E-Government in China: A Content Analysis of National and Provincial
Web Sites
Xiang Zhou
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Abstract
The Chinese government has actively encouraged and invested in the growth of the
Internet to capture the technology's vast commercial potential, while exerting state
control. Even before the country was fully connected to the global "network of
networks," China began to implement programs that would facilitate e-government.
Despite some valuable examinations of e-government in China, no studies were found
that systematically explored the content of both national and provincial Chinese
government Web sites. This study fills that gap in the literature by analyzing the content
of the opening pages of 177 government Web sites. The study found that broad egovernance, e-knowledge, and e-service functions were implemented at sites of national,
costal, and inland government units. Generally, national and costal sites were more
sophisticated, but inland sites seemed designed to meet the specific needs of government,
citizens, and businesses in inland areas. The coding form and method designed for
analyzing these sites holds promise for future researchers and the findings suggest that
China may have begun to achieve its goals of facilitating government functions via the
Internet.
Introduction and Purpose
In an age of information expansion, the Chinese government has actively encouraged and
invested in the growth of the Internet to capture the technology's vast commercial
potential while exerting state control over the ways that this "network of networks" is
accessed by Chinese citizens. The central government has encouraged the competing
state-owned telecommunications providers, such as China Telecom, China Unicom,
China Mobile, China Netcom, JiTong Communications Company, and China Railway
Telecom, to build their own networks. Faced with the potential political or social
challenges that the new medium may bring, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has
utilized multiple control strategies to maximize official authority (Dai, 1999; Hachigian,
2001; Hartford, 2000; Kalashil & Boas, 2001). These efforts at control began early with
the "PRC Interim Regulations Governing the Management of International Computer
Networks" issued in February 1996 marking the beginning of systematic regulation of the
Internet in China (Tan, 1999).
Efforts of the state to control the Internet did not equate to limiting the technology. To the
contrary, the Internet boom in China is centered in state-sponsored strategies for
comprehensive "informatization (xinxihua)," which is viewed by the state as critical to
China's future growth and international competitiveness. On April 18, 1997, the first
national meeting of the National Informatization Work Conference, held in Shenzhen,
was opened with an address by former Vice-Premier Zou Jiahua, who set out the "24character direction for China's informatization that included: overall planning (tongchou
guihua), state dominance (guojia zhudao), unified standards (tongyi biaozhun), joint
construction (lianhe jianshe), links between government units (hulian hutong), and
shared resources (ziyuan gongxiang) ("China Information Chronology")." During the
Ninth Five-Year Plan period, the information industry emerged "prominently as a new
growth point of China's national economic development" (China Internet Information
Center, 1995). In November 2001, China's State Economic and Trade Commission
published the "Tenth Five-Year Plan of Industrial Structure Adjustment." One of the six
major adjustments was "to promote industrialization by informatization" ("China's
Information Industry," 2001).
With the ambition of realizing informatization and the recognition of the potential
political challenges brought by the Internet, the Chinese central government has focused
on ways, other than controlling the Internet technically and legally, that the Internet can
be used to enhance government performance and the public good, to reduce tension
between the government and the citizens and to foster economic growth, thus increasing
legitimacy of the government, an approach that is labeled "proactive strategies" by some
scholars (Kalashil & Boas, 2001). E-government is broadly seen as a way to help the
Chinese government, which has begun to recognize the emergence of e-government as
having potential to reshape the public sector and build relationships between citizens and
the government, to cut the costs of governance and make links to the populace closer by
reducing bureaucratic procedures (Zhang, 2001).
As a strategy to drive the information economy, the Chinese government demanded in the
early 1990s that all government offices move online, starting with an informationcarrying Web site as the first step towards more complex and comprehensive interactive
services. Three so-called "Golden" projects launched in 1993, even before the direct full
connection to the Internet in China on 20 April 1994, became the roots of e-government
in China: the Golden Bridge project (jinqiao), the Golden Card project (jinka), and the
Golden Customs project (jinguan).
On January 22, 1999, China Telecom and the State Economic and Trade Commission's
Economic Information Center along with the Information Offices of 48 central
government departments officially started the Government Online Project (GOP, zhengfu
shangwang gongcheng). The primary purposes of the project are to establish the basis for
the development of e-government in China, provide more effective coordination between
and across governments at different levels, increase public access to government
information while reducing government expenses by increasing administrative efficiency,
promote procurement of goods and services online, and enhance the informatization of
the economy and society in China (Government Online Project [GOP], 2000). This
initiative signaled the beginning of a rapid growth phase in the "gov.cn" names that are
used for government sites in China. On May 18th, 1998, World Telecom Day, only 145
gov.cn sites existed. Within a few months of the GOP initiative, that number climbed to
1,470 sites representing 720 governmental departments. By 2002, "the Year of Egovernment" (dianzi zhengwu nian), "more than 220 million government departments"
offered electronic services, according to Xie Lijuan, member of the Ninth National
Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) ("CPPCC
Member Proposes," 2002). In January 2002, the China Internet Network Information
Center (CNNIC) semi-annual report counted 5,864 gov.cn domain names, and the
number increased to 7,796 by the following year. National ministries as well as
provincial and municipal governments across the country have Web sites. Approximately
4.3% of all Web sites under the ".cn" domain have the "gov" suffix (The China Internet
Network Information Center [CNNIC], 2003).
Despite this rapid growth of e-government in China, no studies were found that explored
the content of both national and provincial Chinese government Web sites systematically.
Although Zhang (2001, 2002) provided a macroscopic overview of e-government in
China and documented a brief history of the GOP initiative, he quantitatively examined
only the Web site of the GOP Navigation and Service Center ( http://www.gov.cn ), a
portal site through which China's e-government Web sites at different levels can be
reached. This study fills a gap in the literature by quantitatively analyzing the "front
office" of Chinese e-government - that is, the content of the opening pages of government
Web sites at both national and local levels. It explores the extent to which the Web sites
have met the official expectations four years after the start of the national project. A key
secondary purpose of this study is to develop an instrument for identifying and measuring
the features of e-government Web sites.
Literature Review and Research Questions
Governments around the world are embracing electronic government. From industrialized
countries to developing ones, national and local governments are moving online
(Improvement & Development Agency [IdeA], 2002; Taylor Nelson Sofres, 2002). China
is one of the countries following this trend even though its goals might not be exactly the
same as Western countries who are promoting e-government as a way of realizing edemocracy (Phil Noble & Associates, Inc. [PN&A], 2001; Bonham, Seifert, & Thorson,
2001). The "Tenth Five-Year Plan" makes it clear that China is focusing on IT as it is
promoting construction of network infrastructure and preparing for the realization of egovernment in 2005 (Planning Commission Government of India). The boom comes in
part from a belief that technology can transform government's often-negative image
(Bonham et al, 2001; National Audit Office [NAO], 2002). Therefore, e-government is
broadly seen as the use of information and communication technology to promote more
efficient and effective government.
