Outsourcing Surveillance: Online Public Opinion Management in China
Audience: Public Format: In Person
Talk followed by Q&A
Thursday, 18 June 2026, 12pm to 1.30pm
The digital age has afforded autocrats new technologies of control, allowing it to co-opt, pre-empt and repress dissent. But, what if they lack the technical capacity to access digital tools of control? In what ways have digital technologies altered the way autocratic states conduct statecraft? Based on an analysis of more than 3,000 public procurement documents, and a dozen elite interviews with various stakeholders, Lynette Ong and her co-authors found that the Chinese state has outsourced various functions of online surveillance to private and for-profit arms of state-owned corporations. They found that outsourcing surveillance is intended to augment state technical capacity to moderate and fine-tune the conduct of digital repression. Outsourcing digital repression opens up a pandora box of state-business collaborations in autocratic settings.
Lynette Ong is the Distinguished Professor of Chinese Politics at the University of Toronto. A leading scholar of Chinese politics and political economy, she directs the China Governance Lab at the Munk School. She is the author of three books on China and comparative authoritarian politics. Her latest book, Outsourcing Repression, has won seven best book awards. She has been appointed nonresident Senior Fellow at the Asia Society’s Center for China Analysis, and the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. She has been invited to deliver expert testimonies before the US Congress and the Canadian House of Commons. She frequently offers expert commentaries to international and Canadian media.
Speaker(s): Professor Lynette Ong (University of Toronto)
Series: China Studies Seminar Series
Venue:
Dickson Poon Building, Oxford China Centre - Lucina Ho Seminar Room (first floor)
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Lucina Ho Seminar Room Dickson Poon Building, Oxford China Centre Canterbury Road Oxford Oxfordshire OX2 6LU United Kingdom
Department: Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (Department)
Host: Dr Evelyn Chan