BEIJING — Communist officials tote the latest laptops under their arms. Citizens go online to chat with national legislators. Internet bulletin-board users post statements critical of the government, if only by a smidgen.
China’s stodgy political world is easing into the digital age, inviting the public to voice opinions via the Web and increasingly relying on high-tech devices to manage such big events as this spring’s meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC).
With about 80 million “wang min” — “netizens” — China now has the second-largest number of Internet users in the world, after the United States. But the Communist Party’s new willingness to use the Web seems to have done nothing to dispel its ambivalence toward it.
The government has tightened controls on Internet chat rooms, bulletin boards and other online venues used increasingly by the public to vent frustrations and air criticisms. The rules come amid a renewed campaign to shut down unauthorized Internet cafes and bars.
In seeking control, the government is waging a tough battle: In China, the ascent of consumer electronics — and all that accompanies it, from going online to text messaging by cell phone — is starting to change even politics.
Delegates to the NPC, which held its yearly session in March, showed up at regional discussions sporting laptops.
“I receive hundreds of e-mails a year from members of the public. Most are opinions,” said Chen Yiheng, a delegate who teaches mechanics at a university in the northern province of Shaanxi.
Qin Chijiang, a delegate from Heilongjiang province in the far northeast, said he opposes Internet spam and pornography, but added, “We should let good information get through.”
“Netizens are a special constituency who can express their will at ease on the Internet, and their activities will facilitate to some extent the development of democracy in China,” says a Web site run by legislator Zhou Hongyu.
Mobile phone companies offer short-messaging services, allowing ordinary citizens the chance to voice opinions for the equivalent of 3 cents each.
Thousands of messages are posted on a bulletin board run by the Communist Party newspaper, People’s Daily. They aren’t exactly subversive, but they aren’t all flattering either.
“The lawmakers are too comfortable, too peaceful, too free of stress,” one anonymous comment said during the People’s Congress session. “Their meetings are all about eating, drinking and sleeping. … What kind of representatives are they?”
“Power = Money,” one terse remark said about corruption.
Li Xiguang, a media analyst at Beijing’s elite Tsinghua University, thinks the Internet has a large influence on public opinion in China, mainly because newspapers, broadcasters and magazines are wholly state-controlled.
“In a democracy, public opinion can be expressed through traditional media,” he said. “China is gradually learning to do that … but the traditional media are not yet that open.”
Mr. Li argues, though, that anonymous opinions expressed on the Web often come from people most likely to be disgruntled, such as migrant workers and the unemployed.
Even anonymous complaints posted online tend to shy from challenging the party’s claim to power.
China may encourage Internet use for business and education, but it stifles online political dissent.
The content of domestic Web sites is monitored and sometimes censored. Customers of Internet bars and cafes in Shanghai can go online only if they give their identity card numbers, and are warned they are legally liable for what they view or write. Dozens of people have been detained for posting political materials online, activists say.
Ever more sophisticated filters installed by the government prevent access to thousands of Web sites abroad that are run by Chinese dissidents, human rights groups and some news organizations.
According to state press reports, Shanghai authorities are installing video surveillance cameras and software that can detect when a computer user reads a banned site and automatically send a message to a “remote supervisory center,” presumably the police.
Even so, with the number of Internet users growing each month, Chinese do have unprecedented opportunities to voice opinions online, and have them seen by millions of fellow citizens.
“I wanted to use the computer all the more, to see what was happening, read documents, exchange ideas,” said one anonymous online commentator.
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