http://www2.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2010-06/17/content_9981585.htm

Tweeting’s so yesterday

By Lin Shujuan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-06-17 08:03

Sina Weibo and other domestic microblogging services are more than a match for the United States company, Lin Shujuan reports

Huang Jianxiang, 42, was once China’s best-known sports commentators.

He came to international attention during a World Cup commentary on June 26, 2006. Five months after his passionate outburst against Australia, while describing the final goal of the match between Australia and Italy, he resigned from China Central Television. Many thought that was the end of his career as a soccer commentator.

But Huang is back in business, commenting on each team and game of the ongoing FIFA World Cup in South Africa – in any tone he likes. Quite to his delight, he is not running short of an audience.

Huang is now a star in the world of Sina Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, closely followed by more than 1 million fans who forward his comments to many more within minutes.

His made this comment on Wednesday’s early morning, right after China’s socialist neighbor North Korea played against Brazil:

“I plan to go to sleep immediately. Forget about any dream related to Chinese soccer. The idea of having a dream about Chinese soccer is itself ultimately stupid. Chinese soccer and soccer are in fact two different sports.”

Despite the early hours, this post was viewed nearly 2,000 times, forwarded by 140 people and commented on by 92 followers.

Weibo (which translates as microblog) has become a phenomenon since Sina started beta testing of its microblogging service, Sina Weibo, in August.

Over the past 10 months Sina Weibo has established itself as China’s leading microblogging service, raising the country’s microblogging population from less than 1 million to an estimated 10 million.

In early March 2010, Sina’s CEO Cao Guowei revealed there were 5 million registered users of the service. Then, in mid-May, Cao added the “number of registered members has doubled over the past quarter”.

In comparison, it took Twitter nearly 30 months to attract the same number of users.

“Twitter brought the concept of the microblog to China, but it is Sina Weibo that has popularized this kind of Internet service here,” says Hu Yong, an expert on new media from the School of Journalism and Communication of Peking University.

The service is much the same as Twitter in that it allows users to post messages of 140 Chinese characters or less via the Web, SMS or MMS.

But 140 Chinese characters can say a lot more, according to tech expert and Beijing resident Kaiser Kuo.

Before Sina Weibo, a few Twitter-like services had emerged in China, such as Fanfou, Jiwai and Digu.

Like Twitter, however, they were banned in July last year after deadly ethnic unrest in Xinjiang was blamed, in part, on agitators spreading their messages on the Web through Twitter.

Ironically, this turned into an opportunity for Sina Weibo to fill the gap.

Hu says Sina, as one of the top 20 websites in the world according to the Web-traffic monitoring agency Alexa.com, had a huge advantage building the massive user base needed to create a truly Twitter-like experience.

Moreover, the company’s decade of experience in content monitoring allowed it to avoid the potential pitfalls of its predecessors.

Within months Sina Weibo had become a hit with mainstream  Chinese Internet users, thanks in part to a solid base of over 400 million netizens.

Many have attributed Sina Weibo’s success to Sina’s strong marketing, but Cao Zenghui, Sina Weibo’s project manager, doesn’t entirely agree.

He says celebrity sign-ups for the service did help drive up registrations but Sina Weibo also scored because it is easy to use.

“Weibo, unlike Twitter, is tailored to Chinese users,” Cao says. “That means Sina is able to create a more user-friendly microblogging experience for them than Twitter does.”

Cao says those who have used both services tend to agree that Sina Weibo is also more expressive, with its embedded emotions, photos, video and lyrics.

Duan Hongbin, an IT analyst at Anbound, reckons that even if Twitter was available in China, it still could not compete with Sina Weibo and other Chinese micro-blogging services.

“It’s like Baidu and Google in China. Generally, Google is better in terms of technology and branding, but most Chinese still prefer Baidu,” Duan says.

While Google’s global share is over 90 percent, its best performance in China was 31.1 percent against Baidu’s 63.9 percent of China’s Internet search market share in the third quarter of 2009, according to data from Analysys International, a leading advisor on technology, media and the telecom industry in China.

“It’s not because of nationalism, the language barrier is one reason. It is normal for Chinese users to use a Chinese-language interface. There are not many Web users in China who prefer an English interface,” Duan says.

Kaiser Kuo says that if Twitter became available again in China, it wouldn’t take Chinese netizens by storm because of the popularity of the services that have developed.

While Twitter would have Chinese users, he says, Sina Weibo and other similar services have gained too much momentum.

(China Daily 06/17/2010 page18)

http://cmp.hku.hk/2010/06/01/6158/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Hu Yong: BBS sites on China’s changing web

Posted on 2010-06-01

For quite some time now, bulletin-board sites (BBS) have been a favorite destination of Chinese internet users. BBS sites and forums in China are essentially social spaces built on discussion, and there you can discuss entertainment, relationships, sports, politics, technology and other topics. The wide-reaching interest in these social communities has become one phenomenon distinguishing China’s internet from the web in other markets.

Sage Brennan, an analyst of China’s new media market has said: “Given the fashionability of blogs and online gaming, people have found it easy to neglect the fact that BBS networks are the true center of activity on China’s internet. For a number of reasons, BBS networks have developed steadily, and they are increasingly vibrant. Internet companies, university campuses and even individuals have set up BBS communities.”

China’s most famous online forum in the beginning was “Shuimu Tsinghua,” which was set up in 1995 [at Tsinghua University] and was representative of the cyberculture on China’s university campuses. In general society, the BBS was best represented by the sports-related forum SRSNET (四通利方), which in November 1997 became famous for a post called, “No Tears in Dalian’s Jinzhou,” [which offered a subtle and caring description of an embarrassing soccer defeat for China and the affect it had on Chinese fans].

