4 Discussion Posts about China's Government

University of Pennsylvania Press

Chapter Title: New Media Empowerment and State-Society Relations in China Chapter Author(s): Zengzhi Shi and Guobin Yang

Book Title: The Internet, Social Media, and a Changing China Book Editor(s): Jacques deLisle, Avery Goldstein, Guobin Yang Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press. (2016) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1b3t8nr.6

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C H A P T E R 3

New Media Empowerment and State- Society

Relations in China

Zengzhi Shi and Guobin Yang

Chinese Internet users were the fi rst to break news of the Wenchuan earth- quake in May of 2008. Shortly thereaft er, China Central Tele vi sion (CCTV) began working with local tele vi sion stations to produce live broadcasts of the earthquake relief work occurring on- site. Th is was the fi rst time CCTV had taken such an initiative. During this period, new and old media inter- acted to bring about connections and communication between multiple subjects. In some cases, new and old media actively cooperated in the earth- quake relief work. In a sense, this marked a new stage of China’s public communication era. Th is has signifi cant implications for the transforma- tion of China’s state and society relations.

In the wake of the Wenchuan earthquake, evidence of social autonomy appeared in the form of civic awareness and citizen participation in the re- lief eff orts.1 While the government led the disaster relief, a large number of volunteers, NGOs, and media took part as well. Citizens and organizations infl uential in the development of the welfare industry emphasized voluntary and in de pen dent social participation while supporting cooperation with government authorities. Th e Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) was the fi rst national or ga ni za tion to fund grassroots NGO projects in China. Shortly aft er the Wenchuan earthquake, RCSC allocated 20 million RMB to fund NGO- directed post- disaster reconstruction projects. Th e NGOs that accepted RCSC grants were required to make a pledge to work with local government departments in completing the projects.

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72 Zengzhi Shi and Guobin Yang

Since 2008, the other signifi cant driver of change in state and society relations has been the thriving development of weibo, WeChat, and other social media platforms. Launched on August 28, 2009, Sina Weibo registered nine million users in its fi rst year and by December 2012 had 500 million registered accounts.2 WeChat was launched on January  21, 2011, and has close to 500 million users. On August 19, 2013, a company jointly set up by China Telecom and NetEase launched the mobile application, “Yixin.” Th ree days later, the Yixin team announced that its user base had reached 5 mil- lion. As the speed of social media development increases, social relations are being profoundly shaped. Th is chapter argues that the development of new media in China has led to the empowerment of citizens and civic associa- tions and the transformation of state and society relations.

We want to begin by clarifying why we still use the term new media when in current communication research at least, the concept has been subject to much scrutiny and all but abandoned in favor of such terms as digital media. Th e main critique is that new media are always relative, because today’s new media will be old in the future and there are always times when old media were new.3 Our main reason for sticking to the term new media is that it still predominates in Chinese pop u lar and academic discourse. Th is may be due to purely linguistic reasons, because the Chinese for new media, xin meiti, is more concise and sounds more forceful than the Chinese for digital media, which reads as shuma meiti. Besides, the language of new media makes more intuitive sense to common folks and laypersons who may not know exactly what digital media means.

In current studies, many analysts highlight how the Internet is controlled in China. Others contend that citizen participation in online expression may in fact sustain rather than challenge the authoritarian state. Important as they are, these studies rarely take into account the actual experience of em- powerment of Chinese citizens, an experience that can oft en be encouraging and inspiring despite disappointments and frustrations. Th e fi rst author had fi rsthand understandings of these experiences through her own long- term involvement in China’s civil society sector. From 2008 to 2012, as the acting director of the Center for the Study of Civil Society at Peking University, she was engaged in both research and eff orts to promote public communication and to connect academia with the community of NGO practitioners and media professionals. She has continued to be deeply engaged in civil society activities since she founded the Center for Public Communication and So- cial Development (PCSD) at Peking University at the end of 2012. One of the

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New Media Empowerment and State- Society Relations in China 73

projects PCSD has been doing very successfully, for example, is to off er train- ing to NGO activists on capacity building and civic empowerment through public communication. Th is chapter draws on some of these experiences. Th e second section of the chapter consists of several case studies that we use to illustrate our argument.

