Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) came early in 2012, beginning on January 23. This cartoon, posted by article Chen Chunming (陈春鸣) to his blog at QQ.com, captures one of the most familiar scenes of the Chinese New Year holiday, children setting off fireworks in celebration. The red firecracker at center bears the Chinese character for “Spring,” chun.

This month marks the twentieth anniversary of Deng Xiaoping’s “southern tour”, in which the architect of China’s reform and opening policy (retired at the time, but still powerful behind the scenes) re-invigorated economic reforms against staunch opposition. And there is a strong sense in China today that the country again stands at a reform crossroads.
Key figures within the Communist Party, including Premier Wen Jiabao (温家宝), and such notable academics as Sun Liping (孙立平) — the former doctoral adviser to now vice-president and successor apparent Xi Jinping (习近平) —have warned that China’s development is threatened by resistance to further reforms.
Others argue that China’s reform project is already a proven success, and that China’s government-led economic model is an example for others to follow. There is no need, in other words, for further reform.
Then there are those who believe reforms are to blame for the problems China faces today, and who say China should turn back.
Behind these competing views, which I have just vastly oversimplified, is a general sense of unease over exactly what China’s upcoming leadership transition this year will bring. This is more than a vague uncertainty. President Hu Jintao’s July 1 speech to commemorate the Party’s 90th anniversary, a carefully scripted text emerging no doubt from much internal wrangling, was a virtual blank slate, giving no indication of what anyone can expect beyond an emphasis on “stability.”
Adding to our dossier on the reform debate inside China, the following piece is from Qin Xiao (秦晓), a former Red Guard who has held a series of important positions at various state-run enterprises and is now chairman of the Boyuan Foundation, a Hong Kong-based economic think-tank.
This article, which first appeared on FT Chinese on January 20, has been re-posted on a number of China’s major internet portal sites, including QQ.com and Hexun. QQ.com attributes the article to Nanfang Online, the official website of the official Party newspaper in Guangdong province, Nanfang Daily.
A few comments on the article at QQ.com follow below:

