CHINESE INTERNET REACTION TO IRANIAN ELECTION

UNCLAS BEIJING 001649

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV EINT CH IR

SUBJECT: CHINESE INTERNET REACTION TO IRANIAN ELECTION

Summary
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1. The recent Iranian presidential elections and their aftermath
were hot topics on major Chinese news portals, Internet forums and
microblog platforms in China over the past week. Netizen commentary
on traditionally liberal sites expressed support for students with
some even comparing the situation in Iran to China. However, as
with most topics, opinions on the events in Iran differed widely
among Chinese netizens. A survey of major Chinese websites on June
17 revealed that netizens posting on mainstream or conservative
sites tended to side with the Iranian government and criticize
protesters. End Summary.

High Volume of Discussion
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3. The Iranian presidential elections and their aftermath were
hotly discussed topics on the Chinese Internet beginning on June 13.
On Sina.com, a popular news portal that ranks stories based on
viewer traffic, articles on Iran made up four of the ten most
commented on international news articles on June 14. Throughout the
week, topics related to North Korea and Iran were among the most
discussed stories on Sina.com. Though harder to quantify, Chinese
discussion of Iranian elections was also widespread on microblogging
platforms. On the Chinese twitter clone Fanfou, for example,
searches on June 17th revealed between 5 and 15 posts about the
Iranian election per hour. Discussion of Iran on microblog
platforms was increased when well known internet personalities
including Ai Weiwei, Lian Yue and Michael Anti began publishing
comments about Iran. These comments were then widely reposted by
other users.

Unsympathetic Netizens
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4. Netizen commentary published on many mainstream Internet sites
was generally critical of Iranian protesters. On popular mainstream
Internet news portal Sohu.com, netizens were critical of what they
saw as a "color revolution" with western government involvement.
Some popular comments included: "Mir Hussein Moussavi is America's
inside man," "democracy is always easily manipulated by the west"
and "America is the black hand behind the scenes." While many
netizens posting on the more conservative People's Daily's Strong
Country Forum and the militaristic Tiexue.net echoed the sentiments
found on Sohu, those sites also served as a platform for deeper
analysis of events in Iran. Analysis there mostly focused on
whether Iran was experiencing a "color revolution." (Note: It is
impossible to discount the influence of paid government netizens who
are known to receive compensation for posting government approved
messages on Chinese websites. These members of the so-called "50
Cent party" are paid a nominal fee per posting in order to give
Internet readers the impression that certain government endorsed
opinions are more widely held than they actually are.)

Liberal Sites More Sympathetic
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5. Chinese postings on traditionally liberal websites such as
microbloging platforms Fanfou and Twitter and forums such as Cat898
were more sympathetic to Iranian protesters. On these sites,
netizens openly used the situation in Iran to comment on Chinese
politics. Postings on Fanfou included "Iran is not a democratic
country [but it is still] more democratic than China," "the Iranian
government isn't permitting foreign journalists to interview
rioters, in this area, Iran is 20 years behind China" and "is
today's Iran China twenty years ago?" Another popular posting on
Fanfou asked: "What if China erupted in protests? What role would
Twitter, Fanfou, Kaixin001 (a social networking site) and Facebook
play? What should be done if all these systems were "blocked"
(weihule)?" The posting then links to a Chinese article describing
the role of individuals outside Iran in assisting Iranian protesters
access foreign information and get their messages to the outside
world after networking sites were blocked in Iran.



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