Dataset_Embedded Media Governance in China’s Screen Culture Industry: From Infiltration to Co-optation

This study examines embedded media governance in China’s private television drama industry. We analyze how the Central Propaganda Department (CPD) and the United Front Work Department (UFWD) coordinate to steer this commercialized sector through the Grand United Front (大统战) at the micro level. Through institutional analysis and a two-mode network map of 59 elites and 58 organizations—linked to 131 National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA)-backed private dramas (2013–2024)—we identify a three-stage process of elite co-optation. We argue that the Party-state builds a sophisticated control network by deploying “Red Capitalist” insiders, mobilizing their kinship networks, and absorbing outsiders through institutional approaches. This process transforms guanxi (关系, interpersonal ties) into a media governance infrastructure for transmitting political signals and normalizing compliance. We identify three patterns of relational control—Relational Infiltration, Relational Co-optation, and Regime Co-optation—that demonstrate a shift from external co-optation to deeply embedded governance by insiders. The case of Macao’s “Aollywood” (澳涞塢) illustrates the model’s extraterritorial extension. Our findings contribute to the political economy of communication, specifying how an authoritarian regime institutionalizes embedded governance to maintain ideological control within a marketized media system.