The World Bank Web site on e-government offers the following definition of the term:
E-Government refers to the use by government agencies of information technologies (such as Wide Area
Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing) that have the ability to transform relations with citizens,
businesses, and other arms of government. These technologies can serve a variety of different ends: better
delivery of government services to citizens, improved interactions with business and industry, citizen
empowerment through access to information, or more efficient government management. The resulting
benefits can be less corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and/or cost
reductions. (The World Bank Group, 2003)
A study of e-government projects found three primary categories: e-governance, eservice, and e-knowledge. E-governance refers to linking citizens, stakeholders, and
elected representatives to participate in governance of communities. E-service involves
securing and providing government services by electronic means. E-knowledge means
using communication technologies to gain knowledge (IDeA, 2002).
Tang (2000) suggested a primary function of e-governance in China should be to carry
out the functions of the Chinese government on the Internet. This includes governmentto-citizen connections, through features such as online forums and government-togovernment connections through features such as intranets. The GOP includes an intranet
system designed in part to make existing information available to all relevant institutions
(Zhang, 2001).
E-service refers to specific government services that can be offered online. This includes
business-related services such as license applications and interactive consulting. It also
includes citizen-oriented services such as application for residency permits, weather and
traffic information, and free e-mail services (Moon, 2002). Many contacts between the
local government and citizens happen when specific services are wanted or needed.
Examples include passport services, birth certificates, and entry into official databases
(Fursich & Robins, 2002).
The concept of e-knowledge refers to governments' use of the Internet to disseminate
information resources. The Chinese governments at all levels are by far the largest owner
of information resources in the country. Estimates are that government agencies own and
operate more than 3,000 databases (Lu, Du, Zhang, Ma, & Le, 2002). Qi (2000)
suggested that at least five types of information should be available on Chinese
government Web sites: 1) information about governmental duty and roles; 2) documents,
files, databases, and other information owned by the government; 3) information about
networking clerical work such as electronic file centers; 4) information about
governmental routine affairs; 5) information about trading and transaction markets. News
reports in China and in the U.S. press indicate that dissemination and control of
information are central to the Chinese Internet (McMillan & Hwang, 2002). A report
from the U.S. Embassy reports that strides have been made in advancing e-knowledge:
Chinese regulations have gone from being largely unpublished, confidential, in-house edicts...to published
texts that are more detailed with each iteration. Some Chinese government agencies have even published
proposed regulations online and asked for comments, although this is still very unusual ("Kids, Cadres and
'Cultists' All Love It: Growing Influence of the Internet in China," 2001).
An additional form of e-knowledge is dissemination of image-building information about
the government (Zhang, 2001). Examination of e-government projects in other countries
has shown that promotional uses of the Internet may sometimes overshadow governance,
service, and knowledge functions (Fursich & Robins, 2002).
Scholars have suggested there are three sectors of e-government. Government-to-citizen
(G2C) e-government should make it easier for citizens to interact with governmental
agencies for everything from obtaining marriage licenses to paying taxes. Governmentto-business (G2B) initiatives help facilitate activities such as procurement, licensing, and
other activities that help facilitate business-based economic growth. Finally, governmentto-government (G2G) functions support intergovernmental operations and involve
sharing data and conducting electronic exchanges between governmental actors (Bonham,
et al., 2001).
As illustrated in Table 1, each of the sectors of e-government could exist within each of
the three categories (e-governance, e-service, and e-knowledge). Table 1 provides
examples of G2C, G2B, and G2G sector activities in each category of e-government.
Categories of E-Government
Sectors
E-Governance
E-Service
E-Knowledge
Governmentto-Citizen
Encouraging citizens to
become involved in
participatory access to the
political process through online
discussion forums, chat rooms,
etc.
Provide electronic
opportunities to conduct
activities such as making
payments or obtaining
consulting services for
individuals.
Provide information
about governmental
activities that are
important to citizens.
Governmentto-Business
Providing businesses with
opportunities to give input on
business regulations
Make payments, file for
licenses, download files
needed for business, etc.
Deliver information
relevant to specific
business needs.
GovernmenttoGovernment
Facilitate communication
among government agencies to
enhance interrelationships
among agencies
Exchange files between
agencies; provide internal
government services.
Intergovernmental access
to government
information systems.
Table 1. Summary of e-government categories and sectors.
Most of the studies of e-government to date have focused on democracies - particularly
those in Europe and the Americas (see for example: Bonham et al., 2001; Ho, 2002;
IDeA, 2002; Van Wert, 2002). A few have studied Asian situations in more detail (see for
example: Holliday, 2002; Thompson, 2002) but tended to focus on democracies. Zhang
(2002) noted that it is important to consider e-government in China separately from that
of other nations because in centrally managed states, such as China, core assumptions
about e-government may be different from those in other parts of the world. Specifically,
democratic participation of citizens might be conceived differently in China than in other
countries with e-government initiatives. Zhang found that the most common functions at
the portal Web site of China's GOP Navigation and Service Center (http://www.gov.cn)
were providing services and agenda-setting information. However, it may not be
appropriate to generalize the findings to China's e-government, because his study
examined only one government Web site, a portal site oriented to establish standards for
China's e-government, and to help users understand the initiative, retrieve updated
information about China's e-government and navigate e-government Web sites at all
levels.
A case study of the development of the Zhongguancun Digital-Park program
(Zhongguancun Shuziyuanqu, http://www.zhongguancun.com.cn) in Beijing described
the program as one of the earliest and most advanced e-government pilot projects in
China. Begun in 2000, the initiative was designed to support a technology business
district in northwest Beijing. The program includes five functions coordinated through a
central Web site: e-application, e-registration, e-reporting, e-administration, and econsulting. Despite challenges ranging from security to compatibility, the system has
been found to improve efficiency and transparency of government services to this
economic development program (Lin, Zhu, & Hachigian, 2001).
Information inequalities exist between China's rich coastal areas in the east and its inland
regions, due to historical and economic disparities, reflected by the idea of "one China,
four worlds" (Hu, 2001). Internet infrastructure and citizens' economic resources, which
affect ability to access the Internet, are stronger in the southern and eastern parts of China
than in the northern and western areas (Tang, 2000). This uneven economic and Internet
development may lead to differing experiences and expectations in different parts of the
country.
Three research questions arise from this brief review of the literature:
RQ1: What type of e-governance is available and how does content vary among Web
sites for the national government, and Web sites for inland and coastal provinces within
China?
RQ2: What type of e-service is available and how does content vary among Web sites for
the national government, and Web sites for inland and coastal provinces within China?
RQ3: What type of e-knowledge is available and how does content vary among Web sites
for the national government, and Web sites for inland and coastal provinces within China?
