China expressed its shock, joy and disappointment on Thursday as the ouster of a once-highflying Communist Party official became the first major Chinese political scandal to unfold in the era of social media.
The fall of Bo Xilai proved to be an immediate hit on China's Twitter-like microblogging services, demonstrating both the reach and the growing heft of China's Internet in a country with few venues for public expression of political matters. But it also underscores the threat that new restrictions set to kick in on Friday could pose to China's voluble online community.
News that Mr. Bo had been replaced as the Party chief in the major city of Chongqing went instantly viral on Sina Corp.'s Weibo service, one of China's most popular microblogging services, with one post on Sina's in-house Top News feed racking up more than 60,000 reposts and 15,000 comments in less than three hours.
"This is the time to be singing red songs," wrote one Weibo user in reference to Mr. Bo's controversial role as the leader of a "new left" movement that called for a greater government role in business and public life and included a revival of Mao-era revolutionary songs.
"I may pretend not to be interested in politics, but this one I can't not repost," wrote another.
Mr. Bo, a populist who rose to prominence in part on an aggressive anticorruption campaign, has long been a national figure, and he was mourned by many on the Chinese Internet. "What we need is an official who thinks about how to solve regular people's problems, an official who strikes fear in the hearts of the corrupt, an official who says 'no' to international hegemony," wrote Mi Hong'en, a businessmen based in the southern city of Kunming. "Although he never promised to work for us until the end of his days, he did."
But Mr. Bo was often a frequent target of those who worried that his anticorruption campaign went too far, and that his policies threatened the return of some of the excesses of the Cultural Revolution. "In a normal society, a performance artist who ignores the rule of law and the market economy would never have grown so powerful, and relieving him of that power wouldn't be so difficult," novelist Murong Xuecun wrote in a post that was later deleted. "Think about it: Two years ago, it wasn't just Chongqing singing red songs. The whole country was signing red songs."
While the business of government in China still largely takes place behind closed doors, the growth of microblogging services from companies like Sina and Tencent Holdings Ltd. has allowed regular citizens to discuss, and in some cases influence, politics to a degree unseen in the country's history.
The impacts of that development have been especially evident in the case of Mr. Bo, described by some as China's first celebrity politician since Deng Xiaoping and himself an early adopter of technology who introduced red-themed text messages to Chongqing.
Compared to other scandals in the past, "there was more discussion and more speculation," said David Bandurksi, a researcher at Hong Kong University's China Media Project. "Millions of Chinese were really plugged into breaking political news."
Many learned of the news through microblogs, demonstrating the threat they pose to the Chinese government's hold on vital information. "These days, the process for publishing news is Weibo puts it out first, then the government confirms it. Interesting," wrote Tony Wu, principal of a Shanghai-based English language training center.
The term "Bo Xilai" and others related to the scandal that led to his removal from power were mostly unblocked by censors on Thursday, in a potential signal that Beijing authorities didn't mind Mr. Bo's downfall being discussed publicly.
But Chinese authorities are moving to put additional restrictions on microblogs. New rules in the city of Beijing set to go into effect on Friday would require users to register their real names with microblogging service operators, though they could still write in public under pseudonyms. While many of the most-followed online figures on Sina Weibo already post under their real names, the rules have prompted concern that users will moderate their comments because Sina – and presumably interested government officials – can find out their real identities.
It's unclear whether companies like Sina will be required to stop unverified users from posting on their microblogs strictly by the deadline. Beijing city officials indicated in December that they would be understanding if larger companies were unable to convert all of their millions of users in time.
In a conference call about the company's fourth quarter earnings in February, Sina Chief Executive Charles Chao warned that the company wouldn't be able to convert all of its users by Friday, and said Sina is "working with the applicable regulatory bodies" on implementing the verification procedures.
– Josh Chin and Loretta Chao
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