VZCZCXRO3307
RR RUEHCN RUEHGH
DE RUEHGH #7098/01 3350059
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 010058Z DEC 06
FM AMCONSUL SHANGHAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5317
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0663
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 0346
RUEHGZ/AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU 0330
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 0439
RUEHSH/AMCONSUL SHENYANG 0351
RUEHIN/AIT TAIPEI 0313
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 5642

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 SHANGHAI 007098 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP/CM AND DRL/PHD 
NSC FOR DENNIS WILDER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  12/1/2031 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV ECPS CH
SUBJECT: 2006 CHINESE BLOGGERS CONFERENCE 
 
REF: 05 SHANGHAI 4636 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Mary Tarnowka, Section Chief, Political/Economic 
Section, U.S. Consulate Shanghai. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
 
 
 
¶1. (C) Summary:  The Second Annual Chinese Bloggers Conference 
took place in Hangzhou from October 28-29.  Organizers had 
problems in holding the conference and had to switch venues 
twice.  While the public sessions suffered from uninspiring 
speakers, a conference organizer said there were 20 private 
sessions in which participants discussed issues such as 
overcoming China's firewall, human rights and NGOs.  In 
discussions with Poloff, most conference participants opposed 
the government's plans to force bloggers to register with their 
real names.  Organizers plan to modify the format at next year's 
conference to make sessions more focused and provide for 
participation by invitation only.  End Summary. 
 
 
 
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Conference Venues 
 
----------------- 
 
 
 
¶2. (C) Poloff and FSN Political Assistant attended the Second 
Annual Chinese Blogger Conference in Hangzhou on October 28-29. 
Like the first conference, which was held in Shanghai last year 
(reftel), the 2006 conference was organized by local bloggers 
without government involvement.  Conference organizer and 
prominent blogger Isaac Mao in a discussion with Poloff on 
November 7, said around 300 people attended the conference. 
While most of the participants were from mainland China, a few 
came from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and the United States. 
Mao added that over 500 people had registered online to attend, 
but many did not show up because the conference changed its 
venue two times in the final weeks before the event. 
 
 
 
¶3. (C) According to one organizer's blog, the conference was 
originally scheduled to be held at a conference center located 
at Zhejiang University.  In early October, organizers had to 
move to another venue after they were told that there would be a 
governmental meeting at Zhejiang University at the same time as 
the conference.  All of the buildings on the campus were needed 
for the meeting.  The second site was located at Hangzhou 
University.  The day before the conference was scheduled to 
begin, organizers were told that power was going to be cut off 
from the building in which the conference was to be held. 
Organizers quickly found another venue located at a hotel far 
from the city center. 
 
 
 
¶4.  (C)  Participants with whom Poloff spoke were not surprised 
that organizers had problems finding a venue and believed that 
the power shut off was just an excuse.  One participant who was 
a blogger from Shanghai said he heard that university officials 
were uncomfortable with the conference and pressured the 
organizers to move.  University officials were worried that 
students would be attracted to the conference.  Poloff stopped 
by the Hangzhou University site after the end of the first day's 
sessions and found that the building had electricity.  Many of 
the rooms had lights on and there was music playing in the 
hallways. 
 
 
 
-------------------- 
 
Uninspiring Speakers 
 
-------------------- 
 
 
 
¶5. (C)  As a result of the change in venues, the conference was 
plagued by technical problems.  The conference started late 
 
SHANGHAI 00007098  002 OF 004 
 
 
because most participants had to be bused from the Hangzhou 
University site to the hotel.  The microphones often did not 
work and there were not enough seats for conference 
participants.  These problems made it difficult for participants 
to focus on the speakers' presentations.  By the afternoon of 
the first day, many of the participants were not paying 
attention to the speakers and were either talking to friends or 
searching the Internet on their laptops. 
 
 
 
¶6.  (C) Only a few of the conference sessions touched on 
substantive issues.  Hong Bo who goes by the name Keso on his 
blog and is one of China's most influential bloggers gave the 
keynote speech.  According to a conference participant, Keso was 
one of the spiritual leaders of the Chinese blogging community 
and received approximately 10,000 page views a day on his 
website.  In his speech, he warned against the 
over-commercialization of Chinese blogs, which he said were 
fundamentally non-commercial entities.  He also criticized the 
Chinese government's plans to force bloggers to use their real 
names and said such a plan would have a negative affect on the 
Chinese blogsphere.  In another session, panelists said blogs 
were a "grassroots media" that played an important role in 
providing more accurate and diverse information. 
 
 
 
¶7.  (C) The other sessions were uninspiring and focused on 
commercial and technical issues.  Over half of the speakers 
deviated from their assigned topics and spent most of their time 
urging participants to visit their websites or use their 
products.  Most participants who spoke with Poloff and Political 
Assistant were not concerned or surprised by the sessions.  One 
participant who was a blogger from Taiwan said that he had been 
to similar conferences in Taiwan and these conferences always 
focused on commercial and technical issues.  Another participant 
who had attended the conference last year in Shanghai explained 
that most people attended last year's conference to meet friends 
and have technical exchanges.  Many found that it was a good 
opportunity to promote their business and returned this year 
with these goals in mind.  He was disappointed by the conference 
but said he would still return next year to keep in touch with 
friends. 
 
 
 
¶8.  (C) In a discussion with Poloff on November 15, Fudan 
University PHD candidate Robert Deng expressed similar views. 
Deng is researching the role of bloggers in China and attended 
the conference as a speaker.  He said conference participants 
were not representative of the blogging community in China. 
Most of the conference participants were involved in the IT 
field, in their late 20's or early 30's and male.  According to 
his research, bloggers in China were very diverse and many were 
not computer experts.  He also added that it was not surprising 
that there was little debate or discussion about substantive 
issues.  He said most bloggers were not comfortable speaking out 
in public settings and saved their opinions for their blogs. 
 
 
 
---------------------- 
 
Real-Name Registration 
 
---------------------- 
 
 
 
¶9.  (C)  Poloff and Political Assistant were able to talk to 
some participants about the Chinese government's proposed plan 
to require bloggers to register under their real names.  Most 
opposed the idea and said it would change what they wrote 
online.  In his talk on building trust on the Internet, 
Zhongshan University Professor Cheng Lehua said that although 
real-name registration would provide readers with more personal 
information about bloggers, it would not increase trust on the 
Internet and, therefore, was not needed.  Deng said that 
government efforts to control the internet such as real-name 
registration only had limited effect.  While it could prevent 
people from expressing some views, blogs were important, not 
because of their content, but because they teach people how to 
express themselves.  By having a blog or learning to use the 
 
SHANGHAI 00007098  003 OF 004 
 
 
Internet, people learned how to write and communicate.  They 
become more interested in the outside world and involved in 
issues.  Deng believed that this would lead to a fundamental 
change in Chinese society. 
 
 
 
¶10.  (C)  Mao said that real-name registration could actually 
have a positive effect on the Internet.  First, it would make 
people realize the true nature of the Chinese government and 
make some people more active in opposing governmental controls. 
Second, it would force people to look for alternatives to 
mainstream portals.  More people would start place their blogs 
on smaller portals or overseas portals not controlled by the 
government. 
 
 
 
-------------------- 
 
Small Group Sessions 
 
-------------------- 
 
 
 
¶11.  (C)  Isaac Mao acknowledged that the conference had some 
problems, but said that it was an overall success.  According to 
Mao, there were 20 private small group sessions that took place 
on the margins of the conference in which bloggers discussed 
issues such as how to overcome the "great firewall" (the system 
used by the Chinese government to prevent internet users in 
China from accessing anti-government websites), promoting human 
rights, and working with NGOs.  These sessions had approximately 
10 people each and were invite-only.  During the sessions, 
participants came up with ideas on how to tackle sensitive 
issues.  For example, in the next few months participants would 
introduce a website which would contain information on how to 
get past the "great firewall" and gain access to controversial 
websites.  (Note: It is not clear if he was referring to 
"psiphon," a program described in a November 11 International 
Herald Tribune article that allowed users to circumvent 
government censorship. End Note) 
 
 
 
¶12.  (C) Mao also defended the conference's commercial 
character.  First, he said it was natural for the conference to 
take on a commercial focus since most participants were young 
entrepreneurs who were looking for ways to improve their 
businesses.  Second, the conference's commercial veneer was 
useful in preventing governmental interference.  The group did 
not register last year's conference and Mao was concerned that 
it would not be able to pull off this year's conference without 
registering it.  So it registered the conference as a business 
meeting and avoided sensitive subjects in the public sessions. 
 
 
 
¶13. (C)  According to Mao, the conference was created to provide 
bloggers with an arena to discuss substantive issues.  He said 
that bloggers had been discussing sensitive issues for the past 
few years online.  To protect their privacy, bloggers used 
programs like Skype to evade government censors.  Soon 
afterwards, a few bloggers decided that it would be useful to 
meet in person and organized the first bloggers conference. 
This conference was a great success and a core group of bloggers 
emerged from it with an interest in promoting change.  There 
were approximately 20 people in this core group.  Most of them 
were male entrepreneurs or professionals in their early 
thirties.  Only one member of this core group was female.  The 
group wanted to hold a second conference to allow it to meet in 
person since many members lived in different cities and some 
even lived outside of China.  These were the individuals who 
participated in the private sessions.  In addition to creating a 
website on the "great firewall", the group planned to work with 
NGOs to assist them in setting up websites.  Mao noted that the 
group wanted to promote change but was not confrontational.  It 
avoided controversial groups such as the Falun Gong or human 
rights dissidents. 
 
 
 
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SHANGHAI 00007098  004 OF 004 
 
 
 
Future Plans? 
 
------------- 
 
 
 
¶14.  (C)  At the end of the conference, Mao announced that the 
next bloggers conference would be held in Beijing.  In private, 
however, Mao told Poloff that the conference would likely be 
held in a different city.  He was not completely satisfied with 
how this year's conference was organized.  He said that the core 
group of organizers, many of whom did not live in Hangzhou, left 
the details of organizing the conference to volunteers in 
Hangzhou.  These volunteers were very naove.  Not only had they 
tried to reserve space on college campuses, but had also 
publicized the conference to the local media.  The propaganda 
department banned the local media from covering the conference 
and local officials began asking specific questions about 
conference participants and speakers. 
 
 
 
¶15.  (C) Mao said the core group was discussing how to organize 
next year's conference.  Members wanted to maintain the 
conference's independence and would likely allow people to 
attend by invitation only.  In addition, there would be multiple 
tracks at the conference.  One track would focus on commercial 
issues, the other on social issues, and the third on NGOs. 
JARRETT