The Concept of Public Communication

When the fi rst author took part in Wenchuan earthquake relief work in 2008, she observed that the media played an important role in arousing civic aware- ness in the public space, increasing enthusiasm in civilian participation and public works, and diversifying the channels for civilian participation. New civil society organizations emerged in the middle of these relief eff orts.

Th e notion of public communication was developed on the basis of this experience.4 By public communication, we mean a pattern of thinking and behavior that should be used by any or ga ni za tion when dealing with and resolving crisis. Th is new conceptualization of public communication as- sumes that civilian awareness has already seeped into daily life, while still emphasizing the importance of or gan i za tional rationalization for public com- munication.

New media have deeply changed people’s daily lives. Communication and power relationships are gradually re orienting themselves toward daily lives. Th is is evidenced by the fact that po liti cal and cultural engagements are being increasingly motivated by “people’s needs.” State- society relations have become increasingly decentralized. In this way, public communication not only highlights the importance of or gan i za tional rationalization but also centers on people. People empowered by technology enter the fi eld with a positive attitude and emphasize individual introspection, refl ection, self- determination, action, and autonomy as the means through which to achieve social development. Th ey pay close attention to the pro cess of contestations among multiple actors and to the deconstruction and reconstruction of legitimacy in daily lives. Civilian participation in public life is heavily de- pendent on both criticism and constructive negotiations and dialogue.

Th is means that public communication is a pro cess that centers on an issue and emphasizes participation by multiple subjects in public works. It entails dialogue. In public communication, eff ective cooperation mechanisms are built up and the compromise reached revolves around public interests. In light

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74 Zengzhi Shi and Guobin Yang

of this, public communication that is rooted in daily life provides a foundation for the moral practice of the theoretical innovation of state- society relations.

Imagined Micro Community

In the age of new media, po liti cal and cultural involvements are being in- creasingly motivated by people’s needs. People empowered by technology work for social change and emphasize individual introspection, refl ection, and autonomy, as well as cooperation. Public communication through new media facilitates broad- based civic participation.

Th e extensive use of weibo, WeChat, and other new media technologies has led to the rise of an “imagined micro community.” By this we mean two things. First, this imagined community is an online community built on mi- croblogging platforms such as Sina Weibo. A main feature of these microb- logging platforms is that the speed of communication is fast and interactions are instantaneous. When a news story is posted on weibo, for example, it may spread rapidly, linking together people in diff erent geo graph i cal locations. Second, this imagined community is micro, not only because the communi- cation on weibo, like Twitter, consists of short messages, but also because empowerment through weibo happens in small ways. Th at is why many Chinese commentators talk about the micropower of microblogs. Th us de- spite recent crackdowns and po liti cal tightening,5 social issues of interest to the general public are still refl ected on Sina Weibo.6 In these spaces, people conduct dialogues and negotiations, some watching from the sidelines while others take a more active role.

Th e term imagined community was introduced by Benedict Anderson in his book on nationalism.7 Nationalism generally emphasizes sovereign rights and domains. Anderson describes the rise of imagined, national communi- ties by outlining the role played by nationalistic feelings, cultural roots, and print media. He places par tic u lar emphasis on the function of language in the pro cess of building a national community. Cliff ord Geertz’s 1981 book, Negara: Th e Th eatre State in Nineteenth- Century Bali, also describes how a country is imagined.8 Its core argument is that, through ceremony, the “na- tion” is performed and displayed at the interstices of imagination and real- ity. Th is strengthens the audience’s image of nationalism and affi rms the existence of the nation. Although Anderson and Geertz have diff erent con- ceptualizations of the pro cesses through which nations are imagined, they

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New Media Empowerment and State- Society Relations in China 75

both emphasize the social status and power of the subject constructing an imagined community.

Constructing an imagined micro community is no less complicated. Weibo users are both producers and consumers of weibo content. Th e social relations constructed by weibo and WeChat are related to the netizens’ own knowledge, personal relationships, personalities, emotions, abilities, and other aspects that in turn form the micro worlds in which netizens are both the subjects and the center.

Th e rise of a micro imagined community is associated with new forms of empowerment. New media empowerment is manifest in communication, ex- pression, and action. It gives people the ability to obtain information, enabling them to make their own judgments rather than depending on those of others. Second, discussions and debates are formed in contexts in which heteroge- neous information can be obtained. Th e right and struggle to express oneself in symbolic landscapes will empower those actors with the requisite abilities for achieving goals. Th ird, expression itself is an action. Th e actions emphasized here are those that combine both expression and concrete actions.

