Xinhua Insight: China's officials cautiously take to blogging

English.news.cn   2011-04-02

BEIJING, April 2 (Xinhua) -- Zhang Chunxian is championed as the highest known Chinese official to join the country's increasingly popular microblogging services.

But Zhang, secretary of the far-flung Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Regional Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), signed off from his microblog account -- t.qq.com/zhangchunxianlx. on March 18 and has not updated his space since.

"The exchange through microblogs will be suspended for sometime, because I can't stay as focused as I was during the annual session of the National People's Congress held in Beijing," Zhang said in one of his last posts before he left for Urumqi, regional capital of Xinjiang.

That ended the 17-day sensation surrounding whether Zhang could break away from the straight-faced, nondescript stereotype of Chinese officials in public. By Saturday, the number of Zhang's followers had reached 329,703. Internet users continue to post comments on Zhang's last posting, despite no feedback.

JUMP ON WAGON

Zhang is among a group of tech-savvy, middle-aged or younger Chinese officials who are eager to reach out to the public. But it remains a long shot for most of them to keep an active microblog and even more to wield a considerable personal presence among the country's 457 million Internet users.

Observers say officials' active involvement in microblogging will help curb growing public distrust of government officials by shortening the psychological distance.

"Officials are sort of secretive in the eyes of most people. This is because officials in China are administrators, politicians but seldom public figures," said Wu Jinliang, deputy head of the Party School run by the Zhejiang Provincial CPC Committee.

"But once they start microblogging, the officials become public figures," Wu added.

Wu said microblogging will fundamentally change the way the Chinese public interacts with officials.

On the first day Zhang launched his blog, interaction lasted until mid-night as some Chinese Internet users called him "Brother Xian" while he said "good night" before logging off.

It is rare for China's officials to interact informally with members of the public.

"The essence of microblog communication is decentralization. No blogger is superior to others. And this trend will trigger fundamental changes in Chinese society," said Ye Xiaowen, a well-known scholar and deputy chief of the Central Socialist Academy.

As for now, most of China's official microbloggers come from the eastern coastal provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, according to a tally of the popular Internet portal Sina.com which hosts China's largest microblogging site -- Sina Weibo.

HARD LESSONS TO LEARN

The Party School run by the Zhejiang Provincial CPC Committee recently opened a series of courses on Microblog and Administration during its trainings for promising young officials.

The courses include the "Influence of microblog," "How to microblog," and "Microblog and Public Opinion." Website operators are invited to give lectures and many officials use "Microblog changes everything," a book authored by Google China founding president Kai-fu Lee, as their textbook.

Forty of the 204 Zhejiang officials enrolled in the current training session said they had microblogs while 70 other said they would like to start microblogging.

"They have been paying attention to it for a long time. The officials also want to use microblogging to become opinion leaders," Wu said.

Cai Qi, 56, who is head of the organization department of the Zhejiang Provincial CPC Committee, has been keeping an active blog for a year. He has attracted 374,946 followers to his microblog and answers a range of questions and complaints.

Cai said he started blogging out of personal interests but managing the microblog must be done in a professional way.

"Officials are not ordinary opinion leaders. They can't forget their identities whenever they speak. They should always bear that in mind," Cai told Xinhua.

Cai and other official bloggers were recently seen keeping the public calm by giving timely updates of environmental monitoring results and refuting rumors amid Chinese residents' panic buying of salts for fears of Japan's nuclear leaks.

But so far only a few officials like Cai have had their first taste of success. Most popular Chinese bloggers are celebrities, scholars, critics, and business people.

Hu Jian, deputy chief for publicity with the Zhejiang Provincial CPC Committee, said he found it "extremely difficult" to become an opinion leader in the microblogging space.

Hu said he researched a lot before starting a microblog to avoid embarrassment. "I am afraid of saying something wrong in front of so many intellect and competent people," he said.

Wu Zhongmin, a professor of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, said the future development of official microblogging remains vague.

"Some officials are too busy to get on-line often and others may not be interested. Microblog, as a tool, may also be replaced by other new technology," Wu said.

He said microblog will help shorten the distance between the public and the officials, but strides towards greater democracy will not be achieved without systematic reforms.

Editor: Wang Yan