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The Internet is highly uniform across the globe. An important exception to this uniformity can be found in China, where over the last decades a distinct cyberspace has emerged and grown so much that it now also significantly influences the dominant US-based cyberspace. This thesis investigates how this alternative cyberspace could emerge, and how it evolved over time. To do so, the Large Technical Systems framework was applied. Information from a large variety of written sources was gathered, in which system building activities of actors in Chinese cyberspace were identified, as well as the developments in Chinese cyberspace that altered the system momentum, thereby directing future developments. This thesis shows that the evolution of Chinese cyberspace can be interpreted as a sociotechnical and evolutionary process, in which earlier developments created the conditions for later developments to occur. Especially the creation of the Great Firewall, the decision of many large US tech companies to leave the Chinese market due to the censorship regulations, and the rapid domestic growth that Chinese companies enjoyed due to having no foreign competitors can be identified as impactful developments on how Chinese cyberspace evolved. Additionally, through its focus on system building, this thesis shows that governmental actors and private companies both played a large role in the development of Chinese cyberspace. This thesis increases our understanding of how actors in Chinese cyberspace responded to the challenges they faced, while also showing the added benefit of studying Chinese cyberspace from a sociotechnical lens …