Method
Sampling & Analysis Unit
To address the questions detailed above, a content analysis was conducted. Unlike
Zhang's study (2002), the study reported here did not include an examination of the Web
site of GOP Navigation and Service Center itself. Instead, the list of Web sites under the
Navigation Center (Daohang Zhongxin), including 77 national and 821 provincial Web
sites, was used as the sampling frame, from which a stratified random sample of 25
national and 160 provincial e-government sites were produced.2 Among the provincial
sample, 80 sites were randomly drawn to represent respectively the two regions of the
coastal and inland provinces or municipalities.3 In most cases, the Web sites selected for
the study were directly linked from the GOP site. In the cases where the link was not
functioning, Yahoo China! (Yahu Zhongguo, http://cn.yahoo.com) was used to search for
the URL address by typing the Chinese name of the site on the GOP. If the Web site still
could not be located, it was dropped from the sample. In total, 177 Web sites were
actually examined. Considering the size of the sample frame (898), the sample of 19.71
percent of Web sites is large enough to allow for generalization about e-government Web
sites in China.
Analyzing Web sites introduces many challenges to the content analysis process
(McMillan, 2000). However those challenges can be overcome with careful planning for
issues such as sampling, intercoder reliability, and unit of analysis. The primary unit of
analysis for this study was the "home page" or opening screen of the Web site. By using
the home page as the unit of analysis, Web sites of varying sizes can be more effectively
compared. Ha and James (1998) reported that Web Techniques estimates that Web sites
range from one page to 50,000 pages. They argued that coding an entire site could be
extremely time-consuming and introduce biases based on the size of Web sites.
Furthermore the home page is central to Web-based communication because it provides a
kind of "front door" to all the messages contained in the site. Most visitors to a Web site
decide whether they will continue to browse a site based on their impressions of the home
page (Ha & James 1998).
Coding Scheme
A coding form was developed that quantified types of e-governance, e-service, and eknowledge. The typology developed in the literature and summarized in Table 1 provided
the initial framework for developing this coding form. Earlier studies that examined egovernment sites in other countries were also used as a baseline for developing the
coding form (Fursich & Robins, 2002; Ho, 2002; Moon, 2002; PN&A, 2001).
Additionally, a pre-test of ten leading Chinese sites, such as Capital Online (shoudu
zaixian), China Shanghai (zhongguo Shanghai), and Shenzhen Government Online
(Shenzhen zhengfu zaixian), identified China-specific coding categories and specific
types of e-government functions as described below. Pre-testing of these full-featured
sites made it possible to obtain a list of functions that was as complete and sensible as
possible. Two trained coders reviewed the coding form prior to the start of coding and
agreement was reached on the overall structure and content of the coding form, thus
assuring face validity.4 In addition to content that was provided in detail on the home
page, hyperlinks, including text links, image links, and navigation bars, which appeared
on the home page, were also coded. The primary coding categories were for the three
primary types of e-government: e-governance, e-service, and e-knowledge. Some
hyperlinks served as a category or a navigation gateway from the home page to a
subsequent page on which two or more overlapping functions of e-government (e.g., both
e-governance and e-knowledge) could be found. These "gateway" links were coded as
assorted e-government functions. Hyperlinks that were for mere Web page functions (e.g.
language options, bookmarks, and Web ads) were not coded as having e-government
functions because the issue of Web page design is not the major concern in this study.
Because of the exploratory nature of this study, the coding scheme included an "other"
category that allowed for coding of unexpected functions (see Table 2).
Categories of E-Government
E-Governance
E-Service
1) Non-interactive
1) Engaging/
Representing Citizens Services
(____Total)
(____Total)
___ Online
discussion forum(s)
___ Online survey(s)/
poll(s)
___ Chat room(s)
___ Online form(s)
for public concern/
complaints
___ Links to
official(s)' personal
Web site(s)
___ E-mail/online
mailbox to officials
or policymaker
bodies
___ Assorted or
other(s)*
2) Facilitating
communication
among government
agencies
(____Total)
___ Portal function
___ Vertical linkage
___ Horizontal
linkage
___ Other Linkage
___ Internal emailbox(es)
___ Assorted or
___ Timely
information for
daily life
___ Consultative
information
___ Assorted or
other(s)*
2) Interactive
Services
(____ Total)
___ E-filing
___ E-payment
___ Downloading
file(s)
___ Searchable
database(s) for
consultative
information
___ Subscribe/
registration
service(s)
___ E-mail
service(s)
___ Assorted or
other(s)*
3) Assorted or
other(s)**
(____Total)
E-Knowledge
Other Web
Functions
Assorted Egovernment
Functions
1) Government Information (____Total)
Delivery (_____ Total)
___ Administrative
information about the Web
host and its subordinate
agencies
___ Information about
governmental routine
affairs and political
processes
___ Information about
rule(s)/ regulation(s)/
policy(-ies)
___ Assorted or other(s)*
2) General Information
Delivery
(_____Total)
___ Introduction about
China/the host province or
municipality of the Web
site
___ News concerning the
industry/ field under the
administrative domain of
the host government
agency
___ International news
___ Local news
___ News in other
province(s)/ municipality(ies)
___ Knowledge education
___ Academic news/
(____Total)
other(s)*
3) Assorted or
other(s)**
(____Total)
information from experts
___ Online publication
___ Assorted or other(s)*
3) Searchable Government
Information Database(s)
(____Total)
4) Assorted or others
(____Total)**
Table 2. Coding scheme.
*If a hyperlink leads to a page with assorted functions within the specific subcategory, e.g.,
"engaging/representing citizens," or a function other than the listed ones within the specific subcategory, it
will be counted once for this group.
**If a hyperlink leads to a page with assorted functions within the same category or a function other than
the listed ones in the specific column, it will be counted once for this group.
Types of E-Governance Functions5
As detailed in Table 1, three types of e-governance functions were identified in the
literature: government-to-citizen, government-to-business, and government-togovernment. However, in developing the coding scheme, it became evident that the
manifest content of publicly available Web sites allowed for examination of two basic egovernance functions: engaging or representing citizens (government-to-citizen functions)
and facilitating communication among government agencies (government-to-government
functions). This is not to suggest that government-to-business functions are not available
in China. It merely reflects the fact that those functions do not seem to appear at the Web
sites that are made available to all citizens through the Government Online Project from
which this sample was drawn.
Engaging or Representing Citizens
Civic engagement in governance has been seen as an important way to promote citizen
empowerment, provide "voice" for those outside government, and connect citizens to
government by listening to citizens and supporting accountability, thus strengthening
good governance and increasing people's trust in their governments (Pacific Council on
International Policy, 2002). The pre-test observation found various Web tools, such as
online discussion forums, online surveys or polls, chat rooms, online forms for public
concerns or complaints, that were used to engage citizen participation. Additionally, links
to personal Web sites of officials and email or online mailbox to officials or
policymaking bodies were identified to help tighten the connections between government
and citizens.
