Chinese Internet Activists

After a sex tape went viral last week depicting Chongqing district party chief Lei Zhengfu having sex with an eighteen-year-old girl, the official was quickly fired from his position while Zhu Ruifeng, the netizen who shared the video on his website, was praised for his internet activism.

The incident has since been praised by Chinese media. Below are some snippets from this article by the Voice of America:

In an editorial published Tuesday, the state-run China Daily newspaper welcomed what it called the "prowess" of Zhu and other activists who use the Internet as a "tool against abusive officials."

It said Lei's case shows the effectiveness of social media in triggering government action, and it urged anti-corruption leaders to "embrace" Internet activists as a "close ally." China's main anti-corruption agency issued a statement Monday saying it recognizes a need for authorities to "seriously address" corruption problems "reported by the masses."

And some skepticism:

"For the central government, Internet activism ... that singles out a few 'bad apples' [corrupt officials] is fine, but political and social red lines remain," said Galperin, an international freedom of expression coordinator at the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Allowing [such] activism does not mean, for example, that Tibetan activists will see any increased tolerance."

Social Media and Government

President Obama's question and answer session on the popular website Reddit.com has drawn media attention for his ability to utilize technology to get closer to the average citizen. But as the President was performing his ask-me-anything (AMA) on Reddit, Yang Dacai, Provincial Work Safety Administration of Shaanxi Province took to the Chinese internet to do a live chat concerning images circulating of him smiling at the scene of a tragic bus accident, and to refute claims that corruption is to thank for the various expensive watches he's been shown to wear.

Before I post the details of his live chat, the larger picture at play is the government's use of the internet and online technologies to reach the average citizen. Especially on the Chinese internet, political voices have been known to fuel rumors, bring down corrupt officials, and sway judges to amend sentencing. And in recent years, Chinese officials have been taking to the internet to gauge support.

In early 2009, Chinese President Hu Jintao urged local officials to improve their internet literacy in an effort to improve leadership. By doing so, he argued, the Party would be able to get a better gauge of the political climate. This outlook was followed up by a web chat hosted by Premier Wen Jiabao's in February 2009. The chat left a strong influence on the Premier, who later said he “perceived confidence and strength from people’s suggestions online.” In June 2009, President Hu himself logged into a web forum hosted by the People's Daily where he chatted with the public. However, the chat only last for four minutes. But what's clear is that the Chinese government hopes these online sessions with government officials will provide the people with a sense of transparency in the inner-workings of the Communist Party. My prior research delves a bit deeper into the underlying motives and questions concerning the role of government online - to read, please click here (begins on page 15).

In keeping up with this trend, Yang Dacai decided that the best way to refute rumors was to take to the internet himself. Live-chatting from Weibo, Yang answered 12 out of over 6,000 questions posed.

In defense of his questionable smile that has been circulating the Chinese blogosphere since Monday, Yang responded, “Everyone was wound up. Some comrades’ accents were very strong, and some of what they were saying I couldn’t quite get. I was trying to get them to relax a little, so maybe, in an unguarded moment, I got a little too relaxed myself. When I think about it now, I’m filled with regret.” (WSJ - China Real Time Report)

Responding to claims that he could not possible afford so many luxury watches, Yang defended himself saying that he bought the watches using his salary of the past ten years. However, this answer did not go over well with netizens who continued to argue that the modest salary of an official at his rank would not be able to support such luxuries.

In recent years Chinese have taken to the web to battle perceived corruption in their government, a move that has been met with much success. Yang himself applauds these actions saying that for the people to monitor officials in such a way is “reasonable and normal.” A sentiment that would surely have been shared with the ideology of Mao Zedong.

Official Outfits

One of the main stories of "netizens vs. corruption" that my own research drew upon was the story of Zhou Jiugeng, a Chinese state official who was thrown into the internet spotlight after netizens dissected photographs oh himself wearing an expensive watch and equally expensive foreign cigarettes. It was later discovered that he also drove a Cadillac to work. Netizens questioned how a man in his position could afford such luxuries and determined that he must be involved in corruption since his salary did not match his amenities. As a result, he was fired from his post.

I discovered today two similar causes of netizens dissecting the outfits of officials and both questioning their spending abilities and morals.

The first story is from March 2012 during the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Delegate Li Xiaolin came under fire from netizens for wearing an expensive Emilio Pucci pantsuit. While debates among netizens ranged from anger over lavish spending against a backdrop of Chinese rural poor, to the delegate's freedom to spend her money as she chooses and wear what she wants. Concurrent with attacks on Li, other images began to pop up showcasing various delegates sporting suits and attire from famous western designers such as Hermes, Dior, and Chanel.

More recently, a story followed a tragic event in Shaanxi province where an overnight bus rammed into the back of a gas tanker and caught fire, killing 36 people. Shortly after the accident, a photo circulated on Weibo depicting a middle-aged overweight man smiling near the wreckage. Netizens did a human flesh search for the man's identity and determined him to be Yang Dacai, chief of Shaanxi’s Safety Supervision Bureau. The photograph quickly sparked ire among netizens condemning his actions.

Regardless of his reasons for smiling, be it nerves or another situation that will remain unknown to netizens, those on China's internet soon began to analyze various photos of Yang wearing expensive watches costing anywhere from $30,000-60,000, more than an official in his post should be able to afford, proving that officials need to keep in mind that their expenses are not without scrutiny on the Chinese internet.

