It is well known that the Internet is closely monitored and controlled in China. How can people use it for subversive purposes?

The issue is not simply a matter of citizen expression versus state control, or freedom versus repression, though these are of central importance. Even during more controlled periods such as the Cultural Revolution, there were what Tang Tsou calls “zones of indifference” which state power did not try to penetrate or control. In some ways, cyberspace is easier to control. A vast online community, for example, may be monitored from a small central control office. Entire networks can be shut down. Yet this does not mean Chinese cyberspace does not have its own “zones of indifference.” Gaming communities, like the one where the Jia Junpeng case happened, are less of a concern for state authorities than online forums on current affairs. In Chinese cyberspace there are also issues of indifference to the state – everyday-life issues that do not touch on the state’s central nerve systems. The Jia Junpeng posting is such an issue (if it is an issue at all). Yet as often happens in Chinese politics, it is through these zones and issues of indifference that people begin to make difference. There exists only a thin line between matters of indifference and difference.

Moving beyond the state-society framework, we will also need to look at the multiple dimensions of the Internet – its economics, culture, society, as well as politics. The government is not the only player in this game. There are other players as well, especially commerce and community. Internet businesses have a vested interest in encouraging user participation. Online communities are an essential component of all major commercial web sites, because they help to build a user base and attract web traffic. Commercial and social forces thus provide favorable conditions for user participation.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Guo Baofeng, Jia Junpeng, netizens, online culture
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Five Mawei police (Mawei is a district of Fuzhou city) came to my company in Xiamen in the afternoon July 15, and confiscated my computer and took my cell phone away, so I was unable to contact with any of my acquaintances until they took me to the office building of Mawei Police Bureau and put my phone on the desk in front of me so that I could take this phone at any time when the police who interrogated me didn’t notice. No one knew that I was seized except my boss who is also a friend of mine. And then, they asked me to lead them to my residential place from where they took away my laptop. A police saw my iPod Touch on bedside and asked what it was. I cheated them that it was just an ordinary MP4 player rather than a memory device, so he didn’t take it away. The police never thought this small device would become a powerful weapon.

However, I successfully made the whole world know where I was hours later. It was about 5:00am of July 16 and they had interrogated for several hours, so the police were quite tired. The police sitting opposite me felt asleep and the other one sitting behind me played games on computer so engrossed that he was unable to pay attention on me. I quickly and quietly took my phone and sent messages announcing that I had been arrested by Mawei police to Twitter in English via a twitter’s mobile web interface (www.dabr.co.uk). The messages were quickly translated back to Chinese by a Chinese user dupola and crazily retweeted by users, and this drive also attracted international attention. With a certain popularity in Chinese blogger sphere and Twitter, the news that I was detained was quickly spread to everywhere on the Internet. Interestingly, I also had enough time to read paragraphs of an e-book with my phone until a police realized that the phone was in my hands. He grabbed the phone from my hands, but it was useless, too late.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bloggers, Guo Baofeng, Internet control, Twitter
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Chinese web users have launched a postcard campaign to support dissidents in prisons and to protest against their detention, one of the organizers told Reuters.

Chinese Internet activists launched their first postcard campaign last month, in a little-known case of a man detained in Fujian province in southern China.

They are now expanding the campaign to support better-known activists, including legal aid lawyer Xu Zhiyong and earthquake victim advocate Tan Zuoren.

“It depends on the prison or detention house whether they can receive the postcards,” wrote Wen Yunchao, the blogger who initiated the idea.

“But pressure could be felt when huge amounts of postcards are flooding in.”

Read also on CDT: “Guo Baofeng, Your Mother is Calling You Home for Dinner!” (With Slideshow)

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Guo Baofeng, Internet activism, Ran Yunfei, Tan Zuoren, Wen Yunchao, Xu Zhiyong
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Almost every Chinese kid has been summoned while outside playing with their playmates: “Your mother is calling you home for dinner!” Recently, a BBS post titled “Jia Junpeng, your mother is calling you home for dinner!” became an Internet phenomenon, inspiring its own World of Warcraft Forum topic which in turn gained millions of views (read more about the story here).

However, nobody knows whether Jia Junpeng exists or not. But the phrase may have inspired Chinese netizens to join the game by reminding them of their own childhood experiences.

But only days later, this phrase is now being transformed into an entirely new meaning after the creation of a new phrase: “Guo Baofeng, your mother is calling you home for dinner!”

Unlike Jia Junpeng, Guo Baofeng (Twitter handle: @amoiist) is a familiar name to many Chinese twitterers and he is also an active blogger, living in Xiamen. Here is how this story developed, from the Guardian:

The hundreds following amoiist on Twitter were used to his stream of messages. But they ended abruptly with two terse updates early yesterday morning.

“i have been arrested by Mawei police, SOS” he wrote. Then shortly afterwards: “Pls help me, I grasp the phone during police sleep.”

His followers quickly passed on his plea to other Twitterers. But since then there has been silence from amoiist – also known as Peter Guo, or Guo Bofeng – who is apparently the latest internet user to be caught up in an inquiry that began with claims of defamation but which police now say involves “state secrecy issues”.

As many as seven bloggers have been detained over claims that a 25-year-old woman, Yan Xiaoling, had been gang-raped and murdered. It was further alleged that the man responsible was connected to local authorities in her city in Fujian province, southern China.

Officials dismissed the stories, which first surfaced in late June, and insisted Yan had suffered a haemorrhage caused by an ectopic pregnancy. They turned their attention to tracking down those they suspected were responsible for the stories.

A screenshot of Guo Baofeng’s last Tweet from detention

And from Radio France International Chinese service, translated by CDT:

After five netizens were detained for libel in Fuzhou, there is a new wave of performance art on the Chinese Internet. A netizen is asking:”Everyone one send a postcard, call Guo Baofeng home for dinner.”

Netizen Beifeng (北风) made this call on Twitter… The postcard reads, “Guo Baofeng, your mother is calling you home for dinner!” This phrase was borrowed from the Internet hot expression “Jia Junpeng, your mother is calling you home for dinner.” And those who participate will take a photo of their postcard before sending it and upload the photo onto the Internet.

… Netizen Anti (安替) said: Sending a postcard to prisoners of conscience is an assymetrical way to protest. It will become popular because it is hard to trace back to participants, has a low cost to participate, and has an excellent online exhibition effect. It is hard for the authorities to ban, and it gives prison authorities clear pressure.

Guo Baofeng’s detention order

See also from Oiwan Lam of Global Voices: Calling Guo Baofeng back home for dinner!

The following are examples of Tweets sent out about Guo Baofeng:

Andrew_SunXin
@10:15 AM Jul 24, 2009
http://twitpic.com/bgmdo – Guo Baofeng,Post Card

@magneda2
03:21 AM Jul 24, 2009
GVa: China: Calling Guo Baofeng back home for dinner!: Blogger Peter Guo Baofeng, or amoiist, has been detai.. http://bit.ly/Z4KAG

@riceagain
10:13 PM Jul 21, 2009
RT @mranti: Pls send postcards to jailed Chinese blogger @amoiist: Guo Baofeng, Rm 205, No.2 Detention House, Fuzhou, Fujian, China 350000

@mranti
10:12 PM Jul 21, 2009
Pls send postcards to jailed Chinese blogger @amoiist: Guo Baofeng, Rm 205, No.2 Detention House, Fuzhou, Fujian, China 350000

@ranyunfei
08:15 PM Jul 21, 2009
RT @feng37: From Peter Guo’s sister, his mailing address is: Guo Baofeng, #205 , Fuzhou #2 Prison (福州第二看守所205郭宝锋)，“Please write my broth …

@feng37
07:43 PM Jul 21, 2009
From Peter Guo’s sister, his mailing address is: Guo Baofeng, #205 , Fuzhou #2 Prison (福州第二看守所205郭宝锋)，“Please write my brother!” #amoiist

@tschang
07:10 PM Jul 16, 2009
RT @xiafangwu Charter 08 signatory Guo Baofeng @amoiist arested in Fujian, police may talk to registered journalists. phone# 0591 83985110

CDT created this slideshow of postcard images uploaded to support Guo Baofeng:

A postcard showing a stamp commemorating the Chinese constitution

“We are behind walls (GFW), he is behind bars.” from blogtd.org.

A grass-mud horse rider calling Guo Baofeng home for dinner.

Also, please click here to watch a video clip: “The world is calling Guo Baofeng home for dinner.”

Update: Netease BBS also reported this news.

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bloggers, Guo Baofeng, online activism, Twitter
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Yesterday, Guangzhou blogger Beifeng went hiking with a number of friends in Baiyun mountain. Some of them were wearing a Tee-shirt that carry a slogan from Xinhua Daily in1946 that says: one-party rule will bring disaster everywhere （一黨獨裁，遍地是災）. It is a communist party slogan against the former ruling party Kuomingtang. The group of people were interrogated by six police and brought to the police station for further investigation. The tea-time lasted for more than eight hours and Beifeng reports on the process via twitter. Here is a translation of his tweets:

一些人穿着印刷有当年”新华日报”主张TEE人爬白云山,被六名警察盘查中。

Some people with the t-shirts that carry the slogan of past “Xinhua Daily” are interogated by six police. They are on their way to climb Baiyun mountain.

警号018356的警员最积极。

Police officier numbered 018356 is most active.

警察要带人去派出所,这些人不让,僵持中。

The police officers want to take them to the police station, but they don’t want to go. There is a tension.

双方互拍中,警察要求删除拍下的视频。

Both sides are taking video of each other, the police officiers then ask us to delete the video.

有几个人身上的TEE写着”一党独裁,遍地是灾”。

The slogan on the t-shirts is “one party rule will bring disasters everywhere”.

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: beifeng, bloggers, Guangzhou, Guo Baofeng, netizens' voices
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

The hundreds following amoiist on Twitter were used to his stream of messages. But they ended abruptly with two terse updates early yesterday morning.

“i have been arrested by Mawei police, SOS” he wrote. Then shortly afterwards: “Pls help me, I grasp the phone during police sleep.”

His followers quickly passed on his plea to other Twitterers. But since then there has been silence from amoiist – also known as Peter Guo, or Guo Bofeng – who is apparently the latest internet user to be caught up in an inquiry that began with claims of defamation but which police now say involves “state secrecy issues”.

© Liu Yong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bloggers, Guo Baofeng, Twitter
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall