Discourse as infrastructure: How "New Infrastructure" policies re-infrastructure China

Yichen Rao*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

The term "New Infrastructure" has been highlighted in China's recent policies. It refers to a set of new, and expanding, policies and the discourse surrounding them which support the development of facilities, equipment, and systems derived from the latest technologies, including 5G Internet of Things, AI, cloud computing, and data centers. This article reviews China's New Infrastructure policies, analyzing their specific discursive ontologies and how they relate to major state projects to "re-infrastructure" China's economy. It introduces the concept of "discursive infrastructure" and argues that the policies that redefine and recategorize infrastructure themselves serve as a form of infrastructure. Key to the concept is the recognition that discursive infrastructure relies on mutually constitutive material and semiotic dimensions and dialectically reproduces both symbols of progress and positive infrastructural imaginaries. Drawing on an analysis of policy documents and other discursive materials, the article tracks New Infrastructure's fetish-like existence and unravels the multiple political modalities, as well their varying efficacies, that are manifested through the discursive publics they generate. It likewise reveals some emerging conflicts that appear across New Infrastructure's different contexts, showing critical gaps between imaginaries and actualities, all of which have a profound effect on a re-infrastructured China.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)254-270
Number of pages17
JournalGlobal Media and China
Volume8
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2023
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Discursive infrastructure
  • Digital infrastructure
  • Discursive publics
  • Ideology
  • Imaginary
  • Innovation
  • Materiality

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