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Clicking away for the roles that you can play

By Guan Xiaofeng (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-09 07:55

Yang Ping is the chief of the local Communist Party of China (CPC) discipline inspection commission in Zhuzhou, Hunan province.

But the 47-year-old is better known among local Internet users as "classmate Yang".

Since he first registered and logged onto the Zhuzhou Forum of Hunan-based news portal www.rednet.cn on May 14, Yang has posted 216 topics that have garnered huge response from the online community.

One of his postings, titled "Eight Problems with Zhuzhou Officials' Work Style," was read 18,697 times and received 502 replies.

Yang is popular not only for his straightforward views, but also because he has gone online using his real name and revealing his government position to his online audience.

An Internet user reads online news of the 11th National People's Congress in Tongzi, Guizhou province in this March 7 file photo. [China Daily]

"I am both an official and a netizen - or a bridge between the two," he said.

Yang is just one of the many government officials and deputies to the local and national legislatures - the people's congresses - who have come to value the Internet as an important channel for expressing public opinion in the country.

"I log on to view domestic and foreign news, to learn of people's interests, and to solicit their advice and opinion about the work of our government and Party," President Hu Jintao had said when Internet users asked how he spent his time online, during an online chat with them on June 20.

"I am very interested in the advice and opinions raised," Hu had said.

"We must listen to the people and lean on their wisdom to do a good job."

Seeking people's advice from the Internet is now becoming routine for officials.

In April, Wang Yang, chief of the Guangdong provincial CPC committee, and Huang Huahua, governor of Guangdong, invited 26 Internet users to a hotel for a meeting, to seek their opinion and advice on the province's development strategies.

At the annual session of the National People's Congress this year, many representatives worked out their proposals by collecting public opinion from blogs.

Officials like Yang have already benefited from their online presence.

Yang said he hoped to promote anti-corruption efforts by using the influence of the Internet.

Readers of his postings include the city's government officials under him, as well as ordinary citizens.

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