Communication in China: Political Economy, Power and Conflict

Impeccably researched. . . . A nuanced and generally easy-to-read book. — Louise Merrington

An outstanding reference point for what we want to know about China’s communication system. To be sure, the book is about much more than communication. In fact, it embraces most of the complex issues and forces involved in China’s political, economic, and social modernization. . . . To China scholars and students, I say put this book on your list of the top 25 books on contemporary China. It is a superb study based on solid research and strong analysis.

Zhao”s nuanced and powerful analysis informs why liberal democracy will not triumphant and why China will not turn back its clock and embrace absolute public ownership.

Particularly insightful, important, and applicable across the disciplinary perspectives from which scholars study contemporary China. Communication in China”s final chapter provides a kind of recapitulation of Chinese intellectual fractiousness―and for this reason alone, the entire book is a must-read for scholars. For teaching advanced undergraduates and graduate students, however, the case study chapters could serve as engrossing readings for contemporary China classes or international and comparative mass communication courses.

A case could easily be made that Yuezhi Zhao”s Communication in China: Political Economy, Power, and Conflict is the best book to appear on media, telecommunication, and the Internet in China since the mid-1990s, when Zhao began her career as a scholar and her rapid ascent to the top ranks of specialists on China”s communication system. . . . Zhao”s vignette filled, beautifully written prose combines with the information richness of Communication in China to make the book a genuine page-turner: enjoyable to read and highly satisfying intellectually. Not only communication scholars, but political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists―everyone, in fact, working on contemporary China―will want to read this book.

For all students of Chinese media and communication . . . Zhao’s latest book is compulsory reading. . . . [It] further consolidates her standing as the brightest shining light and indisputably the most authoritative political economist in the field―a scholar whose influence and impact nevertheless extends far beyond the field of political economy. . . . Jam packed with a breathlessly engaging narrative and often poignant facts, figures and statistics . . . the book is an intellectual tour de force, unrivaled in its firm and comprehensive grasp of empirical materials and intellectual rigor.

With commanding skill, Yuezhi Zhao reveals the conflicted role of communications in an epochal contemporary change: China”s reintegration into global capitalism. Historically grounded and analytically powerful, this work is also vividly nuanced. It is instantly indispensable. — Dan Schiller, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The excellent scholarship provides a badly needed update to the state of Chinese media. Zhao has both breadth and depth as a scholar, providing timely case studies and a wealth of up-to-date information. She makes extensive use of Chinese language sources that are not widely known even by experts in the field. — Barrett L. McCormick, Marquette University