A hunting-down of Big-Vs is gaining momentum. (Big V-a “verified” online account with a big following.) There is a sense of depressing silence on Weibo, the Chinese equivalence of Twittter. However, I believe this can’t last long as it is not in the interest of the majority and it is against the essence of the forth-coming Third Plenary Session of the 18th Committee of the Communist Party of China.
Unlike in the west, the Internet has been playing a very significant role since its introduction to China. It provides for the media as China practices a tight grip on the press. Free press is beyond reach, and common citizens are discouraged to run the media. The already existing media fail to provide a platform for all walks of the society to freely express themselves. There are many social problems and the discrepancy between interested groups is huge, which results in urgent needs to express, as China is going through great changes.
The Internet filled the big gap between the supply and demand of opinion expression. From the earlier BBSes, to new portals, to blogs, and later to Weibo, and the latest Wechat, China sees various forms of Internet platforms evolving into news media. Besides, maybe because of the government’s purposeful intention, Internet news media are not faced with tight control, which enable them to substitute traditional media and become the new center. For the last decade, the Internet has been the source and brewery of many public discussions. Even the traditional media has to rely on the Internet to draw the attention of the society.
It is under this peculiar circumstance that generations of opinion leaders spring up. BBSes and blogs brought about controversial “public intellectuals”, and many public intellectuals stood out by publishing on the Internet. The opinion leaders cultivated by Weibo are those “Big Vs”.
Unlike former Internet-based public intellectuals, the constitution of the “Big Vs” is far more complicated. Most of the “Big Vs” with a large following are those in the entertainment industry. Following up are those entrepreneurs and intellectuals with a big following, such as Mr. REN Zhiqiang, Professor HE Weifang, Mr. YU Jianrong, and Mr. XUE Manzi. Many of these “Big Vs” run their Weibo accounts as self-owned media to publish and reblog news and comments on all kinds of public affairs. With the particular mechanism of Weibo, opinions can be spread within seconds to a large audience, which further forms great public opinion. More interestingly, Weibo enables many “Big Vs” in the entertainment industry to be involved with public affairs at a very low cost. Therefore, the influence of Mr. FENG Xiaogang, Ms. YAO Chen, and Ms. YI Nengjing has already surpassed their fans, and they then become active commenters on public affairs.
It is in this way that Weibo has become a highly public platform for opinions in the last two years. It has fundamentally changed the environment for China’s public opinions: the impact of the Internet in the whole public opinion system has reached an unprecedented level compared to that of the BBSes, and the blogs. Public opinions serves as a key mechanism of politics, and in certain moments, a cornerstone of politics. In the political domain, the big number of people is power. Weibo mobilizes large number of common citizens to care about public affairs and reblog them at a sum of thousands, and hundreds of millions, which forms great political power. Therefore, it is fair to say that Weibo has, to some extent, changed the environment of China’s politics. A certain kind of interaction is established between the government and citizens: governments have to respond to criticisms on Weibo; they have to deal with the problems posed by Weibo with care; and governments can’t ignore the disposed corrupted officials, such as “Biaoge”(brother with expensive wrist watches) and “Fangshu”(uncle with many apartments). It is Weibo that enhances governments’ “responsiveness” to the public. China’s political mechanism is going through a very significant change. And this change, in nature, is the change for constitutionalization. [Page]
No all have a keen heart on this new game. Many, from a theoretical point of view, hate the independence of this new space for public opinion and the enormous pressure posed on the government by the overwhelming public opinions from the public. But more base their disgust on the peculiar interests they already have. Therefore, in this temporary upheaval against constitutionalization, “Big Vs” are targeted by certain media. Mr. XUE Manzi is merely an artificially erected target. The reason for Mr. XUE’s imprisonment is prostitution, but some media has been running their stories by constantly referring to “Big Vs” and Weibo. The discreet intention, as my friend RONG Jian puts it, is to “scandalize Mr. XUE by disclosing his wrongful conduct of prostitution, to smear the Big Vs by scandalizing Mr. XUE, to control Weibo by scandalizing the Big Vs, and to take hold of public opinions by controlling Weibo”. The concentrated sacking and legal measures taken against Internet rumors and the implementation of the so-called ”net-cleaning” in all over China served as another evidence. The act by many local governments to suppress rumors, as disclosed by Weibo, as ridiculous.
It is true that the anonymousness of the Internet may result in some statements based on shaky grounds, and the government is entitled to supervise such statements with enforcements. But the dishonorable behavior to smear the “Big Vs” and the Net-cleaning acts which stepped beyond legal boundaries, are in fact aiming at the online opinion platform. Weibo has fought back. Even inside the “system”, such behaviors is not widely agreed to. In this “movement”, the official Weibo of Guangzhou Police blogged a piece referring to the old constitutional anecdote entitled “Zichan Saves the Village School” in The Spring and Autumn Annals of Zuo, stating its disapproval of the rumoring-eradicating movements in China. This piece was deleted shortly. But the Guangzhou High Court later blogged similar pieces, along with the Xinhua Net, Study Times and other mainstream media also published articles calling for the containment of this movement from spreading.
This situation is similar to that led by the anti-constitutionalism article. The mainstream appeal in China is marketization and legal reforms. The emerging middle class are calling for such changes, and it is echoed by many government officials inside the party and the political system. There are setbacks by certain interest groups who purely object such changes because of their vested interests. They even bring back oligarchical sayings which have already lost their legitimacy in the party’s practice. Because the transition of power in the high authorities have not completed, these two forces are in conflict and it is hard to predict which is overwhelming the other. However, to allow the anti-constitutionalism voices to exist on the Internet itself has made it clear that the authorities are standing against dictatorship.
As the Third Plenary Session approaching, this situation is about to end. The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee meeting on August 27th announced that the Third Plenary Session would be dedicated to research on key issues regarding comprehensively deepening reforms. The word “reform” has specific political meaning, which is a farewell to dictatorship, to Cultural Revolution, and an embrace of a more established and matured protection of private property rights and democratic institutions. The political signals are already very clear.
Public opinions are also an important political mechanism. Reforms have to be undertaken with the public opinion respected and reforms need the support of the public. If the hunting-down of the “Big Vs” continues and free discussion, including online discussion, is suppressed, reforms will be lacking of the support of the public opinions. As the most important platform for public opinons, Internet public opinions, including Weibo, are one of the most significant driving forces of reforms. The authorities have to understand this. It can be anticipated that the fog over Internet public opinions will be dispersed very soon.
(First published in Unirule Comments, The Economic Observer) |
