Market in the Fragmented State: Alibaba and the Chinese Governance Regime of Big Tech

This article maps China’s emerging governance regime of big tech firms in the 2020s through the case of Alibaba. Contesting dominant media narratives that frame the Chinese state as either clashing with or aligning with private platforms, it provides an alternative perspective rooted in Chinese political traditions, based on long-term ethnographic observations and industry analysis, and informed by changing global sociotechnical and geopolitical conditions. In this hybrid model, the pragmatic Leninist central state both leverages and controls private tech giants to balance economic growth, social stability, and national security amid geopolitical tensions and a slowing economy. Local governments, meanwhile, maintain a fragile symbiosis with platforms like Alibaba to advance their own political and economic goals. This “market in the fragmented state” contrasts with the current oligarchical U.S. model, where big tech firms often capture state power to serve corporate interests. Despite their monopolistic and infrastructural tendencies, Chinese platforms operate within a fragmented, state-dominated system that both enables and restrains their growth, depending on shifting political dynamics. Understanding this emerging governance regime diversifies the current conceptualization of state market relations globally and state governance of big techs beyond Silicon Valley. It also sheds light on China’s ongoing techno-driven restructuring and global expansion and prompts questions about the influence of geopolitical competition on China’s governance approach and its global implications.