|
 Beijing launched the campaign this summer, arresting dozens of
people for spreading rumors, creating new penalties for people who
post libelous information and calling in the country's top bloggers
for talks urging them to guard the national interest and uphold
social order. At the same time, government agencies at all levels
have boosted their online presence to control the message in
cyberspace.
"If we should describe the online environment in the past as good
mingling with the bad, the sky of the cyberspace has cleared up now
because we have cracked down on online rumors," Ren Xianliang, vice
minister of the State Internet Information Office, said during a
rare meeting this week with foreign journalists.
A study by an Internet opinion monitoring service under the
party-owned People's Daily newspaper showed the number of posts by a
sample of 100 opinion leaders declined by nearly 25 percent and were
overtaken by posts from government microblog accounts.
"The positive force on the Internet has preliminarily taken back the
microphone, and the positive energy has overwhelmed the negative
energy to uphold the online justice," said Zhu Huaxin, the
monitoring service's general secretary, according to a transcript
posted by state media.
Observers say the crackdown has noticeably curtailed speech by
suppressing voices and triggering self-censorship, with more liberal
online voices being more ginger in their criticism and posting
significantly less.
Even Zhu suggested the campaign might have gone too far. In one
example, Web users refrained from reposting information and
commenting on the government response to a severe flood in the
eastern city of Yuyao in early October. A year ago, they were
garrulous in questioning Beijing's drainage system when a rainstorm
ravaged the city. "It is a reminder that we must strike a balance
between crushing online rumors and ensuring information flow," Zhu
said.
Some critics say the moves may backfire by eliminating an effective
conduit for the public to let off steam.
"If there's no channel for the public to express themselves, they
may take to the street," said historian and political analyst Zhang
Lifan, whose online accounts were recently removed without warning —
possibly because he had shared historic facts that the party did not
find flattering.
"The governments also can take pulse of the public opinion, but if
no one speaks up, they will be in darkness," Zhang said. "It is so
odd they are covering up their eyes and blocking their ears."
The rise of the Internet in China has always been followed by
Beijing's efforts to rein it in, and the latest challenge has been
the explosive growth in social media, particularly microblogging,
which has allowed users to share firsthand accounts and opinions
with great speed. Advocates of free speech have applauded the
technology as a strong boost to their cause.
As of June this year, China's microblogging services had more than
330 million users, and WeChat, a mobile phone-based instant
messaging service that allows users to share information with
circles of friends or subscribers, had more than 300 million users,
Ren said.
"The unexpected growth has caught people by surprise," Ren said.
[to top of second column] |
Chen Ziming, a Beijing-based political analyst, said Beijing's
apparent success in grabbing control of social media is a big
setback for free speech.
"They have always been able to control newspapers, radios and TV
stations, but there have been some holes in the Internet, and the
microblogging was the last hole," Chen said. "They have achieved
their goal. When 10 percent of the accounts are banned, additional
20 to 30 percent of the users will not speak."
Authorities in recent months have been arresting microbloggers on
the charge of spreading rumors or disrupting the public order,
including a teenager boy who raised some questions over a murder
case online. Many intellectuals, writers, and journalists have seen
their blogging and microblogging accounts removed altogether. A
Chinese-American businessman with a strong online following was
arrested for soliciting prostitutes and paraded on state television
in a campaign to discredit him.
Chinese propaganda officials have always seen the media — new or old
— as a crucial tool to support state rule and are wary of cacophony.
"The ecosystem for public opinion online has noticeably improved,
and that has created a good environment conducive to the overall
work of the party of the government," Ren said, in touting the
benefits of well-managed public discourse.
But the historian Zhang said Beijing has failed to play by rules
when it shut down critical but law-abiding microblogging accounts.
"They see critics as opponents," Zhang said. "That's a stupid thing
to do."
Despite claiming preliminary success in taking control of the
Internet, Beijing is likely to roll out more regulations. In a
guiding document for the next five or even 10 years, China's senior
leaders have mandated that the state must set the perimeters and the
tone for online opinion with "positive guidance" and "management"
and that the state should "standardize" how online communication
unfolds.
Political analysts say they predict the heavy-handed control will
continue. "They are still pretty nervous about preserving
stability," said Steve Tsang, a political scientist at the
University of Nottingham. "Given the political environment, I don't
see any relaxation."
But known for their ingenuity to circumvent censorship, members of
the Chinese public may again push for more room in speech, said
Willy Lam of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
"I think the cat and the mouse game will go on. People might be
afraid now, but after a while, the old pattern will resume."
[Associated
Press; DIDI TANG]
Copyright 2013 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
