End of an era? Chinese official who blazed a trail on social media under investigation

Chinese graft-busters announced this week that a provincial propaganda official in the southwest is under investigation – a case that is generating interest online because of his embrace of social media.

Wu Hao, the 52-year-old deputy head of the Yunnan Radio and Television Bureau, was the first Chinese official at that level to join Weibo – China’s Twitter – using his real name and identity in 2009.

He was among a handful of cadres using social media to communicate with the public at that time, and has since racked up 1.5 million followers. It is one of the most popular personal Weibo accounts of Communist Party officials.

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On Wednesday, the Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision in Yunnan province said Wu was being investigated, suspected of “serious violations of discipline and law” – a euphemism for corruption.

The anti-corruption body did not give further details of the case.

Seen as an outlier in Chinese officialdom, Wu has also called for more transparency – declaring his family’s properties and even his car number plate on his Weibo account.

Since Wednesday’s announcement, hundreds have left comments on that account – some critical of Wu, others lamenting that an “open-minded” party official who was willing to engage directly with the public was suspected of corruption.

One person wrote that it could be seen “as the end of an era”. “It may be difficult for netizens today to imagine that Chinese government officials would actually argue with netizens on Weibo 12 years ago,” they said.

Shi Yonghong, a former reporter with state news agency Xinhua, wrote on social media network WeChat that people “should actually encourage more officials to be like Wu Hao, who is part of officialdom but handles government affairs in a down-to-earth and easy-to-accept manner”.

In 2009, Wu was named by Chinese media as one of the country’s top 10 influential people over his response to a death in custody that year. Police in the Yunnan city of Yuxi had claimed the death was accidental, and that the young man had crashed into a wall during a “game of hide-and-seek” at the detention facility.

Wu – who had been deputy propaganda chief in Yunnan for just two months at the time – invited citizen journalists to look into the case, which led to provincial authorities later revealing that the man had been beaten to death by other detainees. The head of the detention centre, along with the police and correctional officers involved, were sacked.

Wu told reporters that he believed had done “the right thing” in that case since the official investigation had “lost credibility” with the public.

But he has also come under fire for defending the government. Protesters in 2010 threw 50-cent notes at him as he gave a lecture at Renmin University of China in Beijing. They accused him of being the leader of the 50-Cent Party – the nickname for the online commentators who spread official propaganda, some of whom are paid 0.50 yuan per post.

Wu said the protesters were “venting” but admitted that China’s management of the internet had room for improvement. He has also said that as a propaganda official he is an “image builder for the party and the government”.

According to Alfred Wu, an associate professor with the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, the era of Chinese officials interacting with the public on social media faded out after Xi Jinping took power in 2012.

“It’s too risky for officials to engage people directly online now. There is too much trouble, little upside but lots of downside risks,” he said.

“Party cadres could lose their positions if they misspeak, not to mention if they argue with people on policy or current affairs. So there is an information and communication vacuum waiting to be filled.”