Conclusion

This chapter synthesizes the book’s findings on how the Chinese state shaped television globalization from 1978 to 2012. Drawing on fieldwork at television stations of different administrative levels, it traces three stages of transformation: internationalization, transnationalization and renationalization. The chapter reviews the evolution of state television governance through policy objectives, institutions and instruments, and examines their impacts on ownership, market structure, management, production and content. It analyses how state policies interacted with technological, market, political and cultural forces, demonstrating that internal factors rather than exogenous pressures drove China’s television transformation. The study primarily supports and develops global transformation theories, while contradicting media imperialism and challenging revisionist orthodoxy’s assumption that state power is in terminal decline. It suggests redefining television globalization as the national or local appropriation of globally diffused cultural forms and develops an analytical model comparing state policy decisions to actual media transformation. The chapter concludes by discussing China’s distinctive trajectory compared with other Global South countries and identifying directions for future research on China’s overseas television influence.