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The Public Diplomacy Blog is intended to stimulate dialog among scholars, researchers, practitioners and professionals from around the world in the public diplomacy sphere. The opinions represented here are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School.

OMG! LOL! PRC!
NOV 14, 2007 - 12:03PM PDT
Posted by Peter Winter

This article originally appeared on the USC US-China Institute's web magazine US-China Today. Dear User: Due to the large number of text messages you’ve sent to the opposite sex, creating the worst and their negative influence on society, we have already suspended your text message service. Tomorrow, please bring your wooden stool to the police station to execute moral re-education! (Translated Chinese Text Message) While American politicians worry about their political gaffes becoming fodder for countless blogs, Chinese officials are doing more than watching anxiously; they are cracking down. The fight, however, has been more difficult than anticipated. Why? Because these dissidents have a weapon even the Chinese government has trouble with: text messages—and often humorous ones at that. Text messages have taken on a new purpose in China, quickly becoming the preferred mode of voicing public opinion. From jokes about current Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders to quips about the people’s thirst for money, text message-enabled cell phones have granted millions of people, especially younger generations, digital freedom of speech and access to information . Think digital “Suggestion Box” for a country that has never worried much about customer service. Aysha, a recent college graduate now living in Kashgar, Xinjiang, uses her phone to connect with friends across borders. A member of Xinjiang’s Uyghur minority group, she says texting has bridged gaps between ethnic groups in the region. After texting a friend in Pakistan, Aysha said, “We all get along, especially the younger people. But the problem is the government.” She explained that texting is one of the only ways to stay in contact after the government changed immigration restrictions in the northwest province. 2006 saw 449 million Chinese phone subscribers sending 392 billion text messages, or an average of 736,000 messages per minute. With broadcast capability, text messaging services allow a single user to reach thousands with a single click. Richard Baum, a UCLA political scientist, notes that the rise of new communication technologies, particularly cellphones and the Internet, have “exponentially increased the flow of spontaneous, unscripted and unsupervised information in China.” This free flow of information has meant an increase in social activism, with Chinese taking up their cellphones to rally public support. In June, thousands of residents in Xiamen protested after receiving text messages warning that construction of a nearby chemical plant would bring environmental disaster. As a result, the project was delayed pending further environmental analysis, according to the Washington Post. Cara Wallis, a Ph.D candidate at the USC Annenberg School for Communications, spent the past year in China researching the role new communication technologies have among the country’s migrant labor force. Wallis explained that much research has been done on more affluent, urban populations like Japan, where text messaging is seen simply as a supportive tool and relationships are maintained face-to-face. A sky without you – it’s not blue. A day without you – I’m perturbed. A life without you – very difficult. To be able to truly possess you – very sweet. My…... FULL TEXT
 
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mengzhu on November 15, 2007 @ 1:12 pm:
bokee.com is the largest?
i thought was Blogcn.com
everyone assume Chinese government block whatever sensitive website, but this is not true. First this depend on "how sensitive" and your definination of sensitive.
Then, the government becomes smart recent 15 year. They want to give the public a channel, though under control. Trough these channels, people change graduately.
China's situations nowadays don't allow sudden change. It will hurt too much, damage too much.

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