Editor’s note: In recent times, the behavior of Chinese government officials has become subject to extreme public scrutiny, especially as far as sensitive social issues are concerned. The latest official to fall from grace, in the online world at least, is the vice provincial governor of Guizhou Province Chen Mingming. Recent comments he made on Sina Weibo calling Chinese citizens who criticize their own country scum, sparked outrage among netizens. Interestingly, although it was his comments about “non-patriotic scum” that sparked the backlash, it was actually a comment about China’s notoriously brutal Chengguan (city management officers) that brought the whole fiasco into motion. This article is loosely translated from a post on people.com.cn and provides a general background story. It also includes the results of an opinion poll from hexun.com that yielded some very surprising results.

On July 28, the vice provincial governor of Guizhou Province Chen Mingming used his real-name verified Sina Weibo account to repost a tweet about the latest shooting incident in the US, with the accompanying question, “Why is there another mass shooting in the US?”. A netizen then replied asking why there was another violent attack by Chengguan in China. To this, Chen replied, “Some people curse their country every day but are too lazy to move to the US…Before you go make sure to get plastic surgery so that no-one can see you’re Chinese.” “Some people who don’t love their own country are human scum,” he added.

Naturally, Chen’s comments drew a strong reaction online.  Some netizens said that “patriotism is a love for your country and its people” and that “citizens should be encouraged to actively monitor and criticize the government in order to make the country a better place.” Some netizens even wrote that his wealth and family should be investigated, to which Chen replied “Please do”. Other netizens were quick to upload photos of the governor wearing a wrist-watch at an event (echoing a famous incident whereby a sharp-eyed blogger exposed the corrupt former railway minister Sheng Guangzu by posting a series of photos of him wearing wristwatches worth a total of 400,000 RMB).

Chen backs down with an apology

One the evening of July 29, Chen Mingming took to Weibo again, this time to issue an apology saying that he should be more careful with his choice of words. But some users weren’t satisfied with his response and read more deeply into the significance of Chen’s controversial comment. Chen defended himself by saying that extreme things happen in every country and that such cases are unavoidable and inevitably lead to debate. But he continued that he would “humbly accept” the criticism and asked people to forgive his flaws. He also cautioned netizens saying that it’s not wise to blow a few words out of proportion. To Chen, the cause of the online outrage was not the fact that he called a lot of people “scum”, but that the commotion was as “a reflection of different attitudes towards extreme, individual situations.” In other words, netizens’ clashing opinions about social problems were the real reason why Chen’s comments caused such commotion.

Weibo, a dangerous tool if you’re an official

According to Jiang Yukai, professor at the National School of Administration, it is very unusual for a deputy ministerial level official to set up a real-name verified Weibo account. If he used a personal non-verified account to express his opinions, his comments probably wouldn’t ignite so much debate. But because his verified Weibo ID used his official title as vice provincial governor of Guizhou, comments like the ones above don’t go unnoticed. Social media platforms like Sina Weibo increasingly offer a platform for communication between citizens and officials, but as Jiang points out, these may not be very effective especially since officials are not in touch with all the social issues voiced by netizens, nor is it possible for them to dedicate much time and effort to properly address the various issues brought up. For prominent officials like Chen Mingming, it’s best to have a team of people manage the social media account, says Jiang.  

Has the public forgiven Chen?

The storm surrounding the controversy has begun to settle, and if the opinion poll on Hexun.com (see below) is anything to go by, the majority of netizens have indeed forgiven him for his insulting comments. The fact that he apologised swiftly certainly helped, and according to Jiang, not deleting the original Weibo post that sparked the controversy in the first place was also a very wise move. However, while it seems that many netizens are moving on (if the opinion poll is to be believed – you never know with China’s notoriety regarding its army of online trolls of “Wu Maos”), many are still demanding to know why such a high-ranking official can get away with calling citizens scum.

Hexun.com opinion poll results*

1. Do you agree with what the vice provincial governor of Guizhou said?
- Agree, people who are not patriotic should be condemned; 56.25%
- Don’t agree, citizens are free to choose whether to be patriotic or not; 36.11%
- Not sure; 7.64%

2. What do you think of netizens’ uproar about Cheng Mingming?
-  His remarks using his official identity triggered an antagonism between officials and the public; 41.27%
-  Reflects a divide in thought among Chinese society; 49.82%
- Not sure; 8.91%

* It is not clear how many people participated in this opinion poll

Source: people.com.cn, hexun.com

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Keywords: Chinese government officials Chen Mingming human scum