Page 116 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Feasibility Study of New Media Technology
on Constructing Online Public Sphere

2013). Finally, on 22 June, three months after the death of Sun Zhigang, the State

Council announced the abolition of the Measures of Custody and Repatriation of Urban
Vagrants and Beggars in Cities implemented in May 1982, and its replacement with a
new regulation: Measures of aid and management of urban vagrant beggars without life
support (Zhu, 2009), and this as subject to a feature on 23 June on the Focus Interview
programme on China Central Television.

China’s State Council announced the abolition of the C&R regulation following
the trial. Although the official statement suggested that the change was made as a re-
flection of social development in China, the link between the change and the Sun Zhi-

gang case was clear. New regulations replaced the C&R regulations and came into ef-
fect on 1 August. The new rules highlighted local authorities’ responsibility for helping
migrant workers with support instead of punitive detention. This was a result of media
pressure and the spontaneous collective efforts made by legal experts, lawyers, jour-
nalists, scholars, public intellectuals and the general public. Exposing problems in the

system to force changes to the regulations was the ultimate goal of this unprecedented
nationwide collaboration between different sectors in society.
Although some officials in the government seemed to be predisposed to altering

the media pressure, it actually pushed the event to the forefront and aroused the pub-
lic’s and the Party-state’s attention, especially with the assistance of the internet. Aca-
demic observers acknowledged that media pressure was one of the factors that resulted
in the change to the regulation. It was also the first case in which the media could be
said to have propelled a change in China’s legal system. The success also demonstrated

the ability of activists (legal experts and scholars), whose concerns were in line with
the central leadership goals – in particular of the newly appointed former Chairman Hu
Jintao – of protecting migrant workers, strengthening the legal system and reducing of-

ficial abuses.

5.3 The changing relationship between the public and the
government mediated by ICTs

The Sun Zhigang case represents the first time social media operated to facilitate

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