Southern China Commentary

The recent racial riots in Urumqi, Xinjiang, China have triggered the shutdown of several social media sites and blogs, notably Facebook, Twitter, Fanfou (Chinese version of Twitter), Danwei.org, and more. This follows a similar Twitter blackout a few weeks back, prompting the question whether some level of control and censorship is required in the Chinese Social Media scene.

Summary of events
According to the Shanghaiist’s detailed event summary, “the spark came from Shaoguan, Guangdong, where Several Uighur were rumored to have sexually assaulted a Han Chinese female, based on a post on an internet message board. Then on June 26, violence erupted between the two ethnic groups as Han Chinese attacked Uyghur workers in revenge. Two Uyghurs were reported killed and 118 injured before local police said that a disgruntled Han Chinese worker who hadn’t been hired back at the toy factory confessed to faking the information to express his discontent.”

The protests in Urumqi were supposed to be a peaceful sit-in in response to what apparently many (anywhere between 1000 to 3000 allegedly participated) thought was a flawed handling of the conflict in Shaoguan. It was unfortunate that things got out hand.

Photo compiled by BBC, (via Shanghaiist)

 
Citizen journalism
Apparently, the fatal spark originated from the keyboard of an individual, a non-somebody. Citizen journalism or Social Media if you will, is the Read-Write-Web which empowers every individual to have a voice on the internet waves, and be heard.

The power of Public Relations traditionally vested in not just trained PR professionals and journalists, who are educated about cultural and political sensibilities, and the possible ripple effect of inappropriate news; These days in Social Media, any John Doe (or Chen Xiao Ming) can write/tweet about the la mian he had for lunch, or sexual misconduct by racial faction against another.

A Chinese Twitterer by the username of whshang remarked

“这些记者难道不知道自己的所作所为有可能导致局势进一步恶化么？
// twitter上的公民记者？。。。。。 何尝不是如此？”

(Appropriated translation: “Don’t all these reporters know that every tweet can possibly deteriorate the situation? //Are (the effects of) online citizen journalists any different?”

Another by the username of bluekevin also commented:

“其实twitter还是很小众的 有些人总觉得自己知道的大众也知道 自己的想法也能代表大众的想法”

(Appropriated translation: “Actually Twitter has only a small (Chinese) audience. Some people tend to think that everyone knows what they know, and everyone feels what they feel.”

Responding to an inaccurate tweet about the Chinese embassy in Munich being petrol-bombed (it was in fact the Chinese Consulate, not embassy), Kaiser Kuo expressed his indignation:

Even professional reporters can unknowingly prompt undesired situations. A busload of foreign reporters and photographers in Urumqi were interviewing a small group of Uyghurs. The activity drew more Uyghur fellows who got vocal and the sizeable commotion was eventually dispersed by riot police.

 
Recipients of Citizen Journalism
Micro-blogging in the form of Twitter/Fanfou/Facebook updates has also at times got people micro-reading. As people get used to smaller morsels of information, it has become easier for them to react, forward to friends/followers, and trigger more reactions. Because of the lack of a proper and detailed context, or the patience to seek it, their reactions could be based on prior impressions of the subject matter, rather than the full context of the current information.

In a particular Facebook update by “Tank Man”, he expresses the sentiment

“Tank Man is sad to see repeated civilian killings in Urumqi, Xinjiang: over 140 dead (official) already :(”

The post drew mixed reactions: some well-read thoughts, and some reactions from individuals who apparently might not have known that the deaths could have been the result of the inter-racial riots, i.e. citizens against citizens, rather than the context “Tank Man” would have placed them in.
Some excerpts of “reactionary” posts here:

In Shaoguan, the false online rumour ignited reactionary flames of anger and hatred, which in turn spread in multiple waves via with further distortion. Techcrunch calls this the online mob. The social media angry mob spread to Xinjiang where vengeful emotions took centerstage, culminating in this week’s racial riots. All this might have been prevented if the initial false rumour was effectively killed, and further “discussions” effectively harmonised.

Another angry mob outside the Chinese embassy in Holland

 
Should social media be controlled?
This post seeks to shed some light on the role that social media played in the leadup to events in Urumqi, and discuss possible lessons learnt from this experience. In an outbreak of inappropriate seditious messages, can we rely on the combined “wisdom” of crowds to drown the negativity and provide resounding and enlightening direction? Do we have faith in particular Peoples to resolve differences amicably? Or should authorities shut down all public discourse? (No good news, no bad news. No news is good news!)

The ideals of free and objective journalism are noble. But when one is in an immense decision making position, with countless lives, and entire country’s stability at stake, risk-taking is an ill-afforded luxury. The Chinese government again made the decision to shut down social media sites that provided for local public discourse.
This form of action against free Internet speech is not unique to China, Iran also blacked out some social media during her recent turbulence, and Singapore back in 2005 shut down, fined, and jailed 2 bloggers who made racist comments on their blogs.

On the other hand, the state was trusting enough to invite foreign (professional) journalists on an official trip to Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital and the site of the unrest, “to know better about the riots.” I personally follow on Twitter, 2 on-the-ground reporters, @malcolmmoore and @melissakchan who tweet accurate live feed from Urumqi.

 
Recall Jackie Chan in summer of 08.

He might be right. It seems from this Urumqi episode that civilian senders and receivers of social media messages in China do need some level of control and censorship.

Which eventually begs the question:

Will Jackie follow in Arnie’s footsteps?

 
This post is the personal opinion of the writer, who was brought up in a land of authoritarian democracy.