“Reform in China Must Not Stop in its Tracks”
By Qin Xiao (秦晓)
People in China generally believed in the 1950s that socialism was the liberator of the people. Free markets, on the other hand, were detrimental to society. In the 1960s, when I was packed off to the countryside in Inner Mongolia for re-education (再教育) I recognized that the ideological fervor [over socialism] masked inherent defects in our planned economy. That is where I would like to begin telling China’s story.
As a corporate leader, I have personally experienced the past 30 years of reform. I have a greater understanding of the problems China must face. China is now in the midst of a latter phase of transition from a planned economy to a market economy — and our discussion of the relationship between the government and the market is vastly different from that seen in countries with mature market economies.
While China’s rate of economic growth has stood around 10 percent annually for three decades now, our debate still orbits around the following question: Has this success resulted from government control, or from free market [economics]? The answer [we give] to this question will decide China’s future. Will China continue to promote free market reforms that have yet to be completed, or will it bring three decades of transition to an end? Do the problems now facing China’s economy, and social tensions in our country, originate with market reforms themselves, or are they the result of bottlenecks and setbacks in the reform process? Is China’s [present] state-led economic model an end in itself, or should it be changed through deeper reforms?
In the process of tackling economic problems, democratic governments are restrained by the preferences of the electorate and by struggles among political parties. This can mean that efficiencies are sacrificed, or that responses are excessive. Modern democratic systems are not always ideal partners with market systems. Nevertheless, there are no utopias in our world, and there is no such thing as the ideal system. The question of whether these systems can be sustained and whether they can be accepted by society rests on whether or not they can avoid gross mistakes, whether they have mechanisms for correction and can make relevant and necessary adjustments.
Economists and statesmen have historically sought a model that might replace the modern market [economic] model. Two of the principal experiments put forward were the “Leninist-Stalinist Model” (列宁-斯大林模式) of the Soviet Union and the so-called “Asian Model” (东亚模式). The former provided the basis for China’s planned economy of the Mao Zedong era. Most representative of the latter model was Japan, and the model made economic stars of Japan and several other Asian nations.
In the 1930s, as the economies of the West slid into the “Great Depression”, the role of the Leninist-Stalinist Model in driving rapid economic growth in the Soviet Union was hotly discussed among economists. Thirty to forty years later the Japanese model became another hot point of debate. Nevertheless, history has already proclaimed the failure of these two models. The first model suffered sclerosis, sacrificing basic human rights to divert all energy to development of the economy and the military. The second model created price distortions (价格扭曲), misallocation of resources (资源错配) and corruption (官商勾结).
The modern democratic and market system still needs to be improved, but it remains viable — and no better choice has yet been found.
Well then, what does this teach China? In the 1970s, China’s government launched off on a process of reform and opening, setting aside the planned economic model and converting to a socialist market economy. In this way China’s economy was spared collapse and developed rapidly. In the early stages of this transition it was necessary for the government to play a leading role as the market was not yet developed, and this [necessity] resulted in the emergence of a government-driven model not unlike that of the [previous] Asian or Japanese models.
The mission of this government-driven model has now been achieved. But now we must cast aside the impediments [to further development] kept in place by powerful vested interests (特殊利益团体), transforming the function of the government and further promoting market reforms.
At present there are two tasks we must work to achieve. First, the government must shift the focus away from developing the economy (发展经济) over to improving rule of law and providing public services (公共服务). Second, our economic system must be transitioned from a government-led [model] to a market-led [model], with the government serving only a regulatory function.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned goals, the government must dispense with approval procedures for all sorts of economic and market activities (aside from industries that must necessarily be regulated). [It must] cease interfering with market pricing and transactions, progressively removing controls on land, labor, energy, mining and capital pricing (interest and exchange rates). The government must reform monopoly [state-run] enterprises. [It must] carry out a fair and efficient process of privatization of state-owned assets. [It must] reform tax institutions (税收制度) with the goal of improving social welfare. Aside from these, [the government] must increase spending on social security, healthcare, education, housing, the environment and other public services.
The spread of the economic crisis throughout [developed] capitalist countries has prompted skepticism about the future fate of free markets. Nevertheless, China’s story cannot become the justification for opposing free markets. Quite the contrary, market reforms are the reason China has achieved success over the past 30 years.
To move forward, China now must transform the role of the government in economic life, promoting further reform in the direction of a free market system. Our mission is still not accomplished.

The following are a number of comments appearing after this article at QQ.com:
(1) In fact reforms have already stopped. We’re even seeing a turning back!
实际上已经停止,而且出现倒退!
(2) Private ownership is the root of ten-thousand evils.
私有制是万恶之源。
(3) Aren’t reforms done? What need is there for further reform?
改革不是已改完了？怎么还要改？
(4) In order to protect vested interests, [reforms] have basically already stopped, or even gone backward! For example, state monopolies and such.
为了维护既得利益，已经基本止步，甚至倒退！比如国企的垄断等等。
(5) The impression people have now is: economic reforms have been stalled for a long time, and the progress on rule of law has gone backwards with major strides.
现在给人的印象是：经济改革长期停滞，法治化进程在大踏步后退。
(6) Prices are going up every year, and little people like me see no increase in wages so its really negative growth. How can I support reform achievements like that?
物价年年涨，我等小民收入没增就等于负增长，这样的改革成就我等如何赞成
(7) Constant reform is the only way of ensuring the country keeps in stride with the times.
不断改革乃是保证国家与时俱进的根本方式！
(8) The planned economy is just a power economy, an economy for officials. That’s where the obstacle to reform is, everyone knows that.
什么计划经济，就是权力经济，就是官经济。改革的阻力在哪里，国人都明白的。

Chinese media reported with shock in January 2012 that the airport in the city of Changsha, the capital of China’s Hunan province, was charging 68 yuan (US$10.7) for bowls of instant noodles the would ordinarily cost at most six yuan in the city. Despite nationwide reporting of these incredible prices, Changsha’s airport continued charging them as usual. In this cartoon, posted by Cao Yi (曹一) to his blog at QQ.com, TV cameras attempt to surround the Changsha airport, where a chef smiles self-assuredly as he offers bowls of noodles for 68 yuan — but the airport, disguised by a giant turtle shell, is utterly impervious.