From 1998 to 2000, “Xi Ci Hu Tong” (西祠胡同), Tianya Forum (天涯社区), the Strong Nation Forum (强国论坛) [at People's Daily Online] and “KDnet” (凯迪网络) were born, attracting web users with their unique community forums. As they pieced together massive audiences, online forums developed rapidly. They opened up a simple environment for interaction and exchange, particularly suited to the sharing and discussion of public affairs.

When weblogs emerged as the popular new medium, they attracted more and more internet users. But as blogs dealing with political affairs were few and far between, and blogs were relatively poor in terms of interactivity, online forums were still where internet users interested in reading about and commenting on current affairs tended to congregate.

With the advent of microblog, internet user interest in blogs and online forums has further differentiated. The reason lies not just in a shortage of readers. Some bloggers have discovered they simply can’t be in two places at once. Too many things are going on in their lives, and they don’t have time to kick around online forums and maintain their blogs. Other users have migrated to easier social media. And of course there are also a few who cannot stand the cheap shots or loss of privacy and have left the world of blogs and online forums altogether.

Despite the above-mentioned differentiation, reports from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) indicate that the audience for online forums continues to expand each year. While the vitality of online forums has been challenged by blogs, microblogs and other Web 2.0 services, this online media so beloved by Chinese web users still has profound support and long-term development prospects, and has an important and unique position in Chinese online ecology.

Strictly speaking, online forums lie somewhere between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, and they have an irreplaceable role on the internet with Chinese characteristics. Tianya, MOP, KDnet, Tiexue and other sites work on a “forum + editor” model, while the Strong Nation Forum, Sina Forum, Sohu Forum, Phoenix Forum, Baidu Post and other such sites are important components of larger news portals. All have made substantial contributions to China’s online public sphere, and they are often the places where sudden-breaking news stories unfold, where public opinion is sourced, where corrupt behavior is exposed, and where various social groups interact.

There are many examples in recent years of the way online forums have encouraged social development and prompted more open political behavior. Without the role of online forums, for example, the South China Tiger Affair might not have ended in the way it did.

In a global context, regardless of how online forums develop in the future, we can be sure that they will not draw attention in the same way they have in the past. This is because Web 2.0 has irrevocably changed the nature of the internet. Online forums undergone a process of development from small gathering places frequented by die-hards to mass public spaces.

In the old days, people using their precious computers (computers were luxury items) had to connect their modems, access their terminal software and enter in their BBS codes just to access BBS sites. It was a clumsy and difficult process. Today, internet developments have ushered all of this into the past. Browsers and RSS readers can now take us just about anywhere. The only thing that hasn’t changed is our desire as users to interact. Popular websites in recent years, including MySpace and Facebook, have all shown us just how eager people are to keep in contact with others. These new channels all have advantages that online forums do not have.

Therefore, in my view, online forums in the future will become mixtures — permitting those with a sense of kinship or affinity to building their own “online corners,” and also allowing popular mass discussion verging on real-time. The heyday of the online forum has already passed, but they have not entirely vanished. In order to survive, online forums must in the future be equipped with the following characteristics: general ease of use; a more friendly user interface, permitting real-time use of chat and gaming services; information not necessarily stored on a central server, but rather on a dispersed network that is always online.

It is not easy to gaze into a crystal ball and look at the future of the online forum, but this much is certain — the future of online forums lies in increased real-time interaction among users. BBS sites must learn from microblogs and social network services, otherwise they risk becoming a cottage industry, their influence gradually waning over time.

In many ways, the history of online forums is the history of China’s internet. In today’s cacophony of voices, with blogs, microblogs and social networks, online forums still have their own special beauty. We look forward to their next decade.

A Chinese version of this articles appeared in today’s edition of Southern Metropolis Daily.

http://www.digitaleastasia.com/2010/05/28/chinese-internet-rumor-mills-in-full-swing-as-stories-of-more-deaths-at-foxconn-spread/

The Chinese Internet Rumor Mill is in Full Swing as Stories of More Deaths at Foxconn Spread

Posted: May 28th,2010 | By: Nan Duan

Just hours after Terry Gou, the CEO of troubled manufacturer Foxconn Technology Group (PINK: FXCNY | (part of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd.) TPE: 2317), concluded a large PR crisis management effort which included a tour of their Shenzhen plant for close to 300 journalists on May 26, Xinhua news agency reported that there had been another death.  This piece of news has already been widely covered in the media globally, such as this WSJ opinion piece.  Furthermore, news has spread of another (unsuccessful) suicide attempt, in which an employee had cut his wrist.

Read more about our timeline of the suicides at Foxconn so far this year.

But to make matters even more worse, Chinese “netizens” are spreading stories on Chinese microblogs, bulletin board systems and other forums of “14th”, “15th” and “16th” attempts.  As Chinasmack, a popular China blog, reports, the current rumor is that the “14th” and “15th” had jumped together; and that the “16th” was in a standoff on the roof (with a blurry photo attached as evidence).  As of now these rumors have not been validated by any major media outlet.

Foxconn has taken drastic measures as of late to control the “suicide cluster”.  It got into a bit of a PR firestorm with its alleged “non-suicide pact” with employees (full translation of the document available at Shanghaiist).  It was also reported that they were erecting 2 meter (6 feet 6) high walls on top of buildings and installing safety nets; one twitter post claimed that insiders were saying windows were being locked down (only able to open about 10 centimeters, or 4 inches).  And employees were being urgently organized into small groups.  There were also reports (link in Chinese) that Foxconn was considering 20% wage increases, which they claim had nothing to do with the recent suicides.

On another note, noted Chinese intellect and blogger Hu Yong urged in a blog post (link in Chinese) for the public to stop using “xx consecutive jumps” to discuss the incidents.  He said this was inhumane and also as if people were expecting “records to be broken”.  Leading Chinese blogger / writer Han Han, who came in 2nd on the Time 100 poll last month, also wrote a new blog post (link in Chinese) on Foxconn.  Han’s main point seems to be (if I may summarize) that for the “ordinary people“ of China, who can’t afford the ever-increasing housing prices and barely make a living on their meager incomes, there isn’t hope for a better future.  They are the “low cost” that fuels China’s growth, and it’s not really surprising that when they see no hope they see suicide as a way out.

Related Digital East Asia posts include:

• Foxconn Suicides: A Solemn Timeline – May 28th, 2010
• A Solemn Count Goes Up Again – 11th Suicide Jump at Foxconn Warrants More Questions – May 25th, 2010
• 10th Suicide in 2010 at Foxconn; Incidents Finally Begin to Gain Wider Media Coverage – May 22nd, 2010
• An All Too Familiar Story: 9th Suicide Jump at Foxconn this Year – May 16th, 2010
• Suicide Jump Number 8 at Foxconn This Year – May 12th, 2010
• Another Death at Foxconn; That Makes Five in Just 4 Months – May 8th, 2010
• Third Death at Foxconn in 3 Months; Should Apple, Sony, Nokia and Others Be Concerned? – March 30th, 2010

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gXOlb9OUuFNgMaBcp_vTbZ2Qbt4AD9FRAP0G0

Dalai Lama tweets to Chinese citizens about Tibet

By CARA ANNA, Associated Press Writer – Fri May 21, 11:53 am ET

BEIJING — The Dalai Lama tried to hold a rare direct conversation with people inside China on Friday, answering questions live on Twitter about the fate of long-tense Tibet.

The hourlong session with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader had been requested by Wang Lixiong, a Chinese writer and convert to Tibetan Buddhism who lives in Beijing. The two met for Friday’s online conversation in a hotel room in New York, where the Dalai Lama is visiting.

Through a Chinese interpreter, the Dalai Lama tweeted messages of criticism about the Chinese government’s policies in Tibet and words of welcome to Chinese citizens.

“The government made these tensions, not the people,” he said.

It wasn’t clear how many people inside China were reading his comments. Twitter is blocked in China, but the service has become popular with thousands of Chinese, especially activists, who find a way around controls. Wang’s Twitter feed, where the conversation was posted, had more than 8,000 followers as of Friday night.

Peking University professor and media critic Hu Yong tweeted that he was struck by the Dalai Lama’s comment that “Stability comes from the heart.”

The Dalai Lama remains a highly sensitive person for China, which objected strongly when President Barack Obama personally welcomed him to the White House in February.

China maintains that Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries, but many Tibetans say the region was functionally independent for much of its history and consider the Dalai Lama their rightful leader. He fled 51 years ago and lives in India.

China’s government says the Dalai Lama seeks to destroy the country’s sovereignty by pushing independence for Tibet, but he says he wants some form of autonomy instead.

While a spokesman for the office of the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Taklha, confirmed Friday’s conversation, it was impossible to tell who posed the questions selected from almost 300 submitted online.

But it was a start, Wang said.

“For years, there have been only official statements about the issue of Tibet inside China,” Wang said in his open letter to the Dalai Lama on May 5 requesting the online chat. “No doubt, it’s hard for people to know the truth about Tibet.”

Tibetans in China have long complained about restrictions on Buddhism, government propaganda campaigns against the Dalai Lama, and an influx of Chinese migrants. Those feelings boiled over in deadly anti-Chinese riots in 2008 that shocked Beijing’s leaders.

The Dalai Lama said Friday the gap between Tibetans and China’s majority Han Chinese “is getting deeper and deeper” and said that in some areas the Han community has grown so dramatically that “Tibetan culture faces a great crisis.”

Calls to the United Front Department of the Communist Party, which handles talks with envoys of the Dalai Lama, rang unanswered Friday night.

Wang said more than 1,200 people submitted questions and that the most popular ones were asked Friday.

More than one of those questions concerned what will happen when the Dalai Lama dies, and whether the Tibet issue will be resolved before then.

“I’ve been through many eras … and I’ve seen big changes,” he answered. He pointed out that already some retired Chinese government and Communist Party officials, as well as intellectuals, are saying the country’s ethnic policies are not right and need more reflection.

Blacklisted author Yu Jie tweeted in response, “It’s still a small number, the Dalai Lama is too optimistic.”

Talks between China and representatives of the Tibetan government in exile haven’t gone far. In January, Chinese officials told the Dalai Lama’s envoys that Beijing would not make any compromises on its sovereignty over the Himalayan region and that both sides’ views remained “sharply divided.”

The Dalai Lama’s representatives said China’s warnings came across as high-handed, but they said they would keep pursuing dialogue with Beijing despite their differences.

Beijing has refused to discuss the status of Tibet with the emissaries, saying the Chinese would only address the Dalai Lama’s return to China. He fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against China.

Any question of the Dalai Lama’s return to China did not come up in Friday’s conversation.

“I believe not far in the future there will definitely be change and the problems will be resolved,” he said.

___

Online:

(In Chinese) http://twitter.com/wlixiong

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/05/05/technology-for-transparency-in-china/

Technology for Transparency in China

Posted 5 May 2010

This post is part of Transparency and Technology Network where we research technology that promotes accountability and civic engagement worldwide · All posts

In China, transparency, accountability and civic engagement are all politically sensitive issues. The root of the tension can date back to the Cultural Revolution, when people were told to say what the government, or more exactly, the Communist Party of China (CCP), expected to hear. Those who said what they really thought, or questioned the CCP’s acts, were often jailed or worse.

After China’s period of economic reform beginning in 1978, political reform and freedom of speech were brought back to the agenda. In 1987, the 13rd National People’s Congress brought up the idea of “supervision by public opinion,” and specified that “major situations should be known by the people; major questions should be discussed by people.” (Wu Guoguang, 1997) Emphasis on political transparency reached its historical peak in modern Chinese history.

The 1989 the Tiananmen Incident was a turning point for China’s policy making about the control of public discourse. The CCP used tanks to “clear up” Tiananmen Square, where hundreds of thousands of students demonstrated for political reform to eradicate government corruption and promote democracy and transparency. The international response was enormous, but in China any mention of the incident was banned. On the Internet, keywords such as “July 4th”, “6.4”, and others were all automatically filtered from websites. It is common that young people today in China have no clue about the incident at all.

Article 44 of the August 2007 Emergency Response Law offers a small opportunity for improvement because there is no explicit restriction on what the media must do in emergency incidents, compared to past warnings by officials that media should be “helpful, not troublesome.” Also, from a legal perspective, according to Article 41 of the Chinese Constitution, citizens are entitled to not only know what is actually happening, but also to “criticize and make suggestions to any state organ or functionary.” The constitution also specifies that citizens are entitled to demonstrate and protest. However, these civil rights were seldom practiced due to the strict political control enforced by the government. In short, the absence of an independent institution for the trial of laws that go against the constitution means that the articles themselves are not enforced.

Transparency and Traditional Media

The press was supposed to supervise the state. However, after the Tiananmen incident, China’s media system characterized by a low level of autonomy, high government intervention, strong institutional continuity, and no correlation with any clear pattern of democratization. (Colin Sparks, 2007) He Zhou has referred to the role of Chinese media as “Party Inc.” In other words, the role of the media has changed from a propaganda machine in the age of the Cultural Revolution to the Chinese Communist Party’s PR agent, whose major task is to maintain a positive image of the party. Though most journalists take pride in investigating watchdog stories that also reveal the negative side, they generally choose less controversial topics like consumer culture or environmental protection. No core issue that involves political accountability or the election process can be touched. (Zhou He，2006) The Party, through the Central Propaganda Department and its local branches at all levels, still control mass media content in great detail. It renders public distrust against the government, but there’s still no mechanism for citizens to dissent. In a nutshell, the priority of the CCP is to “maintain a stable society.” Any challenge from the citizens is basically “harmonized,” or filtered from access. Since citizens cannot receive the real and timely information from mass media, new media have become increasingly important in China.

Transparency and New Media

In recent years increased participation and communication, two basic aspects of transparency, have taken place on new media platforms. (Yang Guobin 2009) The primary form of netizen participation is online protest and dissent, most commonly in the form of replying in comment and forum threads. There are times that online activities are accompanied by offline activities. Relying on the online community platform, these kinds of activities are spontaneous and loosely organized, but they can have influence not only on online discourse, but also on offline public discourse and government policies. Social problems such as the widening divide between the rich and the poor; corruption; environmental pollution; changes in cultural values, etc. are reflected in the online discussions. (Yang, Guobin, 2000) The rise of an urban middle class is particularly important in the new online activism. The urban middle class is more confident in the aspect of culture, and has more confidence in both domestic and international media than the working class. (Du Junfei, Wen Yunchao, 1999) This finding is also reflected in the case studies of technology for transparency projects I documented. Three of the four founders were educated abroad (including Hong Kong), and one is a senior manager at an IT firm.

On the other hand, new media also gives netizens new channels to break through the Chinese government’s information censorship, thus empowering Chinese netizens to hear voices other than those of the “Party Inc.” (Hu Yong, 2008) Online it is hard to draw a fine line between the private and public sphere. Nevertheless, in China, a country with an under-developed public sphere, the Internet has had a major impact on unraveling the information monopoly, and creating a space for other voices. No media can change deeply rooted, non-democratic behaviors over night, but for many Chinese the Internet has brought political discourse into citizens’ daily life, and in some instances has changed citizens’ perspective toward the control of information, freedom, and creativity.

In response to the influence of the Internet, the government has updated its online censorship tactics. Search engines at home (Baidu) or abroad (Google) have conformed to filter out search results with personal information of national leaders and keywords related to politically sensitive issues. (Google.cn has since migrated to Hong Kong.) A project to install monitoring softwares (adult content and political sensitive content) called Green Dam, Youth Escort was proposed to be installed on every PC in China in 2009. The Great Firewall blocks numerous websites from Hong Kong, Taiwan and abroad that may contain politically sensitive content, or that facilitates discourse of about such topic. This includes platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and news sites like Apple Daily. In the end of 2009, the government released a list of websites in China that do not have the “license” to run multi-media content. Countless websites did not survive this “policy adjustment,” and many activist blogswere shut down or erased from the blogging platform. The Wu Mao party (50 cent) part has been observed actively leaving patriotic comments in forums, blogs, and portal sites. It seems that China’s censorship is so powerful that it has managed to control what was thought of as the uncontrollable Internet.

Regulations about Civil Associations in China

For a project to promote transparency, accountability and civic engagement, forming civil society organizations, or NGO’s, should be an effective way to start the operation. However, in China, such organizations are taboo. Between China’s Reform in 1978 and the student movement in 1989, there were neither legal policies nor official bureaus to regulate civil society organizations in China. Nonetheless, at the peak of the student movement in 1989, the government began considering the creation of a regulatory system to regulate civil society organizations. The Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) was appointed to be responsible of managing civil organzations and NPOs (Non Profit Organizations). These organizations, or associations, were required to register, and they could not register with the MCA unless they were under the supervision of government or party agencies.

