China and the global politics of telecommunications

VILA SEOANE, MAXIMILIANO FACUNDO

Routledge Encyclopedia of Chinese Studies

Routledge

Año: 2022;

This entry reviews the main issues covered in seminal articles and books written in English between 1978-2021 that examine the relation between China and the global politics of telecommunications. The first section synthesizes the literature that studied the specificities of China’s telecommunications policy from the reform and opening-up until 2000. The second section summarizes key debates after China’s accession to the WTO, which brought under discussion whether or not the state's telecommunications policies were techno-nationalist or techno-globalist. The third section, on the one hand, introduces literature that continued with the debates of previous years. On the other hand, it discusses new research strands exploring the internationalization of Chinese firms into developed economies and the Global South. This process was an outcome of China’s rise in the global economy and its rising prowess in the telecommunications sector. Finally, the last section concludes and lists open issues for further research.