Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues

Digital technology facilitates information sharing among activists; however, it also affords autocrats new vectors of control, allowing them to surveil and subjugate dissenters. Yet, in China—the world’s most powerful autocratic state where most of the dissent takes place online before spilling over to the street—the state’s prowess in digital surveillance stems from the co-optation of market forces. In Outsourcing Surveillance: Online Opinion Management in China (2026), Lynette Ong and her co-authors examine how the Chinese state manages, moderates, and represses online opinion. Drawing on public procurement documents, the book studies how the Chinese party-state at national and subnational levels has intended to manage online expression of public opinion. Private corporations, along with for-profit arms of state-owned enterprises and public sector organizations, are extensively involved in surveillance of public opinion. This opens up a Pandora’s box of state‒business dynamics in China.