Workshop hears how Chinese officials respond to online ‘netizens’

Thomson Foundation consultant Martin Huckerby listens, with interpreter Kevin Liu, as a Chongqing information officer makes a point

A programme to encourage Chinese government information officials to increase dialogue with the public through the media obviously faces challenges.

Nevertheless, the latest chapter in the Hearing the Public Voice project, in South-West China in June, found progress was being made in new ways.

The main training sessions this June, carried out by Thomson Foundation consultant Martin Huckerby for the British Consulate-General in Chongqing, brought together senior information officials from Chongqing municipality (which itself covers 30 million people), and representatives of other major regional governments: from Sichuan province; from its capital Chengdu, and from the province of Yunnan.

Officials heard about the latest approaches used by information specialists in the West – from PR to learning how to sell concepts in simple, user-friendly language, and they examined how these might be utilised in a Chinese context. But it turned out that the most important development may already be under way – responding to the free-flowing comment on the Internet.

Much has been heard in the West about the ‘Great Firewall of China’, and the army of monitors used to ensure certain subjects are kept from public debate.

But the reality is that the number of Netizens (Chinese parlance for internet users) is estimated at 400 million.

The sheer volume of comment, via blogs, bulletin boards, social networking and ever-proliferating new systems of communication, produces a free-for-all which can be curbed, but not totally controlled.

So the workshop heard from the Chongqing Information Office’s Director for the Internet how they sift and collect internet postings, and respond to relevant issues.

He instanced how, when a former top Chongqing police officer was sentenced in an anti-mafia clean-up, the news was online in seconds – and so were his department. He said their aim was to stay ahead of rumour. He said the system was being implemented across the country.

The choice of issues the authorities target may be selective, but it does seem to mean that public voices are being heard, and gaining responses from officialdom, in a novel way for a communist country.

Above, Martin Huckerby with representatives from the Sichuan and Chengdu governments and, below, reading out the views about journalists from the Chongqing staffers

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