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AS more non-governmental voices are heard on the Internet, “it is becoming a force for change, a force highlighting social issues and a force that carries increasing weight in policy making,” president of www.people.com.cn He Jiazheng said, adding, “The Internet hastens maturation of a civil society.”

Protector of Legal Rights

A milestone event that caused a cybernetic outcry was the death in custody of Sun Zhigang, a college graduate from Hubei Province. Guangzhou authorities detained the young man while he was looking for a job because he lacked a temporary residential permit. Three days later, he died in detention. The autopsy report stated that Sun had been “beaten to death.” A local newspaper reported Sun Zhigangs death and the circumstances surrounding it on April 25, 2003, but received no response from government authorities.

The article, “Who is Deaf and Blind to the Sun Zhigang Case?” published on www.people.com.cn, however, made a difference. Thousands of people expressed their anger online, demanding that the local authorities take action and bring the culprits to justice. In the face of such strong public opinion, the police stepped in to investigate. “Strong views expressed online have placed huge pressure on local authorities, leaving them no peace until justice is done,” Min Dahong, research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences who closely followed the case, said.

More voices were heard on June 18, 2003, when the State Council passed the “Measures for the Administration of Relief for Vagrants and Beggars without Assured Living Source in Cities (draft)” which replaced the previous detention and repatriation policy instituted in May 1982. Professor Yuan Shuhong of the State Administration College said the new policy was “a huge advance, because it solves the living problems of beggars and the homeless who have nowhere else to turn for help.”

Certain local authorities, however, expressed a different view.Beggars and homeless people make up the majority of criminals in urban areas, they argued, and abolishing the 1982 policy would encourage crime and be detrimental to social security. He Bing, a law PhD, retorted, “Peoples freedom should not to be violated in any way, no matter how much inconvenience terminating the old policy might cause government administration.” Thousands of netizens applauded his statement.

The chance to be open, interactive but anonymous on the Web has made it the ideal place to air views in a free, real-time manner. By the end of 2008, Chinese Internet users had hit 298 million, the majority of them students or people with a university education, which is a world number one.

In recent years the Chinese government has used websites to obtain public feedback on main issues before making significant decisions. This contrasts favorably with pre-Internet options for making comment on public matters, limited to letters, personal visits to government departments or meetings. People may now express views on national issues in the comfort of their homes. “Internet users are less impulsive than before in their approach to public issues, and have become a force in social progress,” according to research fellow Li Yan, who specializes in the role of the Internet in forming public opinion.

New “Social Stratum”

The 2008 Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Report on the Chinese Internet refers to people who express their views on the Internet as “a new social stratum” that has influence on government policy. The power of the Internet is thus beyond the virtual to reach the real world.

The government of the coastal city of Xiamen in south China moved a huge p-xylene (PX) plant away from its original location, seven kilometers from the city center, after thousands of local residents expressed online opposition to it, even though the plant would have raised the local GDP by 25 percent. The project had been through all the necessary government procedures, having obtained State Council approval in 2004 and passed the Ministry of Environmental Protection evaluation in 2005. Zhao Yufen, a chemistry professor at Xiamen University, convinced that PX is toxic, objected to the plants proximity to the city. She, in collaboration with 104 members of the local committee of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference, proposed to the local government that the plant be re-evaluated and its location changed. When Zhaos proposal appeared on the Internet it received a huge response. When the local government held an online public poll, more than 90 percent of respondents voted against the plant. Consequently, on January 20, 2009, the ministry instructed the Xiamen municipal government to shift the plant 100 kilometers from the original site, in accordance with international conventions.

“The Internet has become a means for the elite to mobilize people. It gives an opportunity for everyone to get involved,” deputy chief of the Internet Research Institute of the Communication University of China Yang Fei said.

Arena for Freedom of Opinion

This phrase represents the essence of free journalism. Online blogs and bulletin boards are excellent vehicles for public opinion. They also reveal the truth behind certain events.

After the riots in Lhasa on March 14, 2008, CNN and some Western media went to great lengths to report on how “the Chinese government suppressed the Tibetan people.” CNN articles even included a photo of foreign police officers taking a rough stand against protesters. Meanwhile, articles of different voices were either rejected or arbitrarily altered before going to press. For a time, the rumor “several hundred Tibetans were killed” went rampant on the mainstream Western media, fabricating a horrible picture of “the Chinese police terrorized the Tibetan people.”

In response, Rao Jin, a 23-year-old Tsinghua University student, founded his Anti-CNN.com, with one objective: to disclose the facts and make the Chinese voice heard. “We are not against Western people,” Rao Jin said, “just against prejudice from Western society.”

Several hundred people volunteered to help Rao Jin in all aspects of work on the website. Anti-CNN.com hits soon reached 500,000 a day. Some revealed that CNN had cropped a widely published picture of an army vehicle advancing along a street with protesters running away from it. The original photo clearly showed a gang of people storming the vehicle with rocks. But the doctored CNN picture conveyed a completely different image.

As Min Dahong of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said, neither media nor government can keep facts from the public, now that they pool their opinions and exchange what they know online.Never underestimate the peoples wisdom and capability, Min warned, because anyone can become a target on the Internet.

An example is Zhou Zhenglong, a farmer in Shaanxi Province, who in October 2007 claimed sight of a South China tiger, not seen in the wild since 1964. He published photos he had taken of the big cat, but many who saw them were unconvinced. On November 15, a resident of Tianjin revealed on the Internet that the tiger Zhou had photographed was almost the same as that on a Chinese New Year painting in his home.

But the local government forestry department backed up Zhous story, and set about preparations to make the area a “national South-China Tiger preserve.” Scientists and professional photographers, in the meantime, carried on investigating Zhous claim and, months later, finally proved that Zhous photos were fakes. The local government had supported Zhou because they hoped to obtain funding from the central government with which to boost local tourism. The matter ended with Zhous imprisonment and removal from office of the 13 officials involved in the scam.

Writing history is no longer the pursuit of a privileged few; millions of Internet users are doing it, and changing the world in the process. It is no wonder Time magazine named anyone using or creating content on the World Wide Web as “man of the year 2006.”

As Min Dahong said, China is amid social transition and peoples values are more diverse than ever before. Different social groups make their voices heard via public media. But the Internet has a long way to go before it can become a public place in the real sense. “As part of Chinas political democracy,” a researcher at a consultative company warned, “Internet anonymity could easily become a refuge for irresponsible voices.”