Research On Cybersecurity Governance In China:Based On Policy Text Analysis

With the frequent emergence of cyberspace risks and threats in recent years and the securitization of cyberspace by sovereign states,the main body of cybersecurity governance has gradually shifted to sovereign states.Since 2014,through institutional reforms and functional adjustments,China has established a governmental structure with the central cybersecurity and informatization department as the overall planning agency,accompanied by a series of important policies and regulations.What are the characteristics and paradigms of China’s cybersecurity policy in the new period? Answer this question is of great significance for China’s improvement of the cybersecurity policy system and participation in the global governance of cybersecurity.The thesis is carried out from three aspects: the characteristics and themes of the policy texts,policy paradigm,and comparative study of policy instruments.First,the thesis quantitatively analyzes the policy texts based on the corpus approach to determine the policy themes and policy characteristics and analyzes the interaction process between the policy system and social reality under the guidance of social systems theory.Then,based on Evert Vedung’s policy instrument theory,the thesis applies the grounded method to encode the "policy goal-policy tool-time" of the text and obtains the policy paradigm of China’s cybersecurity governance and its transformations.Finally,the thesis summarizes the practical experience of policy instruments in the United States,the European Union,Australia,and Singapore,four pioneering countries and regions in cybersecurity through literature research.By comparing the policy instruments in China and other countries and regions,the thesis proposes suggestions for China’s follow-up cybersecurity policy instruments.This study found that the coupling resonance between different subsystems brought about three periods of rapid growth in the number of policies and changes in referents of cybersecurity.The stimulation of the cybersecurity environment promotes organizational adjustments within the system and the preference for "short,adaptable,and fast" policy types,shaping multi-level governance arrangements between public and private sectors in the non-traditional security field.From the perspective of the policy paradigm,China’s policy objectives are mainly to prevent cybersecurity risks and supplemented by responding to threats.The former coordinates with regulatory and exhortation policy instruments,and the latter coordinates with regulatory policy instruments.From 2014 to 2022,there was a tendency to reconcile policy goals,the proportion of regulations increased,and the subcategory of policy instruments shifted from meta-instruments to more complex ones.Only first-order changes in the policy paradigm are observable,and there is no paradigm shift yet.Based on the comparison of Chinese and foreign policy instruments,it was found that advanced countries attach great importance to the application of economic policy instruments and exhortation instruments.China seldom uses economic policy instruments.In the future,various policy instruments shall be used to promote the development of the cybersecurity industry and improve the level of collaborative governance between the public and private sectors.The thesis enriches Vedung’s policy instrument theory and social systems theory,puts forward the policy paradigm and development path of China’s cybersecurity governance,and supports China’s subsequent policy formulation and tool set at the practical level.