The myth of informatization in rural areas: The case of China's Sichuan province

As one of the nation's informatization strategies, the Chinese government has set up an ambitious goal to connect all the villages via broadband by the end of 2020. Lacking an explicit and systematic universal service policy, the Chinese government initially designated the major telecommunications carriers to carry out the task, which is commonly referred as “telephone service in every village project”. So far, the project is going well and all the planned deadlines are met. In addition to connections, government and business entities are developing various information services to bring timely and useful economic, educational and agricultural information to those rural residents.The primary research question of this paper is to look at whether this government-led model is sustainable in the future. The study is conducted in Sichuan, a typical western province where the divide between the urban and rural area is very prominent while, surprisingly, the agricultural informatization service in that region has gained national attention. The study shows that the lack of vision, coherent strategy and a sustainable model are the issues that need to be addressed.