By Oiwan Lam.
After an online argument of a pro-government troll or “civilization volunteer” escalated into a well publicized offline street fight, many people started voicing their criticism of the Chinese Communist Party’s strategy in manipulating public opinions.
Hou Jusen, a college student from Shandong Province’s Weihai city is one of the approximately 18 million “civilization volunteers” the China Communist Youth League has recruited to “spread positive energy” online since February 2015.
The street fight
Hou like other civilization volunteers was recruited young and is rewarded in exchange for posting pro-government and pro-Communist party comments online. Huo participated in an “online propaganda training” organized by the Shandong branch of the Communist Youth League from June 29 to July 2. A few weeks later, Hou picked a quarrel with another teenager online. The two boys fixed a date to settle the score in person. On July 22, they fought in front of a college in the city.
Soon after, members of the China Communist Youth League framed the quarrel as a “patriotic youth” injured by an unidentified mob for expressing his love of country. Pro-government media outlets also depicted Hou as the victim of online bullying that escalated into real-life violence. But some netizens dug his online record to prove that Hou is a troll himself.
On July 24, Wendeng district police closed the case by ordering six individuals to spend seven to 15 days in detention. Hou was detained for 10 days. The police investigation triggered another round of debate.
Hou: the patriot
A local newspaper interviewed Hou and explained how he turned into a troll. The feature story was headlined on the popular Twitter-like Chinese micro-blogging service Weibo:
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Among thousands of comments under the post on Weibo, the majority thought Hou deserved the administrative detention.
Since Hou posts pro-government and pro-Communist party comments online in exchange for monetary or non-material gains, as an online civilization volunteer, critics wondered whether people like him are even patriotic.
Some believed that patriotic trolls like Hou could lead to frenzy nationalism and suggested disbanding the Communist Youth League. The organization’s network covers all levels from towns to province, from schools to state-run companies, with the major political task of mobilizing millions of youth to follow the party.
Civilization volunteer program fails
A Weibo poll on whether Hou should have been punished in administrative detention indicated that the civilization volunteer program has failed to win broad public support. “Special investigator” reported on the result of the poll:
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Zhou Ze, a famous lawyer echoed disbanding the League:
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Hu Yong, a professor with Peking University, also denounced Communist Youth League for imposing inappropriate political pressure on the local police. He criticized their members for acting like the Red Guards who had cruelly persecuted others in the name of patriotism during the Cultural Revolution half a century ago:
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An investment consultant compared China’s “patriotic youth” to Boxer, a group of rioters who had killed foreigners and demolished churches in Qing dynasty:
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Zhang Ming, a well-known political scientist and a critic of the government, mocked the patriotic trolls:
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Wang Shuo, a famous author and a critic, pointed out that patriotism should not be an exclusive club:
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