China's political personalities are easing into the digital age. They are inviting the public to voice opinions via the web and increasingly relying on network communications to gauge public sentiment and aspiration.

Chances are most officials now carry computers to attend the National Congress, go online to chat with netizens about legislation, or post New Year's greeting on bulletin-boards. Some officials even have opened their own blogs, taking the vogue to an extreme.

Last June, the secretary and mayor of the Chongqing Municipality solicited opinions with regards to the pilot program of comprehensive reform of coordinated urban-rural development on the net. And they even invited and met one of the respondents in their working office.

Zhao Qizheng, former minister of the State Council Information Office, opened his blog this month on Sina.com, China's largest portal website. Zhao is currently the most senior official ever to open a public blog. Many other officials have followed his lead.

"Compared with the mayor's hotline, a blog is a better way to interact with the public," said Xie Chuntao, a professor of the Party School of the Central Committee of CPC.

Zhang Chunxian, secretary of Hunan Province, put a premium on the online opinions, and said candidly to Nanfang Weekend: "More people nowadays tend to voice their desires and opinions via the Internet. Our work could be greatly improved if we tapped into net resources."

Yu Youjun, the governor of Shanxi Province, admitted that if he had put himself on alert to the real-time online news and public sentiments expressed on the Internet, he could have better tackled the slave labor case before it became a national disgrace. To improve response systems for any future crisis, he has ordered departments in Shanxi Province across-the-board to pay more attention to online information.

The SARS crisis, the Songhua River pollution scenario and the Shanxi slave labor scandal all showed that public access to transparent information is a guarantee of political democracy. Stifling public opinions and information channels only leads to community distrust and angry outbursts. But websites inherently embody the concepts of freedom, fairness and shared information, plus they feature global platform services.

A significant question concerning how to sort out positive online opinions has been raised, given that the net is also swarming with subversive statements. Experts suggest that a tolerant approach is apropos since public willingness to voice their opinions should be greatly encouraged.

(China.org.cn by He Shan, August 21, 2007)