E-Media Tidbits

english.people.com.cn China People's Daily recently editorialized on democracy and the Internet.

On June 21, the People's Daily (the national organ of the Communist Party in China) published in an editorial on how the Internet affects democracy.

From that article: "It is also worth noticing that Internet politics have been influenced by democracy since [the Internet] was born, as it is growing in an open and convenient environment that promotes interpersonal communication. It is without a doubt an ideal democratic medium."

In the 1990s, authoritarian regimes like the Chinese government saw the Internet as a lethal threat. Today they see the net as a tool for a sustainable development.

The article concludes: "People should note that developing Internet politics well will enrich the development of socialist democratic politics. However, it does not represent all people yet. Only by comprehensively and objectively mastering Internet politics, and rationally understanding it, can we better promote its development."

Such a pity that from many Chinese search engines, results for the search term "democracy" are still heavily skewed by censorship, as far as I know. Therefore it might be hard to write about this editorial for a China-based audience.

That is what, in China, is called a "contradiction" -- and it is very hard to avoid them here.