America has China over a barrel, not the other way around.

Pressure growing on China to revalue currency

 

Wow, just wow. I was only going to bold the interesting stuff, but it is all interesting. Check this out:


Researcher: China pays 280K people to boost its Web image

By Nate Anderson

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Researcher: China employs 280,000 people to make the government look good online

The act of faking grassroots publicity on the Web is known as 'astroturfing'

Astroturfing is somewhat common with corporations and public relations firms in the U.S.

Editor's Note: Rebecca MacKinnon, who is quoted in this article, is a former CNN journalist.

(Ars Technica) -- If you thought corporate "astroturfing" (fake grassroots activity) was a problem at sites like Yelp and Amazon that feature user reviews of products, imagine how much worse it would be if the U.S. government employed a couple hundred thousand people to "shape the debate" among online political forums. Crazy, right? What government would ever attempt it?

According to noted China researcher Rebecca MacKinnon, the answer is China, which allegedly employs 280,000 people to troll the Internet and make the government look good.

MacKinnon's discussion of Chinese astroturfing measures turns up in testimony that she prepared from a Congressional hearing this month. When that hearing was eventually rescheduled, MacKinnon was no longer on the witness list, so she released her prepared remarks (PDF) anyway.

The government increasingly combines censorship and surveillance measures with proactive efforts to steer online conversations in the direction it prefers.

In 2008 the Hong Kong-based researcher David Bandurski determined that at least 280,000 people had been hired at various levels of government to work as "online commentators." Known derisively as the "fifty cent party," these people are paid to write postings that show their employers in a favorable light in online chat rooms, social networking services, blogs, and comments sections of news Web sites.

Many more people do similar work as volunteers -- recruited from among the ranks of retired officials as well as college students in the Communist Youth League who aspire to become Party members.

This approach is similar to a tactic known as "astroturfing" in American parlance, now commonly used by commercial advertising firms, public relations companies, and election campaigns around the world. In many provinces of China it is now also standard practice for government officials -- particularly at the city and county level -- to work to co-opt and influence independent online writers by throwing special conferences for local bloggers, or inviting them to special press events or news conferences about issues of local concern.

That last sentence about co-opting bloggers certainly isn't limited to China; U.S. companies have perfected the practice, and government public relations people dole out interviews and access to journalists in ways often designed to shape opinions or coverage. But still -- 280,000 people paid to permeate message boards and e-mail lists, all backing the government's line? The mind boggles.

MacKinnon's testimony, well worth reading in full, notes that Chinese citizens aren't helpless creatures of astroturf, filtering, censorship, and intimidation.

People have developed countermeasures, she says, including:

-- "Informal anti-censorship support networks: I have attended gatherings of bloggers and journalists in China -- with varying degrees of organization or spontaneousness -- where participants devoted significant amounts of time to teaching one another how to use circumvention tools to access blocked Web sites."

-- "Distributed web-hosting assistance networks: I am aware of people who have strong English language and technical skills, as well as overseas credit cards, who are helping friends and acquaintances in China to purchase inexpensive space on overseas web hosting services, then set up independent blogs using free open-source software."

-- "Crowdsourced 'opposition research': With the Chinese government's Green Dam censorware edict last year, we have seen the emergence of loosely organized "opposition research" networks. Last June a group of Chinese computer programmers and bloggers collectively wrote a report exposing Green Dam's political and religious censorship, along with many of its security flaws."

-- "Preservation and relay of censored content: I have noticed a number of people around the Chinese blogosphere and in chatrooms who make a regular habit of immediately downloading interesting articles, pictures, and videos which they think have a chance of being blocked or removed. They then repost these materials in a variety of places, and relay them to friends through social networks and e-mail lists."

Then comes our favorite: Dirty jokes as a form of protest.

In 2009, Internet censorship tightened considerably. Many lively blogging platforms and social networks where heated political discussions were known to take place were shut down under the guise of an anti-p*rn crackdown. In response, an anonymous Shanghai-based jokester created an online music video called "Ode to the Grass Mud Horse," whose technically innocent lyrics, sung by a children's chorus over video of alpaca sheep, contained a string of highly obscene homonyms.

The video spawned an entire genre of anti-censorship jokes and videos involving mythical animals whose names sound similar to official slogans and obscenities of various kinds. This viral pranksterism created an outlet for people to vent about censorship, poke fun at the government, and raise awareness among many people who are not comfortable discussing such matters in a direct way.

Now, in true capitalist style, one can buy shirts, hats and stickers that feature the Grass Mud Horse.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/26/china.astroturf/index.html

 

That definitely explains some of the posts that show up here. How many "employees" of the state are we debating in here? Show yourselves...

 

Let's not kid ourselves, guys. US of A is the grand master, the king, always has been, of such things as 'public relations' or its big brother 'the council of foreign relations'.

China had long been smeared by shrewd attacks on its image, often unfoundedly, by the Western masters - they are only beginning to learn the game as we speak!!



Also, 280k is not staggering as you might think if u consider the 1bil.

Quote:
certainly isn't limited to China; U.S. companies have perfected the practice, and government public relations people dole out interviews and access to journalists in ways often designed to shape opinions or coverage. But still -- 280,000 people

 

I would hope real professional China astroturfers wouldn't be quite so inept at making China appear in a positive light. It would be like Michael Steele hiring Tea Party wingnuts to provide positive PR spin for the Republican Party - 5,000 additional "Obama is a Muslim Nazi Socialist" posts wouldn't exactly make the Republicans seem appealing to anybody but the hardcore wingnut base.

 

^They actually are pretty inept - there's a guy posting as "Hal" from Tuscon arizona who posts on the NYT comments and a few other econ blogs defending the yuan undervaluation - it's pretty comical. Anything even remotely related to China sets him in motion in full damage control mode. He might actually be a computer program.

 

Deck, read an article a few months back about the Chinese govt employing mums to search for p*rn sites to censor. Won't be surprised if some astroturfing is happening (like a bunch of ppl dedicated to monitoring wiki entries), but 280k ppl paid to put comments on every single blog and forum is hard to imagine, let alone believe.

 

I am actually curious that this little bit of unsubstantiated claim is related to the topic of alleged Chinese currency mis-valuation how...? But as usual, when losing the argument, one can always count on the good ole American Ad hominem attack.

Started by Deckard no less, with Ottomaton and CometsWin in full supoort. The usual characters are rearing their heads again.

 

No matter how much you insult me, I will continue to defend the PRC from having to be associated with the likes of you in any official capacity. I often disagree with things that they do, but I have far more respect for them than to make that association. I will defend China, even when you try to tar them.

 

Chump, I started nothing. I merely quoted an article unexpectedly found while reading a technical site I enjoy from time to time. The first response I had was basically "everyone does it."

No surprise that you pop up in typical ass-hat mode. Don't worry... I don't suspect you of being on the payroll. China couldn't possibly have a worse "representive" than you.

 

Let me clarify, you "merely quoted an article unexpectedly found while reading a technical site you enjoy from time to time," but just happen to post it in this particular thread. Well I suppose I could be wrong, staying on topic never was your forte. I apologize.

That's a bit of an oddity coming from you isn't it? I mean, aren't according to you, Chinese people, "designed" through intensive brainwashing as such to be no more than their representatives?

 

Discussing the China news made by CNN? what a waste.

 

Looks like China is going to give in to pressure and may let the currency appreciate a bit more.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=adQedtk80bmw

When this happens, it will make PRCbot neural processing circuits explode because there will be a conflict of their prime directives of 1. PRC is always right and 2. Any critics of PRC are always wrong no matter if they are right will be brought into conflic.

I look forward to hearing them explain themselves. I'm going to guess a liberal application of the words "pathetic" and "moron" will serve to camouflage the tremendous loss of face.

 

When it does not happen, this is just another piece of **** by some day-dreaming scums?

 

No. It's not a daydream when it's reality.

I mean we're basically dealing with a factual matter here - China is forced to purchase tens of billions of dollars weekly to keep the value of the yuan lower than it should be.

No matter how much the Prc-bots gurgle and beep and steam - that's the truth of what is happening.

 

If your father beats you excessively and you turn out to be a murderer and a rapist, your father has committed a crime, but you are ultimately responsible for your murderous ways, not him. I'm not going to blame daddy in all of his faults for the abomination we see before us. Especially when big daddy Mao is long dead and buried and not running the PRC.

 

But I suppose that really depends on who big daddy is doesn't it Ottomaton? I mean, big daddy Mao is dead but big papa Abe, Ben, Andy etc are alive and well and as of right now graces one of the very instruments in question. So an honest question for you. I really want to know. At what point do the people cease to be agents (for the lack of a better word) of the big papa/big daddy/big brother?

And if the influence of big daddy waned to be insignificant (and that be exactly the case), at what point do you lose your sole argument (I shiver every time I say that) in an otherwise worthwhile pile of rubish?

Are you not doing yourself a disservice?

I have a tremendous amount of respect for Stephen Jen, who probably wouldn't have left Morgan Stanley wasn't under the threat of being significantly curtailed (that's another story). But Sammy, I sometimes seriously wonder how he (or anyone else for that matter) would feel knowing how you spin his words.

No matter how much research he did (it it's significant), he made a prediction, which he even pre-faced with "I maintain the view" and "likely," not to be confused with facts.

Getting ahead of ourselves a little no? But then again, that's typical for you isn't it? And I'm sure, like Nostradamus prophecies, should anything anywhere close to being interpreted to what you claimed, you'll be right here tell me how right you were. Can't wait.

 

Actually China isn't "forced" to do anything. Obviously (and especially in today's world) potentially losing a competitive edge isn't anything any country would savour; and losing potentially billions of investments is salt to wound, but do you seriously believe China is in the relative worse shape according to your zero-sum trade?

One would lose investments, the other would suffer from lost savings, collapse of its currency, hyper-inflation, the inability be borrow for the next xxx years, etc etc etc, in other words, hurt like hell even if you somehow end better than the Chinese (and that not looking probable at this point).

It takes two to tango. But if not, hey, at least you took the Red Chicoms down with ya...

 

Well, I certainly hope Chinese AstroTurf is of better quality than their Drywall.

 

When it does not happen, eh?

China Is Reportedly Set to Revise Currency Policy