Technology for Good? How Digital Platforms Reshape Collaboration in China’s Civic Sector

• In Event: Science, Knowledge & Technology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 11: The Social Transformation of Knowledge in the Digital Age

Abstract

Addressing complex social problems increasingly requires collaboration among diverse
organizations. Yet, existing scholarship on nonprofit collaboration—largely grounded in Western
contexts—often assumes a liberal institutional environment and a natural partnership between
foundations and NGOs. Far less is known about how such collaborations emerge and adapt in
tightly regulated settings, where digital infrastructures and state oversight co-evolve. This paper
examines how the rise of digital platforms, particularly Tencent Charity Platform, reshapes
collaboration among Chinese civic organizations. I argue that tech power has transformed the
nonprofit field from a landscape of independent organizations into one of interdependent
networks, where digital affordances, visibility, and regulations jointly structure collaboration.
Crucially, technology firms have acted as an institutional broker and infrastructure provider,
reducing both regulatory friction and technological barriers that long constrained public
fundraising. Through innovations such as shared fundraising rights and mobile payment systems,
platforms enabled new forms of collaboration that were previously administratively and
logistically impossible. Drawing on a mixed-methods design—including network analysis of
large-scale data (2008–2024) and in-depth interviews with representatives from tech firms,
foundations, and NGOs—the study identifies three types of digital empowerment among
organizations: transformers that leveraged digital tools for institutional reinvention, amplifiers
that scaled their collaborative networks, and rejuvenators that modernized bureaucratic control
within the statist ecosystem. Together, these findings reveal how digital platforms
simultaneously enable, stratify, and discipline civic collaboration, illustrating both the promise
and the paradox of “tech for good” in contemporary China.

Authors

• Wenjuan Zheng, Hong Kong University of Scienex and Technology

• Delin Zhang, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology