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Microblogs get Chinese interested in politics

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CIOL Bureau
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BEIJING, CHINA: Over 70 per cent of web users in China feel their growing interest in politics was thanks to microblogging, reveals a survey.

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A Global Times survey showed that 71 per cent of Chinese web users have attributed their growing interest in politics to microblogging, but over half of them were unhappy over the lack of interaction on government blogs.

Microblogging gained momentum in China in 2010 with President Hu Jintao registering his own microblog in February that year.

The poll was conducted from March 25 to April 5 during which 1,285 people were surveyed.

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As many as 59.3 per cent of the respondents said they became more inclined to express their political views on microblogs.

Regarding favourite topics, 36.6 per cent cited social news, followed by 23.1 per cent choosing politics and 19.6 per cent going for daily-life subjects like fashion and health.

Middle-aged web users were most active on political topics

Global Times reported on Tuesday that the poll also showed that male bloggers voice their political opinions more often than their female counterparts. Also, middle-aged web users were most active on political topics.

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Microblogging site provider, sina.com.cn, said there are over 1,300 government blogs on its servers. Of them, 692 are for public security services, 216 are operated by government bodies and 426 belong to politicians, the media report said.

The poll showed that 72.1 per cent of the respondents were in favour of politicians opening microblogs, while 65.6 per cent complained that current government blogs were merely publicity stunts without timely responses to inquiries.

"If politicians fail to address netizens' concerns in a timely manner on their blogs, they may lose public trust and may provide fuel for false rumors that could mislead the people," Liu Xiaoying, a professor, told the Global Times.

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