Abstract: Whether the Internet promotes political participation has always been a hot topic among academia. However, the current research lacks an effective classification of Internet usage, nor does it analyze its impact on different political participation. Based on the data from the China Urban Governance Survey (2015 & 2018), this study offers an examination of Internet usage behavior of urban Chinese from the perspectives of Internet involvement and information consumption, as well as a comparison of different patterns of Internet use on conventional and unconventional political participation. The result of this study confirms the "empowerment hypothesis" of Internet use and shows that both "group-involvement-social information oriented" Internet use have a positive effect on conventional or unconventional political participation of urban Internet users. However, the study fails to support the "time displacement hypothesis." It shows that the "individual-involvement-entertainment oriented" mode of Internet use has no negative effect on the conventional and unconventional political participation of Chinese urban Internet users. Similarly, the "group-involvement-entertainment oriented" Internet use has no significant effect on unconventional political participation. Taken together, the study shows that in general, Internet use has promoted Chinese urban netizens' political participation but there are significant differences between different types of Internet use. As a revolutionary medium, Internet not only provides citizens with the convenience of obtaining and communicating information but also brings more challenges to the state governance. How the government should deal with different kinds of political participation in the Internet age will be an important research topic in the future.

Key words: political participation, Internet involvement, information consumption, empowerment hypothesis, time displacement hypothesis