Internet whistleblowers named CCTV's 'People of the Year'

Want China Times, Chang Kai-sheng and Staff Reporter 2013-01-01

Zhou Xiaoyun wears a face mask but makes his identity known when
he unmasks wrongdoing. (Internet photo)

Online whistleblowers have been named the "People of the Year" by China's state broadcaster CCTV due to the many scandals exposed on the internet by netizens over the course of 2012.

CCTV's News Weekly program said the scandals posted online, usually on Sina Weibo, China's leading equivalent of Twitter, stunned the whole country with their revelations of everything from corruption, sex scandals, the mismanagement of corporations and toxic food.

An example would be that of a local official in Guangzhou who was shown by an internet user to own 20 apartments, commercial offices and mansions, way beyond what he could afford on his official salary.

The user's post, accompanied by photos of the houses owned by the official, drew widespread public attention as soon as it went up, with tens of thousands of internet users commenting, forwarding the post and dubbing the official "Uncle House."

Two days later, the Communist Party in Guangzhou announced on its official website that it was checking up on the allegations. Two weeks later, it said the official had been removed.

Most Chinese internet users choose to believe the accusations made by whistleblowers, although they don't know them and have no way of verifying their allegations — a sign of the pervasive cynicism among a population that knows their government rarely tells the truth unless it has to.

Wang Xixin, dean of law at Peking University, said most such whistleblowers are supported by internet users since their allegations allow the general public to vent their feelings of displeasure at the injustices prevalent in society.

He said whistleblowers are people who are concerned about the general public's welfare and win their admiration because they identify with people's desire for a better standard of living.

Kuang Wenpo, a professor at Renmin University of China in Beijing, said it is hard to determine whether whistleblowing is a practice worth encouraging, because not all the allegations they leveled were necessarily true.

Although many online whistleblowers prefer to make their allegations anonymously, Zhou Xiaoyun, who brought to light the fact that state petroleum company Sinopec had bought expensive liquor in contravention of existing regulations on official luxury consumption earlier this year, used his own name when he leaked the news on the internet. "I used my name while revealing scandals to show I stand by my stories, which are backed by ironclad evidence," said Zhou.

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