ICT policy for the “socialist new countryside”—A case study of rural informatization in Guangdong, China

Providing Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to rural areas often involves a complex interplay among economic development, bureaucratic systems, technical training and support. Nowhere are these dynamics more pronounced than in China, where a wide range of economic and institutional factors characterize the highly uneven state of informatization22Defined as the transformation of an economy and society through the effective deployment of information and communication technologies in business, social, and public functions (Qiang, Bhavnani, Hanna, Kimura, & Sudan, 2009). This paper uses the terms informatization and ICT interchangeably depending on the context. throughout the country.