At a discussion forum of the Guangdong People’s Congress in January 2012, delegate Zhong Keji (钟课枝) advocated more “positive news,” saying that it seemed to her that China’s media was too full of coverage about corruption and other matters. Chinese media quoted her as saying at the forum: “Supposing everything we see is about this Party secretary falling from grace today, and that city mayor falling from grace tomorrow, how sad would that be? That just shows that problems have appeared in our system. Just like with food safety. I don’t want to see that kind of stuff. I just can’t take it.” In response, Zhu Xiaodan (朱小丹), another delegate at the forum, said: “When cadres have committed wrongs and are handled by the justice system, we must let the people know this. . . Not wanting to see something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. If we have problems within our [leadership] team, we cannot hide this from the people.” In this cartoon, “The Ostrich Delegate” (《鸵鸟代表》), posted to Sina Weibo by the inimitably bold Kuang Biao (邝飚), Zhong Keji is depicted as an ostrich with her head buried in the earth. She is identifiable by her red “delegate” badge. The text on the cartoon is her quote, as above.

In a post today, CMP Director Ying Chan discussed the way presidential elections in Taiwan this month were actively discussed in mainland China despite a directive from the Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department that limited Chinese newspapers to using Xinhua News Agency coverage.
Not surprisingly, domestic Chinese microblogs were one of the places where discussion of the elections in Taiwan was most active — and where in fact it continues.
This post, for example, made after Ma Ying-jeou’s victory Saturday by Hong Kong journalist Luqiu Luwei (闾丘露薇), was still being shared and discussed today:

Ma Ying-jeou has won, showing that elections are not a scary thing for a ruling party. Elections four years ago were steady and smooth, and this year was no different. This isn’t the work of any one political party or political figure, but rather a reflection of how the Taiwan electorate has slowly matured. . .

Just to give readers a sense of the microblog-based reach someone like Luqiu Luwei can have, she has a reported following on Sina Weibo of close to 1.3 million. And while followers for VIP account holders can be inflated by microblog service providers in China, there is no doubt Luqiu’s following is substantial.
In response to the Luqiu Luwei post above, one mainland user on Sina Weibo wrote: “[Chinese] authorities, why do you fear elections?”
On that note we turn here to one of the most interesting pieces to appear on domestic microblogs in China this month on the question of democracy in China. The post, converted from text into an image file (a fairly effective means of eluding censorship), addresses one of the most frequent rationalizations given by opponents of democracy in China: that the Chinese people are just too base in character to make it work.
Posted on January 6, this version of the image-as-text file was shared more than 9,000 times on Sina Weibo, drawing close to 2,300 comments as of January 17. We’ve posted the image file as the bottom of our translation, and readers can see from the overlapping Weibo account names at the bottom-right that this file was re-posted a number of times.

Those who fight against democracy, please answer the following questions right away:
1. You emphasize that our people are of low character, not suited to carrying out Western democratic systems. But how is it then that we are able to implement an even more advanced socialist system? Is it that socialism doesn’t demand of the people a very high-level of character and conduct? Or is it that socialism is inferior to capitalism?
2. You advertise that autocracy is more efficient than democracy, and so you reject democracy. If this is the case, wouldn’t an even more autocratic imperial system have a higher degree of efficiency still? Should we then return to the imperial system? Is high efficiency necessarily good? And what if there is high efficiency in doing bad things — what then?
3. You emphasize that our people are intelligent, hardworking, courageous and good, the most excellent people on earth. How then do you explain that this most excellent population, having passed through 5,000 years of corrupt history and then having subsequently lived through 50 years under the most advanced and ideal system replacing [the old corrupt system], are still of such low character that they aren’t suited to the most basic democratic rights?
4. You emphasize that the peoples’ character is too low so we can’t have democracy, but why is it that intra-party democracy too cannot move ahead? Does this mean that elites within the Party are also of low character? If people are of low character, are they qualified to rule a nation and its people?
5. You say that the Party is the servant of the people, and that the people are the masters of our nation, but you emphasize that we must uphold Party leadership. Why is this?
6. You say on the one hand that we must take command politically, that politics is a required course. But on the other hand, you don’t allow us to discuss politics. On the one hand you say officials must talk politics, but on the other you don’t allow the ordinary people to participate in the administration and discussion of state affairs.
7. You say that you represent advanced culture, but you can’t tolerate freedom of expression as mandated in our Constitution. You don’t permit criticism, but only allow paeans of praise [for the Party]. So where is this advanced [culture] you talk about?
8. If the National People’s Congress is the highest organ of power in our country, why is it that it must work under the leadership of the Party?
9. Why though you are clearly staunch materialists do you completely worship a fabricated Ism [i.e., socialism with Chinese characteristics] and define this as the ultimate truth, not permitting the existence of other ideas?
10. If the people are the masters of our nation, why is it that these masters don’t have the right to demand democracy, freedom and human rights?
11. Why is it do you think that while the Party has set its mind to opposing corruption, corruption has not just seen no decline over the past decade and more, but in fact has grown more and more serious? Does this mean that the central Party’s commitment to fight corruption isn’t strong enough, or that it doesn’t have sufficient capacity?
12. You publicize the advanced nature of the proletariat, and you publicize violent revolution. But when the proletariat has used violent revolution to seize power and then annihilates the propertied classes to become the masters of the nation and monopolize all of the resources of society, cna they still be called the proletariat? Can they still maintain their advanced nature? Did our nation’s proletariat really become the nation’s masters?
13. [You have said:] “Why must we have violent revolution? Because the proletariat are the most advanced, and they demand revolution”; “Why is the proletariat the most advanced? Because they are the most completely devoted to the revolution.” What kind of logic is this?
14. You have publicized that, “Revolution is guiltless, and revolt is rational.” But now you emphasize that “stability is the overriding priority,” afraid of the wind even stirring the grass. In this era of peace, how is it that you work along contrary lines?
15. You publicize that we are a society where each person receives according to his labor, but the the power and standards for distribution [of wealth and resources] are all in the hands of just a few officials, and ordinary Chinese don’t have the right to question. What should we make of this?
16. You say there was “never a Savior”, but you parade the idea that “he [Mao Zedong] was the Great Liberator.” How do you explain that? [NOTE: Here the writer is attacking the cult of Mao Zedong, the idea that the leader’s legacy is unassailable.]
17. You publicize that in our wicked old society the people were no better than cattle and horses, but you call on the people to strive to be willing old oxen of the revolution. Could you explain this idea?
18. How is it that our leaders are always the greatest and most enlightened, but our people are always regarded as having a debased character? Is it that our leaders are unable or unwilling to work to lift up the character of the people? And how is it that we can manage to find such great and enlightened from among a population of debased character? Further, wouldn’t it be right to say that in those countries where the character of the people is not so base, the leaders there even greater and more enlightened than our own?
19. How is it that [you say] our system is the most advanced, that our government is that most enlightened, that our leaders are great, and our people are the most diligent, but the country is still very backward and poor?
20. You say that the Party was established for the people, that [the Party] is single-minded in serving the people, but the expenses of the Party are from the national treasury and the people don’t have the right to ask questions about them. Why is that?
21. The people are asked to report their personal income and pay taxes, but there is objection to the idea that government officials make their assets and holdings public. What is the reason behind this?
22. Why is it that the people are asked to pay taxes but have never been informed how this money is being spent?
23. Why is it that our economy has shown a high rate of growth year after year but the incomes of ordinary Chinese have not grown?
24. Why is it that ordinary Chinese are always asked to obey this rule or that rule, but have never been permitted to voice their doubts about the rationale behind these rules?
25. Why is it that when officials pocket millions of yuan through corrupt means these acts can always be played down, but if an ordinary citizen steals just more than ten-thousand yuan they can face capital punishment?
26. Why is it that the proletariat are the most advanced? Is it that one can become advanced simply by becoming poor, by having nothing? Do our poor people today still have this advanced nature?
27. Seeing as [according to Party doctrine] the workers are the master class of our nation, why is it that masses of laid-off workers have fallen to the lowest levels of our society?
28. Why when you are materialists through and through are you constantly seizing control, with a mountain of paperwork and a sea of meetings all to send out instructions, [urging] consensus, the study of ideology, understanding the essence [of this or that declaration], expending so much energy on all of these ideological things?
29. Why when you are materialists through and through do you have such a taste for all of these superficial articles, exaggerating and concealing things, and why do you send all of these slogans flying?
30. Why when you are materialists through and through are you so vigorous in controlling thought, requesting [, as the Party did during the Cultural Revolution, that the people] ask for instructions in the morning, report their actions in the evening, and engage in determined self-criticism?