New media provide an environment in which citizens can question power and dominant ideologies. Such examination and questioning have the eff ect of awakening critical self- awareness. New media empowerment is not simply a po liti cal concept but also a concept tied to economics, consumption, and culture. In the past, social movements in China primarily manifested themselves through mass incidents. Th e multiple and diverse new social movements today revolve increasingly around multiple causes, such as envi- ronmental protection, gender equality, food safety, corruption, and so forth.

How do we understand the citizenship of weibo users in imagined micro communities? Th is is a much- debated question in academic circles. In his Citizenship and Social Class,9 T. H. Marshall classifi ed citizenship as a com- bination of membership and rights, where citizenship includes civil rights, po liti cal rights, and social rights. Th e key elements of a citizen are made up of necessary rights, which include personal liberty, freedom of speech, free- dom of thought and religion, the right to own property and eff ectively es- tablish covenants, and civil justice. From a po liti cal point of view, a citizen is a member of or a voter within a po liti cal entity who has the right to take part in exercising po liti cal power. From a social point of view, citizens hold a set of rights, including the right to enjoy a certain degree of economic benefi ts and safety, the right to fully enjoy social heritage, the right to live a civilized life that meets current social standards, and so forth.

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76 Zengzhi Shi and Guobin Yang

According to Marshall, although these three types of rights overlap, they developed within diff erent historical periods and had their roots in specifi c institutions. Citizenship rights primarily developed during the eigh teenth century and were safeguarded by the legal courts. Po liti cal rights can be linked to the nineteenth century and the development of the parliament and local councils. Social rights mostly have their origins in the twentieth century and the establishment of educational institutions and public social ser vice systems.

Institutions designed to safeguard civic rights undoubtedly cleared up the relationship between citizenship and the state. However, in practice there is a huge chasm between institutions and people. We thus need to reexamine citizenship in reference to both the state and society. Engin Isin of the Open University, UK, defi ned citizenship as follows: “As a matter of fact citizen- ship does not refer to membership, even though it has been construed as po liti cal or state membership. . . . It is also not a combination of rights.” In Isin’s view, “Th e substance of citizenship exists in relationships and elsewhere. It is a mode of struggle and must be further defi ned from this angle.”10 Isin thus posits that citizenship, as well as the boundaries of identity recognition, are constantly changing. Th ese transformations can be provoked by changes to the physical spaces in which people are situated or by changes in emotions, values, religions, thoughts, and so forth. Th e liquidity of identity recognition has triggered the blurring of power boundaries and has extended the time and space of rights, but it has also brought about a change in people’s psy- chology and feelings of insecurity. Further, it has given rise to questions of “Who am I?” and has increased the demand for self- identifi cation. Th is leads to the relationship between institutional arrangements and citizens’ moral practices teetering between control and anti- control. While tense relation- ships arise between rights and obligations, diff erentiation and equality, ex- clusion and inclusion, theory and practice, space and time, and so forth, there is also an intriguing tension between determining and not determining intersubjectivity. Th is tension and the source of power in China’s state and society relations are both related to the inter- powers game.

New Media Empowerment

In recent years, China has witnessed the rise of weibo, WeChat, and other new media technology. Th e expression and action space created by Weibo

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New Media Empowerment and State- Society Relations in China 77

means that as a burgeoning method for communicating information, espe- cially with the strong support of mobile network infrastructure, weibo rap- idly enters people’s daily lives, changes and remolds social relations and social order and has a signifi cant impact on society’s transformation. However, up until now no one has clarifi ed the internal core and driving force behind the changes and remolding of social relations and the social order.

In 2011, while working with other scholars to analyze village e- commerce, the fi rst author saw directly the impact of technology empowerment on Chi- na’s rural regions and began to explore the relationship between citizens and social structures from the perspective of new media empowerment. New media empowerment can be understood in two ways: fi rst, as a social media orientation that dissects the current social structure and social relations and that is in the pro cess of changing the power structure of society. Second, new media empowerment can be seen as media socialization that is in the pro- cess of reconstructing social relations and social structures. Th e most impor- tant characteristic of new media technology is its continued innovation and integration of interactive functions. In some sense, it is a type of time exten- sion, capable of exceeding our daily imagination and creating miracles in people’s daily lives in a new time and space.

