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Scholars, journalists, and other commentators have extensively explored censorship in the People's Republic of China (PRC), but much remains to be learned. In particular, we need a better grasp of the "cyber- politics" of expanding online discourse and the capacity of the Internet to advance free speech, political participation, and social change. We also need to know more about the implications of (and limits on) the state's efforts to control what people can see, say, and do online. These issues are crucial to our understanding of China and Chinese society and the role of the Internet under an authoritarian, one-party regime.
It was in 2007-dubbed "Year One of Public Events (Gonggong Shijian Yuannian)" by one commentator1-that the Internet first helped to propel certain happenings into the official media despite resistance from censors. By doing so, Internet activity effectively set the agenda for public discourse. That year, stories about protests against the Xiamen chemical plant, slave labor at brick kilns, and the abuse of individual property rights spread rapidly online, generating so much public interest and debate that censors and the official media had little option but to report on them as well.
A look at the explosive growth of Internet access and use across China, the tools and methods used by the authorities to control the content and flow of information, and the emerging dynamics between Chinese Internet users, or "netizens," and censors shows that the expansion of the Internet and Web-based media is changing the rules of the game between state and society: Authorities are increasingly taking note and responding to public opinion as it expresses itself online. This trend will surely continue, with online public-opinion formation playing an important role in the future development of Chinese society.
Beginning in March 2007, blogger Lian Yue posted a series of articles warning the people in his hometown, Xiamen in Fujian Province, of the potentially disastrous environmental impact of a proposed paraxylene (PX) chemical factory in the city. He urged his fellow residents to speak out against the plant. Although provincial and city authorities vigorously deleted anti-PX factory messages on servers within their jurisdiction, the offending posts on Lian Yue's blog remained because its server was in another province. Word of the PX plant soon spread...