China Youth Daily: Zhoukou City Serves and Guides the Youth in Creating a New Internet Space

Speaking of the “Fifty Cents Party,” the following article was published on China Youth Daily on November 30, 2009, excerpts translated by CDT:

League Cadres Establish an Internet Department, Build a Corps of Commentators that Work “Undercover” on Internet Forums to Provide a “Window Into the Communist Youth League”
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China Youth Daily: Zhoukou City Serves and Guides the Youth in Creating a New Internet Space

Zhu Liangcai (???), Secretary of the Zhoukou Communist Youth League Committee

“The reason we don’t use our true identity while communicating with netizens is because by not revealing our identity we allow them to feel our mutual equality, and avoid creating a feeling of opposition. At the same time the work can be smoothly accomplished without revealing what goes on behind the scenes; this achieves very good results.”
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The Inside Story Behind Why the Book, The Six Why’s*, Sold So Well in Zhoukou
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Recently, Xinhua bookstores in Zhoukou had a book that was selling extremely well, and even sold out at one point. This hot-selling book, entitled The Six Whys, mainly explains why our nation must continue to be led by the Chinese Communist Party, why only socialism can save China, and other major political questions. According to a salesperson at a Xinhua bookstore, these types of political books did not sell very well in the past. So how could a political book, the type of book that would normally be neglected, suddenly become a book that everyone was crazy about? This is best explained by first describing an internet posting.
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On July 10, on Zhoukou’s “Longdu Community” online forum (BBS) a netizen whose screen name was Qun Yan Tang** posted a comment. In his posting, he recommended a book about politics entitled The Six Why’s. Right after it was posted, it attracted the attention of netizens, quickly garnering more than 3000 hits. A netizen who went by the name of “Cherishing Sunday” stated: “People should read this book. Our generation of young people should really study these kinds of books to reinforce their political beliefs.” But at the same time, some netizens had inappropriate discussions; however, the author of the [original] posting would, in a timely manner, use his own words to tell netizens about the problems explained by the book. After fierce debates, a lot of netizens posted back and wrote, “people definitely have to read this book.”
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However, what most netizens, and even many members of the city’s Communist Youth League Committee did not know, was that the author of the post, Qun Yan Tang, was actually Zhu Liangcai, the Secretary of the Zhoukou City Communist Youth League.

“The reason we don’t use our true identity while communicating with netizens is because by not revealing our identity we allow them to feel our mutual equality, and avoid creating a feeling of opposition. At the same time the work can be smoothly accomplished without revealing what goes on behind the scenes; this achieves very good results.”
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On December 11, 2008, Zhoukou held a working meeting to discuss young adults. At that meeting, Mao Chaofeng, the Secretary of the Zhoukou City Committee of the Communist Party strongly encouraged all levels of youth league organizations, and all league cadres to use the internet to strengthen the ideological education of young adults, to guide the “internet generation”, and to guide netizens to dedicate their active efforts to the development of Zhoukou and the progress of society.

In response to the new mandate issued by the City Committee to develop the Communist Youth League’s work of using the internet to guide young adults’ thinking, in January of this year, the city’s Communist Youth League Committee established an internet department. The purpose of the department is to use the internet to grasp trends of opinions among young adults and at the same time, to use the internet to organize, guide, and serve the body of young adults.
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According to Mao Lei, Head of the Internet Department of the Zhoukou City Communist Youth League Committee, cadres of the Youth League all sign into “Longdu Community” where Zhoukou’s young netizens gather. After signing in, they fulfill league cadre responsibilities on the internet.
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“We usually participate in online discussions using the identity of an ordinary netizen. When there are uncivilized acts or inappropriate discussions, we actively admonish [those who wrote the comments],” stated Mao Lei. “Aside from this, we put a lot of emphasis on the work of guiding the opinions of young people, expressing correct opinions about hot current events in a timely manner.”
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Chen Zhijie, Deputy Secretary of the Zhoukou City Youth League Committee stated that in order for the work to be done in a thorough manner, the Youth League selected more than fifty young internet users from throughout the city to form a corps of internet commentators. These young people had a high level of political consciousness, and good communication skills. By assuming the identity of regular netizens and using Fetion and QQ [Tencent’s instant messaging service], they interact with other young adults, proactively create hot topics that netizens care about, engage in positive guidance, explain points of confusion, and guide young people to be civilized, healthy, active, and to keep moving forward.
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*See: http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/06/the-six-whys/
** Qun Yan Tang literally means: 1. To allow everybody to air his/her view; 2. speak one’s mind freely

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