Abstract
The spreading application of digital networks throughout China’s social, economic and political structures exposes the Communist Party to new weaknesses that are increasingly exploited by citizens and used by them to contest and restrain its power monopoly. The Party successfully counters these trends by employing alternative web tactics. To make sense of this dynamic, the paper proposes a new concept of power as shared weakness (ruò shì jūn zhān de lì liàng). The term refers to the inability of actors (from the most powerful to the least powerful) to exercise full control over the digitally networked environment in which they operate.
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