Facilitating Communication Among Government Agencies
Internal processes of e-governance between governmental units occur primarily via the
government secure intranet. This internal system enables the integration between systems,
networks and data within public administration, and the "back-office" capability to
deliver coordinated government services. Examining this type of government-togovernment use of ICT is beyond the scope of this study. However, some e-governance
functions were still found in this study in the "front office" of e-government, such as
facilitating the horizontal and vertical interconnection of government bodies and making
the interaction between government and its employees and inter-agency relationships
more convenient and inexpensive by providing internal email boxes, and access to
multiple related government sites, such as Web sites of the branches of government, as
well as to provinces or municipalities. Two major types of hyperlinks on the home page
under the subcategory of portal function were identified. Vertical linkage referred to the
existence of links to lower/higher levels of government, whereas horizontal linkage
represented the existence of links to same-level agencies or entities. Those links leading
to a Web page other than e-government Web sites, e.g., the Web sites of search engines
like Baidu and Yahoo China! were grouped into "other linkage."
Types of E-Service Functions
Online delivery of services benefits both government and its constituents by lowering
costs and making services more accessible. Electronic services have been introduced and
are being used and developed in China's e-government Web sites. The service delivery
has evolved through a variety of functions. Rather than trying to somewhat artificially
divide these services into the category of individuals being served (citizens, business, and
government), two major types of services that apply to all categories of individuals were
identified in this study:
Non-Interactive Services
This refers to information or advice that is published online and that is designed to help
citizens or businesses efficiently carry out their daily activities. These e-service
hyperlinks allow only a passive relationship between the Web site and the user. The user
only has to click on a link to receive the information or advice. The content was coded as
"timely information for daily life" if it was the kind of service that would be accessed
frequently. It was coded as "consultative information" if it was information that would
only be consulted on rare occasions. For instance, the links leading to a page covering
weather, air quality or traffic information, up-to-date food pricing, movie timetables,
local maps, job information, and so on, were grouped into timely information for daily
life. By contrast, consultative information included help-yourself data on various
guidelines and processes, such as specialist advice and step-by-step instructions on a
wide array of procedures (e.g. passport application, marriage and motor vehicle
registration, business operational guide, license application, etc.).
Interactive Services
This coding category refers to content that facilitates interaction between the Web site
and the user. These services require more than a simple "click" to obtain information.
Typically, the user has more control over content and the Web site is more responsive to
user input. Six major interactive functions were identified in this study: 1) E-filing. For
instance, individuals are able to check their tax status online on some Web sites. Other
examples include license application or renewal, registration of corporations and
partnerships, online release of information about commodities, civil service status
tracking, application for residency permit or renewal, record updates, and so on. 2) Epayment. In filing their taxes online, for example, taxpayers key-in and validate data
themselves. Other examples include online payment systems for fines, utility bills, or
permit fees. 3) Downloading files, such as legal forms for consumers, motor vehicle
certificates, export documents, and a variety of forms for application procedures. 4)
Searchable consultative information for individuals or businesses. In some Web sites, for
instance, users can search information or documents by common subjects. 5)
Subscription/registration service. Some Web sites require membership registration to
receive a certain service. For instance, companies that wish to do business with the public
sector do not need to search through newspapers or the Web for information about
bidding opportunities. Instead, they need only to register a single time in the areas in
which they do business. Whenever a request is issued from a public agency, the system
will automatically send e-mail to all the private companies registered in that selected area,
minimizing response time and providing an equal opportunity for all firms. 6) E-mail
service. Some government Web sites provide e-mail service for their constituents.
Types of E-Knowledge Functions
The Web, with its virtually unlimited capacity for information and ease of frequent
updating, is uniquely capable of helping to disseminate e-knowledge. Through its ability
to spread accurate, updated and comprehensive information, the provision of eknowledge through the Web can be a powerful tool for social control. For instance,
nothing is more powerful in combating corruption than conducting transactions openly
and with public knowledge of the rules and criteria to be applied (Bhatnagar, 2003).
Again, the pre-test suggested that the three categories of e-knowledge identified in Table
1 might be better examined using functional divisions rather than division by who is
receiving the knowledge. Thus, as illustrated in Table 2, three primary categories of eknowledge were identified.
Government Information Delivery
If a Web page covered government-centered information, it was included in this
subcategory, which was divided into three groups: 1) administrative information about
the Web host and its subordinate agencies that focuses on informing the public about the
objectives, roles and duties of the concerned governmental unit, 2) information about
governmental routine affairs and political processes such as routine meetings, the leaders'
affairs and activities, and governmental projects, and 3) information about rules,
regulations, and policies, including a variety of government bulletins, news briefs,
announcements, notices and full-text documents about the rules, regulations and policies
in a specific field.
Some information was provided by the governmental unit but was not governmentoriented. This was grouped into the category of general information delivery, including
multiple sub-categories as detailed in Table 2. The final category, searchable government
information database(s), was differentiated from "government information delivery" by
its interactive nature with users, although the content of both could be similar.
Coding & Intercoder Reliability
Unlike numerous previous studies in analyzing Web content (see for example: Aikat,
2000; Ha & James, 1998; Ho, 1997; Schultz, 1999), in this study, the categories were not
coded by simply noting whether or not a coding item existed. Such coding schemes are
limited because the data generated are usually statistically analyzed by using Chi-square
tests that are limited in their ability to analyze differences among groups. Simply noting
the presence or absence of a function did not enable the researcher to differentiate
between the home pages of two Web sites if one had 30 links to a specific type of
function while the other only had three links. To understand thoroughly how the
governments at different levels in China used available resources on the Internet, the
researcher decided to adopt the method of counting the frequency for each item
developed in the coding scheme. Another reason for coding this way was that eknowledge, one of the three major e-government categories in this study, mainly dealt
with information delivery. Instead of simply noting whether a certain type of information
was delivered, the researcher was more interested in how much the type of information
was delivered and how important the information was.
Because home pages were examined in detail (often requiring selecting hyperlinks to
determine the type of content that they linked to), it was important to ensure inter-coder
reliability. This in-depth coding procedure was particularly sensitive to changes in
content that might happen frequently at the Web sites that were information-intensive.
Therefore, to address the instability of Web sites, both coders coded sites on the same
day . Also, a pre-test found that a few of the examined Web sites were in the process of
being redesigned, which would have seriously undermined the intercoder reliability if
they had not been coded on the same day.
