Regulating China's Internet: convergence toward a coherent regulatory regime

This paper examines the evolution of the regulatory regime for China's Internet and focuses on China's efforts to develop a new and converging regime in response to the Internet era. Driven by the technology convergence that jeopardizes the functioning of China's separate and sector-oriented traditional regulators, institutional convergence has been called upon to reform its regulatory regime. This was evidenced first by the establishment of the State Council's Steering Committee for National Information Infrastructure and second, the Ministry of Information Industry. China's regulation of the Internet has evolved into a highly coordinated and balanced structure parallel to the institutional convergence. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.