New media empowerment raises the following questions: Whose power is this? To whom does this power apply? From where does new media empowerment derive its power?

Th ere are three categories of new media empowerment, namely, self- empowerment, community empowerment, and or gan i za tional empower- ment. With regard to individuals and organizations, new media empowerment can be broadly defi ned as the extent to which an individual or or ga ni za tion can increase its autonomy and in de pen dence. Self- empowerment is a pro cess that leads from less power to more power. Self- empowerment derives from awareness and improvement of self- consciousness and self- ability. It requires people to continue learning, perceiving, and experiencing and to resist sub- missive knowledge, namely, consciousness of one’s own loneliness and fear.

Civic media can be understood as part of a new type of media ecosystem in which media are created not by professionals but by regular citizens. Community empowerment is constructed in a virtual Internet space that is comparatively distant both from society’s original power structure and from the foundation produced by society integration and social capital. Much spa- tial imagination and rejuvenation has been launched as a result of community empowerment. In addition, the foundation for or gan i za tional empowerment

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78 Zengzhi Shi and Guobin Yang

has been formed. Or gan i za tional empowerment includes e- government, e- commerce, e- philanthropy, and e- civil society. Although e- government, e- commerce, and e- philanthropy primarily draw from society’s existing or gan i za tional structures and power, the boundaries of these organizations are blurry. Th ese boundaries consequently become a fi eld of struggle for or gan i za tional empowerment.

New media empowerment is refl ected primarily in information, expres- sion, and action. First, it gives us the authority to obtain information such as through access to social media and interactions with other Internet users. Second, discussions and debates are formed in contexts in which plu- ral information can be obtained. Public expression has become a possibility. Th ird, expression itself is an action. Th e actions emphasized here are those that combine both the expression of actions and concrete actions. Ordinary people are able to obtain power through the ability to discover and resolve issues.

New media empowerment provides a space for everyone with a sense of freedom of movement and of thought, a tone of constant vigilance, and a vision of guarding society. It is an environment in which thoughts can roam freely and individuals can question power and dominant ideologies. Com- munication on weibo and WeChat reminds us that we still have the ability to think, rethink, and refl ect. Such examination and questioning awakens self- awareness. In the context of new media empowerment, the mutual in- terlocking of subjects requires power to be exercised in broad daylight and with a degree of transparency, openness, responsibility, and credibility. Only in this way can one obtain the support of members of society and fulfi ll the promise of governance.

In addition, new media empowerment has made unpre ce dented forms of social action possible and has fostered the creation of novel methods of social mobilization and governance. Public Internet spaces have remolded people’s perspectives and generated new forms of critical awareness. Social actors are not hesitant to use language to change this world. Journalist Deng Fei, for example, has taken advantage of new media to kick- start various initiatives aimed at promoting social support and civic charity, such as the “Free Lunch” program and the “Critical Illness Insurance Program.”

Th ere are multiple layers to the role new media plays in fostering social movements and collective action. First, new media provide a platform for ad- vocating and mobilizing society in support of various forms of charity, phi- lanthropy, and activism. Second, new media function as both a theoretical and an operational tool, a space for both critical thinking and action. Th ird,

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New Media Empowerment and State- Society Relations in China 79

new media induce changes in laws and public policies by fostering public debate. Specifi cally, they can activate social capital, redeploy social resources, and create momentum for public communication, all of which are crucial for the implementation of ideas. Th ere exists an active and passive relationship in new media empowerment. Technological empowerment gives those indi- viduals, communities, and organizations seeking change a space in which to kick- start and develop their initiative. Th is simultaneously results in those communities who do not wish to change having no alternative but to change.

Empowerment Tools

We might think of new media as tools of empowerment. An empowerment tool can be a form of technology, a device, a tactic, a medium, or some type of knowledge. Empowerment tools possess the following characteristics: fi rst, the availability of diverse communication channels, including communication channels; second, the ability to propagate knowledge; third, communica- tion feedback mechanisms, which have iterative effects on content pro- duction and reproduction; fourth, the technical capability to inject user experience and other forms of knowledge directly into production and re- production mechanisms.

A core feature of new media is the speed of communication. Speed pro- vides communicators and content with unlimited possibilities for propagation. Feedback has become a driving force of communication. Recommunication occurs as content is amended and repropagated by its receivers, transforming them into producers.

