Page 73 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Chapter 3. Contextual Background

2010-06-08 State Council Information Office published the first white paper on ‘The
internet in China’, elaborating the Chinese government’s fundamental
policies on the internet as ‘positive utilization, scientific development,
law-based administration and ensured security’.
2010-09-08 People’s Daily Online launched a service called ‘Straight Access to
Zhongnanhai – the Message Board to Central leaders and Central
institutions’. The message board highlighted the interactivity of the
internet, aiming to provide a space for the internet users to communicate
and propose suggestions to the Central leaders and institutions.
2010 In 2010, the social influence of public opinion on the internet had
deepened. A series of events, such as ‘The Rescue in Wang Jialing Mine
Disaster’, ‘The Yihuang incident’, and ‘The Son of Li Gang Drunk Driv-
ing and hit’ were exposed on the internet, and aroused the widespread
concern all over the society.
2011-01-21 Tencent launched WeChat, an online instant messaging application.
2011-05 The State internet Information Office was officially established with
the aim of strengthening the construction, development and management
of internet and improving the administration level of virtual network
society. It reflected the great attention paid to the internet by author-
ities at the state level.
2012 2012 witnessed the rapid development of government microblogging.
By the end of October 2012, the number of government accounts on Sina
Weibo had reached to 60,064, an increase of 231% compared to the same
period in 2011; up to November 11, the number of government accounts
on Tencent Weibo reached 70,084.
2013-02-01 In the year of 2013, the issue of personal information security received
highly attention.
The first personal information security standard ‘Individual Information
Protection Guidelines on Information Security Technology in Pub-
lic and Commercial Service Information System’ was implemented,
symbolising the individual information protection has entered to the law
system in China.
2013-11-19 The State Statistics Bureau signed a big data collaboration framework
agreement with 11 internet firms, including Baidu, Alibaba, etc. The aim
is to collectively promote the application of big data in the government’s
statistic work to improve the scientificity and promptness of the govern-
ment statistics.
2013-12-04 The first batch of licenses of the fourth generation of mobile commu-
nication (4G). China Mobile Communications Corporation, China Tele-
com Corporation and China Unicom Network Communications Co., Ltd.
gained the operation license.

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