In 1996, Jiang Zemin strengthened the system by bringing in more detailed and comprehensive regulations. Nevertheless, many rules governing NGOs derived from the speeches of high officials or from unpublished speeches and documents that NGO leaders might not be aware of. In 1998, the CCP’s Central Bureau and the MCA even jointly issued a document that required every civil association that has three or more CCP members to establish a party branch to supervise its political behavior. As a result, most internet projects were loosely organized and can be easily claimed as “illegal” by the government and shut down.

Transparency in Hong Kong

The case in Hong Kong reflects a shrinking of the public sphere after its return to China. Hong Kong was the sanctuary for a great number of political refugees from mainland China, and the UK maintained a liberal media order when Hong Kong was a British colony. However, the transfer of sovereignty brought about two anti-democratic trends. First was transfer of media groups’ ownership and management. Many middle-class professionals moved overseas before returning. Pro-Beijing capitalists bought many critical magazines and closed them. International capitalists and overseas Chinese capitalists who have major investments in mainland China also bought several major media groups. This led to the second anti-democratic trend: self-censorship and moral bankruptcy. Beijing controls news sources from the mainland and it can decide which media group it releases news to. Moreover, the chiefs of several Hong Kong media groups have close relationship with Beijing (some of them even members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference), and request that their employees voluntarily self-censor their criticism against Beijing. In conclusion, transparency in Hong Kong has been undermined due to economic-political reasons, but it has a richer legacy of criticism and watchdog journalism than that of mainland China, and the media enjoys greater autonomy about local and international issues. (Lee Chin Chuan, 2003)

The case studies

Waste Incineration and Environmental Protection:

The case study features a community forum called Jiang-Wai-Jiang. It serves as a platform to bring together residents to protest against the construction of a waste incinerator in Guangzhou, China. The construction of waste incinerators were not only reported in Guangzhou, but also many other major cities in China. In the end, because of the communities’ strong opposition, the government suspended the project. However, as soon as the threat of pollution was gone, most community members on the forum returned to silence. From a researcher’s point of view, collaboration with other anti-waste-incinerator efforts would diminish the risk for Jiang-Wai-Jiang in the future.

Inmediahk:

Inmediahk has influenced many major political issues in Hong Kong by providing independently-investigated information on its website. It aims to overcome the problem of Hong Kong’s shrinking public sphere after the handover of sovereignty to mainland China. Its goal is to protect freedom of speech in Hong Kong. In the recent “Hong Kong High-Speed Railway Incident,” it provided series of insightful posts that attracted tens of thousands affected people and advocated on behalf of the most affected community, Choi Yuen Village. Though the Choi Yuen Village is still scheduled to be dismantled, the villagers were better compensated. Moreover, it aroused public attention about the negative side of the project. About 10,000 people attended the protest to support the Choi Yuen Village and to protest the High-Speed Railway construction. Inmediahk reveals mature and healthy model of online civic engagement with the ability to be self-sustained. It’s a pity that the social system in mainland China has far not copied such a model.

Investigation into the Earthquake Student Casualties:

The Sichuan Earthquake in 2008 took away thousands of lives of school children. While the public mourned the loss, Ai Weiwei, a renowned blogger in China, noticed that the government never released the exact names of the victim students. He made hundreds of phone calls to inquire at all levels of government, but none of them were able to offer him the list. As a result, he organized a team to conduct a citizen investigation to compile students’ names behind the casualty numbers. But the investigation encountered impediment from all levels of governments in Sichuan Province. The team was detained, interrogated, and, at times, beaten. The names and reports that Ai Weiwei published on his blogs were all deleted by the government. It was widely suspected that the government’s corruption in the school construction projects was the leading reason why so many schools just collapsed. In the end, he managed to publish “Ai Weiwei’s list” with basic information such as names, school, class, age, etc. However, the project is heavily reliant on the celebrity effect of Ai Weiwei and his own safety has been severely threatened. This society needs more Ai Weiweis, who are fearless to confront the government and who have profile to demand accountability. We cannot afford to lose citizens like Ai Weiwei any more.

Freemoren:

Free More News (FMN) was established in September 2007 and has since become one of the most trusted online media for Chinese Internet users (as opposed to the government controlled media). Especially since March 2009, FMN’s use of Twitter and other Web 2.0 platforms has enabled it to break through some of the barricades placed by Chinese government censors in order to report on big news that has happened in China, such as the Xinjiang riots, the Shishou mass protest, the Hong Kong 7.1 march, the Guangzhou protest against the waste incinerator construction, and so on. It represents the emerging civil power of the “sea turtles” (the term shares the same pronunciation with “returning from the overseas” in Chinese) in modern China. Nonetheless, it depends heavily on volunteer work, which may result in inconsistency and could be an obstacle to sustainability. Working on a sustainability model will eventually allow them to focus more of their goals as an independent source of news and information.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The four cases that I selected represent different technologies that are currently widely adopted in China: forums, websites, blogs, and micro-blogs. All of the projects in mainland China are vulnerable when facing powerful government censorship. All of the projects reflect the emerging power of the middle class and the democratic influence from outside of China. From the above observation, we should realize that democratization in China is a long process. Though China is going through a fundamental shift in how information spreads and is controlled, the power that China’s social system has regulating networked communication and the adoption of technology should never be under-estimated.

