The Role Of Online Nationalism In Chinese Politics

The growing presence and influence of China’s online nationalists mean that they are an increasingly important actor within modern Chinese society. The advent of the internet and the rise of online Chinese nationalism has resulted in major changes to the structure of Chinese society. How will these new changes affect Chinese politics? This paper seeks to answer that question by analyzing the role that China’s online nationalists will play in the current political setup. Will the nationalists be a source of political instability or will they be successfully incorporated into the political setup and instead play a stabilizing role? The role of online nationalists is analyzed from two different angles:the international and the domestic angle. Analysis of the international angle highlights the tendency for nationalist movements to shift from one that is primarily anti-foreign into one that his highly critical of the government’s alleged shortcomings. Analysis of the domestic angle highlights the efforts by the party-state to bring the nationalists back under the single-party banner. Despite the admirable efforts by the party-state to incorporate the nationalists back the current political system, the threat of political instability stemming from the actions of nationalists remains high. The adoption of a rigid agenda by China’s nationalists coupled with the emergence of a widening gap between grassroots nationalism and state-led nationalism hint at the possibility of future political instability.