On December 21, 2011, a journalist in Henan’s capital city of Zhengzhou stumbled across a sign outside a local restaurant that said: “The following types of people will not be served: 1. Those who aren’t filial to their parents; 2. Those who keep mistresses; 3. Those who use public funds for themselves; 4. Those who don’t believe that property prices will drop.” The boss of the restaurant told the reporter that these types of customers rubbed him the wrong way and insisted this was a principal on which he ran his business, not a purposeful advertisement. News of the sign quickly spread across China’s internet, resulting in a number of cartoons. In the above cartoon, posted by artist Chen Chunming (陈春鸣) to his blog at QQ.com, a restaurant owner leans across his service counter, apparently asleep, as he has no customers to serve. The sign on the counter reads: “The following types of people will not be served: 1. Those who aren’t filial to their parents; 2. Those who keep mistresses; 3. Those who use public funds for themselves; 4. Those who don’t believe that property prices will drop.” A dog looks on, thinking to himself: “So, this boss isn’t short on cash?”

Last Saturday, Taiwan held its fifth direct election for president. The event was an important one for Taiwan and mainland China not just because the outcome, the victory of incumbent President Ma Ying-jeou, was the one Beijing favored. This time, the election process itself was followed closely by mainland Chinese. And in that sense, the election was an important milestone for China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
The authorities in Beijing have always regarded democratic elections in Taiwan as a highly sensitive issue, and this year was no different. According to a friend who works for a traditional media outlet in mainland China, the Central Propaganda Department sent out an order on Taiwan elections to all media well in advance, saying that they must “hold to [propaganda] discipline, using only official releases from Xinhua News Agency.”
As could only be expected, newspapers in mainland China did stick to Xinhua coverage over the weekend, not just Party papers like the People’s Daily but also commercial newspapers like Southern Metropolitan Daily, the Oriental Morning Post and The Beijing News.
Xinhua coverage referred to incumbent Ma Ying-jeou not as the “president” but as “the leader of the region of Taiwan” (台湾地区领导人). Nevertheless, newspapers did strive to distinguish themselves in terms of treatment, layout and headlines. Guangzhou’s Southern Metropolis Daily devoted nearly its entire front page to a photograph of Ma as he made his victory speech. The bold headline read simply: “Ma * Victory.” Strong and concise, this was a statement drawing power from what was left unsaid.

