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Jon Sullivan

University of Nottingham, School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, Faculty Member

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I don't update this site often; My homepage jonlsullivan.com has all my papers, reviews etc, not just the few listed here.
Supervisors: Cees van der Eijk, Will Lowe, and Phil Cowley
Address: School of Contemporary Chinese Studies,
China Policy Institute,
University of Nottingham
Nottingham
UK

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Papers by Jon Sullivan

Time Matters in Cross-Strait Relations: Tsai Ing-wen and Taiwan's Future

The China Quarterly, Feb 16, 2024

Taiwan's 2012 Presidential Election

Political Studies Review, 2012

In January 2012 Taiwan concluded elections for the presidency and legislature. Incumbent Ma Ying-... more In January 2012 Taiwan concluded elections for the presidency and legislature. Incumbent Ma Ying-jeou was re-elected and his KMT party retained a parliamentary majority, albeit both in reduced form. This article provides a brief account of the presidential election, focusing on how the campaign was fought, addressing the salient issues, and discussing the results and their implications for political competition in Taiwan and in terms of cross-Strait relations.

Electronic Resources and the Study of Political Elites in Russia

Europe-Asia Studies, 2013

ABSTRACT Developments in the information society in Russia have led to the creation of an abundan... more ABSTRACT Developments in the information society in Russia have led to the creation of an abundance of online primary texts by political actors and institutions. This article surveys a large selection of official electronic texts with the aim of encouraging more extensive use of online sources and easing researchers&#39; navigation of Russian politicians&#39; use of the internet. While the authors do not claim that online data can replace the insights gained from elite interviews, the article suggests that online texts could be used more extensively as a valuable addition to existing methods applied to the study of Russian political elites.

Defending Negativity? Evidence from Presidential Campaigns in Taiwan

East Asia, 2009

This article presents an empirical analysis of TV and newspaper advertising across four president... more This article presents an empirical analysis of TV and newspaper advertising across four presidential election campaigns in Taiwan. The findings suggest that although there are high levels of negativity, negative claims are a potential source of substantive information for voters. The findings support theoretical expectations derived from work in the US, and confirm that negative advertising can be a prevalent mode of campaign communication in non-western, newer democracies.

Representing China in the South Pacific

East Asia, 2012

Abstract Chinese diplomacy, aid, economic interactions and manifestations of soft power have incr... more Abstract Chinese diplomacy, aid, economic interactions and manifestations of soft power have increased the country&amp;#x27;s influence in the South Pacific region. By some accounts, China&amp;#x27;s influence is already approaching that of traditional stakeholders Australia and New Zealand. In Africa and other regions state-led and private activities in established powers&amp;#x27; perceived spheres of influence has caused concern and inspired particular narratives about China&amp;#x27;s motivations. In this article we examine how media discourses in Australia and ...

Strategic cross-Strait discourse: A comparative analysis of three presidential terms

China Information, 2013

Republic of China presidents Chen Shuibian and Ma Yingjiu have espoused substantially varied posi... more Republic of China presidents Chen Shuibian and Ma Yingjiu have espoused substantially varied positions at different times on cross-Strait relations. Given the prominence of the presidents’ rhetoric in an otherwise relatively stable relationship, these discursive fluctuations have been a cause of consternation and curiosity for observers of the cross-Strait relationship. However, their behaviour is consistent with democratic politics in general (issues and policy stances evolve and emerge, and political actors must engage and appeal to a wide range of stakeholders with varied agendas) and in terms of the growing influence of distinct sectors (such as big business) within Taiwan. This article puts forward a method for analysing this variation across three presidential terms, namely Chen’s first and second term and Ma’s first term. How does the content of both presidents’ public pronouncements develop over time? How does the content of their discourse vary according to the strategic co...