Each link was coded as a single frequency for the appropriate coding item under a certain
category or subcategory. However, if more than one link connected to the same
subsequent page, the second or later link was not coded. Two coders examined 30 Web
sites (5.9 percent of n=177) to test the validity of the coding instrument and obtain a
measure of intercoder reliability. The coders first coded ten randomly selected Web sites,
which produced a Holsti coefficient of 0.87. After some variables were collapsed and
definitions for controversial variables were clarified, coders analyzed another twenty
randomly selected Web sites and the Holsti coefficient was improved to 0.91. All Web
sites were coded between January 20 and March 2, 2003.
Data Analysis and Results
Home page size may vary and content may be quite different based on the nature of
institutions and the targets of their Web sites. The distribution tests showed that the
frequency distributions of primary variables in this study were all quite un-normal (p <
0.001). Therefore, it was appropriate to examine research questions using non-parametric
tests rather than parametric tests, such as t-test and ANOVA, which assume normal
distribution.
Research questions not only examined specific types of e-governance, e-service, and eknowledge content available at the Web sites but also compared content between the
national Web sites and the sites for coastal and inland provinces. To examine the research
questions, the raw numbers of links from the home pages were coded for the key content
types (for example, within e-governance a key content type was facilitation of citizen
involvement; the total number of links to online discussion forums, chat rooms, etc. were
coded within this content type). To explore differences among the key functions (the first
half of each research question), the number of links for each key content type was
compared. To explore the second half of each research question, which examined
differences in implementation at the different levels of government, the proportion of
each key content type to the total number of links was examined.
As far as the issue of data analysis is concerned, this study differs from previous studies.
In many of previous studies (see for example Aikat, 2000; Dillon & Gushrowski, 2000;
Ha & James, 1998; Ho, 1997; Parker, 2002; Schultz, 1999), each examined dimension or
function was checked at each sample Web site and the proportion of the Web sites with
the specific dimension or function was compared with the other dimensions or functions.
This method is limited in its ability to see in detail how different functions were
distributed and what functions were projected at each Web site, and what differences
existed between functions within the Web sites at the same level and across the Web sites
at different levels. To overcome such limitations, this study performed two major types of
statistical tests, Friedman tests and Mann-Whitney tests, based on the frequencies of each
function and category. In the former tests, the frequencies of functions and categories
were ordered at each Web site, and then the mean rank of the frequency of each function
and category within the sites at the same level was calculated and compared. In this way,
a horizontal comparison of functions at the same e-government level was performed. In
the Mann-Whitney tests, the proportion of the frequency of each function and category to
the total links on the home page was ranked across the sites at two different levels. Then
the mean rank of the proportion at each level was calculated and compared. In this way,
we could see how each function differed across the different government levels.
Before examining the specific research questions, it should be noted that the national
Web sites had the largest mean total number of links (78.13), followed by the coastal
Web sites (70.70) and the inland Web sites (65.91). The Mann-Whitney tests show that
the mean rank of the total numbers of links of the national Web sites significantly
differed from that of the inland Web sites (z = -1.781, p = 0.075), while the coastal Web
sites showed no significant differences from either the national (z = -1.20, p = 0.23) or
inland sites (z = -1.414, p = 0.157). The highest variance in the total numbers of links was
found at the inland sites (4085.048) with some having very few links and some being
fairly sophisticated. The national sites were most consistent with a variance of 1795.505
and the coastal sites had a variance of 2997.149. Also, the inland Web sites were more
likely to have dead links on their home pages than the sites at the other two levels. The
mean rank of the proportions of dead links to the total links on the home pages of the
inland Web sites were significantly higher than those on the home pages of the national (z
= - 4.537, p < 0.001) and coastal sites (z = - 6.875, p < 0.001), while no significant
difference in the number of dead links was found between the national and coastal Web
sites (z = - 0.231, p = 0.817).
Table 3 provides an overview of the mean rank for e-government categories for the three
government levels. E-governance was the dominant category for the coastal and inland
Web sites while e-knowledge dominated the national Web sites. E-knowledge was in a
strong second place for both the coastal and inland sites while e-governance took the
second place for the national sites. For all three government levels, e-service was the
third-most important category.
National*
E-governance
N
Mean
Rank
24
3.92
Coastal*
Χ2
N
71.530 80
Mean
Rank
4.06
Inland*
Χ2
N
200.082 73
Mean
Rank
Χ2
4.2
135.367
E-knowledge
4.65
3.86
3.95
E-service
2.94
3.72
2.76
Assorted e-government
functions
1.21
1.32
1.50
Other Web functions
2.29
2.04
2.59
Table 3. Friedman tests for differences in link types at each e-government level.
*p < 0.001
RQ1. What type of e-governance is available and how does content vary among Web
sites for the national government, and Web sites for inland and coastal provinces within
China?
As can be seen in Table 4, at each E-government level, the dominant content type was the
portal function, providing links to other Web sites, including government sites, media
sites, etc. The other major content types of e-governance were online forums and e-mail
links provided for citizens to express their concern or complaints about current situations
or policies, and online surveys or polls concerning a certain issue. There were significant
differences among the e-governance functions at each level of government (p < 0.001).
National*
N
Mean
Rank
24
Coastal*
Χ2
N
Mean
Rank
134.003 80
Inland*
Χ2
N
Mean
Rank
490.780 73
354.147
Engaging/Representing
Citizens
Online discussion forum(s)
5.71
5.20
5.58
5.96**
6.04
5.63
4.90
4.76
5.42
6.63**
7.48**
5.89**
Link(s) to personal Web site(s)
of
official(s)
4.90
4.77
5.08
E-mail/online mailbox to
official(s)
or policymaker bodies
5.54
6.81**
6.29**
Assorted or others
5.10
5.15
5.70
Portal function
10.90**
10.89**
10.20**
Internal email-box or other
intra-function(s)
5.96**
5.34
5.77
Assorted or others
4.90
4.85
5.30
Assorted Functions or Others
5.52
4.71
5.14
Online survey(s)/poll(s)
Chat room(s)
Online forms for public
concern/
complaints
Χ2
Facilitating Communication
Table 4. Friedman tests for differences in e-governance functions at each e-government
level.
*p< 0.001, df = 10
**The first three highest ranks in e-governance are highlighted, indicating the frequency numbers of the
links to the referred functions tended to be larger than the others at each e-government level. Similar in the
following tables of Friedman tests.
Table 5 highlights e-governance functions for which differences were found between
government levels. The coastal sites more often provided access to engage citizen
involvement than did the inland sites, which significantly more often provided links to
other Web sites. Detailed analyses within each subcategory found that the difference
between the national and coastal sites in the subcategory of engaging and representing
citizens was that the coastal sites were more likely to provide e-mail links or online
mailbox that enable citizens to government communication than the inland sites (z = 2.596, p = 0.09). More differences between the coastal and inland sites were found, in
that the coastal sites significantly more likely provided online forms (z = -4.376, p <
0.001), online surveys or polls (z = -2.498, p = 0.012) and e-mail links or online mailbox
to officials or policymaker bodies (z = -2.291, p = 0.022) than the inland sites, which
didn't significantly differ from the national sites in each content type of this subcategory.