But coverage of Taiwan’s presidential elections didn’t stop there. This, after all, is the age of the internet.
Four years ago, a limited audience of Chinese who could access coverage on Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV could follow the presidential elections in Taiwan. Beyond this, savvier Chinese able to circumvent domestic internet controls, or “scale the wall” (翻墙), could seek out uncensored coverage.
Things were different this time around. As Phoenix TV beefed up its online coverage, that coverage was shared by Chinese internet users. The four major internet portal sites in China, Sina, QQ, Netease and Sohu, all prominently featured information on the Taiwan elections. The sites invited comment and context from figures readily recognizable to many Chinese, including the likes of former Phoenix TV commentators Cao Jingxing (曹景行) and Yang Jinlin (杨锦麟). Even People’s Daily Online devoted some attention to the story, although its treatment was relatively simple.
China now has more than 500 million internet users and, according to government figures, more than 300 million registered users of domestic microblogs. In recent weeks microblogs have been another medium through which information on the Taiwan elections has been shared actively. Information on the presidential elections was shared constantly through mainland-based microblog platforms, both by mainlanders in Taiwan and by Taiwanese users.
With information, including multimedia content, appearing on domestic internet sites and shared through social media, mainland users were able this time to find the latest information on the elections without circumventing domestic internet controls.
More interesting still was the commentary inside the mainland that could be found on Chinese microblogs. As Beijing hailed Ma Ying-jeou’s victory as positive for warmer cross-straits relations, mainland observers talked about the deeper significance of the elections. Writer Murong Xuecun remarked on his microblog account: “Regardless of whether Ma or Song wins the presidential elections in Taiwan, the victor is ultimately Taiwan. This is a victory of [Taiwan’s political] system.”
The blogger Yao Bao, who writes under the pen name Wuyuesanren, remarked: “The focus in observing elections in Taiwan has already begun to shift from cross-straits relations and the question of Taiwan independence to the process of the elections themselves. This signals a greater consciousness of elections and rights among we who are watching from the sidelines . . . Possibly, the question of reunification or independence is not so essential, but actually superficial, and the real issue is whether [both sides of the straits] can see elections like this. If they do, there’s no controversy at all over the question of reunification.”
Other domestic microblog posts reflected Taiwan’s presidential elections back on politics at home: “The Kuomintang was once a dictatorial political party, but it turned over a new leaf, changing with the time. It decisively ended restrictions on the press and on other political parties [in the 1980s], ending the kickback politics and corruption of the era of tyranny. Eight years after being thrown from power, the Kuomintang regained the trust of the people and returned to power [with Ma Ying-jeou’s election as president]. The Kuomintang shows us that a political party can reform itself, and that even if it steps down there is opportunity. But once a party has been overthrown by the people, it is completely finished.”
On another positive note, DPP presidential candidate Cai Ing-wen level-headedly conceded defeat while urging Ma Ying-jeou to address such issues as the growing gap between rich and poor in Taiwan, working for the prosperity of ordinary Taiwanese. In a political culture known for its heat and emotion, Cai did not shed tears or make emotional appeals. Instead, she encouraged her supporters to remain loyal to their ideals. They would feel disappointment, she said, but they must not give up. They must strive to be a strong opposition party, speaking out for disadvantaged groups.
The rational and orderly nature of presidential elections in Taiwan should bolster the courage of authorities in Beijing to explore democratic reforms in China. If Taiwan can achieve democracy, why can’t mainland China?
Why, for that matter, can’t Hong Kong? In Hong Kong, which calls itself “Asia’s international city,” the chief executive is still chosen by electoral committee rather than by popular vote. The process of selecting Hong Kong’s next chief executive will be under way soon. But now, as Taiwan has set the bar, how can we not feel a touch of shame?
A Chinese version of this article appeared in the January 16, 2012, edition of Hong Kong Economic Times.

Looking back at China’s internet in 2011, there were three broad trends that deserve greater attention. The first trend was a general shift from emotionally-driven nationalist chatter as the defining tone of China’s internet toward a more basic attention to issues of public welfare. The second was the rise of what we can call the “social power of the internet” (网络社会力). And the third trend was a more pronounced deficit in understanding on the government’s part about the role it should play in a networked society. While it became readily apparent, that is, that we now have a networked civil society in China, it became clearer at the same time that we lack government administrators who are internet literate (网络化的治理者).
The Turn from Online Nationalism
Nationalism has been a defining issue on China’s internet since the very beginning. For example, People’s University of China professor Peng Lan (彭兰) has argued that one landmark event in the emergence of online public opinion in China [as a social force] was internet-based opposition by the international Chinese community (including mainland Chinese) against attacks on ethnic Chinese during the Indonesian riots in May 1998.
In “The Glory and Promise of Online Public Opinion” (网上舆论的光荣与梦想), written by Lin Chufang (林楚方) and Zhao Ling (赵凌) and published in Southern Weekly on June 5, 2003, the authors argued that, “The turning-point date when domestic [Chinese] web platforms were used to voice public opinion was May 9, 1999, when People’s Daily Online opened up a forum to rally opposition to the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade by NATO forces. This was the first current affairs news-related forum to be opened up by the website of a traditional media outlet.”
Nationalist sentiment has long persisted as a perennial hot topic on China’s internet. Issues like Sino-American relations, Sino-Japanese relations and the question of Taiwan have always invited fierce activity on the internet in China, even sometimes setting off mass rallies offline. This trend has been noted frequently by observers outside China. The Economist magazine even at one time devoted a sub-headed section to China’s “online nationalism” in a report on the digital era.
The nationalist trend online peaked in 2008 following March riots in Tibet that year, and in the midst of the international torch relay for the Beijing Olympics. That time marked an unfortunate setback in the relations of China and the West, ushering in a deeper sense of isolation in China that threatened to push China into a more protective and less open posture. This is an ongoing issue, and if the West continues to take an antagonistic attitude toward China’s rise, it is conceivable that China could be pushed back further, even onto its old path of isolation and decline.
The successful hosting of the Beijing Olympics in 2008 was a symbolic moment for China’s rise, and a moment of deep pride for Chinese. But just as the curtain closed on the Olympics, the revelation of widespread melamine contamination throughout China’s dairy industry, a scandal directly impacting millions of Chinese families, came a jarring reminder that external glory cannot disguise internal decay. The impact on Chinese society and on the country’s manufacturing sector was profound. The widespread sense of debilitating setback was conveyed by Chinese internet users in a vivid couplet:

