Chinese cyberspace is a peculiar phenomenon. In this relatively unreligious nation, the internet has taken on an almost spiritual quality. Like the religions of old and new, it claims to provide a sphere outside of the real world where previously unimagined truths are revealed. Where as typical religious truths often relate to the supernatural or afterlife, those scattered on the Chinese internet commonly concern themselves with the nature of political and historical fact. Lines between truth and fiction, however, are becoming increasingly blurred.

With 477 million netizens and counting, this strange new church is becoming ever more expansive. As an alternate base of power, the threat it poses to the government's authority cannot be underestimated. Recent attempts to enforce a real-name policy on the popular website Weibo – to prevent posters from hiding behind an imaginary identity – suggest a new tone of urgency in governmental attempts to control this online world. At the heart of all this, there is a decisive conflict of interests. China's economic drive forward now relies heavily on both innovative technology and improved living standards. Yet it is such technology, combined with a more affluent and computer-literate population that will inevitably provide a stronger platform for dissent and governmental criticism, and reinforce the world of online criticism. As wealth rises and access to the Internet increases, the problem can only get worse. Cyber-dissent in China is recorded history's newest twist on an ancient conflict between the middle-classes and authority.

A rumour-mill

At the risk of gratuitously mixing metaphors, the Internet in China is more than just a hastily assembled church. It is also the Wild West, both in name and nature. It resembles a kind of frontier realm where law and authority are taken less seriously. Beyond this, it also leans towards the comparatively wild freedoms of the Western political model. The Internet has itself been imported from the West, and its very infrastructure is receptive to unlimited freedom of expression. It also provides the most obvious communication channels to other Western countries and makes it infinitely easier to discover international opinion on any given topic. The popularity of dissident figures such as the artist Ai Weiwei are almost always dependent upon a strong online presence, which not only gives the dissident a voice, but gives the average person access to their invariably favourable reception abroad (Google search ‘Wei Wei BBC' and behold his glowing reception).

The government's main issue with the Chinese Internet is its growing-status as a colossal rumour-mill. The recent Bo Xilai controversy is a case in point. On April 12, the government appeared to shut down all foreign websites for an hour as speculation about the official's antics reached boiling point. The companies Tencent and Sina were also recently punished for playing host to supposedly false rumours. The Internet conceals the identity of its commentators, but this concealment potentially facilitates a dangerous lack of accountability. On April 16, People's Daily identified ten common Internet rumours surrounding sensitive issues such as food security and natural disasters in an attempt to encourage an attitude of scepticism towards online rumours. Previous examples, such as rumours of Japanese radiation that sparked the panic-buying of salt in Beijing and Shanghai last year, suggest that there is a genuine issue surrounding public security and the internet. Free reign of online expression evidently entails serious risks, but a lack of trust in government sources means many prefer using hyperbolic online rumours as their newspaper.

A global trend

It is easy to point to Internet censorship in China as an example of authoritarian repression. Yet this is by no means a uniquely Chinese issue. Many countries have toyed with the idea of indulging in online censorship. Recent events in the UK highlight this issue. At the height of the London riots last August, the chief of police Tim Godwin admitted seriously considering shutting down Twitter and other social networking sites. A twitter user who racially abused a football player was this year sentenced to 56 days in prison, provoking widespread fears that freedom of speech had been compromised. Both of these instances provoked debate about the growing difficulties associated with maintaining freedom of expression online.

China is not oblivious to the global trend. Liu Zhengrong, an official for the State Internet Information Office, told China Daily that China is ‘learning from Britain, which has set up reporting hotlines against online rumours and ordered domestic reporting companies to open up reporting networks as well'. Internet censorship is not merely the explosive combination of a socialist regime with radically new technology, because these kinds of problems are seen across the globe, albeit to a lesser degree.

A conflict of interests

The global scene shows that China is not alone in Internet and government-related concerns, it is also part of the problem. China, eager to overtake its competitors, is rampaging into a technological age as quickly as possible. In the Twelfth Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), the government places an emphasis on next-generation Information Technology as a means of developing its economy and competing internationally. This is a classic instance of "be careful what you wish for". A strong emphasis on computer technology will without doubt provide additional means of dissent, and place more focus on prominent netizen movements. Rising average incomes and increased access to the Internet will merely provide more potential voices of dissent. Class is at the centre of this issue: netizen activism in China is primarily a middle-class activity. That this dissent is currently disfigured by the prominence of misinformation and rumour-mongering is unlikely to prevent it from occurring. What is clear is that the task of controlling the ghost within the machine – the hidden, immaterial voices that endlessly populate the Chinese cyber-landscape – is an unmanageable task that is set to become ever more unmanageable.

What distinguishes China from the developed world is its rapidly growing yet relatively muted middle-class; a portion of society educated enough to have divergent opinions, yet equipped with little capacity to express such views, and almost no say in policy-making. Neither rich enough to be content, nor uneducated enough to be ignorant, the middle-classes are by their very nature imbued with a hunger for more voice. In China, this hunger is somewhat sated through the Internet. The government is caught between a rock and a hard place: limit and restrict such usage and risk falling behind in both the technology race and the race for a well-educated population, or provide an increasingly prosperous, powerful and self-confident middle-class with even more means of self-expression.
 

Related links
China Cracks Down on the Online Rumour Mill
Is Censorship of the Internet Necessary in China?
Scaling the Firewall: How Chinese Netizens Take the Internet into Their Own Hands

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Keywords: cyber dissent China Chinese Netizens internet censorship china impact of internet in China