The Renationalization of Chinese Television: 1997–2012

This chapter examines the re-nationalization of Chinese television from 1997 to 2012, a process that intensified in the years preceding the 2013 national media convergence policy. It defines television re-nationalization as the renewed assertion of Chinese state power to indigenize foreign television forms, thereby consolidating domestic industry growth and reasserting state oversight over cultural flows. Drawing on interviews, policy documents, and extensive fieldwork at television stations across multiple administrative levels, it traces how the state restructured the regulatory framework to consolidate the domestic television landscape while positioning it for global competition. The analysis is organized around three dimensions: the transformation of state governance, the policy-driven restructuring of the industry, and the interplay between state policies and other power actors, including transnational corporations, international organizations, domestic stations, and audience preferences. The chapter argues that this governance transformation achieved a distinctive equilibrium between ideological imperatives and market modernization, as the state accommodated technological, economic, political and cultural factors to serve its own objectives, reaffirming its pivotal role in an era of technological integration and transnational media flows.