Controlled diversity – social media in China with Kristin Shi-Kupfer and Katja Drinhausen

China is home to some of the world's largest and most successful social media platforms – several of which have hundreds of millions of users. They are a place for social interaction, entertainment, news and learning. Political topics are also discussed, such as raising the retirement age, family planning policies and the impact of artificial intelligence on the labor market. These debates reflect the socio-economic tensions in the country.

Ahead of the upcoming National People's Congress – formally China's parliament, whose annual ten-day session begins on March 5 – Kristin Shi-Kupfer, Professor of Sinology at Trier University and Senior Associate Fellow at MERICS, and Katja Drinhausen, Head of Program for Domestic Policy and Society at MERICS, join Johannes Heller-John for a conversation about China's digital landscape, the issues discussed there, and Beijing’s efforts to manage online debates.

Together with MERICS Senior Analyst Christina Sadeler, Shi-Kupfer and Drinhausen are the authors of the recently published study “China's fragile online spaces for debates”. The analysis is part of the China Spektrum project funded by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in which MERICS and the China Institute of the University of Trier (CIUT) are involved.

Further reading:

• China‘s fragile online spaces for debate, China Spektrum Report
• Too little, too late? – Demographic and structural challenges hobble China’s pension system, China Spektrum analysis
• China Spektrum on BlueSky
• China Spektrum on Threads
• China Spektrum project website with previous publications