Chinese Bloggers Expose More High Level Corruption – Netizens Advance The Rule Of Law

Oct 252012
 

Chinese netizens are managing to do what the authorities including the police, state security apparatus and the ruling communist party’s internal disciplinary bodies cannot or will not do – expose corruption.

In what is becoming a regular and hopefully growing trend Chinese officials have been forced to launch an investigation after microbloggers uncovered another high ranking official with millions of dollar in property and assets.

Quoting state media, wire service AFP, said the Southern Guangzhou city will investigate urban management official Cai Bin, 56, who has 21 homes valued at 40 million yuan ($6.4 million), Xinhua news agency reported.

Cai, who earns about 10,000 yuan a month, failed to report all his holdings as required by the state, the report said.

Nothing as to how this vast wealth was obtained by a man on such a modest salary. Perhaps it a case of putting a little aside each month and watching how quickly it builds up; alternately  Cai is a corrupt, thieving villain who deserves everything coming to him. It is a matter for the courts to decide. But one thing is certain – it will not be swept under the carpet.

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The Darker Commercial Side Of China’s Microblogging Boom

Oct 122011
 

Millions of people in China have embraced the Twitter like microblogging sites such as Weibo and there has been close  scrutiny of the political censorship and restrictions imposed but little has been reported about the dubious commercial practises that have accompanied the boom.

The political side of microblogging has become more an issue for he Chinese authorities since the Arab spring in which social media played a key role in toppling one party regimes in the middle east.

But there is another aspect of the microblogging scene that has stayed under the radar and that is the marketing campaigns designed to use microblogs to sell products.

A rate card obtained from a chinese tech company offers services including zombie followers, paid tweets and retweets  to make a product look far more popular than it really is says Kane Gao reporting in asian tech catalog Penn Olson.

Chinese blogger Wang Hero revealed the card from an un-named  “microblog marketing company.” There are some very interesting items on the list. Among them are:

  • Create and verify an official microblog account, and add up to 5,000 followers (5000 RMB per company)
  • Add a huge horde of zombie followers (10,000 followers per 200 RMB)
  • Add a small heap of real followers (1,000 followers per 100 RMB)
  • Paid retweets (1,000 retweets per 100 RMB, from different accounts)
  • Retweet to specified microblog users (1,000 target users per 200 RMB)
  • Management of official microblog account, with guaranteed 2 updates posted per day and at least 3,000 new followers per month (3000 RMB per month)
  • Retweet or endorsement by popular microblog users with 100 to 800 thousands of followers (500 RMB per retweet, 550 RMB per endorsed tweet)

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Independent Candidates In Chinese Local Elections Generate Local Support And Official Harassment

Sep 152011
 

After she tried to run in local elections in her hometown in Jiangxi province, Liu's house was raided, her electricity turned off, and she was detained during the polls.

A group of independent candidates in China’s impending local elections are finding huge electoral support by using social media but their success is being greated with less enthusiasm by the authorities.

Reaction has been greatest among provincial authorites who have become accustomed to running their regions as almost personal kingdoms.

National Public Radio in the U.S. has been reporting on the Liu Ping and other independent candidates as they try and work within the law to gain positions on elected organizations.

But although they are doing nothing illegal their success is horrifying local officials and they have been vicious in their counter attacks as NPR reports:

Liu Ping’s phone is tapped. She’s followed by men in black cars. Her electricity was cut off. And she was detained and held incommunicado in a hotel for four days.

Her crime? Trying to run for election to the local People’s Congress in her hometown of Xinyu in China’s southeastern Jiangxi province.

Her case has unleashed an electoral battle, which is being played out over Twitter — or, at least, its Chinese equivalent, Weibo. Today, 200 million Chinese are microblogging, and as local elections take place, a record number are using this platform to run campaigns as independent candidates. The official reaction has been swift and — in many cases — forceful.

After she tried to run in local elections in her hometown in Jiangxi province, Liu’s house was raided, her electricity turned off, and she was detained during the polls.

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China Calls For Internet Crackdown As The Government Eyes Middle East Developments

Aug 302011
 

Chinese authorities are still jittery about the power of social media in the wake of upheavels in the middle east. In the lastest development the state news agency has called for action agains rumor mongers and misinformations.

Britain’s Guardian newspaper reports that the call for the crackdown on  ”toxic rumours” on the internet, is the latest sign of the government’s desire to rein in the country’s rumbustious and fast-growing microblogs.

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British Rockband And Vocal Human Rights Activists “Radiohead” Set UP Chinese Microblogging Site

Jul 042011
 

British rock band Radiohead has taken a tentative step into Chinese cyberspace, even though they have been critical of China’s human rights record.

Newsvine, carried a report from wire service, AP, saying “Radiohead recently launched a page on the “weibo” site of leading Chinese Internet portal Sina.com. “Weibo,” which translates as “microblog,” is the Chinese-equivalent of Twitter.

“But the band has only posted a single message on Friday. It says “testing the weibo.”

“Sina.com checks the authenticity of celebrity weibos and has certified the Radiohead weibo as genuine.

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Chinese Twitter Clone Makes A Return A Year After Authorities Shut It Down

Dec 012010
 

A Chinese version of the micro-blog site Twitter that was shut down by Beijing  last year amid fears it was fanning unrest in the country’s restive west has re-emerged.

News agency AFP reports Fanfou, which is widely believed to have been the first Chinese provider of such micro-blogging services, was restored last Thursday, the Beijing Evening Post reported.

The full story is here

From Sichuan to Qinghai (on the Chinese Web)

Apr 152010
 

One thing has become clear to me after monitoring microblogging services like Twitter in China this morning for news of the Qinghai earthquake: it’s a very long way to Yushu, even from Xining, the regional capital of Qinghai (800 kilometers or 500 miles, to be precise).

Another is that it’s hard to know who anyone is – or who is hiring them to ‘comment’ or ‘report’ – unless you have already made reciprocated contact with them or know of them personally or professionally.

“Yu Miao”, a “volunteer” tweeting from Xining airport on various microblogging platforms, tells us, using the hashtag #qhdz:

半夜的西宁机場异常忙碌 看到不斷有山東.重慶等省消防和 救援隊集結.一幅緊張的戰備狀態.此去玉树820公里，预计车程12小时。－ 于淼在西宁至玉树途中报道

Xining airport is thronging with people in the middle of the night. Continue reading »