An empowerment tool can be used to commercial ends by giving con- sumers a role in production to achieve profi ts. Consumers and producers en- ter into a social relationship, forming a social supply chain around personal interest and values. Business profi ts are just one link in this chain. Some groups and people have yet to recognize the importance of empowerment tools. Th ey seek to transform the po liti cal system, rely on a mechanical model of initiating change. Netizens, on the other hand, possess self- empowerment tools. Many netizens are motivated by public interest and social issues. Th ey seek to craft community empowerment tools through public discussions and debates and to use these tools to make changes in public policies.

Empowerment tools provide a source of new ideas for social change. People use words, sounds, and images to connect and relate with one another

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80 Zengzhi Shi and Guobin Yang

(see Svensson, chapter  2  in this volume on the importance of images on weibo). Novel thoughts and ideas will become a type of resource. Online opinion leaders appear in this pro cess. Th eir experiences and opinions then aff ect other people’s knowledge as well as the production of symbols.11

Tools do not automatically empower people. It is oft en a matter of people creatively appropriating existing tools for self- empowerment. Although so- cial media and microblogging platforms are the most infl uential and most pop u lar technologies of communication today, twenty or fi ft een years ago, when electronic bulletin board systems (BBS) were the main form of new media technologies, citizens embraced them for public expression just as enthusiastically.

Self- Redemption

In the context of new media empowerment, research into state and society relations indicates that experience is extremely important. Confl ict and strug- gles regarding the pro cess of citizenship are still primary motivators for public discussions and debates. As we show in the case studies later in this chapter, these discussions and debates provide a context for establishing personal space and achieving self- empowerment.

New media empowerment has made it possible for people to liberate themselves. Faced with a changing society, the question has become, “What should we do?” Nothing will be achieved by solely relying on praying and waiting. We should take action. An individual life is but a moment in time. A life that waits to pursue goals has no future. Redemption is achieved through our actions.

Since the end of 2012, public accounts on WeChat have mushroomed, causing a new wave in social media. Th is has further transformed the pro- duction and communication mechanisms of traditional media content and stirred up the communications ecosystem. Th e fi rst half of 2013 was an important moment in Chinese media as tele vi sion ratings and advertising revenues fell sharply while citizen media, sometimes called we- media based on Dan Gillmore’s 2004 book We the Media, grew, expanded, and developed. Faced with this media transformation, people working within traditional media began to set up their own we- media for practical ends.

Currently, members of the traditional media community who have set up we- media primarily fall into three categories. Th e fi rst category encompasses

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New Media Empowerment and State- Society Relations in China 81

those who are adept at using empowerment tools, such as Ming Chen of Filter Film (Lvjingfeilin), Luping Yue of 1001zen, Baoyin Cao of CAOTV, and Zhibiao Song of Old News Review (Jiuwenpinglun). Artists are the most sen- sitive to media methods, and in a certain sense, Luping Yue, whose background is in traditional Chinese painting, is dedicated to the media environment. In fact, Luping Yue was the fi rst to propose the concept of empowerment tools. In comparison, many others who work within traditional media still have a limited understanding of this concept. Th e individuals within the group to which Luping Yue belongs have a passion for we- media, as if we- media tapped into their penchant for constant action and change. Once they started, they never stopped. Although their approaches to we- media are diff erent, their eff orts to communicate content are similar. Th e second cat- egory of people generally consists of exceptional media journalists who still deeply value the production of content. Th ey make many sacrifi ces and work slowly based on the belief that this will result in the best work. Th ey are intensely dedicated to the journalistic ethic of objectivity and have strong opinions about news reporting and professionalism. Th ey approach writing with a high degree of confi dence and meticulously investigate and refi ne their work. Th ey appear to be lonely even in an environment of lively pub- lic opinions. Among them, there are those who are already aware that the transformation of the media industry cannot be reversed, but they show themselves as heroic resisters. Th e third category includes those in media who are in the pro cess of transforming. Although they identify with the de- velopment trends of we- media and have in fact begun operating we- media, they are still in internal conversation with themselves regarding the pros and cons of a full adaptation. Th ere is still much room for improvement in terms of their use of communication channels and empowerment tools.

In the past, people in traditional media hoped to achieve their ideals and ambitions through media. Many have now abandoned traditional media in favor of Internet organizations and other forms of new media.

