Rongbin Han

• Ph.D, University of California-Berkeley, Political Science, 2012
• MA, University of California-Berkeley, Political Science, 2007
• MSS, University of Singapore, Political Science, 2006
• LLB, Peking University-Beijing, International Studies, 2003

Rongbin Han Joined the Department of International Affairs, University of Georgia in 2013. He received his Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley in 2012.

Dr. Han’s research interests are social activism, media politics, political participation, and democratization. His area focus is China. He has published on topics including rural democracy in China, Internet politics, local governance, and contentious politics. He is the author or co-author of two books and co-editor of one book.

His first book, Contesting Cyberspace in China: Online Expression and Authoritarian Resilience, examines Internet governance in China. By investigating the struggles over online expression—both as a cat-and-mouse censorship game and from the angle of discourse competition—it makes a two-fold counter-intuitive claim: (1) the Chinese party-state can almost indefinitely co-exist with the expansion of emancipating Internet; (2) but the key explanation for this co-existence does not lie in the state’s capacity to control and adapt, as many have argued, but more so in the pluralization of online expression, which empowers not only regime critics, but also pro-regime voices, particularly pro-state nationalism.

His second book, Directed Digital Dissidence in Autocracies: How China Wins Online (Oxford University Press, 2023, with Jason Gainous, Andrew MacDonald, and Kevin Wagner), draws on original survey data and rich qualitative sources to explore how authoritarian regimes employ the strategy of “directed digital dissidence” to work online information to their advantage. We argue that the central Chinese government successfully directs citizen dissent toward local governments, local officials, and other actors such as foreign governments and media. Consequently, the Internet functions to discipline local state agents, vent nationalist sentiments, and project a positive image of the central government and the regime as a whole.

The co-edited volume, The Xi Jinping Effect, explores the relationship between the People’s Republic of China’s current “paramount leader”—arguably the most powerful figure since Mao Zedong (1893–1976)—and multiple areas of political and social transformation. It illuminates not just policy arenas in which his leadership of China has had an outsized impact but also areas where his initiatives have faltered due to unintended consequences, international pushback, or the divergence of local priorities from those of the central government.

• Media Politics
• Cyber Politics
• Internet Governance
• Contentious Politics
• Digital Activism
• Cyber Security
• Authoritarian Resilience
• Authoritarian Legitimation
• Chinese Politics
• East Asian Politics

• 2018: The SPIA Online Course Development Grant
• 2018: John and Vivian Sabel Award of the best article published in the Journal of Contemporary China
• 2015-2016: SPIA Seed Grant (with Robert Grafstein)
• 2014: SPIA Internal Research Grant, University of Georgia
• 2013-2014: New Faculty Research Grant, University of Georgia
• 2011-2012: Finishing Fellowship, Department of Political Science, UC Berkeley
• 2011-2012: Haas Junior Scholars Program Grant
• 2011: Graduate Division Summer Grant, UC Berkeley
• 2010: Elvera Kwang Siam Lim Fellowship in Chinese Studies, Center for Chinese Studies, UC Berkeley
• 2009-2010: Dean’s Normative Fellowship, UC Berkeley
• 2007-2009: Non-Resident Tuition Fellowship, UC Berkeley
• 2008: Center for Chinese Studies Summer Research Grant, UC Berkeley
• 2006-2007: Department Fellowship, Department of Political Science, UC Berkeley
• 2005: National University of Singapore Travel Grant
• 2003-2005: National University of Singapore Research Scholarship
• 2004: Asia Research Institute Fieldwork Funding for National University of Singapore Graduate Students
• 2003: Excellent Graduate Award of Beijing Municipality
• 2003: Excellent Graduate Award of Peking University
• 2000-2003: Yingcai Scholarship of Peking University
• 2002: Excellence Award for fieldwork paper competition (China Reform Magazine)
• 2001: Danish government stipend for Exchange Student at Denmark’s International Study Program (DIS) affiliated to Copenhagen University

• China Research Center at Atlanta
• Center for Asian Studies at University of Georgia
• Authorit@rianism 2.0 at Institute of Political Science, Leiden University

• INTL 4360 East Asian Political Systems
• INTL 8300 Chinese Politics
• INTL 3300 Comparative Politics
• INTL 8405 Digital Media and Comparative Politics
• INTL 4665 Digital Media and Global Politics
• INTL 4361  Chinese Politics
• INTL 4666E The Politics of Cyber Security

• Comparative Democratization
• Media Politics
• Social Activism
• Politics of Authoritarian Regimes
• Chinese Politics

PUBLICATIONS

Books

Forthcoming. Make China Great Again: Online Alt-History Fiction and Popular Authoritarianism. Columbia University Press.
2023. Directed Digital Dissidence in Autocracies: How China Wins Online (with Jason Gainous, Kevin Wagner, and Andrew MacDonald). Oxford University Press.
2018. Contesting Cyberspace in China: Online Expression and Authoritarian Resilience. Columbia University Press.

