From Reuters:

China must build defences against “erroneous” ideas involving Western-style democracy, a top government official said in comments published on Sunday, shooting down recent calls by dissidents for political reform.

China’s ruling Communist Party has stepped up efforts to stifle dissent and protest ahead of politically sensitive anniversaries this year, and amid concerns that rising unemployment in a slowing economy could fuel broad social unrest.

Jia Qinglin, China’s fourth-most senior official, demanded officials throw their weight behind the one-party state in an essay in the Party’s main ideological journal “Seeking Truth” (Qiushi), which was reproduced on major web portals on Sunday.

Here are four examples of bloggers’ reaction to Mr. Jia Qinglin’s speech, translated by CDT:

The first one is from a blog called “False Golden Age, Real Poor,” where the blogger wrote sarcastically:

“We are so lucky. It turned out that all other people’s two-party systems, multi-party systems, separation of power, which have worked for several hundred years, are all wrong. They are all on the wrong path. We just started and we’re already on the right path.”

“我们真该庆幸，敢情人家搞两党制、多党制、两院制和三权鼎立，搞了至少二三百年了，却搞错了，走的是错误路线，而我们一抬脚便走的是正确路线！”

The second is from a blog titled “Beijing Times.” The blogger commented on one of the quotes in Jia’s speech.

Jia: “After the extremely hard revolutionary struggle, (the CCP) had a determined victory in overthrowing the dictatorship of the KMT.”

Blogger’s comment: The goal of the struggle then was to overthrow the dictatorship, but what happened after that?

“经过28年艰苦卓绝的革命斗争，取得了推翻国民党独裁统治的决定性胜利。”
—當年的目標是推翻獨裁統治，推翻之后呢？。

Third example, blogger Chiwei wrote:

No matter how powerful guns are, they cannot manipulate, and will be defeated by the people’s will. The better lives people are living, the more they want to be in charge of their own destiny.

枪杆子再强硬，也敌不了主流民意，也裹挟不了人民的意愿。日子过得再好，人民就越强调当家做主。

Update: Netease is one of China’s three major news portals. When a news item is displayed on the Netease, the template also allows readers to write comments after the news article, as well as click on buttons underneath those comments: “support” or “oppose” (the comment).

Here is the fourth example, from a Netease blog called “I Love Freedom – Freedom is Never Free.” The blog post is entitled: “You can block my comment, but can you block me from clicking on the ‘oppose’ button?”, translated by CDT:

I just saw a leader’s article on the multi-party system on one of the three major portals. (I won’t name the portal.) The article said that China must build defences against “erroneous” ideas involving Western-style democracy. This is nothing new.

The portal website did not completely forbid netizens’ comments, so we see the following laughable data:

Total number of comments: 2505
Displayed: 66

What are these 66 displayed items? Here are few examples:

From Yulin, Gunagxi: ip：221.7.*.*：
2009-01-18 01:27:00
“Support leadership of the party”
Support [290] Oppose: [4010]

From Chaoyang, Beijing: ip：221.223.*.*：
2009-01-18 01:11:34
“Love the Party!”
Support [168], Oppose [3406]

From Qianjiang, Hubei: ip：58.53.*.*：
2009-01-18 06:44:02
“China’s rise can only be led by the Chinese Communist Party!”
Support [155], Oppose [3161]

From Gunagzhou, Guangdong ip：218.19.*.*：
2009-01-18 06:24:51
“Resolutely implement the Central Committee’s order!”
Support [124], Oppose [2773]

From USA ip：130.126.*.*：
2009-01-18 03:52:29
“I Love the Party! Support the speech of Chairman Jia, implement the Central Committee’s order!”
Support [110], Oppose [2873]

From Shenzhen, Guangdong: ip：119.136.*.*：
2009-01-18 02:12:5
“We must believe the Party, believe the government.”
Support [102], Oppose [2750]

From Chongqing ip：121.68.*.*：
2009-01-18 04:00:55
“Love the Party!”
Support [88], Oppose [2475]

From Beijing: 218.247.*.*：
2009-01-18 07:35:2
“Enter the new era.”
Support [85], Oppose [1665]

From USA/Canada: 216.125.*.*：
2009-01-18 07:35:35
“Resolutely love the CCP, resolutely support the speech of Chairman Jia, resolutely implement the order of the Central Committee”
Support [67], Oppose [1927]

From Sichuan, 118.115.*.*：
2009-01-18 07:50:23
“Hold onto the Leadership of the Party!”
Support [50], Oppose [1357]

Let me put it this way, you can read the real public opinion from the ratio of “support” to “oppose” votes. You may not display my comment, but I can still click on the “oppose” button.