Modelling negative campaign advertising: evidence from Taiwan

Asian Journal of Communication, 2012

Why do election candidates go negative? This question about one of the most distinct elements of ... more Why do election candidates go negative? This question about one of the most distinct elements of campaign behaviour has vexed political scientists for many years. Many explanatory variables have been proffered, in isolation and in ad hoc combinations. But extreme variation in the predictive power of these variables across elections has confounded attempts to develop a general model for explaining campaign attack ads. Taking advantage of the increasing number of polities in which negative advertising has ...

Chinese migration: still the major focus of Russian Far East/Chinese North East relations?

The Pacific Review, 2010

Abstract In contrast to Sino-Russian relations at the state-level, regional cooperation between t... more Abstract In contrast to Sino-Russian relations at the state-level, regional cooperation between the contiguous Russian Far East and Chinese North East has been difficult to achieve, despite the existence of seemingly natural economic complementarities. This article asks why this is the case and argues that one important stumbling block, ie negative reactions to Chinese labour migration, has become less problematic. Situating Russian Far East/Chinese North East relations in a regionalist framework the article compares the ...

A tale of two microblogs in China

Media, Culture & Society, 2012

Twitter has become a byword for the potential of new and social media to affect political change,... more Twitter has become a byword for the potential of new and social media to affect political change, among other things (see Dann, 2011 for a review). The microblogging platform has been cited in popular commentaries (Barry et al., 2009; Last, 2009) and some academic research (eg Mungiu-Pippidi and Munteanu, 2009) as having empowered activists and dissidents in less free societies from Moldova to Iran to Tunisia, although the phenomenon of &amp;amp;#x27;Twitter revolution&amp;amp;#x27;has been debunked as a largely media-driven manifestation of cyber ...

Teaching Chinese Politics: Microblogging and Student Engagement

Journal of Chinese Political Science, 2012

This article reflects on some of the issues involved in teaching Chinese politics in the west and... more This article reflects on some of the issues involved in teaching Chinese politics in the west and assesses the rationale for incorporating technology into teaching. The article specifically addresses the potential benefits of using microblogging (Twitter and Weibo) as a supplementary teaching tool in Chinese politics classes. The article argues that microblogging has benefits in terms of helping students develop professional networks, extending contact hours without placing an onerous burden on instructors, contributing to the construction of a supportive and collaborative learning environment and demystifying China for non-Chinese majors. Furthermore, in classes where students possess Chinese language skills, China's domestic Weibo provide a fascinating window onto social and political issues as they are experienced contemporaneously by Chinese netizens. An assessment of the potential uses of microblogging is timely as the learning preferences of current and future cohorts change and commercial and pedagogical imperatives increasingly impel university teachers to consider the effectiveness of their teaching methods.

Scale Matters: Addressing the Limited Robustness of Findings on Negative Advertising

Japanese Journal of Political Science, 2013

Negative campaign advertising is a major component of the electoral landscape, and has received m... more Negative campaign advertising is a major component of the electoral landscape, and has received much attention in the literature. In many studies, political scientists have tried to explain why some campaign ads contain more negative messages than others and to identify the determinants of this form of campaign behavior. In recent years, a number of studies have acknowledged the differences between alternative measures of negativity, but, in most cases, it is assumed that since these measures are highly correlated, they are unidimensional and essentially interchangeable. In this article, we argue that much of the debate in the literature over negative campaigning is a result of inadequate operationalizations of negativity. Although debates over negativity have often been framed in conceptual terms, there is a methodological explanation for why they persist We begin our analysis by constructing reliable scales of negativity, and model them with salient predictors reported in the lite...

Reconnecting Representatives in Two East Asian Democracies

East Asia, 2011

Politicians in democracies the world over have begun enthusiastically adopting and adapting web-b... more Politicians in democracies the world over have begun enthusiastically adopting and adapting web-based methods for communicating with voters and constituents. This article examines one method, i.e. blogging, in the context of legislators in Taiwan and South Korea, two of the most switched-on democracies in the world. Comparing these cases to each other and to the western cases that dominate the literature, the article provides empirical findings on the scale of uptake and the place of blogging amongst other media. It asks who is blogging, what are they blogging about and are they promoting interaction with constituents?

Electronic Resources in the Study of Elite Political Behaviour in Taiwan

The China Quarterly, 2013

The objective of this article is to survey the abundance of primary source electronic data, and a... more The objective of this article is to survey the abundance of primary source electronic data, and appropriate methods, which could be used to advance the study of elite politics in Taiwan. Research on public attitudes and voting behaviour has benefited enormously from open scholarly access to systematically collected, reliable data resources. Research on elite political behaviour in Taiwan could similarly benefit from the creation of supplementary datasets derived from electronic primary sources. I argue that the primary resources and methods needed are already in place, for instance, to produce quantitative estimates of the policy preferences and ideological positions of parties and individual political actors over time. A variety of political texts created by political actors at all levels of office (and indeed, in opposition) are readily accessible online. With a small degree of processing, these electronic texts can easily be rendered in machine-readable format for analysis by mea...

Is Taiwan Studies in Decline?

The China Quarterly, 2011

Taiwan studies is confronting several challenges from within and outside the academy to its vital... more Taiwan studies is confronting several challenges from within and outside the academy to its vitality if not viability. The growing attraction of mainland China to researchers, the encroachment of disciplines and marginalization of area studies, and the closing life cycles of several of the most salient research themes on Taiwan, have all contributed to the sense of a field in decline. This article seeks to provide a more concrete empirical basis for assessing the state of the Taiwan studies field. Drawing on content analysis of journal publications, combined with citation data and a survey of Taiwan specialists, the article addresses a number of key questions about the field.

The production of leisure: understanding the social function of football development in China

Globalizations, 2020

In this article, we utilise the social theories of Antonio Gramsci and Henri Lefebvre to explore ... more In this article, we utilise the social theories of Antonio Gramsci and Henri Lefebvre to explore the role that leisure activities such as football play within contemporary China in relation to issues of class. We argue that the recent promotion of football in China can be viewed as a continuation of broader top-down processes of 'modernization from above' that serves as a microcosm of the wider class contradictions inherent in Chinese approaches to development since the 1980s. The issue of class has been strangely absent from the literature dealing with the development of football in China. However, given the importance of class in 20 th Century Chinese society, the re-emergence of inequality and stratification in the reform era and the implicit connections between class and state discourses around the "rejuvenation of the great Chinese nation," it is clear that class is closely implicated in Xi's vision for football. We explore the major role of the middle classes as the target for the promotion of leisure activities and consumerist lifestyles patterns as part of the Party-State's effort to integrate them into a transformed historical bloc.

Ma Ying-jeou's Presidential Discourse

Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 2012

Despite the substantial advances made in cross-Strait relations during Ma Ying-jeou's (Ma Yin... more Despite the substantial advances made in cross-Strait relations during Ma Ying-jeou's (Ma Yingjiu) first term, the ROC president's rhetoric varied considerably as he grappled with the difficult reality of implementing campaign and inauguration pledges to establish better relations with China while striving to maintain national respect and sovereignty. In this article, we put forward a framework for measuring, analysing and explaining this variation in President Ma's first-term discourse. Analysing a very large number of Ma's speeches, addresses, etc., we provide empirical assessments of how the content of Ma's public pronouncements has developed over time, how his rhetoric varies according to the strategic context and timing of a speech, and how his discourse compares to that of his predecessor, Chen Shui-bian (Chen Shuibian). In addressing these questions, the article contributes a quantitative perspective to existing work on political discourse in Taiwan and to...

Legislators' Blogs in Taiwan

Parliamentary Affairs, 2010

Abstract Elected representatives in numerous democracies have adopted blogging as an additional m... more Abstract Elected representatives in numerous democracies have adopted blogging as an additional mode of communication with their constituents. In the UK and other advanced democracies, this development has stimulated scholarly optimism as a potential remedy to the estrangement that citizens feel between themselves and their representatives. This article looks at the blogging practices of legislators in Taiwan, a third wave democracy that has recently witnessed declining turnout and support for democracy. Legislators in this ...