Edited Volume

2024. The Xi Jinping Effect (co-edited with Ashley Esarey). University of Washington Press.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Forthcoming. “Propaganda State 2.0 in China.” The China Quarterly.
2024. “Passing on the red genes: Communism nostalgia in online fictions and ideological governance in China.” Regulation & Governance. Early View. https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.12622
2024. “China on Campus: A Conversation with China Scholars of Asian Heritage” (with Dan Chen and John Yasuda), PS: Political Science & Politics 57 (1), 133-136.
2024. “From empowering Internet to digital dominance: The past, present, and future of cyber politics in China,” Communication and the Public. 9 (4): 382-391.
2023. “Racial and Gender Stereotypes in Immigration Attitudes: Evidence from China” (with Li Shao, Juan Du and Dongshu Liu). Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 49(9): 2391-2415.
2023. “How does Marriage Demand Stimulate Support for Immigration in Asia?” (with Li Shao, Juan Du and Dongshu Liu). Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 49(5): 1311-1330.
2023. “Opportunistic Bargaining: Negotiating Distribution in China” (with Juan Du and Li Shao). The China Quarterly, 253: 141-157.
2023. “Cosmetic Responsiveness: Why and How Local Authorities Respond to Mundane Online Complaints in China” (with Yuan Wang). Journal of Chinese Political Science 28(2): 187–207.
2023. “Debating China beyond the Great Firewall: Digital Disenchantment and Authoritarian Resilience.” Journal of Chinese Political Science 28(1): 85-103.
2022. “Scaling Authoritarian Information Control: How China Adjusts the Level of Online Censorship” (with Li Shao). Political Research Quarterly 75(4): 1345-1359.
2022. “Defusing Environmental Activism Through Scientific Greening: Government Framing Strategy and Its Effects in China” (with Juan Du and Weixia Lv). Environmental Policy and Governance 32(2): 135-148.
2022. “Modernization Planner, Authoritarian Paternalist, and Rising Power: Evolving Government Positions in China’s Internet Securitization” (with Weishan Miao). Journal of Contemporary China 31(136): 574-591.
2021. “Cyber Nationalism and Regime Support under Xi Jinping: The Effects of the 2018 Constitutional Revision.” Journal of Contemporary China 30(131): 717-733.
2018. “Withering Gongzhi: Cyber Criticism of Chinese Public Intellectuals.” The International Journal of Communication 12: 1966-1987.
2018. “Governing by the Internet: Local Governance in the Digital Age” (with Linan Jia). Journal of Chinese Governance 3(1): 67-85. * The article is reprinted in Jianxing Yu and Sujian Guo (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Local Governance in Contemporary China (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019): 421-440.
2017. “Supervising Authoritarian Rule Online: Citizen Participation and State Responses in China.” The Journal of Comparative Law 12 (2): 397-416. * The article is reprinted in Hualing Fu, Michael Palmer, and Xianchu Zhang (eds.) Transparency Challenges Facing China (Wildy, Simmonds & Hill Publishing, 2019).
2016. “Challenging, But Not Trouble-Making: Cultural Elites in China’s Heritage Preservation” (with Yao Yuan). Journal of Contemporary China 25(98): 292-306.
2015. “Defending the Authoritarian Regime Online: China’s ‘Voluntary Fifty-Cent Army’.” The China Quarterly, 224: 1006-1025.
2015. “College Education and Attitudes toward Democracy in China: An Empirical Study” (with Gang Wang and Liyun Wu). Asia Pacific Education Review 16(3): 399-412.
2015. “Manufacturing Consent in Cyberspace: China’s ‘Fifty-Cent Army’.” Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 44(2): 105-134.
2009. “Path to Democracy? Assessing Village Elections in China” (with Kevin J. O’Brien). Journal of Contemporary China 18(60): 359-378.  *The article received the 2018 John and Vivian Sabel Award for the best article published in the Journal of Contemporary China. * The article has been reprinted in Kevin O’Brien and Zhao Suisheng (eds.), Grassroots Elections in China (London: Routledge, 2011), and in Anthony Saich (ed.), Political Governance in China (Elgar, 2015). It is also translated in 国外理论动态 (Foreign Theoretical Trends), 7 (2011): 59-70.

Translation

Chinese Translation of W. Phillips Shively, The Craft of Political Research (6th Edition) (Prentice Hall Press, 2006) (with Jiguang Guo, Hengfu Ruan, Yuanyuan Wang, and Dan Li), (政治科学研究方法, W. Phillips Shively著, 新知译, 上海人民出版社, 2006).