和中國大陸的經濟發展一樣，中國大陸最近五年來網際網路的發展顯得日益蓬勃。也正像社會主義市場體制機能的討論一樣，直到一九九七年以後，中共才開始承認：「經濟發展與網際網路的使用息息相關」。在積極發展資訊網路的同時，一向以「管制境外破壞」嚴格著稱的中共，卻存在著對於網路資訊流通控制一籌莫展的困境。與經濟管制最大的差別在於：新時代的資訊科技將使資訊流通與資本流通在「世界體系壟斷」上的性質迥異。社會主義中共試驗以傳統科技「宏觀調控」與「鳥籠經濟」的思考模式去管制境外資訊的滲透，不僅力有不逮，甚至已在紀術上被證明是「徒勞」。正與「改革開放」以前對於是否應引入現代化發展理論還是「閉關自守」的政策辯論一般，在資金管制的議題上，中共學界也已經從「信息時代」的角度，開始司辨資訊與階級、種族與國家角色，甚至兩岸關係之間的關係。
Spurred by the country’s economic achievements, internet development in China over the past five years has been drastically increased. In the debate over the role of market mechanisms in contributing to the socialist economic system, the issue of the invasion of foreign information has been widely raised by Chinese officials. The key difference between the traditional capitalist world system and the virtual community in the information age is thus: information flows cannot be monitored as easily as capital flows. Similar to the “two-line struggle” policy debate that preceded the “open door” campaign in the 1970’s, socialist China is now facing a serious challenge of the new information era. Policy evaluations are being undertaken on the consequences of the impact of information flows on the role of the state, class and ethnic relationships, and even cross-straits relations.
