Politicians around the world have embraced social media as a means of communicating with their followers. U.S. President Barack Obama’s Twitter account is prolific, employing a small staff to release 10 to 20 tweets a day. Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, brings social media to a whole new level as he shovels out snowed-in citizens in the morning and saves them from burning buildings in the evening. Foreign politicians conscious of the Chinese diaspora like London Mayor Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson–although the blog Beijing Cream recently eviscerated his tweets), San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee (@mayoredlee), and former Australian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd (@陆克文议员) have even established their own accounts on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform to complement their Twitter accounts.
Boris Johnson
But what about Chinese politicians and government officials?
The Weibos rush in
As Xinhua reports, throughout 2011 and early 2012, governments have adopted Weibo en masse. The number of Chinese government microblogs quadrupled from 5,000 to 20,000 in 2011, divided roughly evenly between individual officials and government agencies.
With the influx of microblogs, officials are trying to figure out the best ways to use them. “We are confused about how to interact with netizens and are still finding ways to operate in the new age of information technology,” admits Zhang Jianshu, director of information services at the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau. While the impersonal blogs of government agencies are considerably less controversial, some individual officials continue to see microblogs as a double-edged sword because, for example, of the light it might shine on your private sex life (yes, Mr. Xie, every post you put on your mistress’s wall was public).
Sina Weibo's logo is a watchful eye
Others individual officials like Zhang Chunxian, Party chief of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and the highest level Chinese official to open a Weibo account, see Weibo as a way to connect directly with citizens. As the China News Service reports, Zhang attracted more than 3,200 followers in just three hours after opening an account in April 2011. With engagement that would make Cory Booker proud, he personally responded to the requests of Xinjiang citizens. In one case, Zhang intervened to get the grain bureau to send a response to Wang Jinfang, a farmer near the border with Kazakhstan who felt cheated after selling her grain for a price far lower the listed price from the bureau.
But perhaps because recent events in China’s political sphere have invited a great deal of scrutiny from netizens, Sina, the leading Weibo platform, has begun treating searches for prominent politicians as equal to searches for state enemies. Searches for Hu Jintao or Wen Jiabao, the paramount leaders of China, leads to the same results as a search for escaped human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng: “According to relevant laws and policies, your search results for <insert offending person’s name> cannot be displayed.” Searches for lesser-known politicians at the national scene–like Dai Xianglong, President and Party Chief of the National Council for Social Security Fund–get the same results.
As for Xinjiang party secretary and Weibo all-star Zhang Chunxian? His account still exists on Tencent Weibo (albeit with much less activity), but his name is unsearchable on Sina Weibo.
When the mountains are high, and the emperor far away
Government official activity on Weibo seems to be thriving a couple degrees removed from the all-powerful central committee. Logically, committee members who have not (yet) risen to a public-facing position of power may be more likely to have their own accounts. Take “Committee Member Ouyang” (@欧阳委员), a prolific Weibo user with over 100,000 followers. As vice-chair to a provincial consultative propaganda committee and a member of the CPPCC’s committee on public opinion, he tweets about everything from his daily mood to recent government initiatives.
Cory Booker, a leader who fully grasps social media's potential. Author: Вени Марковски
One of Mr. Ou’s posts is frank about the power of microblogs:
“When it comes to micro-blogging, a party leader doesn’t know if it’s good, or won’t accept it as good. But the number of users in the country is over 300 million, with 100 million posting messages. With such gigantic numbers and such a quickly growing community, even if weibo is not a tool for [Party] management, it’s at least a tool for [Party] unification; even if it’s not a tool for unification, it’s at least a tool for disseminating information. If one is a cadre in the Party, how can we not pay attention and at least try it out?” {{Chinese}} [[Chinese]]讲起微博、微信时，一些领导干部不知其然，或者不以为然。全国微博用户超过3亿，微信用户超过1亿，这么数量庞大、发展迅速的群体，即使不是组织管理的对象，起码也是统战的对象；即使不是统战的对象，起码也是宣传的对象。作为党员干部，怎能不尝试、不关注？[[Chinese]]
While Ouyang seems to type his own Weibo tweets, far more common is the bureau or government Weibo account. But in the Weiboverse, just like the Twitterverse, not all is as it seems. Behind the microblog accounts of government agencies, Xinhua reports, mainly young people and junior officials maintain the accounts. As Weibo grows, future politicians may begin to engage more directly, seeing Weibo as the political tool it could easily become.
Thought leaders and Weibo accounts
Experts who have day jobs in other areas, but also serve as political delegates, have some of the most active accounts. Take Li Xunlei (@李迅雷), who is the chief economist for Haitong Securities, but also a delegate to the 3,000-member National People’s Congress from Shanghai as an economics expert. He has close to 2 million followers, and his tagline demonstrates a firm belief of the ideals behind Weibo: “No matter how loud or how small your voice is, here all messages are disseminated equally. If you want to win understanding and praise, you have to speak the truth.”
Li Xunlei
Indeed, the constellation of intellectuals, experts, and opinion leaders surrounding government officials seem to be more open to honest dialogue. Zhu Yongxin (@朱永新), a professor at Jiangsu University and vice president of China’s national education association, serves as a delegate to the National People’s Congress’s selective 150-member standing committee. He recently posted the following:
“#Policy Suggestion# A shout to the charitable spirit. According to statistics, 70-80% of American households have given some charitable donations. On average, each household gives about 1000 USD, and each 1000 USD contribution can result in a Federal tax deduction of 350 USD. Bill Gates has created a “promise” asking the 400 richest people in the US to donate one half of their net worth. The hope is to reach 600 billion dollars. Compared to them, our charitable donations are relatively lacking.”
But (relative) freedom of communication goes both ways. Without flinching, @路永长 responded: “I donated money, but a party official used it to fund a getaway with his mistress.”
Engaging the future
While much attention has been given to netizen empowerment via microblogging, the potential for government and political figures to be both transformed and empowered through Weibo is just as great. Though Hu and Wen aren’t going to establish Weibo accounts any time soon–Wen’s highly-touted promise to chat with netizens on Weibo never materialized–generations of junior staff, lower-level officials, and consultative staff are beginning to see how openness through microblogging is actually an advantage.
The lovable avatar for the Beijing police Weibo account
For their part, Chinese citizens appear to hunger for greater communication with their government. Weibo accounts garnering positive feedback include those linked to organs one might not normally think warm and fuzzy. The Beijing police department (@平安北京) has nearly 3 million followers, while the Weibo account of a Jiangxi province policeman (@段郎说事) boasts over 168 thousand followers.
Will this openness extend to China’s highest rungs of power? It’s worth hoping for, but not planning for. In February, after yet another glitch in China’s Great Firewall temporarily unblocked Google+ in the mainland, Chinese netizens eagerly flooded President Obama’s Google + page, with one netizen even apologizing, “We have no chance to occupy our President Hu…so we can just occupy Obama, forgive us.”
It may take a new generation of leaders to find the courage to engage China’s netizens online. They will lose careful control of their messaging, but evidence suggests they would stand to gain millions of ardent fans in the process. Whenever they are finally ready, China’s netizens will be waiting for them.
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