through the evolution process of China’s Internet content governance policy,illustrates its inner mechanism,analyzes the internal and external situations and existing problems it faces,and then discusses the framework and path for its promotion and optimization in the future.The full text includes three parts: introduction,text and conclusion.The introduction part mainly introduces the reasons for the topic selection,theoretical and practical significance,research ideas and methods in studying literature review,together with main innovations and difficulties.The first chapter is the conceptual definition and theoretical basis of the Internet content governance policy,focusing on identifying the research scope,theoretical tools and analytical framework of this thesis.Combining the interpretation of the policy meaning in Public Policy and the definition of network information content governance in official documents,it defines the connotation and extension of China’s Internet content governance policy,and frames the policy scope studied in this thesis,including the instructions and requirements of the party and state leaders,important documents,laws and regulations,judicial interpretations,departmental rules,normative documents and other specific forms issued by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council,as well as the means and methods of implementing policies.Through the explanation of the theoretical basis,aiming at the characteristics of the Internet content governance policy,a theoretical analysis framework combining the policy process theory with the network governance theory and the government regulation theory is determined.The second and third chapters systematically analyze the evolution process and internal mechanism of China’s Internet content governance policy.China’s Internet content governance policy is deeply embedded in the historical process of China’s development,governance,and the use of Internet.Its evolution follows the logic of “technological innovation—promoting development—emerging problems—introducing policies”.It has gone through four stages:groping and exploring(1994–1999),ramming the foundation and erecting the beam(2000–2007),strengthening comprehensively(2008–2013),and transforming and perfecting(2014–present),constructing a comparatively sound Internet content governance policy system that conforms to national conditions.The evolution of China’s Internet content governance policy not only follows the law of public policy changes,but also embodies the characteristics of China’s Internet development.It has theoretical logic,historical logic and practical logic based on the combined action of internal and external factors,and has explicit and implicit political values,cultural values,social values and economic values.These three basic logics and four value orientations constitute the internal mechanism of the evolution of China’s Internet content governance policy.The fourth chapter analyzes the internal and external situations faced by China’s Internet content governance policies and the main practices of other countries,offering targets and basis for promoting policy optimization and improvement.Concentrating on the policy environment,this thesis analyzes the internal and external situations faced by China’s Internet content governance policies from three dimensions: strong policy-driven forces,severe challenges in cyberspace,and a increasingly complex external environment;based on the policy itself,it analyzes the main problems of China’s Internet content governance policies from five aspects:insufficient balance of value orientation,relatively closed policy process,policy quality to be improved,unbalanced policy tool structure,and weak policy implementation synergy.At the same time,sort out the regular practices that can be used for reference in the Internet content governance policies of other countries,especially western countries to serve as "stones from other mountains".The fifth and sixth chapters emphasize analyzing the future choices and optimization strategies of China’s Internet content governance policies,and constructing a framework and approach for future optimization and improvement of policies.The future improvement and optimization of China’s Internet content governance policies should grasp four aspects:complying with internal regulations,highlighting the balance of interests,expanding legitimacy recognition,and presenting a state of synergy.In the direction of policy objectives,we should better balance the interests of different cyberspace subjects,including policy subjects and objects,considering the multi-dimensional value orientations of development and security,freedom and order;optimize and improve policy supply,policy implementation,and policy support,and enhance the legitimacy,recognition,and effectiveness of policies.On the path to realization,we should follow the Party Principle,people supremacy,the spirit of rule of law,and overall coordination,and implement five key strategies: first,the balance of value orientation: to sharpen the protection of development and rights and interests,and to focus on balancing purification and construction as well as the relationship between power and obligation;the second is the opening of policy formulation: to increase the degree of orderly engagement of society,including multiplying the source channels of policy issues,fully integrating public opinions on the policy agenda,and widely soliciting opinions from all parties on policy plans;the third is the optimization of policy implementation: to construct a collaborative and efficient action mechanism,to further clarify the responsibility orientation of each policy implementation subject,and to build a guarantee mechanism to promote the collective action of each policy subject;the fourth is the combination of policy tools: to constitute a “3 + N” linkage Internet governance pattern,and to form Internet content linkage governance pattern based on the rule of law,the rule of virtue,and the rule of technology,supplemented by the self-organization function of the network and the use of economic adjustment tools.Fifth,the improvement of policy evaluation: to build the objective and accurate effect evaluation mechanism,to determine the evaluation strategy of classified policy implementation,and to construct a Internet content policy evaluation index system from the four dimensions of policy openness,policy awareness,policy recognition,and policy effectiveness.Based on the above research and analysis,the conclusion part points out that as a public policy that directly affects the country’s political security and ideological security,and as an important component of the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity,the Internet content governance policy has long been not a question of whether to want it or not,but how to further optimize and perfect it.We should use systematic,open and shared thinking,summarize laws from historical practice,grasp the direction from the changing trend,analyze problems based on the situation and environment,learn from experience in cooperation and communication,and promote the continuous optimization and improvement of China’s Internet content governance policy through innovation in practice and theory,and macro,meso,and micro coordination.