THE MESSAGE that came down from the propaganda czars was that there would be greater openness about the secretive workings of the Communist Party during the year of the dragon, but internet controls would be stepped up too. Soon, all microbloggers will have to register under their real names.
It’s a real conundrum for the Communist Party. By the end of last year there were 513 million internet users in China, and the country’s leadership is worried it is losing control of the flow of information.
It is fearful that negative opinions are spreading so quickly, the wave could threaten the party’s authority.
The main culprits are microbloggers, the users of “weibo”, which allows users to send short messages of 140 characters or less to their followers. In Chinese, a character is a word or at least half a word, so this can represent a pretty long message.
Twitter, the most popular microblogging platform in the world, is blocked by China’s censors, as is Facebook, YouTube and other social networks.
While these weibo microblogs often highlight official misconduct, the government says some spread malicious rumours and gossip and need to be muzzled or at least better controlled.
In December, city governments in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Shenzhen announced rules to regulate microblogging operators, requiring new users to register with their real names.
Critics say real-name registration is simply a way to head off negative comments by making it easier to trace the authors of these kind of postings.
Wang Chen, the minister who leads the propaganda section of the state council, or cabinet, said microbloggers nationwide would be forced to register their real names once the pilot programmes in cities were finished, and existing users would be required to register later.
“On the one hand, microblogs can reflect the social situation and public opinion, and broadcast a positive public voice. At the same time, microblogs can make it easy to disseminate a few irrational voices, negative public opinion and harmful information,” said Chen.
The government has implemented a rigorous set of controls on internet content, known colloquially as the “Great Firewall of China”, which keeps a tight rein on politically suspect material.
At the same time, Beijing is keen to exploit the commercial freedoms that the online world offers, especially in the booming e-commerce sector.
They have their work cut out for them. The use of microblogging in China quadrupled in 2011 compared with the previous year, with nearly half of all Chinese internet users now taking to the near-instant service to gather news and spread views.
The total number of microbloggers rose 296 per cent to 249.9 million in 2011, data from the China Internet Network Information Center showed, meaning nearly half of the Chinese internet population used weibo.
So it’s no surprise to see how the government wants to keep a lid on such an influential service.
Following the outburst of national soul-searching in October which followed the death of a toddler, Yue Yue, who was struck by a truck and lay bleeding on the road witnessed by passers-by who failed to go to her assistance, weibo turned the incident into a national debate.
The same thing happened when the Wenzhou high-speed train crash in July turned into a scandal after microbloggers criticised the government’s response.
And villagers in Wukan protesting last month against what they saw as heavy-handed Communist Party rule, took over the village and drove the cadres out, but not before they had posted everything on weibo.
China has a number of big issues on its plate during the year of the dragon. There is the beginning of the transfer of power at the top of the Communist Party. In October, Xi Jinping will take over as general secretary of the Communist Party from Hu Jintao, while Li Keqiang will be installed as premier as Wen Jiabao steps down.
No one is allowed to rock the boat in this kind of year.
There are also structural issues emerging as the economy slows from the double-digit percentage growth rates of recent years to about 8 per cent. The yawning wealth gap between the rural poor and the rich of the eastern seaboard and the south will become a bigger problem next year. Even in rich areas in the south, the lack of representation in the face of official corruption has become a problem.
All of these issues are prime targets for speculation on weibo.
Ultimately the battle might turn to winning hearts and minds rather than constantly putting pressure on web users. Earlier this month, the Communist Party’s discipline watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said microblogs had helped with its work, as they had received a large number of online reports of corruption through these channels.