China Digital Times (CDT) » Tag: Wu Hao

Wu Hao’s Deleted Microblog Exchange About Google

Xiao Qiang — Thu, 06 May 2010 22:35:50 +0000

Wu Hao (伍皓), deputy director of the Yunnan Province Propaganda Department, has received a great deal of attention for his controversial efforts to interact online with netizens and give Chinese government policies a kinder, gentler spin. His supporters argue that he is an example of a more enlightened official, while his critics say he merely represents an increasingly sophisticated online propaganda effort. Many netizens are using sometimes creative ways to express their opinions about his work; an audience member recently showered him with fifty-cent bills during a university speech to protest pro-government Internet commentators, otherwise known as the “fifty cent party”. Like the content of the Chinese Internet itself Wu Hao can be better understood not just by the words that appear online, but by the ones that are removed. On Sina Weibo, a Twitter equivalent, Wu Hao wrote a post in late March explaining his position on Google which received numerous reader comments. Wu Hao has already deleted this from his microblog, but some diligent person kept a record from here before it was deleted:

CDT has translated the full exchange below:

A Transcript from the Sina Microblog of Wu Hao, Yunnan’s Vice Minister of Propaganda

From WU Hao’s “The Wu’s Daughter is Growing Up Microblog”

Wu Hao: Polite warning: I’m willing to take any criticism that people might put out on my microblog. But I’m not going to take crap from traitors. This is what I stated months ago and there’s no way I’m going to change my position here. If you want to fawn over Google’s stinky feet, then wag your tail between your legs and go begging in Washington. Their 50 cents are worth more than our 5 Yuan. [This is a reference to the 50 Cent Party. A person who belongs to the 50 Cent Party is said to get paid 0.5 RMB by the government for each pro-government comment they post on the internet. Wu Hao is sarcastically joking that those who write pro-Google comments do so, not for ideological reasons, but because they get a better rate from the American government. For more about the 50 Cent Party, see here] So go! Stop bullshitting on my territory. If you guys see this kind of crap, help me clean it up. I’ll of course clean it up too. (43 minutes ago)

(Note: unless otherwise indicated, all comments below are directed towards Minister Wu who began the thread by writing the comment above.)

Wangdahao: I want to know how you got your name. (43 minutes ago)

Dudiaowengershi: Then are you also going to take a grass mud horse? (sounds like “f*** your mom”) (43 minutes ago)

skytiger: Grass mud horse! Hurry and shut off your computer and save electricity. Shouldn’t you be worrying more about addressing the drought? (Yunnan, the province where Minister Wu works, is experiencing a severe drought.) (43 minutes ago)

Wangjingchen: (42 minutes ago)

snowyowls: Grass mud horse, hurry and shut off your computer and save electricity. Shouldn’t you be worrying more about addressing the drought? (42 minutes ago)

Laolutongzhi [old Comrade Lu]: I don’t get it, their 50 cents are more than our 5 Yuan…Lol. (42 minutes ago)

Sijiermo: Grass mud horse, hurry and shut off your computer and save electricity. Shouldn’t you be worrying more about addressing the drought? (42 minutes ago)

Pitousi: Up yours! (42 minutes ago)

Jiamao: So am I a traitor? Are you going to erase my differing opinion? I guess you can’t but help revealing your C(ommunist) P(arty) way of doing things. (42 minutes ago)

Yuanfushengxinhao: Who’s the real traitor here? Go wag your tail between your legs and beg your masters in Beijing. It looks like you’re just another one of those types that stomp all over and persecute those in the motherland. (41 minutes ago)

Merlin877: Woh Woh Woh Woh Woh… (41 minutes ago)

Yanhuamoxiang [red-light district]: forward this microblog. (41 minutes ago)

Qianbijiaozhu [founder of the pencil faith]: Don’t you know how much Baidu sucks? Have you even ever used Google?? Why don’t you go help your drought people. (41 minutes ago)

Acthinair: You’re being watched. Bet you won’t sleep tonight. Let’s everyone spend the night around the fire chatting about Google. (41 minutes ago)

Sijiermo: Grass mud horses, you guys are like performance artists, keep up the onslaught! (41 minutes ago)

Daole: Number 5 (homonym for Minister Wu’s name), the Party Central Committee is calling you home for dinner! (Note: this comment follows the form of a legendary internet comment in China that was posted after a boy named Jia Junpeng (贾君鹏) spent so much time on the internet that his mother had to have the boy’s friends use the internet to call him home for dinner.) (41 minutes ago)

