by Admin on 2/3/09

Chinese Style Democracy:
Direct Communication Through Internet
知屋漏者在宇下，知政失者在草野

Since the middle of last year, China has overtaken the United States and become the nation with the most internet users in the world. According to the figures released by Chinese authority, by January 2009, the cyber population in China has reached 300 million - about 23.8 percent of the total Chinese population and entire population in America - and the number of the Internet users in China keeps increasing at a rate of 42 percent per month. In today's China, Internet medium is no longer a side show, but a part of mainstream medium, contributed by people from all walks of life, be they peasant labourers or unemployed.

Therefore it is only natural that Internet has become one of the key mechanisms that help shaping Chinese style democracy which is different from the superficial Hollywood fashion of power-driven and voting-obsession.

When the news announced Saturday morning that Wen Jiabao, Chinese Premier, would visit the chatroom of xinhuanet.com that afternoon, it is reported that within few hours thunders of thousands of comments were entered under a post that collected questions for the premier to answer. By the time the cyber chat formally started, the post ran 9932 pages long containing 148987 comments with questions ranging from current global financial crisis, education, health care, housing to a muddy road at a remote village that needs to be fixed.

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