Chinese government spokesmen are taking their message to the Internet. A "Network Spokesman" set up by the Guangdong Trade and Industry Bureau may set a nationwide trend after a professor from China's National School of Administration said the initiative should be copied by governments across the country, China Economic Times reported on August 17.

In a new departure for government departments, the Guangdong Trade and Industry Bureau has set up a "Virtual Spokesperson" on the Internet. Peng Haibin, the flesh and blood spokesman of the bureau said, "Our network spokesman represents the authoritative voice of our bureau in the virtual world and will respond directly to complaints from Internet users."

And in an interview with China Economic Times, Zhu Lijia, a professor at the China National School of Administration, endorsed the idea. "As an extension of traditional government spokesmen to the virtual world, "government network spokesmen" should be promoted by governments at all levels across the country."

China has about 350 million Internet users and the Internet has become an important channel for people to express opinions and complaints. Using "network spokesmen", governments at all levels will have up-to-the minute access to public opinion and will be able to talk directly to Internet users correctly and, hopefully, resolve conflicts without outbursts of public anger.

With the rapid development of the Internet in China, officials have already started to pay greater attention to public opinion on the Web. Last year President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao visited official websites to chat directly with Chinese Internet users. And in the last 12 months 29 provincial governors and 60 municipal leaders have addressed public concerns using the portal People.com.cn.

Henan Provincial Party Secretary Xu Guangchun said on People.com.cn, "Supervision from the Internet has become an important supplement to media monitoring. In issues that attracted public attention in recent months, like the "expensive cigarettes" issue and the "hide-and-seek" issues, Internet users delivered the truth to the public and allowed the problems to be resolved promptly."

And Guo Weiqing, a professor at Sun Yat-sen University, said, "The establishment of 'network spokesmen' offers a new platform for the expression of public opinion and authoritative government voices in the virtual world, and means governments will have to face Internet users with a more open and positive attitude."

But while generally welcomed, some commentators had reservations about the effectiveness of government "network spokesman".

"Setting up network spokesman is a sensible and forward-looking measure for local governments to take, given the new circumstances, and it will provide a channel to communicate with net users. But it has limitations. Although questions and doubts expressed on the Internet may be answered by network spokesman, it is not an authoritative channel to truly resolve problems and issues." Professor Xu Xianglin from Peking University told China Economic Times, "Network spokesman should be further institutionalized, which would improve the image of government and government services in the eyes of net users and the public."

(China.org.cn by Ma Yujia, August 18, 2009)