Using the Internet for Relief Efforts After the Wenchuan Earthquake

An earthquake of magnitude 8.0 on the Richter scale hit Wenchuan in Sichuan Province at 2:28 p.m., May 12, 2008. Th is was one of the deadliest quakes in China since the great Tangshan earthquake in 1976. Th e Chinese government

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82 Zengzhi Shi and Guobin Yang

provided open, timely, and extensive coverage of the earthquake and the rescue eff orts. About half an hour aft er the quake, the news channels of CCTV began to provide live, around- the- clock coverage of the earthquake and the rescue eff orts. From May 12 to May 24, CCTV’s news channel alone aired 260.5 hours of live coverage, averaging 21.7 hours daily.12

Internet coverage was also open, timely, and made extensive use of audio and visual formats such as digital images and videos. CCTV . com, for exam- ple, published 15,100 news items, 6,700 images, and 6,529 video stories from May 12 to May 23, averaging 21.7 hours daily.13 In addition to extensive cov- erage in its special earthquake section, sina . com . cn provided around- the- clock rolling news feeds.

Citizens responded to the disaster just as quickly as the government. Many individuals made donations or traveled to Chengdu to join relief work immediately aft er the quake. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) around the nation were mobilized on the same day as the earthquake. A re- markable synergy between the state and the society appeared. Media open- ness was essential for citizen participation. Th e Internet proved to be a particularly important channel of information and communication. Accord- ing to a national survey of 523 respondents conducted by Tsinghua University on June 1, 2008, the Internet was the most important channel of information during the earthquake, followed closely by tele vi sion.14

On the day of the earthquake, Tianya.cn, a pop u lar online community, launched an online fund- raising project in partnership with four other ma- jor websites and Jet Li’s One Foundation. By noon, May 15, 2008, the project had raised RMB 24 million (US$3.5 million) for disaster relief. Th e day aft er the earthquake, several environmental and educational NGOs in Beijing initiated a “Green Ribbon” campaign. Th eir members and volunteers fanned out in the streets in fund- raising and blood drives. On the same day, fi ft y- seven NGOs issued a joint statement calling for concerted disaster relief eff orts among all NGOs. Also on May 13, fi ft y- one other civic groups jointly established an offi ce in Chengdu to coordinate NGO relief activities.

Much of the civic mobilization was done through websites, mailing lists, blogs, and online communities. For example, ngocn . org, a major in- formation hub for Chinese NGOs, set up a special bulletin board for the NGO relief offi ce in Chengdu to post announcements and relief- related information.

Th e remarkable level of public participation in communication and mo- bilization was partly due to relaxed po liti cal control during a national crisis.

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New Media Empowerment and State- Society Relations in China 83

It was also the outcome of more than a de cade of civil society development in China since the mid-1990s.15

Microblogging to Counter Human Traffi cking

Th e “counter- human- traffi cking through weibo” (weibo daguai, WBDG) movement originated from the successful rescuing in 2011 of an abducted child with the help of the well- known journalist Deng Fei.16 Th is case in- creased public awareness of the issue of human traffi cking and the possi- bility of using weibo to fi nd leads about lost children. Subsequently, Yu Jianrong, an infl uential public intellectual active on weibo, started a “Take a Photo, Save a Child” campaign on weibo.17 He posted messages on weibo calling on people to use photography as a way of rescuing child beggars in the street. Other infl uential weibo users such as Xue Manzi, Li Kaifu, and Yao Chen joined in.18 Th us began the counter- human- traffi cking campaign on weibo. It gained velocity as numerous netizens and volunteers responded to Yu Jianrong’s appeal.

