Online comments posted on blogs and websites defending China’s policies may be the work of the “Fifty Cent Party” (wu mao dang), a term used to describe those paid by the Chinese government to influence public opinion about the Asian giant. Fifty cent refers to the amount of money that commentators supposedly receive for each post. (That’s 7 cents in U.S. currency.)

 

University professor Usha Haley learned firsthand about the Fifty Cent Party after she posted her first article on Huffington Post about China’s subsidizing its paper industry. Almost instantly, her entry received two long comments taking exception to her remarks and data. The same commentator eventually posted two dozen comments, responding to each positive comment Haley’s story received.

 

The program of government propaganda began in about 2005, but until 2009 it was limited to domestic Internet use. Then the Chinese Communists began to reach out to try to influence foreign opinion.

 

Fifty Cent Party commentators remain anonymous. According to one member of the Communist Youth League, “The reason we don’t use our true identity while communicating with netizens is because by not revealing our identity we allow them to feel our mutual equality, and avoid creating a feeling of opposition. At the same time the work can be smoothly accomplished without revealing what goes on behind the scenes; this achieves very good results.”

-David Wallechinsky, Noel Brinkerhoff

 

China's Fifty Cent Party for Internet Propaganda (by Usha Haley, Huffington Post)

CRF 2010, no. 2 - “China’s Internet”: Staking Digital Ground (Human Rights in China)

China Youth Daily: Zhoukou City Serves and Guides the Youth in Creating a New Internet Space (Xiao Qiang, China Digital Times)