Chinese Blogger Becomes Celebrity Exposing Corruption 143
hackingbear writes "The New York Times reports the story of a Chinese blogger named Zhu Ruifeng who has become an overnight celebrity in China. He posted a secretly recorded video of an 18-year-old woman having sex with a 57-year-old official from the southwestern municipality of Chongqing. The official, along with 10 others, lost their jobs and are now under investigation. Mr. Zhu says ordinary citizens have come to rely on the Internet for retribution, even if it often amounts to mob justice. 'We used to say that when you have a problem, go to the police,' he said. 'Now we say when you have a problem, go to the netizens.' He has become a litmus test of how committed China's new leaders are in their battle against corruption — and whether they can tolerate populist crusaders like Mr. Zhu."
you won't ever hear what happens (Score:5, Insightful)
to the blogger, though... some day (soon if he keeps it up), he'll simply "disappear".....
Stay low (Score:5, Insightful)
As a whistle blower, keeping his head low is mandatory in China.
The guy who reported the milk factory misuse of melamine was murdered.
Rumor said there was a bounty of 1/2 million RMB on his life.
http://ntdtv.org/en/news/china/2012-11-23/china-s-toxic-milk-whistleblower-murdered.html
But how long will this last? (Score:5, Insightful)
The newly minted Standing Committee of the Politburu (the 9 folks who rule China) have made it clear that corruption is a major issue. However, previous Standing Committees have said the same and even started efforts to tackle it. These efforts haven't lasted long enough to make a small dent in the problem, never mind eradicate it.
The problem is that all levels of politicians and bureaucrats benefit greatly from corruption. Lower level bureaucrats want to become rich, higher level bureaucrats and they have no reason to rock the boat for themselves or their bureaucratic and political superiors.
I wonder how long these sorts of grass roots efforts will be tolerated. China has repeatedly shown that they can bury anything on their portion of the internet given sufficient incentive.
don't believe the hype (Score:5, Insightful)
there are a lot of bloggers who have exposed corruption etc who are in jail or who are under constant police harassment of themselves and their families, with employment blocked and all sorts of other problems that political dissidents have faced since time immemorial.
until people like Zhao Lianhai can live an ordinary free life in China, this talk of netizens fighting back the government is not convincing - it might simply be a bunch of propaganda and we all might be dupes in some kind of clever bureaucratic infighting inside the Communist Party hierarchy.
think about it. who leaked the video to him? who protected him from being arrested and sent to a labor camp for a year, like the girl who made a joke tweet a few years ago?
Re:Stay low (Score:5, Insightful)
Almost certainly the guy who posed the video is being used by someone who passed him the tape.
The real whistle blower is probably a higher level functionary who wanted the tape released to discredit a political enemy and able to protect this guy, for now. How long the poster will continue to be protected is anyone's guess.
Re:you won't ever hear what happens (Score:5, Insightful)
Read up on Lin Biao. Nobody in China is so big that they can't die in a "plain crash".
Re:you won't ever hear what happens (Score:5, Insightful)
That was 40 years ago. China changed a lot since then. Disappearing anyone too famous is asking for trouble. Character assassination works much better.
Re:But how long will this last? (Score:4, Insightful)
Probably, but isn't that a form of balance of power?
A form of balance of power? Scape-goating political enemies and having them killed and exiled? The idea of balance of power is to separate the powers so that no group gains so much power that they can destroy their political enemies. It's the opposite of what you think it is.
How's that different from two party election system?
In a properly designed system, the party can be out of power without worrying about death or exile. Believe it or not, that's a huge difference.
For example, Hong Kong was very corrupt back in 1960's; the HK government tried to crack down on corruption but met with resistance and chaos; eventually the HK government had to pardon all corrupted officials and police. Today, HK is one of the cleanest government in the world. The same thing happened in Taiwan and S. Korea.
You do realize the ex-president of Taiwan is currently in jail for embezzlement, right? Your ability to gather accurate information isn't exactly showing itself today.....
Like all of our problems in this world, when a problem hits the main street headline day and night, it is near the time of a solution.
The hope is that eventually China will enter the modern world and have a modern democracy. Unfortunately, there are many problems that are constantly in the main street headline, and still haven't been resolved. I leave to you as an exercise to find some.
Re:Balls (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:But how long will this last? (Score:4, Insightful)
"Yet, countless times when I am told of the bribe, I know the very same thing could almost certainly have been accomplished without a bribe."
Without the context, that sounds like a very poor understanding of 3rd world bribery. There are basically two kinds of bribes -- bribes to get an official to do something illegal like skip a building inspection but sign the paperwork anyway, and bribes to get an official to simply do their job like show up to do that building inspection without waiting a year.
BOTH types of bribery are common enough in the third world, but the later is practically de rigueur because most government employees are not paid a living wage. It is almost like tipping a waiter.