China recruits special agents for internet battle

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lucky

LoopKicker

Joined: Feb 26, 2003
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Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia
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Posted: May 23, 2005 - 01:19 PM
Post subject: China recruits special agents for internet battle

This is what I found in SMH today...

China recruits special agents for internet battle
By Hamish McDonald Herald Correspondent in Beijing
May 23, 2005

Ma Zhichun is one of a new breed of Chinese communist propaganda officials - licensed to roam incognito in the ideological badlands of the internet and argue with bad thoughts.

At the end of April, the 40-year-old was officially appointed an "internet commentator" by the External Propaganda Office in his home town of Suqian, in the coastal province of Jiangsu.

He and 25 others have been selected for their understanding of government policies, "political reliability" and how the internet works. Their job is to surf the net, joining in chatroom discussions and blogs, and to subtly guide opinion among China's estimated 94 million internet users to the advantage of the party.

The new force of internet agents was revealed last week in the Guangzhou-based Southern Weekend. (The report has since been removed from its website.) According to the newspaper, Suqian pioneered the internet offensive after its party officials found that a propaganda campaign seeking criticism of city officials turned into a public backlash against the entire administration. To counter this, Mr Ma and other officials began making "timely explanations" to counter "pessimistic talk" on the internet. Their success led to the adoption of a full-time force of undercover commentators ranging the medium.

Party committees in several other Chinese cities have followed suit. In the Fujian province city of Quanzhou, more than 60 people applied for 20 jobs as internet commentators. In Beijing, the central propaganda department trained 127 such commentators late last year. The party's main newspaper, the People's Daily, noted that the internet's breadth, openness, interactivity and instantaneous nature made it "an important ideological battleground".

Meanwhile, the Government continues to keep a close eye on internet cafes, requiring them to keep a log of all websites visited by their customers. In the December quarter alone, authorities closed 12,575 unauthorised internet cafes, official media reported.