We labor half a year to turn a new page, 辛辛苦苦大半年，
And in a single night are returned to the pre-Olympic age. 一夜回到奥运前.

Ever since that time, the confident tone of a China rising has flattened into notes of sorrow among Chinese. Shanghai successfully hosted the World Expo in 2010, but quite quickly came news of a disastrous fire in Shanghai that claimed 58 lives and injured scores of others. Just as in the eyes of some the so-called China Model was in its flushest moment of success, even meriting emulation by other countries, the high-speed rail collision last summer completely annihilated this fantasy.
People started questioning whether this was really a system at all. Online public opinion grew turbulent, and one user famously wrote: “China, please slow your soaring steps, wait for your people, wait for your soul, wait for your morals, wait for your conscience! We don’t want train collisions or bridge collapses. We don’t want our roads becoming pitfalls, or our homes becoming deathtraps. Move more slowly. Let all lives enjoy freedom and dignity, so that no one is cast aside by the times, so that every person can reach our destination smoothly and in peace.”
Many people still sympathetically push for greater Chinese nationalism, calling for a stronger China. But ever since 2008 the trend has been for nationalistic agendas to take a back seat to agendas relating to the welfare of the people. As social tensions in China have grown more serious, Chinese have devoted more attention to social development issues that are more concretely relevant to their lives. As the anniversary of Japan’s invasion of China approached in 2010, the mood at Sina Weibo, one of China’s top social media platforms, was extremely tense — the fear being that Chinese might try to organize anti-Japanese rallies, drawing the ire of the authorities to the Sina Weibo platform itself, which at the time was merely a “beta version” and could be shuttered at a moment’s notice.
In the end, “September 18”, this date that had erstwhile been so sensitive, never became a major topic of discussion on Sina Weibo in 2010. Instead, the hottest discussion centered on the Yihuang self-immolation case in southern China’s Jiangxi province, a case exposing the evils of forced property demolition in China and lack of rights protection.
Clearly, the winds are changing. When you cannot find safe milk for your child to drink, when their school buses are hazardous, when you worry that you might be exposed to dangerous recycled cooking oils if you go out to a local restaurant, when the city where you live is choked with pollution and you have no idea what the actual PM2.5 measures for the most dangerous air particles are, the question that possesses you above all else is what direction Chinese society is heading. You care more about how the people of China can enjoy lives of peace and prosperity, and less about the murderous logic of the Boxer Rebellion. [NOTE: Hu is suggesting here that trends of extreme nationalism in China are marked with the same sort of anti-foreign violence seen during the Boxer Rebellion.]
Online Social Power Emerges
The second trend in 2011 was the growing maturing of what we can call “online social power” (网络社会力). Since the 1970s, researchers in China have talked about the need to encourage the development of non-governmental organizations, to move away from urban communities based on the old work unit system and to carry out other social reforms in order to find new points of development. Today we can say without hesitation that an independent and richly participatory civil society is emerging on China’s internet. The internet in China today has quite a different political function from what we see in countries with relatively full political freedoms. The internet cannot usher in dramatic change to political life in China, but it can promote the creation of social capital on the basis of citizen rights and duties, giving rise to and strengthening social forces independent of the Chinese state.
China is entering an era of “rights.” Farmers, workers and an newly-emerging middle class are all fighting for their civil rights. Since the 1990s, along with a number of “important turns and other reversals” (Sun Liping’s phrase), there has been a clear expansion of social conflict and opposition in China, both in terms of frequency and scale. Researchers have observed that perhaps one of the most apparent new characteristics of this [social unrest] is the use of sophisticated electronic technologies, which enable protesters to connect more readily and make it possible also to communicate with media and supporters in the international community.
Thanks to technology, new social relationships and bonds are forming in China, and new forms of mutual interest taking shape. As a direct result, the mobilization capacity (动员能力) for related social movements has increased. The recent Wukan incident in Guangdong is a prime example of this trend.
The efforts by Chinese to fight for their civil rights are of course tied up with efforts to fight for their right to information. In the broadest sense, the right to information means the freedom to converse, connect, gather and coordinate without fear. These rights are the same rights guaranteed through the human rights documents of the United Nations and the constitutions of various countries, all of which collectively affirm the right of citizens to access and share information. For example, Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
In terms of basic rights on the internet, an international consensus has already emerged, including a firm commitment to freedom of access and the freedom to share information (发布自由). Internet rights, therefore, already exist as a matter of convention within the [international] political context, where many people argue that the same standards of freedom and human rights that operate offline apply to the online environment as well.
Lacking a Networked Mindset in Governance
This brings the third trend that has become clearer in China’s online public opinion environment. This is that while we already have a networked civil society in China, we continue to lack a networked leadership — which is to say a government that understands and accommodates the internet on its own terms.
The internet naturally generates knowledge and value from the end user and not from centralized gatekeepers — and the right to connectivity, use and dissemination are to a great degree built into the fabric of the internet. For this reason, the building of internet governance policies should proceed along the same lines, raising competition, encouraging innovation, permitting free expression, raising credibility, all with minimal government interference.
Unfortunately, internet governance in China at present goes entirely against these principles. If China’s internet is to continue to develop, internet users and the government will have to work together toward mutual interests, jointly formulating principles [for internet use and development].
For the government’s part, it must be clear that web users are not only to be monitored but also to be served — that in fact the principal attitude must be one of service. A totalistic approach [to internet governance] by the government will only engender an internet mob (暴民型网民), while service-oriented [internet governance] will foster a population of responsible internet users. For the government’s part, building a networked society requires first and foremost a change of attitude in governance, a transition from totalistic governance (全能政府) to service-oriented governance (服务型政府).
In such a government approach, internet-related problems should be solved in a “web user–market–society–government” sequence. Issues, that is, that web users can solve themselves should be solved by web users; issues web users cannot solve on their own that can be solved by the market should be solved by the market; issues that the market cannot resolve and that can be resolved by society should be resolved by society; for issues that cannot be resolved by society, the government should step up to offer services and guidance.
A service-oriented government does not mean entirely eliminating controls, only that controls are implemented for the sake of service, not for the sake of controls themselves. Such controls would be restricted the law, with a fixed scope and procedures and a clear system of responsibility.
When people are denied the opportunity to participate in the formulation of rules, these rules lose acceptance and credibility, and stability is difficult to achieve. This principal is as true online as offline.
It is impossible for the government to serve as the only source of public administration (公共治理者) in an atmosphere as complex and diverse as China’s today. The government will have to coordinate with non-governmental organizations, social groups and the public to better manage public affairs. And in the same way, an approach to internet governance based on serving the interests of web users would necessitate a fundamental change in the government’s role.
Drawing hundreds of millions of Chinese web users into the process of internet governance requires, first of all, respect for the basic rights of Chinese internet users. The benefits for China in such a shift would be substantial. Chinese internet users today are not unlike Chinese farmers thirty years ago, or township and village enterprises twenty years ago, capable of unleashing immense [productive] forces outside the state system (非体制的力量).
This commentary was translated and edited from a piece originally appearing in China Newsweekly magazine on January 13.