The Great Chinese Censorship Hoax

The Chinese media is laughing and jeering bi-lingually at how the Western media took the bait when two prominent Chinese bloggers staged a censorship hoax, making it look like they had been shut down.

It's important to note, however, that Western reporters weren't the only ones who believed that Massage Milk and Milk Pig really had been shut down by their ISP's. Chinese people believed it too. Global Voices contributor Frank Dai, a respected member of the Chinese blogosphere, believed they had really been shut down. As did a number of other Chinese bloggers. One should also note that the first English-language report about the blockage was by long-time Beijing resident Jeremy Goldkorn of Danwei... but he and Roland Soong of ESWN were also fastest to report the hoax. The Western mainstream media had only just begun to report the censorship story and took a couple days to correct itself, while the blogosphere due to its flexible nature corrected itself almost immediately.

As Massage Milk author Wang Xiaofeng told Interfax:

"I just wanted to make fun of Western journalists? [content] doesn't need to be serious on the Internet. I don't like it that Western media take a distorted view of China, though China does have problems," Wang told Interfax in an emailed statement, "I thought that if I closed my blog, it would stir their imagination and then they would begin blah blah. It really is as expected. So let's they have an April Fool's day in advance."

Bingfeng, who thinks those of us who think censorship is a problem are all out to lunch, took Danwei's Jeremy to task for taking the bait, saying he should have known better. Jeremy's response:

When it comes to China itself, this writer has often commented that the censorship issue is less important than many other problems in China. Nonetheless, I believe that Bingfeng himself would agree that as long as there are significant restrictions on public debate in China, censorship will remain a hot button issue.

While most Chinese people may not care about these things, Westerners will generally see such restrictions as evidence of a political and intellectual culture that is still, at some level, driven by fear.

Are we wrong Bingfeng?

Jeremy has also pointed out recently that some media are going perhaps a bit overboard about the political implications of blogs in China. He points out: "It seems that very, very few people are blogging for revolution or radical change in China."  I agree. Blogs are not going to bring down the CCP, and it's absolutely true that Chinese bloggers are frustrated by the focus on censorship to the exclusion of much else that's very exciting about the Chinese blogopshere. 

As it so happens I've been working on a book chapter about this very subject. I think that the existence of censorship does shape the nature of discourse in the Chinese blogosphere but there are a lot of other things going on that need to be better understood if one is going to understand the nature and long-term impact of the Chinese blogosphere. Here's my conclusion:

...if one combines the growing online space for private civic discourse provided by blogs with a functionally effective system of censorship and filtering, the result appears to be a recipe for very gradual, slow evolution - not democratic revolution. Outside observers of Internet and politics in China would do well to focus on the impact of blogs beyond the narrow scope of overt political protest and obvious political change. Most Western media attention focuses on those instances where bloggers clash with government censors or the web hosting companies who act as proxies for government censors. But to look only at these instances of conflict is to miss a great deal of what is really happening, much more quietly, under the surface. Powerful socio-political change can be expected to emerge as a result of the millions of online conversations taking place daily on the Chinese Internet: conversations that manage to stay comfortably within the confines of censorship. With each passing day, these conversations do their quiet part to move the collective Chinese mind yet another step further from government control. 

It's part of an edited volume about blogs and politics and the editing process is taking forever - as it does with books. But I think it's time to share my latest draft. Click here to download the PDF. It was last revised a couple of weeks ago so it doesn't include the absolute latest-latest developments, but with academic books you have to cut off the updating at some point or the thing never gets out. With that caveat, I welcome feedback and suggestions.

Comments

[Kaiser]

Hey Rebecca! I was wondering when you were going to get around to writing about the Massage Milk/Milk Pig hoax. Admirably balanced, as is the chapter you're contributing.

So far, my only observation: On page 4 of the .pdf you talk about the censored Chinese Internet as a breeding ground for xenophobia and strident nationalism. Sure. But xenophobia and jingoism breed just fine in the free air of the American Internet, too. Looked at a Yahoo News comment forum recently? A coal mine collapses in Shanxi, a ferry sinks off Zhejiang, and immediately you have legions of yahoos posting nonsense like "200 dead ChiComs, that's a good start" or the like.

What breeds that ugliness is anonymity, and lack of accountability. It's mostly pimply boys hiding behind their screen names spewing that crap, whether in Beijing or Baton Rouge.

[mahathir_fan]

"He points out: "It seems that very, very few people are blogging for revolution or radical change in China." I agree. Blogs are not going to bring down the CCP...."

So the hidden agenda of the mainstream Western media and their smearing campaign on China is hearby exposed as can be glimpse by the above quote from the article. "bring down the CCP"

So these organizations are anti government organizations, designed to discredit the Chinese government and hopefully bring it down and let it disintegrate like the Soviet Union.

They must have been sullen for the past 15 years for the failure of Tiananmen in 89 to bring about their dreams.

It is no wonder that they have refused to seek the court of law to resolve their publicized disputes but would rather use every case of internet censorsihp violation as another point to discredit the government by publicizing it and doing nothing concrete.

If these organizations are true Chinese patriots, they would have brought their cases to the Supreme People's court for the court of law to decide if Chinese authorities have violated the people's rights.

