CORRUPTION, house prices and praise for the achievements of the Communist Party are the subjects addressed by Chinese internet users on a new state-sponsored website, which provides an all-too-rare forum for them to voice their views on the government.
Internet users have flocked in their thousands to the site, the title of which translates as “Direct Line to Zhongnanhai”, to post about burning issues of the day.
Nearly one third of the postings relate to house prices – property is getting expensive in China and causing widespread unhappiness, but it seems many of the harshest criticisms have not made it to the site.
“Premier Wen Jiabao: we want a more organised real estate market, more suitable financial and tax policies to improve our real estate market and allow it to develop in a healthy way,” ran one posting.
Others were plaintive.
“Hi, Mr Wen, I only want to ask for price of petrol to be less in the future, I know you are busy and tired, hope you are taking care of yourself,” wrote one concerned netizen.
The page is emblazoned with the wooden red doors of the Xinhua Gate, inviting visitors inside to a website with the hammer and sickle and President Hu Jintao prominently on display.
“China should learn more from Singapore, to punish more on all kinds of corruption,” ran another posting.
The forum was set up this week by the People's Daily, the main organ of the Communist Party.
Zhongnanhai is a former imperial compound where top government officials live and work, a secretive place where many of the decisions that affect one sixth of humanity are made.
There has been fierce debate about the website on numerous other web forums, with complaints that all the critical postings had been removed or that the website was mere window-dressing and would make little difference.
“This is obviously a ‘public show’, it is just an ornament, without any function in reality,” wrote one commentator.
“There will be some secretaries dealing with all the messages and comments from the website – they’ll delete some, modify some and hopefully there will be some lucky ones remaining until the leaders read them.”
During its first five days of operation, Mr Hu’s personal page on the site attracted 16,215 postings, while there were 11,088 messages to Premier Wen Jiabao. By September 13th, the last time the data was updated, the messages to President Hu increased to 25,000, while messages to the premier rose to 18,000.
The rights group Human Rights in China says there are 26 restrictions setting out what type of comment is or is not permitted on the site, with content prohibitions include endangering state security, leaking state secrets, subverting state power, harming national reputation and interests, disturbing social order, etc.
Last year the government set up a website for citizens to report corrupt officials, which crashed under the weight of traffic soon after launching.