On Friday, the State Department held a briefing for Chinese bloggers to provide background on Secretary Clinton’s speech on Internet freedom. Officials also invited questions from the bloggers. The event provides more nuance in the way the Chinese government handles criticism, both from within and without. During the briefing, the government issued a statement rejecting Secretary Clinton’s criticism of restraints on Internet communications. One of the bloggers received a tweet with the statement attached and posed a question. The immediacy of the communications was remarkable and demonstrates the challenges the Chinese government faces in exercising control over new media.
Clearly, at least one of these bloggers is not intimidated. His reaction to the briefing was, no doubt, exactly what the State Department had hoped:
After the meeting, another blogger, Zhou Shuguang, shared his impressions: “It shows that the U.S. government and Beijing have totally different ways of working. In the U.S., the government pays attention to public opinion and they know how to promote a policy through opinion leaders. That’s why they are now paying extensive attention to active Chinese Web users.”
