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Who's Who on China's Twitter-Conservatives

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Ranxiang

This is the last installment of TeaLeafNation’s series of the key players on Weibo. Please see Part 1Part 2, and Part 3.

Fifty Cents”  - @染香(320,000+ followers): The unverified blogger Ran Xiang purports to be a well-endowed and sharp-tongued hottie who vehemently argues against democracy and liberalization. Combative and mysterious, the self-proclaimed “Chairman of the Fifty Cents Party” has started multiple flame wars with well-known liberals on Weibo to increase her notoriety. She has so far eluded the “human flesh search engine” and actively encourages speculations about her age, background, even gender. One theory pins her down as a female partner at McKinsey China (yes, quite shocking) but it has never been confirmed.

Sample tweet from Ran Xiang (December 31, 2011): Farewell thoughts in 2011 – Should China adopt a multi-party system? The answer is definitely “No!” The chaotic political reality in Taiwan, the future special administrative region of China, has sufficiently proven that a multi-party system means stepping back in time. The one-party rule in China is the choice of its people and of history. If [China] adopts a Western-style electoral system, China will end up taking orders from the U.S. just like Japan and Korea. Indeed, Japan and Korea have suffered financial robbery from the U.S.!

Conservative mouthpiece - @胡锡进(1.5 million+ followers): Mr. Hu Xijin is the editor in chief of Global Times, a tabloid version of People’s Daily which, unlike its mother ship, actually enjoys a wide readership base. Mr. Hu fills his Weibo account with defenses of the current regime but carefully avoids sounding overly zealous.

Sample tweet from Mr. Hu (December 29, 2011): Local courts recently imprisoned two people on charges of inciting the subversion of state power, and Western media accused China [of abusing] human rights. The crime of inciting subversion of state power is clearly defined in China’s criminal law. We support the conviction of such people in accordance with the law. Some advocate the freedom of speech without limitations and the legalization of inciting subversion – this is a malicious attempt to guide the society towards an irrational view of freedom of speech, and it damages the relatively relaxed freedom of speech that we currently enjoy.

Maoist - @孔庆东(440,000+ followers): Professor Kong Qingdong, a descendant of Confucius, is also an unapologetic Maoist who hasn’t given much thought to the irony that Mao tried to erase Confucianism from Chinese culture. He often refers to liberal scholars and media who call for political reform as traitors (once refusing a simple interview request by Southern Weekly, a prominent liberal newspaper, with a tweet full of expletives) and prescribes a return to the Maoist era as the solution to all of Chinese society’s ills.

Sample tweet from Professor Kong (January 11, 2012): You Jing’s short play “Save a Bullet” is a story set in the early days of the resistance movement against the Japanese invasion in the 1930′s. A Chinese traitor were spreading rumors on the street and the refugees wanted to beat him up. A boy wanted to take the traitor to the government to be punished by law, but a female refugee disagreed. She went up to the traitor and bit him, telling everyone that she wanted to “save a bullet” for the government, and the refugees applauded her action. Today there are traitors everywhere. How can we save some bullets?