But they do not do so, because doing so would only help correct the current system. Their objective is to publicize and discredit, not to challenge and correct the system.

[Nic Fulton]

Thanks for the analysis.

IM(NS)HO this was very strange behaviour by the bloggers. A hoax or a foolish publicity stunt? I guess that their readers might just as well assume that nothing much they have to say is 'true' as it could be part of the next elaborate stunt.

Reuters covered the 'shutdown' and noted that "Wang and Yuan could not be immediately reached for comment" - I wonder if they had answered their e-mails or the phone they would have continued the charade? It certainly means that the claim that no one called to check might be a bit shallow as the BBC reporter also notes.

A sad day for the blogosphere and the media organisations that feed it, draw from it and support it.

Kind of reminds me of hype around cold fusion and the damage it did to all scientists, whether involved or not.

[mahathir_fan]

YOu mentioned Falun Gong in your article, but you should aslo care to mention why this group is banned in China. I have been to their website, and they look just like an exercise organization, like Tai Chi. How deceiving.

Also, the Western media tells me that the CPC is afraid of the political influences of Falun Gong, that the believers of Falun Gong were growing so fast and the CPC is afraid that Falun Gong will soon challenge its grip on power.

Total BS is printed by the Western media on this issue. If you do more research, you will find that Falun Gong believes that all technological advances from human beings are brought about by aliens from outer space. Many practitioners also refused to seek modern medical treatments. This is why it got banned from China not because Falun Gong was growing so powerful politically that the CPC was afraid of them as the Western anti-China media had us all believe.

[mahathir_fan]

"A hoax or a foolish publicity stunt?"

Nic Fulton,

Neither. I view the actions very positively. It proves the point that I have been saying all this time, about the Western media. In their overzealous and desperate attempt to discredit the Chinese government, they gloss over steps and screwed up.

This event would prove to be very educational to the Chinese people on how the Western media prints stories about China.

I am a veteran of such techniques. I have seen such techniques being played out by the Western media during the Mahathir administration years in Malaysia. Remember the time when Anwar Ibrahim's court of appeals decision was ruled in favor of Anwar? The Western media immedietely hailed the results positively. But when one reads the judgment, it sets a very bad precedent. It required rape victims to remember the exact dates of when the rape occured. Sure enough, a week later, a father who raped her daughter was acquited by stare decisis because the daughter could not remember the date when she was raped by her father. Yet, the western media was totally silent about this incident which stemed from the court of appeals decision to release Anwar.

I forsaw this happening, yet the Western media never bother to critic court decision results as long as they ruled in favor for them. "In favor" which means that they are a biased news source to begin with and wanted Anwar's release without first reading the evidences.

[enda]

I don't get the joke. What were the bloggers trying to prove? That western media shouldn't take censorship issue in China too seriously?

[mahathir_fan]

"I don't get the joke. What were the bloggers trying to prove? That western media shouldn't take censorship issue in China too seriously?"

No, it is to show that the Western media is so desperate to print negative stories about China that if they have a doubt about the story, they'll print it anyway without full verification. The western media could not even wait more than 24 hours to verify their story. They just had to print it, like a drug addict who so desperately need that sip.

I do not consider this a hoax. I consider it an excellent experiment on the maturity and integrity of the western media.

Congratulations to both the bloggers!

[Raj]

enda, no it isn't funny. He was trivialising what is a serious issue. Though if any action does get taken against him some day, he may be surprised to see some ironic comments in the foreign media ;)

[mahathir_fan]

I just want to share a positive development thanks to the "hoax" by these bloggers.

I was just reading a Western media article about China today. It had an anti China stance.

Instead of the usual, I believe everything that they print, thanks to the experiment conducted by these bloggers, I am now more critical about what I read from the Western media when they write about China.

Their experiment had propelled me to question critically the articles written by Western media instead of passively absorbing and accepting their writings.

This is clearly a step forward for me and a step forward for all readers around the world.

We need to congratulate these bloggers on their experiment that successfully exposed the journalistic integrity of the Western media.

They have made me a more critical reader of the Western media.

In the past, if the Western media had incited me to throw stones at PLA soldiers to bring down the CPC government in a civil disorder, I would have done so without any question or rational. I will believe they are right all the time. But now, I know otherwise. I would question why I need to do what they are inciting me to do when they in fact know so little about China. I will question their underlying motive and agenda.

The bloggers work should be commended for their experiment had helped to awaken passive readers like me to think critically about what I will read in the future.

[Raj]

Oh quit joking m-fan, I've seen what you've had to say about the non-Chinese media before on other forums. Don't pretend this is some sort of "awakening" for you. You've said things like there is media freedom in China, but just that the newspapers are State-owned so they can't say things against the government.

"In the past, if the Western media had incited me to throw stones at PLA soldiers to bring down the CPC government in a civil disorder, I would have done so without any question or rational"

Haha, like hell you would have! Geez, you're really pathetic.

The bloggers have done nothing than trick people that were taking an interest in the issue of freedom of speech in China. And as has been said before, Chinese were fooled as well. So it doesn't really prove much other than some people are too trusting.