Internet draws people closer to the people's sessions

• Source: Global Times
• [21:03 March 10 2010]
• Comments

Editor's Note:

As the National People's Congress (NPC) deputies and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CP-PCC) members busy themselves with the ongoing "two sessions," ordinary Chinese people are also involving themselves in political affairs through online discussions. People.com.cn, a website considered to have considerable official backing, organized several large special sections for netizens to discuss the two sessions. At tianya.cn, one of the most popular online forums in China, netizens' spontaneous discussions are also believed to be very influential on China's political life. Global Times (GT) reporter Wang Yuan interviewed Yang Hongguang (Yang), chief editor of the online community of people.com.cn, and Wei Shouhua (known online as Huazi), chief editor of tianya. cn.

Wei Shouhua

GT: The website people.com.cn has introduced several new features for the two sessions. In particular, it has a section called "E-Two Sessions," where netizens can initiate the discussions themselves. What's the purpose of these activities?

Yang: We first implemented the "E-Two Sessions" this time last year. Netizens, after registering anonymously, could submit their own proposals, comment on and discuss others' proposals, and vote on all of them. Through this, we provided netizens an opportunity to express their own voices.

This year, a new function of this section is that netizens should pass a simple exam when registering. The exam is focused on the basic information about the two sessions.

Besides, the format of our virtual proposals is close to actual ones. People were unfamiliar with the format in the past. And we also published some actual proposals online, so people could have a look at them.

I think it's good for ordinary people to acquire more political knowledge and improve their ability to engage in government and political affairs.

Yang Hongguang

GT: I noticed that tianya.cn did not organize any topic specifically about the "two sessions." Why not, even though they're been hotly discussed by netizens there?

Huazi: Tianya serves as a platform of communication, and it is a forum mainly driven by netizens. So netizens themselves play the actual leading roles on this stage.

This year, the major websites are not required to make concerted topic plans on the two sessions. This is a step forward, reflecting the diversity of voices. So we did not follow the same topic-designing pattern as others.

But tianya's users really paid a lot of attention to the two sessions. Their discussions are scattered over different secondary forums. This is spontaneous and natural, and there is no sense in trying to highlight it.

GT: What issues have netizens been most concerned about?

Yang: We listed the issues people are most concerned about on our frontpage. They are mainly related to people's livelihoods, such as house prices, the family planning policy and healthcare. Compared to last year, the issue of corruption has attracted less attention.

Huazi: Tianya's netizens also focus on daily life issues, like the household registration system, individual income tax, healthcare reform and education reform.

There are also many netizens who follow small and amusing stories with interest, such as some superstar representatives' performance at the two sessions.

There are reasons for netizens focusing on living conditions. A decade ago, netizens were mostly intellectuals, and they were interested in literature, communicating with others online, and reading news.

However, today, the Internet has spread to more than one-third of the population in China, and thus netizens' concerns have expanded to areas that have closer relationship with their daily life.

We noticed that since 2008, most online hot topics are in connection with local governments at or below the county level.

The case of Deng Yujiao (a waitress acquitted of stabbing an official after he tried to rape her) and the Shishou event in Hubei Province (a large-scale protest/riot last June after a suspicious death) are typical examples.

This is a result of the Internet becoming more commonly used in the countryside and smaller cities.