Function
Engaging/representing citizens
Facilitating communication
Assorted e-governance functions or others
Level Mean Rank
national
45.54
coastal
54.59
national
55.08
inland
46.31
coastal
86.71
inland
65.15
national
44.81
coastal
54.81
national
36.10
inland
52.63
coastal
68.03
inland
85.91
national
57.50
coastal
51.00
national
52.56
inland
47.15
coastal
76.00
inland
77.06
Z*
P Value (two-tailed)
-1.304
0.192
-1.406
0.160
-3.112
0.002**
-1.423
0.155
-2.519
0.012**
-2.501
0.012**
-3.193
0.001**
-2.383
0.017**
-1.054
0.292
Table 5. Mann-Whitney tests for differences in e-governance functions between egovernment levels.
*Grouping variable: e-government Level
**The comparison pair with a p value less than 0.05, which means the differences between the pair was
significant, is highlighted. This convention was also followed in the subsequent tables of Mann-Whitney
tests.
In examination of the functions of facilitating communication among government
agencies, differing patterns were found in how hyperlinks were used by different levels of
government. While no differences existed between the national and coastal Web sites, the
inland sites were more likely to take advantage of links as a portal function, with the
proportion of these kinds of links significantly larger than those of the national sites (z = 2.514, p = 0.012) and the coastal sites (z = -2.561, p = 0.010), thus causing the significant
overall differences of the inland sites than the sites at the other two government levels in
the implementation of facilitating government communication. Detailed analyses found
that the national sites were more likely to provide links to subordinate agencies than were
either the coastal (z = -0.6014, p < 0.001) or inland sites (z = 0.000, p < 0.001), while
there was no significant difference between the coastal and inland sites. By contrast, both
the coastal (z = -2.441, p = 0.015) and inland sites (z = -2.179, p = 0.029) were more
likely than the national sites to provide links across the national and local levels. Again,
no difference was found in how the coastal and inland sites used such links.
Table 6 examines differences in the levels of government for e-governance as well as eservice and e-knowledge and will be referenced for each of the research questions. With
regard to e-governance, significant differences were found between the different levels of
government. The inland Web sites devoted significantly more of their total links to the egovernance functions than did the national (z = -2.313, p = 0.021) and coastal Web sites
(z = -2.238, p = 0.025), while the national and coastal Web sites did not significantly
differ from each other (z = -1512, p = 0.130).
Function
E-governance
E-service
E-knowledge
Level
Mean Rank
Sum of Ranks
Z*
P Value (two-tailed)
national
coastal
44.33
54.95
764.00
1064.00
-1.512
0.130
national
inland
37.48
52.79
599.50
899.50
-2.313
0.021
coastal
inland
national
coastal
national
inland
coastal
inland
national
coastal
national
inland
coastal
inland
69.34
85.39
30.33
59.15
54.92
47.05
99.81
52.00
74.10
46.02
64.21
44.00
73.69
80.63
2533.00
5234.00
728.00
4732.00
1318.00
3435.00
7985.00
3796.00
1778.50
3681.50
1541.00
3212.00
5895.00
5886.00
-2.238
0.025
-4.106
0.000
-1.197
0.231
-6.679
0.000
-4.000
0.000
-3.052
0.002
-0.968
0.333
Table 6. Mann-Whitney tests for differences in link proportions of three major functions
over total links between e-government levels. *Grouping variable: E-government level
RQ2. What type of e-service is available and how does content vary among Web sites for
the national government, and Web sites for inland and coastal provinces within China?
Two key functions, non-interactive and interactive, were found with regard to e-service.
Table 7 shows that the content type of consultative information dominated at each e-
government level, where timely information for daily life was also found important. At
the coastal and inland levels, the function of downloading various files was another
primary function, while links to searchable consultative information was popular at the
national Web sites. The other relatively frequently found functions included e-filing and
subscription or registration services. The two least-often occurring types were e-payment
and e-mail services. The other interactive functions, such as online shopping and eprocurement, were seldom found. There were significant differences among the e-service
functions at each level of government (p < 0.001).
National*
N
Mean
Rank
24
Χ2
Coastal*
N
Mean
Rank
58.950 80
Χ2
Inland*
N
Mean
Rank
337.862 73
Χ2
140.204
Non-interactive Services
Timely information for
daily life
6.71
6.54
6.34
Consultative information
8.71
10.13
7.98
Assorted or others
4.88
3.95
5.09
E-filing
5.92
5.96
5.62
E-payment
4.88
4.13
5.09
Downloading files
6.27
6.38
6.29
Searchable consultative
information
6.38
5.79
5.82
Subscription/registration
service
5.79
5.16
5.32
E-mail service
5.10
4.22
5.38
Assorted or others
5.79
6.45
6.26
Assorted E-Service
Functions or Others
5.58
7.29
6.82
Interactive Services
Table 7. Friedman tests for differences in e-service functions at each e-government level.
*p< 0.001, df = 10
As illustrated in Table 6, significant differences were found in the overall implementation
of e-service among the government levels. The coastal Web sites devoted significantly
more of their total links to e-service than did either the national (z = -4.106, p < 0.001) or
inland Web sites (z = -6.679, p< 0.001). However, no significant difference was found
between national and inland Web sites (z = -1.197, p = 0.231).
Table 8 examines differences in e-service more specifically by comparing how the three
government levels implemented both non-interactive and interactive e-service. The
general pattern found in Table 6 is supported by this data. No significant difference was
found between the national and inland sites. The costal sites were significantly more
likely than the national sites to provide consultative information for individuals and
businesses (z = -3.139, p = 0.002). The differences between the coastal and inland sites
were much more comprehensive and significant, largely existing in each function, except
for e-mail service.
Level
Mean
Rank
Z*
national
coastal
48.71
53.64
-0.772
Timely information for daily national
life
inland
53.69
46.77
-1.346
coastal
inland
84.89
67.17
-2.896
national
coastal
35.58
57.58
national
inland
55.48
46.17
coastal
inland
97.36
53.32
national
coastal
44.27
54.97
national
inland
51.88
47.38
-1.152
coastal
inland
86.78
65.08
-3.952
national
coastal
50.00
53.25
-1.249
national
inland
48.50
48.50
0.000
coastal
inland
78.75
74.00
-2.150
Function
Non-interactive
services
Consultative information
Interactive
services
E-filing
E-payment
-3.139
P Value
(two-side)
0.440
0.178
0.004
0.002
-1.502
0.133
-6.240
0.000
-1.795
0.073
0.249
0.000
0.212
1.000
0.032
Downloading files
Searchable consultative
information
Subscription/registration
service
E-mail service
national
coastal
43.40
55.23
-1.865
national
inland
49.48
48.17
-0.266
coastal
inland
86.16
65.77
-3.296
national
coastal
50.00
53.25
-0.550
national
inland
54.06
46.65
-1.659
coastal
inland
84.40
67.72
-3.038
national
coastal
48.79
53.61
-0.916
national
inland
52.83
47.06
-1.836
coastal
inland
84.36
67.76
-3.596
national
coastal
50.79
53.01
-0.685
national
inland
48.00
48.67
-0.264
coastal
inland
77.63
75.25
-0.739
0.062
0.791
0.001
0.582
0.097
0.002
0.360
0.066
0.000
0.494
0.792
0.460
Table 8. Mann-Whitney tests for differences in e-service between e-government levels.
