Blogger Leaks ‘Evidence’ of China’s Propaganda Machine

Ant-government activist “Xiaolan” has posted to the Internet an archive of email communications from the Internet Information Office of Zhanggong District.

Xiaolan calls the leak “evidence of the work of the Fifty Cent Party,” referring to commentators paid to write online in favor of government policies. The commentators allegedly attack public intellectuals, promote Xi Jinping’s image, and monitor netizens’ activities.

The published files include correspondence, photos, directories of “Internet commentators,” summaries of commentary work, and records of the online activities of specific individuals, among other materials. More than 2,700 emails from 2013 and 2014 are presented.

ID numbers for Chinese instant message tool “QQ” and usernames for the Twitter-like Weibo service are exposed.

One document tracks the online activity of a particular user across different social media accounts and forums, noting that he posts under his wife’s name.

“The archive reveals one small node of a vast national censorship system,” China Digital Times reports. Zhanggong commentators often post to national forums, such as People’s Daily online, to disseminate top-down indoctrination, according to the publication. 

The Zhanggong Internet Information Office is overseen by the Cyberspace Administration of China. The head of that agency, Lu Wei, is in Washington for the U.S.-China Internet Industry Forum.