Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08BEIJING608
2008-02-20 10:43:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Beijing
Cable title:  

BLOGPOWER: CHINA'S GOVERNMENT FEELS PRESSURE FROM

Tags:  PGOV PHUM KCUL PROP SOCI EINT CH 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO2332
RR RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHBJ #0608/01 0511043
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 201043Z FEB 08
FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5160
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 BEIJING 000608 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/20/2028
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KCUL PROP SOCI EINT CH
SUBJECT: BLOGPOWER: CHINA'S GOVERNMENT FEELS PRESSURE FROM
GROWING LEGION OF INTERNET CRITICS

REF: A. 07 BEIJING 1238

B. OSC CPP20071102719001

C. OSC CPP20071205968017

D. BEIJING 431 AND PREVIOUS

E. OSC CPP20080206719001

F. SHANGHAI 18

G. 07 GUANGZHOU 1288 AND PREVIOUS

H. 07 SHENYANG 245

Classified By: Deputy Political Section Chief Ben
Moeling. Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

Summary
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 BEIJING 000608

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/20/2028
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KCUL PROP SOCI EINT CH
SUBJECT: BLOGPOWER: CHINA'S GOVERNMENT FEELS PRESSURE FROM
GROWING LEGION OF INTERNET CRITICS

REF: A. 07 BEIJING 1238

B. OSC CPP20071102719001

C. OSC CPP20071205968017

D. BEIJING 431 AND PREVIOUS

E. OSC CPP20080206719001

F. SHANGHAI 18

G. 07 GUANGZHOU 1288 AND PREVIOUS

H. 07 SHENYANG 245

Classified By: Deputy Political Section Chief Ben
Moeling. Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

Summary
--------------


1. (C) In 2007 Chinese bloggers grew increasingly bold
in questioning government authority, according to
several Post sources in media and academia. Censors,
our contacts tell us, simply cannot keep up with
China's rapidly growing blogger community, which now
numbers 17 million. For example, when forestry
officials in Shaanxi Province released photos of a
wild tiger as proof of their successful conservation
efforts, bloggers quickly exposed the photos as fake.
When cadres in Pizhou, Jiangsu Province staged an
elaborate parade in honor of the local party
secretary, Internet commentators were merciless in

SIPDIS
criticizing such Mao-like antics. The growing power
of the blogosphere was further demonstrated in
December when government scientists felt compelled to
publicly dispel Internet rumors that photos supposedly
taken by China's first lunar probe were stolen from
NASA. While the Internet is emerging as a force to
promote government accountability, China's blogosphere
is not a complete free-for-all. Critics, our contacts
note, are targeting Internet comments to specific
issues and government departments. Broadsides against
the Communist Party are still rare. While censors
show tolerance towards some online debate, they
continue to clamp down fast when activists use the
Internet as a platform for organizing real-life
demonstrations. End Summary.

17 Million Active Bloggers
--------------


2. (U) China's blogger community is experiencing rapid
growth. According to figures released by the China

Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC),as of
November 2007 47 million Chinese had registered at
least one blog. According to CNNIC, 17 million of
these people are active bloggers who update their
sites "regularly." The number of blogs and bloggers
has roughly doubled since 2006 (ref A). This is in
line with the overall increase in Chinese Internet
users, which CNNIC statistics reveal reached 210
million at the end of 2007. Rural residents represent
the fastest growing segment of China's online
community with 53 million users, a 127 percent
increase from 2006. 78 percent of Chinese Internet
users now go online via broadband connections.

Strength in Numbers
--------------


3. (C) Post contacts say bloggers are overwhelming
government censors by sheer force of numbers. Li
Yanhong (protect),the Chairman and CEO of Chinese
search engine Baidu.com, told PolOff that the Chinese
Government is simply unable to keep up with all that
is taking place online. The number of users and the
explosion in domestic content, Li said, is just too
great. Xu Zhiyong (protect),a pro-democracy activist
lawyer, described 2007 as the "year of the people"
since Chinese increasingly used the Internet to
question government authority. Xu told PolOff
bloggers are growing bolder in directly criticizing
government officials, although these challenges are
still restricted to narrow issues and specific
government departments. Government officials at all
levels, our interlocutors tell us, now feel compelled
to react much more quickly to criticism arising from
the blogosphere.

Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright
--------------


4. (SBU) Contacts pointed to the ongoing "South China
Tiger" scandal as one of the most significant examples
of Chinese "blog power." Officials at the Shaanxi
Province Forestry Department held a press conference

BEIJING 00000608 002 OF 004


October 12 to announce that a farmer in Zhenping
County had snapped photos of a wild South China tiger,
a species that was thought extinct in that region.
The farmer was awarded RMB 20,000 ($2,800). Armed
with the photos, Shaanxi officials announced plans to
apply to the Central Government to create a nature
preserve in the area.


5. (SBU) Bloggers immediately questioned the
authenticity of the photos, which many suggested the
farmer created by placing an enlarged photo cutout of
a tiger behind some foliage. Online critics accused
Shaanxi officials of concocting the photos to justify
the nature preserve plan, which, if approved, would
bring in more Central Government funding. The Shaanxi
Forestry Department's credibility hit a new low in
November when bloggers discovered a 2002 Lunar New
Year poster that appears to be the source of the tiger
image. By that time, China's traditional media had
jumped on the story. Editors of Nanfang Zhoumo
(Southern Weekend) selected the "Internet tiger
debunkers" as one of their 2007 "people of the year."
Shaanxi forestry officials issued an apology February
4 for being too hasty in calling the October press
conference, but they have yet to admit the photos are
fakes.


6. (C) Contacts tell us the tiger scandal is
significant not just because provincial officials were
caught in an embarrassing lie, but also because
bloggers directed some of their criticism toward the
State Forestry Administration for its poor handling of
the incident. Such direct criticism of a Central
Government agency remains rare, even on the Internet.
Beijing University sociologist Ma Rong (protect) said
Shaanxi officials were quick to promote the photos as
evidence of their wildlife conservation achievements
yet were called to task by an increasingly
sophisticated public. In the age of the Internet, Ma
said, Chinese officials can no longer easily
manipulate public opinion.

The Pride of Pizhou
--------------


7. (C) A second blogger expose in 2007 involved Li
Lianyu, the Party Secretary of Pizhou City, Jiangsu
Province (ref B). When Li returned to Pizhou October
23 after participating in the 17th Communist Party
Congress, officials staged an elaborate welcome home
parade complete with firecrackers, lion dancers, and
streets lined with adoring well-wishers (many of whom
were nurses, police officers and other government
employees). When Pizhou officials posted photos of
the parade on a City Government website, bloggers
responded with stinging criticism of Li's excess.
Internet commentators sarcastically labeled Li the
"proudest Party Secretary in history" and pilloried
him for his self promotion. Legal Daily International
Editor Zhang Shensi (protect) told PolOff the incident
shows that local officials in China are still more
vulnerable to public criticism than higher-level
leaders. Had Li Lianyu been a provincial-level
leader, Zhang speculated, authorities would have moved
aggressively to censor critical blogs.


8. (C) Unlike the South China Tiger case, in the Li
case China's print media was not allowed to join the
Internet bandwagon and, in some cases, was forced to
go along with government efforts to restore Li's
image. Zhou Qing'an (protect),a Tsinghua University
journalism professor and editorial writer for the
Xinjing Bao (Beijing News),told Poloff propaganda
officials sharply rebuked the Xinjing Bao after it
printed an editorial critical of Li. Propaganda
officials, according to Zhou, then forced the paper to
print a hagiographic profile of Li Lianyu describing
him as a workaholic man of the people who merely fell
victim to overly enthusiastic underlings. The China
Youth Daily printed a similarly positive story.
However, Zhang, of the Legal Daily, said many in China
do not believe the official line. The criticism of
Li, Zhang explained, struck a chord with Chinese who,
having experienced life under Mao Zedong, have a
natural aversion to any attempts by officials to build
a cult of personality.

"Fake" Lunar Photos
--------------


9. (C) Unlike in the Pizhou case, where the government

BEIJING 00000608 003 OF 004


waited weeks before initiating damage control, Chinese
officials were more proactive in countering Internet
conspiracy theories that China's space program had
stolen lunar photos from NASA. On November 26,
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao personally unveiled the
first photos taken by China's Chang'e lunar probe.
Bloggers immediately began to theorize that the photos
were actually copied from an earlier American lunar
mission. On December 2, a high-level scientist on the
Chang'e program met with reporters to refute these
rumors, and this rebuttal received extensive coverage
in Chinese newspapers the following day. Tsinghua's
Zhou Qing'an said it is significant that China's
Central Government felt compelled to respond to these
web critics. The incident, Zhou said, shows how even
misguided bloggers are helping to boost government
accountability.

