Website forces China's officials to listen to fans

By Quan Xiaoshu and Wu Chen

BEIJING, Jan. 21 (Chinese media) -- Chinese officials, not

normally known for star appeal, are being thrust into the spotlight on a website

catering to their fans.

Claiming to be the first fan site for local

politicians, the website, titled Fans Circle for Officials of the People's

Republic of China (www. zhongguofans.com), is raising the profiles of

little-known officials.

Unlike the site exclusively created for President Hu

Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao last September, this has much broader coverage

with pages dedicated to top leaders from three provinces and five cities.

"I hope it can become a platform for the public to

freely exchange ideas with the governments," says Yang Yunhe, founder of the

site.

A former factory hand and restaurant worker Yang, 33,

runs a business that puts advertising on bicycles. He says he knows too well how

people toiling at the foot of the social ladder are frustrated by the scant

channels of communication to those in authority.

But the rise of the Internet provided him with an

opportunity to help people speak out.

In April last year, he launched a fan site solely for

Wu Weirong, the Communist Party chief of Yiwu City, the world's largest small

commodities market located in east China's Zhejiang Province.

But four days later, Yang was invited to the

publicity office of the local government, where he was politely told the fan

site thing was unsuitable for a low-key cadre like Wu, so he closed it down.

"It could have caused misunderstanding, as some might think the official himself established the site for his own benefit," a spokesman for Yiwu government told Chinese media.

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However, Yang's idea was revived in September when

the People'sDaily, the Communist Party's flagship newspaper, initiated the "Jin

and Bao Fan Zone" dedicated to Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao on its website.

Yang immediately started rebuilding his website,

listing more officials from other cities and provinces. But with an investment

of less than 4,000 yuan (588 U.S. dollars), the site broke down due to poor

technical support and growing traffic. Normal operation resumed in December.

Among the first to have fan pages on Yang's website

were the Party chiefs of Guangdong, Shaanxi and Zhejiang provinces.

Shaanxi is Yang's home province, Guangdong is the

spearhead of China's reform and opening up drive, and Zhejiang is flush with

private enterprise.

With greater "political tolerance", Guangdong and

Zhejiang are more open to innovation and accepting of the site, he says.

Other officials include Party chiefs of Yiwu,

Wenzhou, and Jinhua cities from Zhejiang Province, and Shaanxi's Ankang City.

For example, Yiwu City's Party chief Wu Weirong was selected because he

encourages reform and innovation during development of the local economy.

Hong Kong chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen has

also been given a fan page.

Fans leave laudatory messages for their adored

officials, upload pictures, discuss hot topics and post articles on political

and social issues.

Wang Yang, Party chief of Guangdong known for his creative reform ideas and active participation in online forums, has won the most popularity. Fans nickname him as "Wang Shuai" (Handsome Wang) and depict him as "courageous and capable", leaving messages to support his reforms.

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