Fighting Corruption

Website ChinaSmack.com, which posts and translates hot news items from the Chinese internet, translated an article that has become a hot topic on the Chinese web. One great aspect about ChinaSmack is that the website also posts and translates comments from netizens.

From the Chinese paper Global Times, the article titled "People should permit a moderate [or appropriate] amount of corruption in China" sparked outcry among netizens and ChinaSmack has reported the post received over 250k comments within the day. The article's author argues that "fighting corruption is not something that can be completely “fought” nor completely “reformed” because at the same time, it needs “development” to help solve it." The article goes on to argue that corruption in China, while a number one priority, will not go away any time soon. Unlike the western nations (the article notes Hong Kong, the US, and Singapore), where officials and politicians are wealthy, Chinese officials have low salaries which will often lead them to find money on the side and to make connections.

"China can never be a country where other aspects are very backward and only its government officials are clean. Even if it is for a time, it won’t last long." Overall the tone of the article insinuates that corruption in China, at least for the time being, is tolerable and necessary for the nation's growth and advancement. The article was posted following the firing of China's Railway Minister Liu Zhijun, but I have to also wonder if the article's author (or authors) would praise or condone the actions of the Human Flesh Search Engine in weeding out and targeting low-level officials involved in corruption.

Another aspect that dawned on me after reading this article and the posted comments was that the internet draws another parallel to the Maoist period of Chinese history. It appears that the internet has become the location for mass criticism, with aims to better the nation/Party and to call out individuals (in this case, the article's author).

The article says that while other Asian nations are also plagued with corruption, China has the most "pronounced sense of resentment towards corruption," which is clearly evident in the following comments posted to the original article:

蓝色多瑙河123: Corruption should be given the support of the law.

dbl128: From so many netizen comments we can see just how much the people resent corruption.

订婚坐花轿: Global Times: People should permit a moderate amount of corruption in China. Can poor people with low wages moderately go rob a bank?

潜风润梦: Moderate, moderate, what great wording! However, can one talk about moderation in corruption? As long as it is corruption, it is all excessive.

网易北京市网友: The discussion is very intense, but even if you criticize it, so what, nothing will change.

Best白: Bullshit, then the people should be allowed to choose their own government officials.

(source: chinaSMACK)

China Rape Arrest

Allegations of rape against a Yongcheng city official have been circulating on Chinese microblogs. The official has been accused of raping ten girls and has been arrested and has confessed his actions. Not much information has been released on this story, especially concerning the role of netizens in venting their anger, however the press releases I've read all seem to insinuate that the arrest was a result of anger on the Chinese internet.

The story at BBC News: here.

Update:
Found a more extensive news article pertaining to this story, from Euronews.
“Officials these days are all like this. It’s really terrible,” wrote one Weibo user.
“These dog officials are everywhere. Only execution will sate the public’s anger,” wrote another.

Online Discussion Amid Censorship

Amid the Bo Xilai scandal that is currently rocking China's government, netziens in China are finding ways to discuss and dissect the news even as the Communist Party steps up its censorship of all online material related to Bo Xilai. The scandal of late involves prominent Bo Xilai (who was slated for a high government position) who was recently removed from his post after failing to adequately address the Wang Lijun incident. Furthermore, his wife was just investigated into the death of a British national who was caught up in this affair.

Netizens are using methods to bypass government filtering on micro-blogs and web forums, using keywords that represent figures in the scandal instead of using their real names - which are heavily targeted and taken down by online censoring. While the government continues its censorship over the issue, the BBC notes that it appears that most of the posts "praise" the actions of Beijing. Beijing released a commentary urging the people to support the government's actions as this controversy is investigated and cleared by the government. Wang Feng of the Brookings-Tsinghua Centre for Public Policy said "for the last 30 years this is the biggest scandal we can think of" calling it "unprecedented" in Chinese modern history.

Consent of the Networked

I'm eagerly awaiting the release of Rebecca MacKinnon's book Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom, which is being released January 31st. The book's summary moves the debate about if internet can shape policy and spur increased freedoms to how the internet can attain these ends. It seems as though the book will discuss how citizens need to defend their liberties and rights on the internet in the same way one would do through a rally or protest offline. MacKinnon relates web users to "netizens" - a term I used often in my thesis - which are people who act like citizens of the internet "and take ownership and responsibility for [their] digital future." To find out more about this upcoming book, or to pre-order, visit the book's official website.

MacKinnon, whom I referenced in my thesis, became a role model of mine as I wrote it. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, MacKinnon has worked extensively in China as a journalist and correspondent. She founded Global Voices Online, an "international citizen media network" and works to research and document how the internet shapes global policy and freedom of expression. She even testified in front of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission on "China’s Information Control Practices and the Implications for the United States" and is considered an expert in Chinese internet censorship.

One post written by MacKinnon on her blog RConversation greatly inspired my thesis and research. While my adviser and I made connections between the modern movements and actions taken by netizens utilizing the Human Flesh Search Engine, MacKinnon drew a strong parallel between these cyber-vigilantes and the Red Guards of the Cultural Revolution. In her post titled "From Red Guards to Cyber-Vigilantism to Where Next?", MacKinnon likens Red Guards of the past who targeted members of the bureaucracy to Chinese netizens who have recently been targeting corrupt officials through the internet, leading to quite a few sackings.

For more information on the Human Flesh Search Engine being utilized to end corruption, I urge you to visit my thesis above where I discuss the search engine and corruption, or visit the Instances section above for concise snippets.