To a certain degree, WBDG was coordinated with the offi cial campaign to crack down on human traffi cking. A national counter- human- traffi cking campaign was already under way with the sponsorship of the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Justice.19 A key reason why WBDG was an instant success lies in the government’s responsiveness and supportive pol- icies. Th us soon aft er the movement started, a se nior offi cial in the Ministry of Public Security who had been following the campaign enforced mea sures to show government support. Many local police departments began to tweet and retweet information about human traffi cking. Th e Ministry of Public Security coordinated a nationwide counter- human- traffi cking network of local public security bureaus and cracked down on criminal gangs. More than eight thousand children were rescued in 2011 alone.20

An important condition for the success of this case was the rapid growth of weibo and the presence of Internet opinion leaders with large followings on weibo. Th e year 2010 was probably the golden age of Sina Weibo, when it witnessed exponential growth and came to dominate the microblogging market in China. From March to June 2010, the number of monthly visits to Sina Weibo increased from 71.64 million to 211.95 million. By the end of 2010, just one year aft er its launching, Sina Weibo already had 60 million users who posted an average of 25 million messages daily.21

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84 Zengzhi Shi and Guobin Yang

Th is period of fast growth coincided with the appearance of large num- bers of celebrities and public intellectuals on weibo, who quickly built enor- mous followings with their active online discussions. Among these were Deng Fei, Yu Jianrong, and Xue Manzi (Charles Xue), who all played important roles in the online counter- human- traffi cking campaign.

Th e use of online photography was a distinct feature of this case. Yu Jianrong’s call for netizens to “take a photo, save a child” had an instant ap- peal, partly because taking and uploading photographs were already everyday practices on social media. Combining an everyday practice with a civic cause added appeal to Yu’s call. Netizens quickly showed their support by taking photographs of child beggars in the streets and posting them online for others to help identify the children. Th ey also forwarded posts on human traffi cking issues to raise public awareness, such as stories from parents of missing children.22

Charity and New Media Empowerment

Our last two cases concern charity. Both show that the development of civil society in China is not dominated by any one party, but is made possible by the eff orts of many people and institutions. Th e fi rst case is the Warmfund project. Warmfund . org is a nonprofi t or ga ni za tion set up by a group of busi- ness people in the fi elds of investment, IT, public relations, consultancy, and so forth. Th ey hope to use this as a platform to promote online charity in China. Users can freely register to set up a warm fund. Whenever a regis- tered user make a purchase through Warmfund’s online partners (such as taobao . com and dangdang . com), he or she can designate a benefi ciary (such as children from poor families or schools in earthquake areas), and anywhere from 1 percent to 5 percent of the price of the purchase will be used for a designated charity project. Th e Warmfund website thus combines con- sumption with charity and helps to promote the cause of charity.

Th e website makes good use of the interactive functions of social media. It has an online forum (bbs . warmfund . org) and a group account on the pop- u lar SNS site douban . com, as well as an online newsletter. Th ese are used to provide up- to- date information to donors about their charity projects. In re- ality, many people may be interested in participating in charity projects but may lack the resources to do it. Many grassroots organizations lack resources. Th e use of social media helps reduce costs for these resource- poor grassroots

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New Media Empowerment and State- Society Relations in China 85

organizations without hurting their capacities to publicize their projects and increase their social infl uence, credibility, and legitimacy.

Th e second case is about the development of the China Peace Foundation (anping jijin), which is a project of the Center for Public Communication and Social Development at Peking University. Th e foundation was set up in November 2013 as a secondary or ga ni za tion under the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation. China Peace Foundation is dedicated to promoting public charity and public communication in China. Th e foundation provides training to journalists and nonprofi t charity organizations, conducts research, and promotes social media communication for the cause of charity. It has also set up a journalism award aft er the model of the Pulitzer Prize to pro- mote journalism and public communication. Although still young, the story of China Peace Foundation contains several lessons for understanding civil society and public communication in China. One lesson is the importance of forming a community of people with shared values in diff erent profes- sional fi elds. Th e supporters of China Peace Foundation include journalists, scholars, business entrepreneurs, internet companies, artists, lawyers, and so forth. For example, Mr. He Xuefeng, who played an instrumental role in the launching of the foundation, is an infl uential journalist in the liberal- oriented newspaper Southern Metropolis. It is through communication that such a community is built. Once the community is in shape, it generates social capital, which becomes a crucial resource for action. Another lesson is the impor- tance of trust, unity, and understanding in the pro cess of taking action, as well as the importance of professionalization. Finally, this story shows the possibility of both self- empowerment and or gan i za tional empowerment in an age of social media revolution and social change. It shows that bottom-up eff orts and top- down initiatives may be combined to produce social change in China. Of course, many scholars and practitioners encounter obstacles in their work and may have a sense of powerlessness. But empowerment rather than powerlessness is the central message of this chapter. We hope this chapter has shown that new media provides much- needed tools for empowerment under these circumstances.

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