With the development of digital technology, the Internet plays an increasingly important role in the daily life of Chinese society. Under the new social and technological background, the practices of participatory communication present diversified forms of development in China: from village to city; from a specific application to a full range of applications; from specialized participants to common people. There are mainly three forms of practices: participatory communication as a rigorous working method; participatory communication as the integration of mainstream media, and participatory communication as a popular information production method. From the perspective of participatory communication as a community work method, due to the lack of an empowered political and social environment, it still operates in a small scale and is used at the instrumental level. With the transformation and convergence of China's mainstream media, participatory communication has been absorbed into the construction of modern communication system and has become an important content production and communication method of mainstream media, especially in the media convergence at county-level. Under the background of technology empowerment, participatory communication has become the main content production and dissemination method of we-media. Especially in public crisis communication, it has become an important way of information production and dissemination different from mainstream media and an important source of information for the public. On the one hand, the development of participatory communication requires the empowerment of a political and social environment; on the other hand, the development of participatory communication can also create such an environment, which has been fully proved in the outbreak of coronavirus in China.