Chinaʼs socio-political
cyber-scape
Slides for guest lecture in Gaurav Mishraʼs Georgetown course
MSFS 556: Social Media in Business, Development, and Government
https://digitalcommons.georgetown.edu/blogs/msfs-556-spring2009/
Rebecca MacKinnon
Open Society Fellow
Assistant Professor, Journalism & Media Studies Ctr.,
University of Hong Kong
e-mail: rebecca.mackinnon@gmail.com
blog: http://rconversation.blogs.com

Cultural loss of control: “Back dorm boys”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2HOD-nrOY8

The “Great Firewall” in action

Search engine censorship:
Image search for “Tiananmen
massacre”

Search engine censorship:
Image search for “Tiananmen
massacre”

Search engine censorship:
Image search for “Tiananmen
massacre”

Censorship by Chinese blog-hosting companies
Tianya blog service:
Blog post about
“Tiananmen Mothers”

CENSORED
Your post “Tiananmen mothers organization publishes a
website” has been successfully submitted! Because it
contains sensitive words, please wait for the community
editors to approve it. Please donʼt re-post. Thank you.

Political joke:
“River crab wears three watches”
“Harmonious” “Rivercrab”

Riot in Wengʼan county, Guizhou province, Julyʼ08
Summer 2008 marked a shift in
official media strategy: let
official news agencies cover
bad breaking stories to get the
official version out quickly, then
censor unofficial versions.

“Pushups” were
used by bloggers
to talk about
Wengʼan incident
Above Sina.com website no longer exists

“Pushups” were
used by bloggers
to talk about
Wengʼan incident
Above Sina.com website no longer exists
3 images from: http://www.caobian.info/?p=3778

Anti-censorship Protest video:
“song of the alpaca sheep”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3tPA_Z_MT0

Feb. 9th CCTV fire:
netizens react

Feb. 9th CCTV fire:
netizens react

Feb. 9th CCTV fire:
netizens react

Cyber civil war 2.0

Cyber-tarianism?
President Hu Jintao: “We pay
great attention to suggestions and
advice from our netizens. We
stress the idea of \"putting people
first\" and \"governing for the
people.\" With this in mind, we
need to listen to people's voices
extensively and pool the people's
wisdom when we take actions and
make decisions. The web is an
important channel for us to
understand the concerns of the
public and assemble the wisdom
of the public.”
• “Authoritarian deliberation” (Zheng Yongnian)
http://video.sina.com.cn/news/c/v/2008-06-20/105617742.shtml

“Fifty cent party”
(pro govt. commentators)

“Eluding the cat:”
bloggers invited to
prison investigation

Cyber-nationalism

V.P. Xi Jinping in Mexico
Some foreigners who have eaten their fill
have nothing better to do than point their
fingers at our affairs.

V.P. Xi Jinping in Mexico
“It is only by way of this frankness that the
confidence of a responsible big power can be better
displayed; it is only by way of this frankness that the
bright attitude of an increasingly powerful China can
best be shown; and also it is only with this frankness
our fellow countrymen will feel excited.”
Some foreigners who have eaten their fill
have nothing better to do than point their
fingers at our affairs.

V.P. Xi Jinping in Mexico
“It is only by way of this frankness that the
confidence of a responsible big power can be better
displayed; it is only by way of this frankness that the
bright attitude of an increasingly powerful China can
best be shown; and also it is only with this frankness
our fellow countrymen will feel excited.”
“Vice President Xi
Jinping is so cool! He
trashed the unfriendly
foreigners.”
Some foreigners who have eaten their fill
have nothing better to do than point their
fingers at our affairs.

Cyber-ocracy?
2008 Chinese Blogger Conference, Guangzhou.
Photos courtesy “HKdom” http://www.flickr.com/photos/hkdom/3046205362/
and http://www.flickr.com/photos/hkdom/3046219444/in/photostream/

Isaac Mao
If we want free speech,
first we need free thinking.
http://www.isaacmao.com/
Philosophy of “sharism” - using technology and social networks
that enable people to engage and share with one another in ways
that facilitate collective learning, critical thinking, public discourse,
social justice and emergent democracy.
Photo by Joi Ito (Creative Commons BY) at:
http://freesouls.cc/essays/07-isaac-mao-sharism.html

Internet as “special political zone?”
Photos by Josh Chin at 2007 CNbloggercon, Beijing.
On Flickr under “hunxue-er” at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21953266@N00/1849687423/ and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21953266@N00/1849689005/ (Creative Commons BY-NC-SA)

Zhang Shihe a.k.a. “Laohumiao”
Using the Internet to
raise awareness of
social problems and
organize Grassroots ad-
hoc charity

Ai Weiwei:
online auction of poisoned milk powder to fund-raise for homeless
Argues that Chinese
people must take
greater responsibility
for the state of their
society.