The Barbarian Invasions

As the Internet becomes part of our daily routines and as we engage in an ever-growing number of activities online, the cyberspace becomes a contested site of power between corporations wishing to make it profitable and activists advocating a free and open Internet. Aside from being a platform that provides invaluable social, political and economic advantages, the Internet represents a great articulation-and hence a great object of study-between globalization and intellectual property rights (IPRs). While at first view unrelated, those two are the result of a neoliberal doctrine that intends to impose its domination over the information era. Via the study of political economy, technology and international systems of domination, this paper aims at examining these phenomena in the context of China. From the examination of the country's rise on the global stage through Critical Discourse Analysis of free trade agreements, this paper argues that the country is on a set course to upset long imposed power relations and argue for a different, context-based approach to IPRs. Besides depth interviews with IP experts and government officials have further nourished these arguments with new perspectives. Being the biggest beneficiary from globalization, the Chinese seem very positive and confident about it and the development of the Internet in begetting a global community. This myth of a new era relies on a technology that has already radically transformed the lives of hundreds of millions of Chinese and the CCP's administration. The new era for them seems to rest on technology and information, positive forces that one cannot fight. Hence a form of laissez faire and inaction (that suits the Chinese interests) reigns on the cyberspace and in clampdown activities on IPR infringement, despite constant pressures from Western countries. This laissez faire is the starting point for a form of creativity and passive resistance toward the excessive enclosure of culture and information by IPS. As a final point, the encounter of Western and Chinese philosophy provides precious guidance on how to best understand the nature of the Internet and the necessity not to overreact or seek to impose abusive control on a technology we only begin to comprehend.