China's secret internet police target critics with web of propaganda

Jonathan Watts in Beijing
Tuesday June 14, 2005
The Guardian

China's communist authorities have intensified their campaign against the party's biggest potential enemy - the internet - with the recruitment of a growing army of secret web commentators, sophisticated new monitoring software and a warning that all bloggers and bulletin board operators must register with the government or be closed down and fined.
The escalation of the government's effort to neutralise critical online opinion comes after a series of large anti-Japanese, anti-pollution and anti-corruption protests, many of which were organised or publicised using instant messaging services, chatrooms and text messages.

With the number of users forecast to rise above 100 million this year, access to the web is spreading beyond China's well-rewarded middle class and into the more disgruntled factory and farming communities, where young migrant workers are teaching their families about internet cafes.

In response, the propaganda departments of provincial and municipal governments have recently been instructed to build teams of internet commentators, whose job is to guide discussion on public bulletin boards away from politically sensitive topics by posting opinions anonymously or under false names.

Although advertisements are supposed to have been placed in-house, many details about the part-time political pacifiers have emerged in the domestic media. According to the Southern Weekend newspaper, a team of about 20 commentators has been operating in the city of Suqian, in Jiangsu province, since April.

"In the information age and the internet age, the most important and critical mission in front of us is how to seize the initiative on internet opinion and how to seize the high point of internet opinion," the paper quoted the deputy director of the local propaganda department, Zhang Fenglin, as saying.

Applicants for the job - mostly drawn from the propaganda and police departments - were told they had to understand government policies, know political theory, be politically reliable and understand internet technology. Successful candidates have been offered classes in Marxist theory, propaganda techniques and updates on the development of the internet around the world.

A summary of objectives declared that commentators should "be proactive in developing discussion, increase control, accentuate the good, avoid the bad, and use internet debate to our advantage." [More...]