Reference:

Lindsay Stirton and Martin Lodge, “Transparency Mechanisms Building Publicness into Public Services,” 2001, 477-478
Colin Sparks, Media system in transition: Poland, Russia, China, Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, TBA, San Francisco, CA, May 23, 2007
《中國猛博 ─ 新媒體時代的民間話語力量》 主編：陳婉瑩、錢鋼 , 編著：翟明磊 , 出版社：天地圖書有限公司 , 出版日期：2009年9月
Zhou He，“Chinese Communist Party Press in a Tug of War: A Political Economy Analysis of the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily”，in Power，Money and Media，112-51， 2006
政治经济学的悖论：中港台传媒与民主变革的交光互影 李金铨 原载《二十一世纪》二○○三年六月号
Wu Guoguang, “Zhao Ziyang and the Politic Reform”, Jul 1997, Parcific Century Press
Lidan Chen, Open Information System and crisis communication in China, 2006
Yang Guobin, Of Sympathy and Play: Emotional Mobilization in Online Collective Action, the Chinese Journal of Communication and Society, 2009
Yang, Guobin, The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism online. Columbia University Press. 29, 2000
Du Junfei, The Communication Characteristics of the Middle Class in China; Wen Yunchao, Our Will is Optimistic: The opportunities of China’s alternative communication are in a tight corner, Jounalism Study, 99, 241-264
Hu Yong, The Rising Cacophony, Personal Expression and Public Discussion in the Internet Age, 2008

By Carrie Yang · Posted 5 May 2010

http://china.globaltimes.cn/society/2010-05/528534.html

Plan to unmask 400 m Net users

* Source: Global Times

* [01:53 May 05 2010]

By An Baijie

China’s 400 million Internet users may soon be required to reveal their actual names before they log on to online forums and share their views on new films, luxury jails or the price of pork, all in a move to make the Internet more reputable.

Wang Chen, director general of the State Council Information Office, said during a speech to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) on Friday that the initiative is now being implemented, the Southern Metropolis Daily said Tuesday.

The initiative would benefit the healthy and orderly development of China’s Internet, said the report.

Wang said the authorities will “promote the real-name registration system over the Internet positively and steadily” and will “implement the real-name registration in the communication sectors of cyberspace.”

However, Wang did not offer a timetable.

The office could not be reached for comment.

Currently, Web users could post comments on websites without registering with their real names.

In 2007, the government asked the administrators of major news and business websites to use real name registration and most forum comments are subjected to screening by administrators before they are posted on the website.

That policy has been proven effective, Wang said.

Wang also suggested the NPC, the country’s top legislator, draft new laws to regulate the Internet and security, and to revise current, said the report.

“As long as the Internet in our country is connected with that of the outside world, harmful information overseas will find channels and methods to appear on the domestic websites,” Wang said.

Hu Yong, a professor of media study at Peking University, told the Oriental Outlook Weekly that the public will be reluctant to accept real-name registration if authorities exaggerate the dangers of overseas websites and then limit the rights of net users in China.

However, some other people think otherwise.

Lin Yongqing, the creator of valuechina.net, a business website that requires all members to register with their real name, said in a column in People’s Daily that the real-name registration will benefit the public by enhancing the credibility of the whole society.

He said that anonymous comments could be used as a tool to attack others, and with real-name registration, people will avoid using irresponsible and rude language.

Apart from the real-name registration policy, the official also vowed to crack down on online crimes, which netted more than 5,500 suspects last year.

Online pornography, gambling and fraud are on the list of priorities, Wang said.

Discuss on GT Forum: Will China’s real name system hurt its internet free speech?

http://www2.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-04/23/content_9764589.htm

Job seekers lost in cyber world

By Duan Yan in Beijing (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-23 07:10

Are social networking websites failing to help jobless graduates? Duan Yan in Beijing finds out.

His resume is probably one of the most viewed in China – but instead of finding “Ma Wen” his dream job, it propelled the desperate graduate to Internet stardom.

When the 21-year-old multimedia designer uploaded a video showcasing his talents on a Chinese social networking site last year, the idea was to increase his chances in a tough job market.

But although the clip attracted millions of hits, very few of them were prospective employers.

“Most e-mails were from other students asking me how I made the video,” Ma Wen told China Daily via MSN chat and e-mail (he refused to talk on the phone or use his real name).

Although video resumes are not a new concept, more graduates are now using them to improve their prospects in the chilly economic climate. However, analysts say most employers and online businesses in China are “stuck in the past” and are failing to exploit the recruitment opportunities offered by social media.

Ma Wen graduated with a degree in computer science from Xi’an University of Technology in the summer of 2008, shortly before the world entered the worst financial meltdown for decades. With most companies putting a freeze on hiring new staff, Ma Wen soon became exasperated by the lack of job opportunities.

“I sent out my resumes to many companies but got no replies at all,” he said. “And when I did get interviews, as soon as they found out I didn’t go to a 211 project school (a national initiative that includes what are considered the top universities), they passed to the next person.”

About 13 percent of the 6.1 million new graduates last year failed to find work, while another 6.3 million are expected to enter the job market across China this summer, according to figures from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

With such fierce competition, the Internet can be a vital tool for jobseekers, say analysts.

Use the word “resume” – jianli in Chinese – to search any Western or Chinese video-sharing website and you will see short films made by students to show their skills in design, production, animation, music and even teaching.

After months of fruitless searching, Ma Wen decided last April to join them by uploading his video resume to 56.com, a website similar to YouTube.

During his 1-minute 37-second clip, which is based on television advertisements for Hewlett Packard that feature only celebrities’ hands, he uses various computer-aided design techniques to display the films and directors he likes. At the end, he introduces himself as a graduate and his e-mail address appears on the screen.

