This is a valuable and timely book for scholars who are interested in the evolving regulatory framework of China's telecommunications sector. Irene S. Wu, a former official at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, examines China's telecom policy through comparison with “global norms.” This approach is effective for two major reasons: First, although international trends in regulation do not necessarily provide a good guide for China, the comparative standpoint—reflecting the transnational logic of the market economy—gives a clear sense of the external demand for global convergence that China faces. Telecommunications are an indispensable infrastructure for global integration; as China has become a formal member of the World Trade Organization, China's large domestic markets are bound to attract foreign participation.
Second, the comparative approach highlights China's unique—and often contradictory—trajectory of reentry into the global economy in the field of telecommunications. Despite the neoliberal trends of privatization and deregulation that proceeded across the...
