Liting Dai and Cuihong Cai， “Delicate Wire-walking: How Chinese Social Media Balances Policy Regulations, Market Interests and Personal Aspirations”, Annals of Social Sciences & Management Studies, 2022; 7(4): 555716. DOI: 10.19080/ASM.2022.07.555716

Abstract: The Chinese social media governance with the government at the core have been criticized by the Western media and society. It is understood that China’s governance on social media is moving in a dangerous direction as the internal tension is intense. So, what kind of social media governance is effective and proper for China? How do we understand China’s governance on social media? The purpose of this paper is to analyze China’s social media system through multi-agent collaborative system. It is hold that China’s social media governance is an effective balancing art among different actors. Just like high wire walking, the government, enterprises and individuals, as the main agents of the state, market and society, have formed a delicate relationship structure with social media as the platform, and have been moving forward steadily towards the goal of balancing national security, market efficiency and social interactions. As it turned out, the national active intervention policy which gives priority to national security is more in line with China’s reality, which matches with China’s social customs, legal tradition, national security concept and people’s behavior habits.

Keywords: Social media; Governance; Multi-agent collaborative system; Cyber sovereignty; Social interaction