But the response he received was far from impressive and instead of attracting offers from movie companies and large Web firms, “all I got were e-mails from individuals or small groups”, he said. “They were offering me work but they didn’t provide suitable career directions.”

Disappointed, he turned down all the offers and is now studying English at a college in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province. He is now working on setting up his own social networking site for netizens to share software.

“It will be more user-friendly and less commercial than the others,” he added.

Although Ma Wen failed to land a job, other graduates told China Daily that they believe social networking sites had been instrumental in finding their jobs. One of them was Huang Dongyu, 28, who used a video resume to land a career in advertising.

Creative thinking

After graduating from Xi’an Fanyi University in 2005 with a degree in communication technology, Huang found the only option was to become a technician for a cell phone firm.

“I didn’t want to do maintenance work for telecom companies,” he said. “My passion was design, so I taught myself how to use graphic design software in my spare time. I made my video resume in 2009 as practice when I was learning to use Flash software.”

After uploading the video online, as well as sending it to employers and recruitment agencies, he got a job as a web designer with Sheer Digital Technology based in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province.

“The human resources department (at Sheer) mentioned they saw my video resume,” said Huang. “I did other things and I don’t think the resume was the only reason they hired me – after all, a resume is only one part of the whole job hunting process – but it definitely helped.”

Although some experts argue video resumes are unpopular with employers and job agencies, Jack Lee, a recruitment manager with the Beijing-based Apex Recruiter, encouraged graduates to exploit all avenues to improve their prospects.

“Companies that are hiring usually have too many resumes to deal with, so it is important not to wait for HR staff to come to you. Explore your contacts and find a way to contact them,” he said.

However, uploading video resumes is just one of the ways jobseekers can target recruiting companies through social networking sites, as online businesses in the West have proved. Many websites now already set up job search forums and message boards.

The fact that Facebook, Twitter and YouTube – arguably the world’s three biggest names in social media – are not available in China should open the door for domestic services to dominate. Yet few are even attempting to enter the recruitment market, say experts.

Renren.com, which is similar in style to Facebook and is among the country’s four most popular social networking sites, is the only one that offers a job-searching platform for college students. Most of its rivals are still focusing on pushing entertainment services.

Since the platform was launched on March 9, about 200 companies have posted advertisements for more than 1,000 positions.

Most of its functions are similar to zhaopin.com and 51job.com, both online recruitment agencies, and to ensure security, recruiters must get permission before they can access members’ profile pages.

“If companies are interested in any candidates, they can add them as friends and get that person’s permission to view their information and network,” said Song Tiantian, spokesman for Oak Pacific Interactive, the Beijing-based firm that owns renren.com and mop.com, an online forum also popular with students.

Although no other social networking sites have yet launched job services, Yu Yi, an analyst for Analysys International, a Beijing consultancy firm that specializes in telecommunication and media, is confident they will.

“These sites have attracted lots of users through various game applications. Now, to make a profit they are exploring new revenue streams,” he said. “Developing a job-searching platform and other practical applications will attract specific demographic groups and will help websites expand their value.”

Meanwhile, several online firms already offer video interview services, including production and distribution to domestic and international recruiters.

The first in China was cnvhr.com, which was launched in 2004, and now has 20,000 registered users and 2,000 affiliated companies. However, it is yet to make a profit and owner Guo Xu said he has stopped paying to promote the service.

“There are still companies and individuals using our video interviewing service every day since it’s free of charge, but I don’t manage it now,” said Guo, whose site is hosted on a free server provided by Tianjin’s education authorities and is used to organize job fairs in the city. “It doesn’t cost much to maintain the site.”

Killing time online?

In the United States and Britain, as well as in multinational corporations like IBM, executives now actively encourage workers to open accounts with Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin to not only advertise events and vacancies organized by the company, but to aid communication between staff.

Chinese companies, however, still rely on “old-fashioned” job fairs to find staff, and even continue to block access to many sites because they believe workers waste too much time playing online games.

“Most firms in China are being too slow in utilizing these new (social media) tools,” said Hu Yong, an associate professor at Peking University’s school of journalism and communication. “Bosses still think these websites are where office employees spend all day stealing vegetables.”

The vegetables he referred to are on Happy Farm, one of several games that have attracted millions of users to kaixin001.com.

Are bosses wrong to think their staff would waste all day playing online games at work?

Not according to a recent survey by the China Internet Network Information Center. Of the 3,007 netizens polled, 42 percent admitted the main reason they log on to social networking sites is to “kill time”.

However, if human resources and recruitment firms do not change their mindset and tap into the power of social media, they risk being left behind, Hu said.

“They need to learn how to use Web 2.0 (applications that aid global interaction and collaboration) and social networking. They need to be part of this new environment,” he said.

Popular social media sites in China:

RENREN

Launched: 2005 (formally Xiaonei, it changed its name in 2008)

Typical users: Mostly students and recent graduates. The emphasis is on connecting with real-life friends online.

Interface: Almost identical to early versions of Facebook.

It has a few unique features, such as a “footprint”, and a “funware” platform for games.

Popular functions: Mostly games. It has more than 250 game applications, which are often copied by its competitors.

Estimated market share: 17 percent

Popularity ranking in China: 17

KAIXIN001

Launched: 2007

Typical users: Office workers. Its users spend twice as much time on the site, compared to users on other social networks

Interface: A simplifi ed version of Facebook with very little advertising.

Popular functions: It has about 50 applications, the majority of which are games (the site launched the social games craze in China but Renren has since stolen its thunder).

Post-forwarding of celebrity gossip, photos and funny stories is also extremely popular.

Estimated market share: 12 percent

Popularity ranking in China: 13

51.COM

Launched: 2005

Typical users: People from small cities

Interface: Simple. It is far more functional than elegant. Popular functions: Again, games. In all, it has 50 applications.