JayLeo: If your peehole’s crooked don’t complain that the urinal was in the wrong place. First take a look at yourself. (41 minutes ago)

Lilang: Oh, sorry. I originally just wanted to see what Minister Wu would say. I’m definitely checking out now. Goodbye Minister Wu. Let me ask you Minister, are you under the State Council or do you just directly take orders from the Party Committee? (41 minutes ago)

Yefengyunlong [maple leaf cloud dragon]: No matter what differing opinion you might have, one thing is essential. You have to love the country. You have to fervently love the motherland. (41 minutes ago)

Qianbijiaozhu: I guess he’s not embarrassed to fart in his own microblog space. (40 minutes ago)

Maladuanzi: Wow, what a guy! I bet he’s going to get a promotion, what a bright future he has! (41 minutes ago)

Suibianhuanghuang [just checking around]: Does fighting for free speech make you a traitor? Don’t frame everything as an issue of nationalism or patriotism. (41 minutes ago)

Yinyuexiaofeng [reciting the moon, calling the wind]: Number 5 (sounds the same as Wu Hao) has lost his senses. Keep watching. (41 minutes ago)

MimicryRyu: Minister: don’t forget to get your daughter immunized (This comment refers to contaminated immunizations that people blame government officials for not spotting earlier. See here) (41 minutes ago)

Shijienabuqiyandejiaoluo [that unremarkable corner of the world]: Forward this comment: I really look down on traitors. You can love the P(arty), you might not love the G(overnment) but you had best as H(ell) not go off about being unpatriotic. (41 minutes ago)

ZhanshinaDmeibanfa [currently unable to hold the Party]: You’re really hurting your career prospects by making comments like that. The government is not as opaque as you might think—merit does actually count. I’m afraid you won’t be looking to be promoted. (41 minutes ago)

Woshijiafeimaoa [I am the fattened cat]: You should get your esteemed self on over to the People’s Daily website. This isn’t quite the right place for you! Everyone else isn’t getting paid for posting comments, so there’s probably a bit too much honesty for you to handle. It must make you feel a bit of a chill. (41 minutes ago)

Voiceasa: I partially support and partially oppose the Minister’s comments. (41 minutes ago)

123456yq: There’s no need to be this way. We’re all comrades. If you keep at it then there will be some serious “contradictions among the people.” Comrades, cool it. (41 minutes ago)

Shaoxi: There’s no 50 centers here. (41 minutes ago)

Yiyang1 [praise and censure 1]: Grass mud horse, you’re the one being a classic traitor. (41 minutes ago)

PandaKongfu: I guess the Minister has finally revealed his true vicious self. (40 minutes ago)

Jiangjiangjiang: Haha, having a great time imagining the blind rage this is putting the threadmaster (Wu Hao) into. (40 minutes ago)

MimicryRyu: Everyone should all report the Minister for writing profanity and insulting fellow netizens. (40 minutes ago)

Maladuanzi: Man, what a retard. (40 minutes ago)

Xiaoxiapi [little dried shrimp]: Man Minister, you must have eaten some crazy shit to have spoken so well. (40 minutes ago)

Zuojingguanwan: Little Minister, little minister, aren’t you a bit out of your league. I’m laughing and I’m speechless. (40 minutes ago)

Pingchangfanxin [ordinary worldly desires]: The word for traitor, hanjian, originally referred to one who betrayed the Han ethnicity. Later the word was used to refer to any Chinese national who aided the enemy and sold out the country and the people’s interests. So who is it that’s harming the nation’s interests now? Who is the real traitor here? The most revolting traitors are those who hold aloft the flag of “patriotism.” (40 minutes ago)

Bonjourcasper: China truly needs those who have a conscience and love their country… (40 minutes ago)

bolee: I didn’t know that Minister Wu was such a total thug!! (40 minutes ago)

dennisshuo: Is it really the case that their 50 cents are worth more than our 5 yuan? Or is it the case that Minister Wu knows something about currency speculation that we don’t know? (40 minutes ago)

Suyule: Google is just a company that has a little idealism. Pinning one’s lofty hopes on Google is a bit ridiculous. I really don’t get why so many people are so infatuated with Google. Google has also assumed an air of self-important innocence, it’s just a company, who does it think it is holding talks with the government. (40 minutes ago)

Jiangjiangjiang: Was that really Wu Hao, or was his account hacked into? (40 minutes ago)

Houxiandaizhuyi [postmodernism]: When you talk about “traitors” are you talking about those who betray their people or are you just talking about those who betray the Party? Once you hit university did you stop differentiating between the People and the Party? (40 minutes ago)

