#SocialMediaAndChinaAcaseStudy

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China & How The Internet Can Bolster Civil Society

China is an interesting case. Google is so commonly used and relied upon, that “Google’s my best friend” has been uttered in jest more than once by my friends and I, when we encounter something we don’t know. However, Google, and other international Web 2.0 services, are blocked by China’s Great Firewall (TED 2012) , forming what  Xiao Qiang (TEDx Talks 2014) dubs, the “Chinternet”, a phenomenon whereby even with globalisation and economic advancements, freedom of the Chinese is still restricted, in terms of their political rights to have freedom of speech, association, beliefs, and assembly.

Although they’re different people from different occupations and circumstance, Qiang (TEDx Talks 2014), Michael Anti (TED 2012) , and  Victoria Mui (Dan Lok 2017), all agree that this phenomenon exists because by preventing its people from accessing the global internet, the Chinese government is able to supply them with alternatives, through which they can better monitor and control the people, while protecting itself.

The image below illustrates China’s social media and internet eco-system (Oniix 2018) :

The eco-system is far from barren, being just as vibrant as that of the rest of the world, although filled with similar, yet different, sites. With China being such a huge market, even foreign celebrities (Kary 2015) have opened Weibo accounts and sought to establish a digital presence in among Chinese netizens. However, these are not mere social media platforms. they were developed because, while the government wants to censor the people, it understands the people’s need for social networking (TED 2012). Thus, in monopolising the internet, the government gains a comparatively greater power and hold over the people, without antagonising them outright. The situation is such that every year, around early June, censorship is tightened to prevent discussion of the Tiananmen Massacre, seeking to effectively erase the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests from Chinese history books...and it has succeeded much too well, with only 15 out of 100 university students recognizing the Tank Man photograph for what it is (Ser 2016). This fact really surprised me, when I first heard of it.

However, despite these government efforts, a public sphere has been forming and growing over the years in China (TED 2012) - people are becoming Aware, and are using the internet to voice out dissent,  they’re forming communities online that have led to meetings in physical space, although those are still met with police action (TEDx Talk 2014).

Fart People (屁民) Voice Dissent

Qiang cites this incident as indicative of how the internet can help galvanize civil society in China. In 2008, Lin Jiaxing, a then official, had harassed a girl. When she escaped and her parents confronted him, he pulled rank and said that they were “worth less than a fart” to him, ending his tirade with a threat. The incident was caught on security camera (TEDx Talk 2014), and after being leaked on the internet, went viral, and sparked widespread criticism. Lin was eventually sacked. From here, netizens picked up on the term “Fart People”, noting the disparity between the government’s slogans that constantly put the people on a pedestal, and the actual treatment of the people by government officials. Netizens then reclaimed the term to voice their opinions about issues concerning government officials, such as when addressing the lack of democracy and corruption.They started calling themselves 屁民 with pride. Other incidents followed this. The 2011 train crash at Wenzhou sparked an unprecedented public outcry on the internet over 5 days, that led to the rail minister being sacked.

Other Creative Code Words to Subvert Censorship

Some examples are (Luo 2015):

 Eye-Field (目田), since  Freedom (自由) is censored,

Take a Walk (散步), since applications for official protests are usually denied, and could be dangerous, activists have opted to protest against state actions by “taking walks”, instead.

National Treasure (国宝, also symbolised by a Panda, a national treasure of China), homonym of the Domestic Security Department (DSD) ( 国保 ) that deals with “subversies” like human rights activists, religious groups and dissidents. Has more power than regular police and use violence to suppress “dangerous elements”

Your Country (你国), used by netizens to separate mention of Their Country, and the one run by the Chinese Communist Party, where in the past, the communist party and state were often viewed as one and the same.

Malaysia In Comparison

After the last election, Malaysia’s ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional, lost to the Opposition for the first time in Malaysia’s 61 year history. It was a victory for the Opposition, but also for the people, against a corrupt government and prime minister, Najib. The rule of BN was rife with corruption, and although government censorship was not to the same extent as that of China, there were still instances like the blocking of Syed Akbar Ali’s blog (FMT Reporters 2016) which was critical of the Prime Minister.  Another blogger, Raja Petra Kamarudin, fled the country after hearing he would be detained without trial for the 3rd time (Bland 2010), after publishing writings about Najib, his wife, and the mruder of Mongolian translator, Shaariibuugiin Altantuyaa. There was no apparent transparency in the handling of scandals involving the government, or more specifically, the then-Prime Minister, and Najib’s responses to public outcry often did not make sense. One incident gave birth to the Kangkung meme, and the opposition adopted the vegetable as a symbol (Palatino 2014). Everything culminated in a Fake News law (Hutt 2018) being passed right before the elections, and the wording was so general and loose, that it would be up to the courts to define what constituted “fake news”....and that seemed to play heavily in the favour of Najib and the ruling party, with spokespersons citing mentions of Najib’s IMDB scandal as attempts to tarnish his good name. Fittingly, Malaysian lawyer and human rights activist R. Silvarasa once noted that while the Malaysian constitution guarantees free speech, it does not guarantee “freedom after speech” (Hutt 2018). After the election, hopefully, this will have changed for the better.

I think that while China’s netizens are still far from having that the level of freedom that we Do have here, the Chinternet, by still affording users with the ability to form networks and communities, will indeed continue to bolster the growth of Chinese netizens as a civil society, and allow them to eventually enact effective change in their country. Because as noted by Qiang, while the censorship in China has allowed it to perpetuate lies, no people can live in a lie indefinitely (TEDx Talk 2014), and the people will ultimately choose freedom and dignity, rise up and prevail.