{"id":48637,"date":"2013-07-05T09:56:36","date_gmt":"2013-07-05T08:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/?p=48637"},"modified":"2017-07-21T17:16:49","modified_gmt":"2017-07-21T16:16:49","slug":"china-weibo-edward-snowden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/?p=48637","title":{"rendered":"How did Chinese web users react to Edward Snowden scandal?"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the official Chinese reaction to Edward Snowden\u2019s Prism leaks has been muted, ordinary Chinese have been quick to point out the US\u2019 double standard on espionage, Alice Xin Liu writes<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Snapshot

Snapshot of Boundless Information global heat map of data collection. The color scheme ranges from green (least subjected to surveillance) through yellow and orange to red (most surveillance). (NSA)<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

People\u2019s Daily, the official newspaper of China\u2019s communist party, recently pointed out in an editorial<\/a> that extraditing Snowden would be \u201cface-losing\u201d outcome for both Hong Kong\u2019s and China\u2019s governments. The paper said that the whistleblower had not committed any crime. All he did was \u201cblow the whistle on the US government\u2019s violation of civil rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

The editorial concluded, \u201cChina is generous enough not to hype this incident in consideration of the Sino-US relationship\u201d.<\/p>\n

On the streets, bewilderment accompanied Snowden\u2019s revelations and eventual flight to Russia despite a US warrant for his arrest. The Chinese, who value earning potential, wonder why Snowden left a hefty $200K job. But most bemoaned what is perceived as the complete double standard of the US.<\/p>\n

When the popular Phoenix Weekly <\/i>asked<\/a> on Sina Weibo what people thought of letting Snowden leave Hong Kong despite the US warrant, a commenter \u201cStrawberry on the Third Ring Road\u201d replied:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I was from Hong Kong I would completely ignore the old Yanks. Nothing\u2019s going to change. Go about life as normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chinese netizens have reacted more strongly on Twitter, comparing Snowden\u2019s claims about US spying with China\u2019s Great Firewall, which filters domestic sites and blocks some sites from outside China. Though more people use Weibo than Twitter, which is blocked, they rarely talk about the Great Firewall because Weibo filters key words and sensitive terms on behalf of the government.<\/p>\n

Rose Luqiu Luwei, a Phoenix TV presenter and popular blogger, tweeted: \u201cRecording my show yesterday, someone asked the question, Could China produce someone like Snowden? The guests answered very concisely: No. Even if it did, they\u2019d never be able to leave the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retweeting her<\/a>, Wen Yunchao, a blogger and Internet freedom activist, wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a GFW [Great Firewall] engineer wants protection in order to leave the country and offer leaks, and doesn\u2019t have a passport, I\u2019m willing to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wen wasn\u2019t joking. As a vocal critic of the censorship system in China, he was harassed regularly, and eventually fled Hong Kong to New York, where he is now based.<\/p>\n

Chinese journalist Michael Anti, who is famous for a Ted talk<\/a> he gave about internet censorship in China, held a more cynical and objective point of view. He explained to over 60,000 followers on Weibo why China would want to be rid of Snowden:<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter what, Hong Kong should quickly send Snowden on his way to a third country (citing the reason of incomplete documents from the US). This is really a very suitable method. He is a hot potato, Hong Kong is unable to hold him, and China can\u2019t stick by him. Why not leave him for the mafia boss that is Russia or a real democratic country, Iceland?\u201d<\/p>\n

However, as the latest leaks of US spying emerged, even Anti was skeptical of how the US was handling its coverage, commenting that the Obama\u2019s administration failed to engage in crisis management by simply repeating Snowden\u2019s claims verbatim.<\/p>\n

As part of a special report<\/a> on Snowden, the Global Times<\/i> conducted an online poll of 1,400 urban residents in China, asking how they felt when they found out that the US had been spying on China. Sixty-one percent of the respondents chose the following answer: \u201cThe US always stands facts on their heads, like a thief yelling, \u2018stop thief.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Interestingly, when asked what should be done to remedy the situation, most people didn\u2019t want to \u201cappeal to the international community to jointly formulate regulations\u00a0regarding cyber space\u201d but rather \u201ctrain high-level cyber space security personnel to better protect China.\u201d<\/p>\n

This echoed what is widely believed in China — that the US is not to be trusted.<\/p>\n

Alice Xin Liu is a freelance writer based in China. She tweets @axliu<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While the official Chinese reaction to Edward Snowden\u2019s Prism leaks has been muted, ordinary Chinese have been quick to point out the US\u2019 double standard and hypocrisy toward espionage, Alice Xin Liu<\/strong> writes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":48638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[4883],"tags":[7364,4892,808,5596,390,700,5507],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48637"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48637"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88389,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48637\/revisions\/88389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}