China’s Weibo: Is faster different?

New Media & Society, 2013

The popularization of microblogging in China represents a new challenge to the state’s regime of ... more The popularization of microblogging in China represents a new challenge to the state’s regime of information control. The speed with which information is diffused in the microblogosphere has helped netizens to publicize and express their discontent with the negative consequences of economic growth, income inequalities and official corruption. In some cases, netizen-led initiatives have facilitated the mobilization of online public opinion and forced the central government to intervene to redress acts of lower level malfeasance. However, despite the growing corpus of such cases, the government has quickly adapted to the changing internet ecology and is using the same tools to help it maintain control of society by enhancing its claims to legitimacy, circumscribing dissent, identifying malfeasance in its agents and using online public opinion to adapt policy and direct propaganda efforts. This essay reflects on microblogging in the context of the Chinese internet, and argues that succ...

Campaign Advertising and Democracy in Taiwan

The China Quarterly, 2008

This article sets out a framework for conceptualizing and researching an increasingly important e... more This article sets out a framework for conceptualizing and researching an increasingly important element of electoral competition in Taiwan. Analysing the tone and content of television and newspaper advertising across three presidential campaigns, it provides empirical estimates that challenge some common stereotypes about advertising in Taiwan.

Chen Shui-bian: On Independence

The China Quarterly, 2010

Chen Shui-bian achieved an international reputation for his promotion of Taiwan independence. Whi... more Chen Shui-bian achieved an international reputation for his promotion of Taiwan independence. Whilst that reputation may have been well earned, the analyses on which this conclusion is based are frequently flawed in two ways. First, by using an undifferentiated notion of independence, they tend to conflate sovereignty with less threatening expressions of Taiwanese identity and pro-democracy discourse. Second, by failing to take into account the impact of immediate strategic context, analysts ignore a fundamental element of democratic political communication. In our empirical analysis of more than 2,000 of Chen's speeches, we seek to avoid both flaws by unpacking the concept of independence and taking into account Chen's strategic relationship with his primary audiences. Our findings challenge popular portrayals of Chen, but more importantly they have strong implications for policy makers and students of political rhetoric with regard to current and future ROC presidents.

Time Matters in Cross-Strait Relations: Tsai Ing-wen and Taiwan's Future

The China Quarterly, Feb 16, 2024

Taiwan's 2012 Presidential Election

Political Studies Review, 2012

In January 2012 Taiwan concluded elections for the presidency and legislature. Incumbent Ma Ying-... more In January 2012 Taiwan concluded elections for the presidency and legislature. Incumbent Ma Ying-jeou was re-elected and his KMT party retained a parliamentary majority, albeit both in reduced form. This article provides a brief account of the presidential election, focusing on how the campaign was fought, addressing the salient issues, and discussing the results and their implications for political competition in Taiwan and in terms of cross-Strait relations.

Electronic Resources and the Study of Political Elites in Russia

Europe-Asia Studies, 2013

ABSTRACT Developments in the information society in Russia have led to the creation of an abundan... more ABSTRACT Developments in the information society in Russia have led to the creation of an abundance of online primary texts by political actors and institutions. This article surveys a large selection of official electronic texts with the aim of encouraging more extensive use of online sources and easing researchers&#39; navigation of Russian politicians&#39; use of the internet. While the authors do not claim that online data can replace the insights gained from elite interviews, the article suggests that online texts could be used more extensively as a valuable addition to existing methods applied to the study of Russian political elites.

Defending Negativity? Evidence from Presidential Campaigns in Taiwan

East Asia, 2009

This article presents an empirical analysis of TV and newspaper advertising across four president... more This article presents an empirical analysis of TV and newspaper advertising across four presidential election campaigns in Taiwan. The findings suggest that although there are high levels of negativity, negative claims are a potential source of substantive information for voters. The findings support theoretical expectations derived from work in the US, and confirm that negative advertising can be a prevalent mode of campaign communication in non-western, newer democracies.

Representing China in the South Pacific

East Asia, 2012

Abstract Chinese diplomacy, aid, economic interactions and manifestations of soft power have incr... more Abstract Chinese diplomacy, aid, economic interactions and manifestations of soft power have increased the country&amp;#x27;s influence in the South Pacific region. By some accounts, China&amp;#x27;s influence is already approaching that of traditional stakeholders Australia and New Zealand. In Africa and other regions state-led and private activities in established powers&amp;#x27; perceived spheres of influence has caused concern and inspired particular narratives about China&amp;#x27;s motivations. In this article we examine how media discourses in Australia and ...

Strategic cross-Strait discourse: A comparative analysis of three presidential terms

China Information, 2013

Republic of China presidents Chen Shuibian and Ma Yingjiu have espoused substantially varied posi... more Republic of China presidents Chen Shuibian and Ma Yingjiu have espoused substantially varied positions at different times on cross-Strait relations. Given the prominence of the presidents’ rhetoric in an otherwise relatively stable relationship, these discursive fluctuations have been a cause of consternation and curiosity for observers of the cross-Strait relationship. However, their behaviour is consistent with democratic politics in general (issues and policy stances evolve and emerge, and political actors must engage and appeal to a wide range of stakeholders with varied agendas) and in terms of the growing influence of distinct sectors (such as big business) within Taiwan. This article puts forward a method for analysing this variation across three presidential terms, namely Chen’s first and second term and Ma’s first term. How does the content of both presidents’ public pronouncements develop over time? How does the content of their discourse vary according to the strategic co...

Modelling negative campaign advertising: evidence from Taiwan

Asian Journal of Communication, 2012

Why do election candidates go negative? This question about one of the most distinct elements of ... more Why do election candidates go negative? This question about one of the most distinct elements of campaign behaviour has vexed political scientists for many years. Many explanatory variables have been proffered, in isolation and in ad hoc combinations. But extreme variation in the predictive power of these variables across elections has confounded attempts to develop a general model for explaining campaign attack ads. Taking advantage of the increasing number of polities in which negative advertising has ...

Chinese migration: still the major focus of Russian Far East/Chinese North East relations?

The Pacific Review, 2010

Abstract In contrast to Sino-Russian relations at the state-level, regional cooperation between t... more Abstract In contrast to Sino-Russian relations at the state-level, regional cooperation between the contiguous Russian Far East and Chinese North East has been difficult to achieve, despite the existence of seemingly natural economic complementarities. This article asks why this is the case and argues that one important stumbling block, ie negative reactions to Chinese labour migration, has become less problematic. Situating Russian Far East/Chinese North East relations in a regionalist framework the article compares the ...

A tale of two microblogs in China

Media, Culture & Society, 2012

Twitter has become a byword for the potential of new and social media to affect political change,... more Twitter has become a byword for the potential of new and social media to affect political change, among other things (see Dann, 2011 for a review). The microblogging platform has been cited in popular commentaries (Barry et al., 2009; Last, 2009) and some academic research (eg Mungiu-Pippidi and Munteanu, 2009) as having empowered activists and dissidents in less free societies from Moldova to Iran to Tunisia, although the phenomenon of &amp;amp;#x27;Twitter revolution&amp;amp;#x27;has been debunked as a largely media-driven manifestation of cyber ...

Teaching Chinese Politics: Microblogging and Student Engagement

Journal of Chinese Political Science, 2012

This article reflects on some of the issues involved in teaching Chinese politics in the west and... more This article reflects on some of the issues involved in teaching Chinese politics in the west and assesses the rationale for incorporating technology into teaching. The article specifically addresses the potential benefits of using microblogging (Twitter and Weibo) as a supplementary teaching tool in Chinese politics classes. The article argues that microblogging has benefits in terms of helping students develop professional networks, extending contact hours without placing an onerous burden on instructors, contributing to the construction of a supportive and collaborative learning environment and demystifying China for non-Chinese majors. Furthermore, in classes where students possess Chinese language skills, China's domestic Weibo provide a fascinating window onto social and political issues as they are experienced contemporaneously by Chinese netizens. An assessment of the potential uses of microblogging is timely as the learning preferences of current and future cohorts change and commercial and pedagogical imperatives increasingly impel university teachers to consider the effectiveness of their teaching methods.

Scale Matters: Addressing the Limited Robustness of Findings on Negative Advertising

Japanese Journal of Political Science, 2013

Negative campaign advertising is a major component of the electoral landscape, and has received m... more Negative campaign advertising is a major component of the electoral landscape, and has received much attention in the literature. In many studies, political scientists have tried to explain why some campaign ads contain more negative messages than others and to identify the determinants of this form of campaign behavior. In recent years, a number of studies have acknowledged the differences between alternative measures of negativity, but, in most cases, it is assumed that since these measures are highly correlated, they are unidimensional and essentially interchangeable. In this article, we argue that much of the debate in the literature over negative campaigning is a result of inadequate operationalizations of negativity. Although debates over negativity have often been framed in conceptual terms, there is a methodological explanation for why they persist We begin our analysis by constructing reliable scales of negativity, and model them with salient predictors reported in the lite...

Reconnecting Representatives in Two East Asian Democracies

East Asia, 2011

Politicians in democracies the world over have begun enthusiastically adopting and adapting web-b... more Politicians in democracies the world over have begun enthusiastically adopting and adapting web-based methods for communicating with voters and constituents. This article examines one method, i.e. blogging, in the context of legislators in Taiwan and South Korea, two of the most switched-on democracies in the world. Comparing these cases to each other and to the western cases that dominate the literature, the article provides empirical findings on the scale of uptake and the place of blogging amongst other media. It asks who is blogging, what are they blogging about and are they promoting interaction with constituents?

Electronic Resources in the Study of Elite Political Behaviour in Taiwan

The China Quarterly, 2013

The objective of this article is to survey the abundance of primary source electronic data, and a... more The objective of this article is to survey the abundance of primary source electronic data, and appropriate methods, which could be used to advance the study of elite politics in Taiwan. Research on public attitudes and voting behaviour has benefited enormously from open scholarly access to systematically collected, reliable data resources. Research on elite political behaviour in Taiwan could similarly benefit from the creation of supplementary datasets derived from electronic primary sources. I argue that the primary resources and methods needed are already in place, for instance, to produce quantitative estimates of the policy preferences and ideological positions of parties and individual political actors over time. A variety of political texts created by political actors at all levels of office (and indeed, in opposition) are readily accessible online. With a small degree of processing, these electronic texts can easily be rendered in machine-readable format for analysis by mea...

Is Taiwan Studies in Decline?

The China Quarterly, 2011

Taiwan studies is confronting several challenges from within and outside the academy to its vital... more Taiwan studies is confronting several challenges from within and outside the academy to its vitality if not viability. The growing attraction of mainland China to researchers, the encroachment of disciplines and marginalization of area studies, and the closing life cycles of several of the most salient research themes on Taiwan, have all contributed to the sense of a field in decline. This article seeks to provide a more concrete empirical basis for assessing the state of the Taiwan studies field. Drawing on content analysis of journal publications, combined with citation data and a survey of Taiwan specialists, the article addresses a number of key questions about the field.

The production of leisure: understanding the social function of football development in China

Globalizations, 2020

In this article, we utilise the social theories of Antonio Gramsci and Henri Lefebvre to explore ... more In this article, we utilise the social theories of Antonio Gramsci and Henri Lefebvre to explore the role that leisure activities such as football play within contemporary China in relation to issues of class. We argue that the recent promotion of football in China can be viewed as a continuation of broader top-down processes of 'modernization from above' that serves as a microcosm of the wider class contradictions inherent in Chinese approaches to development since the 1980s. The issue of class has been strangely absent from the literature dealing with the development of football in China. However, given the importance of class in 20 th Century Chinese society, the re-emergence of inequality and stratification in the reform era and the implicit connections between class and state discourses around the "rejuvenation of the great Chinese nation," it is clear that class is closely implicated in Xi's vision for football. We explore the major role of the middle classes as the target for the promotion of leisure activities and consumerist lifestyles patterns as part of the Party-State's effort to integrate them into a transformed historical bloc.

Ma Ying-jeou's Presidential Discourse

Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 2012

Despite the substantial advances made in cross-Strait relations during Ma Ying-jeou's (Ma Yin... more Despite the substantial advances made in cross-Strait relations during Ma Ying-jeou's (Ma Yingjiu) first term, the ROC president's rhetoric varied considerably as he grappled with the difficult reality of implementing campaign and inauguration pledges to establish better relations with China while striving to maintain national respect and sovereignty. In this article, we put forward a framework for measuring, analysing and explaining this variation in President Ma's first-term discourse. Analysing a very large number of Ma's speeches, addresses, etc., we provide empirical assessments of how the content of Ma's public pronouncements has developed over time, how his rhetoric varies according to the strategic context and timing of a speech, and how his discourse compares to that of his predecessor, Chen Shui-bian (Chen Shuibian). In addressing these questions, the article contributes a quantitative perspective to existing work on political discourse in Taiwan and to...

Legislators' Blogs in Taiwan

Parliamentary Affairs, 2010

Abstract Elected representatives in numerous democracies have adopted blogging as an additional m... more Abstract Elected representatives in numerous democracies have adopted blogging as an additional mode of communication with their constituents. In the UK and other advanced democracies, this development has stimulated scholarly optimism as a potential remedy to the estrangement that citizens feel between themselves and their representatives. This article looks at the blogging practices of legislators in Taiwan, a third wave democracy that has recently witnessed declining turnout and support for democracy. Legislators in this ...

China’s Weibo: Is faster different?

New Media & Society, 2013

The popularization of microblogging in China represents a new challenge to the state’s regime of ... more The popularization of microblogging in China represents a new challenge to the state’s regime of information control. The speed with which information is diffused in the microblogosphere has helped netizens to publicize and express their discontent with the negative consequences of economic growth, income inequalities and official corruption. In some cases, netizen-led initiatives have facilitated the mobilization of online public opinion and forced the central government to intervene to redress acts of lower level malfeasance. However, despite the growing corpus of such cases, the government has quickly adapted to the changing internet ecology and is using the same tools to help it maintain control of society by enhancing its claims to legitimacy, circumscribing dissent, identifying malfeasance in its agents and using online public opinion to adapt policy and direct propaganda efforts. This essay reflects on microblogging in the context of the Chinese internet, and argues that succ...

Campaign Advertising and Democracy in Taiwan

The China Quarterly, 2008

This article sets out a framework for conceptualizing and researching an increasingly important e... more This article sets out a framework for conceptualizing and researching an increasingly important element of electoral competition in Taiwan. Analysing the tone and content of television and newspaper advertising across three presidential campaigns, it provides empirical estimates that challenge some common stereotypes about advertising in Taiwan.

Chen Shui-bian: On Independence

The China Quarterly, 2010

Chen Shui-bian achieved an international reputation for his promotion of Taiwan independence. Whi... more Chen Shui-bian achieved an international reputation for his promotion of Taiwan independence. Whilst that reputation may have been well earned, the analyses on which this conclusion is based are frequently flawed in two ways. First, by using an undifferentiated notion of independence, they tend to conflate sovereignty with less threatening expressions of Taiwanese identity and pro-democracy discourse. Second, by failing to take into account the impact of immediate strategic context, analysts ignore a fundamental element of democratic political communication. In our empirical analysis of more than 2,000 of Chen's speeches, we seek to avoid both flaws by unpacking the concept of independence and taking into account Chen's strategic relationship with his primary audiences. Our findings challenge popular portrayals of Chen, but more importantly they have strong implications for policy makers and students of political rhetoric with regard to current and future ROC presidents.