Qieqie: How does supporting Google make you equal to a traitor. Pretty fuzzy logic seems to me. (40 minutes ago)

Sujie: Man, there’s nothing that can be said to that. (40 minutes ago)

Kongzhongdehexie [river crab in the air (the river crab is a symbol for censorship)]: Forward this comment: You’re the biggest f-ing traitor there is. (40 minutes ago)

Lilang: What kind of department is the propaganda department anyway. How can it ride over the police, procuratorates, courts and news departments when those are actual government agencies. How can it launch this crusade against the news media and the internet? While it’s true that the ruling party leads the country, how is it that one small department of the ruling party can ride above the government and the nation’s laws? (40 minutes ago)

Guanchazeren [observer’s duty]: Minister Wu, tell us who it is who is a traitor. Please provide us a definition. Is it that everyone sympathetic to Google is a traitor? If that’s the case then you can consider me a traitor too! (40 minutes ago)

Waixingren [crooked pedestrian, (pun on the word for alien)]: Whatever, since you’ve decided to turn your back on the People, go ahead and fawn over your master’s fragrant feet, go and pursue your dream of rising to great heights in the Celestial Empire. (40 minutes ago)

(...)
Read the rest of Wu Hao’s Deleted Microblog Exchange About Google (11,347 words)

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: fifty cent party, microblogs, Wu Hao
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Publicity Department Official Showered With Fifty Cent Bills

Sophie Beach — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 10:59:02 +0000

ESWN translates a report about a propaganda official from Yunnan who was welcomed to a talk at a university with a shower of fifty-cent notes:

This afternoon, Yunnan Province Party Committee Publicity Department deputy director Wu Hao came to the Renmin University Cisco Live Broadcast Studio to give a talk to the School of Journalism. After the host gave a short introduction, Wu Hao stepped onto the podium. Before he even said anything, a man about 25-years-old walked up to him, took out a wad of fifty-cent bills and threw it at him. The man also yelled: “Wu Hao, wu mao!” Then he walked out of the studio. Workers picked up the bills afterwards. “Wu mao” refers to the mythical pay that a commentator receives for each Internet post/comment made according to government instructions.

The man who threw the money is Wang Zhongxia. He said that he is a Renmin University graduate. Earlier today, he got 30 yuan’s worth of 50 cent bills from his bank “in order to salute Mr. Wu Hao.”

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: fifty cent party, propaganda department, Wu Hao
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Interview With Wu Hao

Paulina Hartono — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 22:19:13 +0000

Roland Soong of EastSouthWestNorth translates an interview with Wu Hao, deputy director of the Yunnan provincial party committee publicity department, known most notably for his department’s actions after the “Elude the Cat” and “Elementary school prostitutes” cases:

Q: In reviewing your work over the past year from the “Elude the Cat” case to the “Elementary school prostitutes” case, the former case has been settled and the latter is being tried in court. How do you look at these two cases today?

A: From the angle of the publicity department, we think that we were just doing our job to the best of our ability. But many publicity departments, as well as the media, want to treat our handling of these two cases as case studies in open information.

Q: Landmark cases?

A: Landmark case studies. That is why many public members will have a question: Why do weird things only occur in Yunnan? Actually, weird things don’t just happen in Yunnan. They occur everywhere. They occur all over China. But our environment for opinion supervision is better. We dare to be more open and we dare to expose these cases under the sunshine. That is all.

For example, in the case of “Elude the Cat,” we organized a civilian investigation team. Actually we thought that this was a very complete realization of the respect and protection of the rights to know, to express, to participate and to supervise as proposed in the Seventeenth Congress. Why do I say that this was a relatively complete realization of these four rights?

When we organized a netizen investigation, it satisfied people’s right to know. Through their investigation into the truth of the matter, their right to know is realized.

© Paulina Hartono for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: eluding the cat, Wu Hao, Yunnan
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Tweets of the Week: National Day Celebrations and Internet Control

Xiao Qiang — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 05:36:37 +0000

Despite the blocking of Twitter, Chinese politically-active tweeters are still tweeting away. The upcoming 60th anniversary of the PRC is a hot topic. Here are selected tweets on that topic and more, translated by CDT:

* Overseas, the significance of Twitter lies in its use as a tool to chat and kill time; here at home, Twitter indicates how computer savvy a person is and whether he believes in freedom.

* Hey, quick! Read this news: On the 22nd, Beijing will again raise the national security level. The “three lines of defense” level that was held during the Olympics is coming back. http://bit.ly/iS3ys

* The National Day celebrations are being celebrated as if everyone were attempting to overthrow the government. The party state is so nervous even the martians are envious: look, those earthlings are raising guns to celebrate their National Day, there are even three lines of defense!

* Since our government is upside-down, the following unbearable events can occur: turning a funeral into a wedding, like the post-5.12 earthquake propaganda and memorializing; at the same time, turning a wedding into a funeral, like the so-called 60th anniversary of the National Day.

(...)
Read the rest of Tweets of the Week: National Day Celebrations and Internet Control (429 words)

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Ai Weiwei, Chen Liangyu, Fang Binxing, Great Firewall, Hu Jintao, real name registration, river crabs, tweets, Wu Hao, Xi Jinping
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

How China Polices The Internet

Liu Yong — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:36:38 +0000

From Financial Times:

An executive working at one of China’s leading internet portals tells me: “The task [for the Communist party] has been to allow enough noise in the system for people to let off steam and make them feel that they are living kind of a free life, but at the same time to maintain a sense of fear and respect that keeps them from demanding big change.”

Meanwhile, internet use is undergoing another profound shift as it extends beyond its predominantly urban base. Already, by the end of 2008, 117 million people, or more than one-third of the country’s web users, could access the internet on their mobile phones. A rapidly growing number use QQ, China’s largest online messaging tool, on their handsets wherever they go. That means that the vast rural hinterland, where about 70 per cent of the population still live, is getting a fast-track link-up to a network via which they can voice their dissatisfaction: about corrupt and despotic officials, unsolved problems of pollution and social security, land grabs and income disparity.

“That is the perfect design for jump-starting social unrest in rural China,” says the internet portal executive. “And I think the chain of ‘internet mass incidents’ over the past two years is an indication that it has started to work.” The government may have previously been effective in curbing online chatter, he says, “but they didn’t expect the repercussions of all that online noise in the real world”.

© Liu Yong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Internet control, online public opinion, Wu Hao
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

For China, a Costly Lesson in Engaging its Netizens

Xiao Qiang — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 06:51:03 +0000

From Singapore’s The Straits Times, via themalaysianinsider.com:

The Yunnan official who turned the national media spotlight onto the case with his unprecedented decision to involve bloggers, however, has kept a low profile since the real cause of Li’s death came to light.

When asked what was behind his move, Wu Hao, 39, the deputy director of Yunnan’s provincial propaganda bureau, had earlier said that “public opinion on the Internet must be solved with the means of the Internet”.

However, netizens later exposed the fact that some of the bloggers “randomly selected” for the probe were actually working members of the official media.

There has been head-shaking in the Chinese press over what many see as Wuss failed public relations stunt. A Xinhuanet commentary declared that Yunnan officials had “shot themselves in the foot”.

The whole episode shows that the “Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda system has real challenges every time it uses old approaches to handle online public opinion”, Professor Xiao Qiang of the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism said.

“A younger cadre such as Wu Hao was seeking new ways to deal with it. His attempt was poorly executed and failed to win netizens’ trust. It only revealed the deeper structural problems of the political system,” he told The Straits Times.

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: eluding the cat, Wu Hao, Xiao Qiang, Yunnan
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Chang Ping: Is Wu Hao a “Web Friend” or a Cadre?

Sophie Beach — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:14:36 +0000

China Media Project translates a column by Chang Ping discussing the relationship between netizens, citizens, and government officials in light of the recent “eluding the cat” case:

I believe that as a propaganda official Wu Hao’s objective was to come up with some fresh ways of doing things, and to draw more public attention to this affair — and these efforts deserve some affirmation. But the problems that have emerged in this process must also be considered carefully. And one of these issues is the lack of clarity in defining roles.

There is no question that this investigative team garnered such broad attention because it was organized by Yunnan’s provincial propaganda office. Wu Hao has said that “quickly exposing the facts, discovering the facts, investigating the facts and presenting the facts” was the responsibility of the propaganda office, and that’s why he stepped into the picture and came up with the idea of letting investigative team members go to the detention center.

At that time his role was as deputy head of the provincial propaganda office, and he had behind him a definite degree of official resources. Nevertheless, he was at the same time playing the role of netizen.

Read more about Wu Hao and his role in this case, via CDT.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: eluding the cat, netizens, propaganda, Wu Hao
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

China’s Answer to a Crime Includes Amateur Sleuths

Sophie Beach — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 05:26:58 +0000

The New York Times covers the “eluding the cat” investigation, in which provincial propaganda officials called on netizens to help solve a case of death in police custody:

Rather than suppress the accusations by erasing the Web postings, provincial officials invited the public to help solve the case. They sorted through 1,000 volunteers and picked a 15-member committee that would visit the scene of the crime, cull the evidence and “discover the truth.”

