Well, this post may be a response to various
news about Chinese social media recently...
A few days ago there is incorrect news
saying that Chinese government will open up Shanghai for Facebook and Twitter. Two
weeks ago a Chinese law came up saying that people whose rumor was retweeted
more than 500 times on Weibo (Chinese Twitter) will be arrested. Some weeks ago
lots of famous accounts on Weibo were shut down. Some months ago, there are
suggestions from central government to local governments to communicate with
citizens. Chinese people can always read news about government’s new actions on
social media, sometimes positive, and sometimes negative. It is interesting to
focus on Chinese government’s attitude towards social media, for it is always
changing.
Although Chinese government is always
criticized on social media problem, in my opinion, it is getting rapid
improvement. Chinese government is trying actively to join in people’s
discussion on Weibo. Nowadays, there are thousands of government accounts on
Weibo, and the most popular account has more than six million followers. Number
of interactions between people and government agencies is growing rapidly in
recent years.
As for Chinese government’s self-contradictory
attitudes towards social media, I think it is understandable. In fact, the
development of social media in China is not only about social media, but more
importantly, it is about democracy. After thousands of years of autocracy, Chinese
people today are so eager to get democracy that some of them get out of control
and just cannot think rationally on any information about the government. Rumors
spread faster than any time in the history, and discontent in people can be
ignited easily. This actually is a progress for Chinese society for it shows
people’s realization of democracy, however, it can also cause chaos easily. For
example, last year, some speeches against Japan spread on Weibo, and then some
cities broke out demonstrations and soon become violence. After this incident,
Chinese government strengthened the restriction of Weibo. Later, it released
the restriction for more voice from citizens, and another incident happened. Chinese government does try to be more transparent and democratic, but in such a large country with more than 1.3 billion people, there is also a strong demand of stability. So such “release – chaos - restriction” circles lead to a changing attitude of
Chinese government towards social media.
That is my understanding of Chinese government's attitude toward social media, so I am not sure whether my analysis is right or not. But one thing is sure: China is now standing at a turning
point toward democracy. So let's look forward to its change.