Trafficking Data: How China is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty

Abstract

shows how, despite censorship and propaganda, netizens’ counter-censorship activities sometimes prevailed. But the overriding message here is of a party-state determined to create an appearance of harmony and cooperation by promoting “positive energy” and decrying critics for their “negativity.” In chapters eight and nine, Yang deals with the important topics of COVID nationalism, and “mourning and remembering.” As the party-state sought to avoid blame for the lockdown and for the death of whistle-blower Li Wenliang in early February 2020, it shifted the narrative to heroic medical professionals, the people’s war on the virus and then to national pride in the successes of “prevention and control” – taking advantage of the many dismal government responses internationally. Again, Yang reminds us of how this narrative draws on rising nationalism and “wolf warrior” trends before 2020. But he also argues that erratic censorship, at least in the early phases of the lockdown, did allow “plural voices” to be heard, even if they have subsequently been silenced and erased. For this reason, and because it collates and contextualizes voices as they emerged in early 2020, The Wuhan Lockdown is a valuable document. Drawing on a wealth of material – over 6000 diary entries – it is a sympathetic account of the experiences of people trapped in Wuhan and an example of the rich work that can be produced using such sources. But of course, it could never be a complete account of citizens’ experiences or a panoramic window onto Wuhan society. Given the digital divide, online material inevitably tends to reflect the experiences of the better off and better educated as well as younger citizenry. There is very little here on the lives of migrants trapped in Wuhan, on the experiences of farmers in Wuhan’s rural hinterland, or on the difficulties experienced by people on low incomes. Yang’s book therefore both demonstrates the importance of documenting history and reminds us of how much we do not know. This is particularly true of experiences of the pandemic in China since the Wuhan lockdown, which includes the privations of millions in Xinjiang due to apparently stringent lockdowns from August to November 2022 – a period longer than the 76 days endured by the citizens of Wuhan. Despite the efforts of scholars such as Yang, with China so isolated during the pandemic, it seems we may only ever have a patchy understanding of its effects on people’s lives and livelihoods. While this book is an important contribution to that understanding, many more stories are left untold.