A funny thing happened when I published my first HuffPost blog entry. My blog dealt with subsidies from the Chinese government to its paper industry, with suggestions for US policy. Before HuffPost informed me that my entry had gone online, someone had posted comments to my blog. The commentator did not agree with my views and was not amused. In two lengthy, initial posts, the commentator questioned my data and US policy on China as a whole, and then presented an alternative view for readers of my blog to consider. Although I did not know at the time, I had received my first communication from China’s Fifty Cent Party. The commentator continued to respond around the clock to every positive comment on my blog, eventually posting about two dozen comments.
Chinese Internet users first coined the term “Fifty Cent Party” for undercover Internet commentators that the Chinese government paid to influence public opinion. Fifty cents refers to the alleged pay the Internet commentators received per post. Currently, the term describes anyone who actively and publicly posts opinions online that defend or support Chinese government policy. Party organizations train the fifty centers to safeguard the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) interests and to neutralize undesirable public opinion by pushing pro-Party views. Qualifications for a fifty center include the “need to possess relatively good political and professional qualities… have a pioneering and enterprising spirit… and [the ability] to react quickly.” In China, fifty centers report dangerous content to authorities; outside China, they work with Chinese news organizations and Chinese embassies. For an external observer of China, the fifty centers offer insights into what President Hu Jintao called “a new pattern of public-opinion guidance.”
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