*Grouping variable: e-government level.
RQ3. What type of e-knowledge is available and how does content vary among Web sites
for the national government, and Web sites for inland and coastal provinces within China?
Table 9 summarizes how the content types of e-knowledge were delivered at each
government level. It shows that news concerning the industry or field under the
administrative domain of the host government agency of the Web site, followed by
information about government rules or regulations or policies and information about
government routine affairs or political processes, dominated on the home pages of the
national Web sites. At the coastal and inland levels, the three dominant content types
were all related to government information delivery. Overall, information about
government rules or regulations or policies and information about government routine
affairs or political processes seemed to be important at each government level.
Significant differences existed among the e-knowledge functions at each level of
government (p < 0.001).
National
*
N
Mean
Rank
2
4
Coastal
*
Χ2
N
Mean
Rank
182.63 8
0
0
Inland
*
Χ2
N
Mean
Rank
344.71 7
2
3
Χ2
375.01
3
Government
Information Delivery
Administrative
information about the
Web host and its
subordinate agencies
10.54
10.19
11.77
Information about
government routine
affairs and political
processes
11.15
10.69
11.79
Information about
rules/ regulations /
policies
12.77
12.43
11.92
Assorted or others
7.63
8.13
8.45
Introduction about
China/ the host
province or
municipality of the
Web site
4.46
7.02
8.40
News concerning the
industry/field under
the administrative
domain of the Web
host
12.96
9.92
7.86
International news
6.75
5.43
5.93
Local news
3.54
8.35
8.19
News in other
provinces/municipaliti
es
3.54
4.36
5.09
General Information
Delivery
Knowledge education
7.77
6.41
6.01
Academic
news/experts opinions
9.02
6.88
6.70
Online publication
4.85
5.08
4.71
Assorted or others
10.42
9.67
10.04
Searchable
Government
Information
Databases
6.06
7.23
5.95
Assorted Functions
or Others
8.54
8.22
7.18
Table 9. Friedman tests for differences in e-knowledge functions at each e-government
level.
*p< 0.001, df = 14
As for the differences between the e-government levels, Table 10 shows that the coastal
Web sites were less likely to deliver government information than either the national or
inland Web sites, which didn't significantly differ from each other. But the coastal Web
sites were more likely to provide searchable government databases than the inland Web
sites. Compared to these two levels, the national Web sites tended to devote the larger
proportion of the total links, whose mean rank was significantly higher than the other two,
to general information delivery. Based on the detailed analyses of each general
information type, this was the case for news of a specific industry, international news,
and provision of academic news or information from "experts." The national sites also
provided more general knowledge education than did the inland sites. However, there
were two instances where the coastal and inland sites outperformed the national sites:
introductory material about the area and local news.
Function
Government information delivery
General information delivery
Level
Mean Rank
Za
P Value
(two-tailed)
national
coastal
65.60
48.57
-2.427
0.015
national
inland
50.02
47.99
-0.309
0.757
coastal
inland
66.79
87.28
-2.865
0.004
national
coastal
72.60
46.47
-3.723
0.000
national
inland
63.85
43.38
-3.118
0.002
Searchable government databases
Assorted or others in E-knowledge
coastal
inland
74.66
78.54
-0.543
0.587
national
coastal
44.88
54.79
-1.461
0.144
national
inland
55.48
46.17
-1.630
0.103
coastal
inland
87.81
63.93
-3.613
0.000
national
coastal
58.90
50.58
-1.218
0.223
national
inland
61.23
44.98
-2.607
0.009
coastal
inland
83.31
70.09
-1.945
0.052
Table 10. Mann-Whitney tests for differences in e-knowledge between e-government
levels.
*Grouping variable: E-government level.
The detailed analyses also found that as a general rule, the coastal and inland sites were
most alike in their delivery of general information. However, the inland sites
outperformed the coastal sites for introductory material about the area under the
administrative domain of the Web host (z = -2.747, p = 0.006). The coastal sites
outperformed the inland sites for news concerning the industry or field under the
administrative domain of the Web host (z = -2.819, p = 0.005).
In other significant differences, the inland sites were more likely than the coastal sites to
provide administrative information about the Web host and its subordinate agencies (z = 2.487, p = 0.013). By contrast, the coastal sites were more likely than the inland sites to
post government rules, regulations, and policies (z = -3.322, p = 0.001).
As illustrated in Table 6, significant differences were found in the implementation of eknowledge between the government levels. The national Web sites devoted significantly
more links to e-knowledge than did either the coastal (z = -4.000, p < 0.001) or inland
sites (z = -3.052, p = 0.002). No significant difference was found between the coastal and
inland Web sites (z = -0.968, p = 0.333).
Discussion and Suggestions for Future Research
In summary, this study found that the national sites were the "largest" with more links on
their home pages and with least variance in home page size than either the inland or
coastal Web sites. This suggests that these sites run by national government ministries
seem to be the most information rich. The Web sites for coastal provinces had the second
highest number of links and both the national and coastal Web sites seem to be better
maintained than the inland sites as demonstrated by the higher number of "dead links" at
the inland sites. However, an important distinction needs to be made between the national
and coastal sites. While the coastal Web sites had fewer links on home page than the
national sites, the sites tended to be more organized in the way that they presented
information and services on home page. The coastal Web sites were more likely to use
"functional" links that lead to more depth of information while the national Web sites
have more "text" links such as news titles. In actuality, the depth of information may be
greater at the coastal Web sites.
The national sites were dominated by e-knowledge with particularly strong focus on the
posting of rules, regulations, and policies. E-governance was the strongest category of egovernment for both the coastal and inland sites. Portal functions were the most popular
form of e-governance at all government levels, but features that engage citizens were also
found. The coastal Web sites consistently outranked the inland sites in terms of the
amount of citizen involvement features at Web sites. E-services were also a key
component of many Web sites. The costal sites tended to provide more services than did
the sites at the other two levels, especially the inland sites.
All of these trends taken together tend to support the notion that the governments of more
economically developed coastal areas are often leading Web site development in China
(Tang, 2000). While the national sites might provide more information, it is the coastal
Web sites that allow individuals more opportunity to participate in the governance
process.
Although the inland sites provided the fewest number of links, they were best at
providing certain types of information. Most notably, the inland sites seem to be doing a
good job of building awareness of their provinces or municipalities by providing content
such as an introduction to the province or municipality and local news.
China's leadership has held out the vision that information technology will allow the
country to decentralize decision-making while allowing the central government to
monitor and control the economy. This vision seems to be reflected in Web site content.
The central government develops and disseminates information while the provincial
governments engage citizens in decision-making processes. Posting government
regulations and policies online at various levels of e-government is no longer "unusual."
Citizens are able to obtain various documents of regulations and policies, such as
regulations on higher education admission and health care, policies of personnel
promotion and "human talent," and local privilege policies for foreign investors, from the
Web sites of the concerned government agencies, which is very helpful for them to be
engaged in decision-making.
Examination of the Web sites suggests the central government initiatives aimed at driving
the information economy through the development of Web sites at every stage of
government may be working. While the sites are not identical or even equal, there is
some evidence that a kind of unified model is evolving that incorporates e-governance, eservice, and e-knowledge into Web sites at both the national and provincial level.
A secondary goal of this study was to develop a coding instrument for analysis of Web
sites. The literature suggested a typology that seemed promising as the framework for a
coding document (see Table 1). However, during pre-testing it became clear that it was
difficult to differentiate between target audiences at many e-government sites. Thus, the
three basic categories of e-government (governance, service, and knowledge) were
retained. But rather than trying to force the coding scheme to reflect the sectors
(government-to-citizen, government-to-business, and government-to-government),
coding categories were allowed to emerge from the data as illustrated in Table 2. This
coding scheme, along with the method of coding number of features rather than simple
presence or absence of features, should prove useful to scholars examining e-government
in many different counties and contexts.
Despite the care taken in designing, implementing, and analyzing this study, a few
limitations must be noted. Future studies might consider sampling not only national and
provincial sites but also sites of municipalities across the country. This could provide
more insight into the depth of success that the central government is (or is not) having in
implementation of its policy of universal e-government availability.
Future studies might also consider examining e-government Web sites from the citizens'
perspective. It does the government little good to build Web sites if they are not used.
Future studies could use surveys, interviews, focus groups and other techniques to learn
about how citizens use e-government Web sites. What factors encourage them to go to
the sites? What relative value do they place on e-governance, e-service, and e-knowledge?
Another key question that should be addressed in future research is how citizens access egovernment Web sites. Do they have access at home, through their work, at a public
library, or cyber-café? What are the implications of access on use of e-government Web
sites? If people have to pay a per-use fee for Internet access, will that limit their use of egovernment Web sites?
Future studies should examine the effects of e-government Web sites. Are citizens more
informed? Are citizens able to receive feedback in a timely manner? Do they feel more
enabled to participate in governance? Are they receiving more services? Are they more
knowledgeable?
This study suggests that the Web has at least begun to help the Chinese government
address its primary needs in the age of information expansion. Government Web sites do
integrate information networks. In particular, they provide e-governance, e-service, and
e-knowledge. Both time and additional research are needed to determine if these Web
sites will also enhance government performance, reduce tension between the government
and citizens, and foster economic growth.
Acknowledgments
The author very much thanks Dr. Sally J. McMillan for her help with conceptualizing and
proofreading the paper. (An earlier draft of the paper was presented at the conference
"China and the Internet: Technology, Economy, and Society in Transition" held May 3031, 2003, at the University of Southern California.) The author would also like to thank
the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their constructive suggestions.
Footnotes
1. The five autonomous regions, such as Inner Mongolia and Tibet, and the four
municipalities under the jurisdiction of the Central Government, such as Beijing and
Shanghai, fall into the provincial category based on the articles of the Chinese
Constitution concerning the present-day administrative divisions.
2. In order to overcome the limitation of the uneven sizes of the sample at the two levels,
the researcher adjusted the proportion of the sample for each level. More Web sites had
been added into the list of the Navigation Center by the time when this paper was
accepted by the journal.
3. The appendices provide the detail of the sample list.
4. The author would like to thank Ms. Linda M. Lee for her help with coding. All
Websites were in Chinese requiring coders who were fluent in the language. She and the
author were graduate students studying in the United States when they were involved in
coding.
5. The detailed description of types of e-government functions helps readers to
understand how the coding scheme has been developed and what content the categories
in the coding scheme cover.
6. For historical and economic reasons, the two provinces, Yunnan and Hainan, were
categorized in this group, even though they have their own coastal lines.
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Appendices
Appendix 1. Examined Web sites at the national level.
Coastal Province/Municipal Total Sample Wrong
Sites
URL
Liaoning
40
4
0
Unable
to
Locate
/
URL
Examined
by
Site(s)
Yahoo
/
4
Hebei
24
1
0
/
/
1
Tianjing
20
1
0
/
/
1
Beijing
139
28
0
/
/
28
Shandong
3
0
/
/
/
0
Jiangsu
56
9
0
/
/
9
Shanghai
83
23
3
/
3
23
Zhejiang
37
5
0
/
/
5
Fujian
7
1
0
/
/
1
Guangdong
54
8
1
/
1
8
463
80
4
0
4
80
Heilongjiang
22
6
1
/
1
6
Jiling
19
3
0
1
0
2
Inner Mogolia
7
1
0
/
/
1
Shaanxi
13
3
0
/
/
3
Henan
32
7
0
1
0
6
Anhui
42
10
0
/
/
10
Jiangxi
12
2
0
/
/
2
Hunan
52
12
0
1
0
11
Hubei
29
8
0
1
0
7
Guangxi
11
3
0
/
/
3
Guizhou
13
3
0
1
0
2
Sichuan
26
4
0
/
/
4
Chongqing
19
6
0
/
/
6
Shanxi
3
0
/
/
/
0
Ningxia
2
0
/
/
/
0
Gansu
3
1
0
/
/
1
Qinghai
4
1
0
/
/
1
Xinjiang
10
4
0
/
/
4
Tibet
0
0
/
/
/
0
Yunnan
27
6
0
2
0
4
Hainan
6
0
/
/
/
0
352
80
1
7
1
73
TOTAL
Inland
6
TOTAL
Appendix 2. Examined Web sites at the provincial level.
About the Author
Xiang Zhou is a doctoral student in the School of Journalism and Electronic Media,
University of Tennessee at Knoxville, with new media as a primary concentration and
statistics as a secondary concentration. Her major research interests are international
news coverage, the Internet and social change, especially the development of the Internet
in China. She was employed with the Xinhua News Agency in Beijing, China, from
March 1993 through August 2000.
Address: 1611 Laurel Avenue #1117, Knoxville, TN 37916. Tel: (865) 946-6054.
©Copyright 2004 Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication