Aifang Ma

Research Topics

Regulation, Internet and social media, online activism, Internet firms, Internet governance, artificial intelligence

Dr. Aifang Ma obtained her Ph.D degree in Political Science in 2022 at the Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics, Sciences Po, Paris. Supervised by Professor Colin Hay and in close collaboration with Professor Nonna Mayer, Aifang Ma wrote a thesis on the double-bind regulation of the internet and social media in China from 1987 to 2020. She is currently a Lecturer and Boya postdoctoral scholar (highest distinction of postdoc scholars in China) at the School of Journalism and Communication, Peking University. She has the status of Associated Researcher at the Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics, Sciences Po, Paris. She succeeded in being admitted into the 2024 CyberBRICS Fellowship Program hosted at the Center for Technology and Society of Fundação Getulio Vargas, Rio de Janeiro. She currently works on the national and international regulation of artificial intelligence. At Peking University, she spearheads a comparative research program on the anti-trust regulation of the digital economy in China, the EU, and the USA. This research program is fully funded by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation from 2023 to 2025.

She has published several peer-reviewed articles in Public Administration, Constructif, Revue Monde Chinois - Nouvelle Asie, Twenty-First Century, News and Writing, Modern Publishing, Journal of Tianjin Administration Institute, Journalism and Communications Review, Media Economics and Management Research. She also published articles for The Conversation and the Robert Schuman Foundation.

Aifang Ma obtained her Bachelor’s degree in French language and culture. Her bachelor degree paper on the sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone obtained an Excellence Prize. Having simultaneously accomplished two Master’s programs at Beijing Foreign Studies University and Sciences Po (Paris), she joined the CEE in 2018. Before joining the CEE, she worked at the Office of the Director-General of the UNESCO in Paris in 2016 and the Embassy of the French Republic in China from 2016 to 2017.

Publications (selection)

Book

Ma, Aifang (2024). China as a Double-Bind Regulatory State: How Regulators’ Predicament Produces Regulatees’ Autonomy. Singapore: Palgrave MacMillan, 2024.

Selected Peer-Reviewed Articles

Ma, Aifang & Hu, Yong (2024). “Towards an International Governance of Artificial Intelligence: Theoretical Frameworks, Current Dilemmas, and Exploration of Models”. News and Writing 475: 69-80. (CSSCI Journal)
Hu, Yong & Ma, Aifang (2023). “Research on Artificial Intelligence Governance from Perspective of Polanyi’s Double Movement Theory”. Modern Publishing 145: 39-53. (CSSCI Journal)
Ma, Aifang (2023). “Reconsidering the Content Compliance Issue of Private Internet Firms in China”. Twenty-First Century 197: 4-16.

Other publications

Ma, Aifang (2023). La Régulation numérique: Chine, France, Etats-Unis. Paris: Fondation pour l’innovation politique.
Ma, Aifang (2020), Les Biotechnologies en Chine: Un état des lieux. Paris: Fondation pour l’innovation politique.
Ma, Aifang (2018), L’Intelligence artificielle en Chine: Un état des lieux. Paris: Fondation pour l’innovation politique.

Teaching

“Media Policy and Media Regulation”, master-level, Peking University, Fall semester

Distinctions

December 2023: Excellent Teacher Prize, 2023 Annual Contest of Young Teachers at Peking University;
December 2023: Laura Bassi Scholarship, Editing Press.
March-August 2024: Winner for 2024 CyberBRICS Fellowship Program