Zhou Jiugeng, a bureau director now known for the staggering price of his cigarettes and his collection of name brand watches, has finally paid for his words, deeds, and choice of accessories. Director Zhou’s downfall is another testament to the power of internet technology and the ways China’s netizens have used the web to participate in the political process.

At 7:45pm, December 28th, 2008, a news item on the front page of longhoo.net - a website with ties to the Nanjing government - announced that Zhou Jiugeng, Director of the Jiangning District Real Estate Bureau of Nanjing City, the main figure in “Cigarette Gate” was being dismissed from his position due to inappropriate words and consumption of public funds. Two hours later Xinhua.net ran the story.

The “human flesh” or human-powered search that revealed the exorbitant price of Zhou’s pack of cigarettes resulted in the “Zhou Jiugeng event” which lasted half a month and exposed the complex reality of China’s officialdom: officials burning cigarettes at 7.5 yuan a smoke, driving luxury cars, and sporting Swiss timepieces are no longer, in prevailing public opinion, serving with the “Three Representatives” in mind.

The Three Representatives were put forth by Jiang Zemin during the 16th Party Congress: and it’s the third one that’s most relevant to these situations, the edict to serve the, “fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people.” Thanks to the information discovered and propagated by the human flesh search engine the citizenry is beginning to doubt official commitment to this ethos.

Smoking name brand cigarettes and wearing designer watches
On December 2008, a thread titled “Real Estate Bureau Director of Jiangning District smokes cigarettes which costs RMB 1500/carton” was posted on various forums. These forums experienced an immediate surge in traffic and a poster using the name “preserve for 100 years” uploaded a photo of Zhou Jiugeng in a meeting, and added this comment to the pack of cigarettes near his Zhou’s hand, “What is the cigarette? The top ‘Jiu Wu Zhi Zun’ Nanjing brand cigarette produced by Nanjing Cigarettes Factory at the price of RMB 1500/carton!”

The poster said they noticed the cigarettes by accident but at first glance recognized the Nanjing brand packaging produced by the Nanjing Cigarettes Factory and closer look revealed two lines on each side of the box. Of all Nanjing brand cigarettes, only the high-end Jiu Wu Zhi Zun cigarettes sport such lines. The cigarettes cost RMB 1500 per carton – equivalent to 220 USD, or the monthly salary of three migrant workers.

The post soon received wide attention and many netizens questioned the ability of a bureau director to afford such high-end cigarettes.

On Dec. 15, 2008, ‘“cheyou007” posted a thread titled, “Director Zhou Jiugeng smokes name brand cigarettes and wears designer watches.” This netizen dug through news photos and discovered that Zhou smoked name brand cigarettes and wore a Vacheron Constantin Swiss timepiece with a 100,000 RMB price tag.

Another netizen pointed out that Zhou’s Vacheron Constantin was just one his designer watches. According to netizens’ research, since 2007, Zhou has worn 4 watches in total: a Rolex in Jan 2007, another Rolex in Aug 2007, a Vacheron Constantin in Sept 2008, and a Tudor. Later on, it was exposed that Zhou drives a 300,000 RMB Cadillac.
 
Since then a trend has emerged of netizens monitoring officials through public photos on the internet. A post titled, “What watch are you wearing, county party committee secretaries?” exposed the pricey timepieces worn by 16 county party committee secretaries including Zhang Zhiguo – recently in the news for trying to arrest a journalist.

“It’s better to keep a low profile”
Jiangning Real Property Bureau, Nanjing Real Property Bureau, and many other Nanjing governmental departments are at the forefront of the scandal and as a result Nanjing officials have been quietly making changes to their choice of brands.

“I don’t wear watch anymore, now I just check the time on my mobile phone,” the Vice Director of Nanjing Real Property Bureau said, waving his bare wrists in the air.

A reporter discovered the Director of the Nanjing Price Bureau has recently switched from Su Yan cigarettes, a famous Nanjing cigarette worth 50 RMB a pack, to the humbler Jin Nanjing, a safer RMB 20 per pack.
 
Another local official explained the situation, “It’s not the brand of the cigarettes that’s important, it’s the issue of face”, indicating that officials smoked expensive cigarettes because they were appropriate, even critical expressions of one’s stature, “but after Zhou’s incident, we all understand smoking good cigarettes doesn’t represent anything, and it’s better to keep low profile.”

As the stain of the Zhou incident spreads, the Nanjing Cigarette Factory has become another casualty. According to staff, Jiu Wu Zhi Zun were their most expensive cigarettes, produced in small amounts and largely used as bribery gifts and consumed by China’s elites.

Some believe the attention the cigarette case and online accusations have received reflects a public drive to combat corruption; similar to the “investigation trip abroad at public expenses” incident, ‘Cigarette Gate’ also exposes high-end consumption by some officials.

In Jiangsu, the Provincial Bureau of Tobacco Monopoly has selected three brands of cigarettes they say are mainly used as bribes and may ban their sale in 2009, with “the implication of anti-corruption to some extent”.

Several days after the first posts originated, the Jiangning District Committee decided that, in light of Zhou’s inappropriate statements to the media and his consumption of high-end cigarettes at public expense, Zhou would lose his post as Real Property Bureau Director of Jiangning District. Investigations into further wrongdoing are still underway.

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