A Woman Scorned, A Magic ATM
--------------


10. (C) Contacts pointed to several additional recent
incidents that highlight the government's diminishing
ability to control controversial or embarrassing
information online. Among the notable developments:

-- Television anchor Hu Ziwei stormed the stage during
a December 28 China Central Television (CCTV) press
conference to denounce her husband Zhang Bin, a CCTV
sports department executive, for an alleged
extramarital affair. Though China's traditional media
was not allowed to report the story, millions of
Chinese viewed the press conference footage on Youtube
and other video-sharing websites.

--After an Internet-led public uproar, a Guangdong
appeals court in January ordered a retrial for migrant
worker Xu Ting, who was sentenced in late 2007 to life
in prison for stealing RMB 175,000 ($24,000) from a
mafunctioning ATM machine. Many bloggers argued the
sentence was too harsh given that it was the bank's
error that allowed Xu to withdrawal unlimited cash.
Renmin University sociologist Zhou Xiaozheng (protect)
told Poloff that the blogger outcry, which was then
picked up by the mainstream press, was a key factor in
the higher court's decision to overturn the
conviction.

--When snow storms in southern China stranded millions
of Lunar New Year travelers, China's propaganda
machine responded with endless stories about the
government's heroic relief efforts (ref D). On the
Internet, however, many criticized the government's
response, with some chatroom participants calling for
the resignation of Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun and
others calling for political reform in light of the
government's uneven performance (ref E).

The Significance of "Little Things"
--------------


11. (C) Cai Wei (protect),an editor at the weekly
lifestyle and culture magazine Sanlian Shenghuo
Zhoukan (Lifeweek),told Poloff that until recently he
had dismissed China's bloggers as being too fixated on
minor, tangential issues to have much influence.
However, Cai, whose magazine devoted its November 12
cover to the South China Tiger controversy, said he is
reassessing this analysis in light of recent events.
If Internet users are able to hold the government
accountable for "little things," such as the veracity
of tiger photos, Cai argued, then it is easier to hold
them accountable for larger issues.

Out of the Blog and into the Street
--------------


12. (C) Zhou Xiaozheng, of Renmin University, told
PolOff that official tolerance of Internet dissent
still has limits, particularly when Internet debate
spills into the non-virtual world. Authorities, Zhou
noted, have clamped down on Internet discussion of the
proposed extension of Shanghai's maglev train, which
has sparked demonstrations in that city (ref F).
Internet censors have also attempted to limit online
discussion of the 2007 protests in Xiamen against a
chemical plant project (ref G). Tsinghua's Zhou
Qing'an told PolOff that local authorities recently
told an acquaintance of Zhou's who runs a web
discussion board in Xiamen to stop writing about the
chemical plant controversy. Similar Internet controls

BEIJING 00000608 004 OF 004


were put in place in November when the collapse of a
pyramid sales scheme in Liaoning Province led to wide-
scale street protests (ref H). In December, Shenyang
police detained well-known blogger Zhou Shuguang, who
had traveled to the city to write about the protests,
and then put him on a plane back to his home in Hunan
Province. Zhou subsequently claimed on his website
that police punched him during the ordeal.

Comment
--------------


13. (C) In 2006, the big Internet stories tended to
involve debates over nationalism and culture (e.g. the
presence of a Starbucks within the Forbidden City) or
vigilantism (e.g. outraged netizens hunting down a
woman who posted a video of herself crushing a
kitten)(ref A). In 2007, as our contacts point out,
more bloggers and chatroom participants used the
Internet to directly question government actions.
While the explosive growth of Internet usage and
content has attracted government censors, what appears
to be of much greater concern to the Communist Party
is the use of blogs and discussion boards to organize
real-world protests. The trend we see, however, is
that the Internet (and the sophistication of Chinese
citizens who use it) is growing faster than the
ability of the Government or the Party to control it.
It is becoming a tool in the hands of those who work
for government accountability and a constraint on the
authorities' efforts to limit people's access to
information.
RANDT