This week, a show taped live at Syracuse University on September 30 with Associate Professor Dimitar Gueorguiev, author of the excellent Retrofitting Leninism: Participation Without Democracy in China.
Sorry for commenting on an old post. I've been wondering when conversations are brought up about Chinese civil society, especially when phrases like "we don't know what China's public thinks" are used, how much attention has been given to WeChat articles that get published every day? It seems to me there is more free speech concerning China's economy than a lot of English media leads us to believe.
Oh, I certainly agree that there's more than the mainstream Anglophone media would have us believe. I haven't revisited this transcript, so I'm not exactly sure what Dimitar said or in what context, but my sense is that many social scientists do believe that WeChat articles (written by influencers who are certainly educated elites) don't necessarily reflect the broader beliefs of the public; and that there's a dearth of reliable, empirically sound survey data free of the taint of preference falsification in China, so it's hard to know exactly what the public really thinks. I tend to think we overstate the level of preference falsification — due, perhaps, to our own preferences? — and that a savvy and persistent reader who takes the temperature of a broad cross-section of social media in China can get a pretty good read on the reality.
My guess is a lot of stuff goes under the radar due to people being insignificant.
However, I do think English writers should include more information from non-state nedia, especially when talking about people getting arrested for talking about the economy. It gives a false impression to normal US folks who don't look at weibo or have a wechat account.
Very interesting conversation with a very interesting guest. Hadn’t heard of him before. Will need to look into him more.
To that point about people who’re less satisfied with/confident in their government also being more hawkish. Does the data tease apart why they’re not confident in the first place?
I have in my years in China met a good number of people who expressed to me their dissatisfaction with their government for the exact reason that they felt their government wasn’t hawkish enough on the USA.
I wonder if that’s part of the explanation for this curious piece of data.
Also: is there any data on how many 老百姓 participate in these anonymous public policy opinion collection exercises? I do not dismiss the value or the genuineness of these, at all. It’s just that I’ve never met a single person who has participated. A bit like in the West where you hear about opinion poll after opinion poll but nobody seems to know anyone who’s ever actually been part of one 😊
Sorry for commenting on an old post. I've been wondering when conversations are brought up about Chinese civil society, especially when phrases like "we don't know what China's public thinks" are used, how much attention has been given to WeChat articles that get published every day? It seems to me there is more free speech concerning China's economy than a lot of English media leads us to believe.
Oh, I certainly agree that there's more than the mainstream Anglophone media would have us believe. I haven't revisited this transcript, so I'm not exactly sure what Dimitar said or in what context, but my sense is that many social scientists do believe that WeChat articles (written by influencers who are certainly educated elites) don't necessarily reflect the broader beliefs of the public; and that there's a dearth of reliable, empirically sound survey data free of the taint of preference falsification in China, so it's hard to know exactly what the public really thinks. I tend to think we overstate the level of preference falsification — due, perhaps, to our own preferences? — and that a savvy and persistent reader who takes the temperature of a broad cross-section of social media in China can get a pretty good read on the reality.
The above was just a question, not a criticism. Dmitar's work is extremely useful.
I agree it's hard to tell with wechat articles, but I am not sure. Is this person an elite:
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/K0ddl9nlkAw1l8wRkuaIYA
Is this one?
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/XX8TGTESr_JgTQzbz9faGw-QA
My guess is a lot of stuff goes under the radar due to people being insignificant.
However, I do think English writers should include more information from non-state nedia, especially when talking about people getting arrested for talking about the economy. It gives a false impression to normal US folks who don't look at weibo or have a wechat account.
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/XX8TGTESr_JgTQzbz9faGw in case the second link doesn't work
Very interesting conversation with a very interesting guest. Hadn’t heard of him before. Will need to look into him more.
To that point about people who’re less satisfied with/confident in their government also being more hawkish. Does the data tease apart why they’re not confident in the first place?
I have in my years in China met a good number of people who expressed to me their dissatisfaction with their government for the exact reason that they felt their government wasn’t hawkish enough on the USA.
I wonder if that’s part of the explanation for this curious piece of data.
Also: is there any data on how many 老百姓 participate in these anonymous public policy opinion collection exercises? I do not dismiss the value or the genuineness of these, at all. It’s just that I’ve never met a single person who has participated. A bit like in the West where you hear about opinion poll after opinion poll but nobody seems to know anyone who’s ever actually been part of one 😊