Estimated market share: 12 percent

Popularity ranking in China: 40

(China Daily 04/23/2010 page 1)

http://tim.z.infzm.com/2010/03/06/%E8%AF%84%E8%AE%BA%E7%BF%BB%E8%AF%91%EF%BC%9Athe-chinese-internet-industry-will-thrive-only-if-it-respects-individuals%E2%80%A8%E2%80%A8/

Hu Yong: The Chinese Internet industry will thrive only if it respects individuals

魏一帆　更新于2010年03月6日

Domain registration is not suitable for continued use as a control. Rather it should be treated purely as a plan for civil rights. There should be no limits on the qualifications of those who register for domain names… The current laws and regulations restricting basic registration are too strict. They are not beneficial for the expansion of the dot-cn system, nor are they in synch with the basic characteristics of the Internet world wide––openness and equality.

The Chinese Internet industry will thrive only if it respects individuals

By guest commentator Hu Yong [胡泳]

In just a short two months, the dot-cn domain has been on a roller coaster ride.  First, it was cited as an accomplice in providing pornographic material as nine government departments cooperated in an anti-pornography campaign on cell phones. It was also determined that China National Network Information Center (CNNIC), which is the only organ allowed to register domestic domain names, did not strictly enforced the real-name review system [to ensure the true identities of dot-cn domain name holders]. In essence, it made it rather easy to operate obscene sexual websites. Since CNNIC had to provide proof of its innocence, it declared that as of December 14, 2009 when applying for dot-cn domain registration, formal application materials must be provided. This includes the original domain name application with an official seal, a photocopy of the business license, and a photocopy of the identification card of the applicant.

These measures have been universally understood as a suspension of individual dot-cn domain name registrations, but this understanding is not correct at all. Even though individuals have always registered these names, the system has never recognized this kind of “registration.” Citizens have never been granted the legal opportunity to register dot-cn domains.  Now as CNNIC rectifies its management, it is merely reiterating and strictly enforcing existing regulations.

So is there no cause for criticism of CNNIC?  Of course there is. The year end rectification of CNNIC’s domain names has been satirized as a kind of violent demolition of the Internet, which is not an unreasonable description. One manifestation of this “violence” is when dot-cn domain names were being promoted domestically this year. CNNIC not only used the banner of patriotism, it also encouraged domain registration companies to enter into a price war, even urging them not to balk at launching a so-called “The one yuan domain name campaign for all people and the national domain name launching plan.” The results of the promotion were startling: dot-cn domains quickly rose from 1000 to 13 million. But during the promotion, didn’t CNNIC know that regulations prohibited individual registrations for dot-cn domains? After these individual operators had already become an enormous group, CNNIC made another statement saying that, in fact, individual domain registrations have never been permitted in the system and must be strictly dealt with. This is like building a large department store and after using all kinds of means to solicit a large number of tenants, the department store suddenly announces that its contract with the store owners is illegal.

For whatever reason, CNNIC had been operating illegally for a long time but now this has effectively strangulated the life out of Internet entrepreneurship. Not only are individuals unable to register dot-cn domain names, even registered users will be subjected to inspection. There can be only one kind of grave consequence: Internet users will vote with their feet to escape the “violent demolition,” taking their business abroad. At the turn of the new year international domain name registration in China has suddenly exploded and dot-cn names have reduced dramatically.

Websites and users leaving en masse has created enormous pressure on CNNIC, forcing it to rethink its domain name policy. It announced new regulations just days ago: individual or unincorporated organization domain name holders must provide the registrant’s personal identification and valid contact information. Though such a simple sentence does not mean dot-cn domain names will once again embrace individual users, at least it recognizes the legality of previous individual dot-cn domain name holders.

Moreover, media reports state CNNIC is currently researching draft plans to open personal registration of domain names. Despite the vacillation and disorganization of CNNIC’s policies which have caused Internet users to adopt a wait and see attitude, the wild fluctuation between the extremes of saying they will take it over completely to saying it will be wide open has had a grave impact on the reputation of dot-cn domains. However, CNNIC has begun to get back on the right track. It is using good intentions to consider the personal interests of the 384 million Chinese Internet users, 13 million dot-cn domain name users and the 3 million websites under dot-cn domains which have been removed from the Internet. This is worth encouraging.

Dot-cn represents the top level domain name of China around the world. It is the trademark of China on the Internet. This trademark ought to be owned by every Chinese person. Domain registration is not suitable for continued use as a control. Rather it should be treated purely as a plan for civil rights. There should be no limits on the qualifications of those who register for domain names. Even if problems arise because of this, it is a bit like finding mouse droppings in your soup. You can’t give up eating altogether because of this. Besides, the current laws and regulations restricting basic registration are too strict. They are not beneficial for the expansion of the dot-cn system, nor are they in synch with the basic characteristics of the Internet world wide––openness and equality.

If we make a comprehensive survey of the history of the development of the Internet, we will find that the vast majority of websites around the world are built and operated by individuals. The influence of the Internet expressed in today’s global society is tied up with the convergence of efforts on the part of countless individuals. It can be said that individuals are the soul of the Web. Without them, there is no Internet. For this reason, in the wake of an unusual shake up of dot-cn domain names, we hope CNNIC can absorb this lesson and respect individuals and every Chinese Internet user even more. This is not just a kind of civilized or elitist respect, but even more so it is a necessary precondition for developing Chinese Internet industries and is directly related to the long term and overall interests of our nation.

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NOTE: This is a translation of an editorial which first appeared in Southern Weekly on January 21, 2010. The original can be found here.