The results ultimately proved dispiriting to those who hoped for a thorough investigation of the police. But the case riveted the public and fueled a frank discussion online and in the state-run media about the extent — and the limits — of official attempts to shape popular opinion.

In explaining his motives for a citizen investigation, Wu Hao, an official in Yunnan’s propaganda department, said he was hoping to restore the public’s faith in a government that could be unresponsive and at times hostile to accusations of misconduct. In an interview with Chinese reporters this week, he acknowledged that the authorities could have easily quashed the debate by censoring the Internet or could have stonewalled the calls for justice.

Bloggers Help Free Chinese Filmmaker – Eugenia Chien

Xiao Qiang — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 01:49:18 +0000

From New America Media:

Technology has been a way to thwart the government’s efforts in controlling the public. In 1989, Tiananmen Square protesters used fax machines to reach out to the international press. Last year, 12,000 workers mobilized using cell phone text messages to go on strike against their company. The blogosphere’s high interconnectedness made Wu’s case very visible in the blogging community, and by extension, on the Internet.

“When there are a significant number of visible blogs all putting up the same information, such as information about Hao Wu, it greatly increases its Google searchability and raises its online profile,” said Xiao Qiang, the director of the China Internet Project at the University of California, Berkeley. [Full Text]

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2006. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bloggers, Wu Hao
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

China frees film maker after 5 months in isolation – Reuters

Sophia Cao — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 13:14:53 +0000

From Reuters:

A Chinese film maker and permanent U.S. resident has been freed after being held in isolation and without charge in China for five months, a Paris-based press watchdog said on Wednesday.

Hao Wu, who returned to China in 2004 after living in the United States for 12 years, was detained on February 22 after interviewing a human rights lawyer while making a documentary about an underground Protestant church.

He was held in isolation for 140 days and not allowed access to a lawyer, Reporters Without Borders said in a statement. It did not give the day of his release. [Full Text]

See also:
- Chinese filmmaker released after 5 months by AP via TheMercury News.
- Blogger Hao Wu freed after being held for five months by Reporters Without Border.
- Wu Hao released by Global Voices Online.

© Sophia Cao for China Digital Times (CDT), 2006. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: political prisoners, Wu Hao
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Shattering the China Dream – Rebecca MacKinnon

Sophie Beach — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 22:01:52 +0000

From the Washington Post (link):

With Chinese President Hu Jintao in the United States this week, Americans have an opportunity to assess his regime. What is this country to think? On the one hand his government has raised the living standards of millions of its citizens with economic reform and international trade. On the other hand his underlings trample shamelessly on his people’s basic human rights.

The careers of some politicians in both countries — not to mention military budgets — would no doubt benefit if our two nations became enemies. As an American who lived and worked in China for more than a decade, however, I continue to believe that peaceful engagement between the United States and China is in the best interest of both nations’ people.

But we have a serious problem that won’t go away: How can Americans respect or trust a regime that kidnaps our friends?

Read also a blog by Hao Wu’s sister (link) chronicling her life since his disappearance (The blog has been translated into English here.)

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2006. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: political prisoners, Wu Hao
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Hao Wu’s sister blogs about his detention – Rebecca MacKinnon

Sophie Beach — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 17:24:33 +0000

From Rebecca MacKinnon’s RConversation blog (link):

Nina Wu, sister of the detained filmmaker and Global Voices contributor Hao Wu has now started a blog on MSN Spaces. It includes a photo gallery of “Haozi” as the family calls him. Even if you don’t know Chinese, leave her a comment in English and let her know your support for Hao. Thanks to a volunteer who wishes to remain anonymous, we have a full translation of her first post, below. She includes an update on her latest visit to the police. It is a chilling account of what it’s like to be the family member of a Chinese person who has been detained without charge.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2006. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: blogs, political prisoners, Wu Hao
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Free Hao Wu! – Global Voices

Sophie Beach — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 17:02:19 +0000

The following was provided by Rebecca MacKinnon of Global Voices. For more information see www.freehaowu.org:

On March 22nd it will be one month since filmmaker and Global Voices Northeast Asia Editor Hao Wu was detained without charge. We appeal to the Chinese government for Hao Wu’s immediate release!

What happened to Hao?

(...)
Read the rest of Free Hao Wu! – Global Voices (118 words)

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2006. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bloggers, Gao Zhisheng, house church, Wu Hao
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall