China's web spin doctors spread Beijing's message
by Pascale Trouillaud Pascale Trouillaud – Thu May 12, 12:03 am ET
BEIJING (AFP) – China, which employs an army of censors to police the Internet, has also deployed legions of "web commentators" to get the government's message out -- in a crafty but effective way.
With nearly half a billion people surfing the net in China, more than half of them using microblogs, the Internet has quickly become a vital forum for debate in the world's most populous country -- and a major sounding board.
中國有近5億人使用網路，其中又有逾半數人使用微網誌，網路已迅速成為這個全球人口最多國家進行辯論的重要論壇，同時也是主要的意見徵詢機制。
(sounding board：名詞，指共鳴板、回響板，引申為指被用作試探意見之人。例句︰My friend is my sounding board for new ideas.（我的朋友是我提出新想法時的徵詢對象。）)
That fact has obviously registered with the country's Communist leaders, who pay careful attention to the conversations that unfold online despite the heavy government restrictions on what can and cannot be discussed in cyberspace.
中國共黨領袖顯然對這項事實了然於心，儘管中國政府對於能否在網路上討論的話題已設有嚴格限制，但他們仍對網路上的對話格外關注。
(register with someone：片語，指讓某人理解某事。例句︰Suddenly, the import of what she had said registered with me. （突然間，我理解到她話裡的重要性。）)
Enter the "web commentators" who, either anonymously or using pseudonyms, spread politically correct arguments -- many of them for money. Who are these high-tech propaganda wizards, infiltrating blogs, news sites and chat rooms?
此時所謂的「網評員」就可以派上用場，這些人多半以匿名或假名方式，在網路上散播政治正確的主張，其中許多人是為了錢這麼做。
"It is very mysterious... these people don't talk to the media! Everyone is just guessing," Jeremy Goldkorn, editor of the China media website Danwei.org, told AFP.
For high-profile independent Chinese blogger Li Ming, the army of pro-government web commentators must number "at least in the tens of thousands".
Renaud de Spens, a Beijing-based expert on the Chinese Internet, told AFP that most of them were likely students "doing a basic cut-and-paste job" -- a mindless task, "just like if they took jobs in telemarketing".
Some of those students are trying to improve their chances of gaining a coveted party membership.
But the group of web spin doctors also includes civil servants and employees of state-owned firms -- and even retirees and housewives keen to support the party line.
De Spens notes that the system is far from centralised.
"The provinces, cities, districts and work units all rally their own small armies to infiltrate the Internet in a subtle way," he said.
In 2010, the Global Times reported that Gansu province alone was looking to recruit 650 full-time web commentators "to guide public opinion on controversial issues".
Amnesty International secretary-general Salil Shetty in March warned that countries like China and Iran were investing "considerable resources into pro-government blogs" in an effort to cement state power.
About five years ago, when blogs first took off in China, the country saw its first "wu mao" (50 cents) -- net commentators paid by the message to spread the official party line.
（「五毛黨」，網上特務的一種，是對「網絡評論員」的衊稱。由於有網民傳言網絡評論員每發一帖便可以獲得五角（大陸「一角」俗稱為「一毛」）的報酬，故此網民謔稱他們為「五毛黨」。根據香港網絡大典）
But according to De Spens, they were progressively replaced by a new breed of online government workers -- who are more subtle and more effective.
"It certainly seems that they have gotten more sophisticated," Bill Bishop, co-founder of the news site MarketWatch.com who now blogs about the Internet in China, told AFP.
"They have been doing this for years. They have been very good at learning how to use the Internet."
Instead of posting simple slogans such as "Long live our leaders" or "Long live the party", the web commentators develop detailed, rational arguments.
On the crisis in Libya, they have published comments slamming the hypocrisy of the West in launching air strikes against the regime of Moamer Kadhafi -- a campaign opposed by Beijing -- saying they are only interested in oil.
"There is a subliminal effect -- the message gets into people's heads, even the dissidents, especially the arguments that make sense," De Spens said.
Other recent hot topics include the US raid that resulted in the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, China's efforts to build an aircraft carrier, equal opportunity in education, food safety and vegetable prices.
On Sina Weibo -- China's answer to Twitter, which is officially blocked on the mainland -- the pro-government netizens are working on tainting the reputation of detained artist and activist Ai Weiwei.
Web commentators "are paid based on the number of comments they post, and they can also get a bonus if one of their posts is named one of the most popular on the site," Li explained.
Experts are divided on the overall effectiveness of the massive web operation.
"On the main hot topics, three days into the debate, only the propaganda remains online," creating a "false general opinion" which the great majority of web users will blindly follow, De Spens said.
"That is the major success of Chinese propaganda."
對於這種大規模網路行動的整體效益，專家的看法分歧。「在主要的熱門話題上，辯論展開三天後，網路上就只剩下官方的文宣言論，」製造出大多數網友盲目跟從的「輿論假象」，北京的中國網路專家德史班斯表示。「這正是中國政府網路文宣的重大成功之處。」
But Goldkorn counters that Chinese web users are "quite savvy... they tend not to trust anyone."
"When there are large numbers of comments that are toeing a government line, it certainly makes it more difficult for people who disagree to have their voice heard above the noise," he nevertheless acknowledged.
但中國媒體網站「單位」編緝戈德孔恩則反駁說，中國網路使用者「相當精明……他們不輕易相信任何人。」但他也承認，「當大部份的網路言論都一面倒地支持政府立場時，異議者的言論自然更難被聽見。」
(toe the line：片語，指遵守規定，乖乖聽話。例句︰Ministers who wouldn’t toe the party line were swiftly got rid of.（不肯遵從黨路線的部長們，很快就被撤換掉。）)
The operation does have an unfortunate downside for the leadership -- independent pro-government web users are often accused of being "wu mao", a term that has become an insult.
※以上原為 12 May 2011 的法新社(AFP)新聞，2011/5/29 自由時報在「中英對照讀新聞」刊出此條新聞的部份翻譯。
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