About the Event

The digital age has afforded autocrats new technologies of control, allowing them 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 governments conduct statecraft?

Based on an analysis of more than 3,000 public procurement documents and a dozen elite interviews with various stakeholders, we found that the Chinese state has outsourced various functions of online surveillance to private and for-profit arms of state-owned corporations. We 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 a Pandora's box of state-business collaborations. This book contributes to the literature on outsourcing repression, state‒business relations, and conduct of digital statecraft.

About the Speaker

Lynette Ong is Distinguished Professor of Chinese Politics at the University of Toronto and directs the China Governance Lab at the Munk School. A leading scholar of Chinese politics and political economy, 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 is a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Asia Society’s Center for China Analysis and the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

Lynette’s research has received numerous awards, including the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Award and the Canadian Political Science Association’s Prize in Comparative Politics. Her work appears in leading journals such as Perspectives on Politics, Journal of Democracy, and China Quarterly, and is regularly covered by major international media.

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