China cyber sovereignty: Tightening grip on domestic web access

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  Quantumrun Foresight
• February 8, 2023

China has been unleashing a ruthless crackdown on its tech industry since 2019. According to political analysts, this move was just one of Beijing’s strategies to ensure that foreign ideas do not influence its citizens and that no company or individual becomes more powerful than the China Communist Party (CCP). The country is expected to keep consolidating its power over how its citizens consume information throughout the 2020s, from blocking global social media platforms to staging the “disappearance” of outspoken critics.

China cyber sovereignty context

Cyber sovereignty describes a country's control over how the Internet is run, who gets access to it, and what can be done with all the data created domestically. The CCP has been unstoppable in preserving its ideological power, from violently disrupting Tiananmen Square's 1989 pro-democracy protests to transferring the fight online by crushing Hong Kong's opposition four decades later. Western attempts at slowing down China’s quest for cyber sovereignty through criticism and financial consequence have done nothing to change the country’s information policies. During Beijing’s press coverage of the 2022 Winter Olympics, President Xi Jinping appears as a statesman with full control of his nation. The CCP emphasizes gaining political stability at all costs (including eliminating critics) and believes it is the foundation for economic growth. 

However, under the hood of this calm engine lie censorship, bans, and disappearances. One of the high-profile incidents demonstrating China’s quest for complete control over its citizens’ Internet use is tennis star Peng Shuai’s disappearance in 2021. The former US Open semifinalist disappeared after she posted on the social media platform Weibo about how China’s ex-Vice Premier sexually assaulted her in 2017. Her post was deleted within an hour, and search terms for “tennis” were immediately blocked. Additionally, information about Peng was deleted from the country’s entire Internet system. The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) demanded China to confirm her safety with evidence, or the organization would pull all its tournaments from the country. In December 2021, Peng sat down for an interview with a Singapore-based newspaper, where she recanted her accusations and insisted that she was not on house arrest.

Disruptive impact

The CCP continues to slowly but surely wipe out foreign influences in the country. In 2021, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) released an updated list of about 1,300 Internet news services from which information service providers can only re-post news. The list is a by-product of Chinese authorities’ increased regulation and crackdown on several industries, especially the media sector. The new list, the CAC said in its initial statement, has four times as many outlets as a previous list from 2016 and includes more public and social media accounts. The latest version of the list must be followed by internet news services that republish news information. Outlets that do not comply with the regulations will be penalized.

Another strategy that Beijing has been implementing is reducing the country's dependence on US-made computers and operating systems (e.g., Microsoft, Apple, and their OS’) with Chinese products. Beijing insists that China's digital and information systems can serve as an exemplary model for other countries. 

In addition to keeping a tight lid on its internal communications, China has been pushing its information ideology globally. Since the 2015 launch of the Belt and Road Initiative, China has expanded trade throughout emerging economies through digital initiatives and infrastructures (e.g., the 5G rollout). Essentially, this means that by 2030, there could be a clear divide between two digital worlds: a free system in Western societies versus a tightly controlled system led by China.

Implications of China’s cyber sovereignty

Wider implications of China increasingly stringent cyber sovereignty policies may include: 

• More bans on Western social media platforms and news channels, particularly those that explicitly criticize the CCP. This move will reduce the potential revenues of these companies.


• China threatening harsher penalties upon any individual or organization that attempts to access outside information through VPNs (virtual private networks) and other means.


• More Chinese celebrities and business tycoons routinely disappearing from Internet searches and systems after scandals.


• The CCP continuing to push its cyber sovereignty ideology to other emerging economies by providing them with telecom infrastructures, leading to high national debts and increased allegiance to China.


• Western governments, led by the US, attempting to counter China’s cyber sovereignty attempts through sanctions and global investment projects (e.g., Europe’s Global Gateway plan).

Questions to comment on

• How else is China’s cyber sovereignty influencing global politics?


• How else will cyber sovereignty affect China’s citizens?