BLOGPOWER: CHINA'S GOVERNMENT FEELS PRESSURE FROM

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