Paul Dixon’s PR blog

Yesterday, an interesting article appeared above the fold on the second page of China’s English language newspaper – the China Daily – regarding urges made by the vice-minister of the State Council Information Office for local governments to be more open and transparent. According to the vice-minister, attempts to block media coverage of negative incidents was “too naïve” and that “blocking bad news” was becoming more difficult, given the wide use of new information technologies and also the central government’s commitment to information transparency.

The reason why a senior official came out with this is of course due to the headline-grabbing brick kiln slave scandal; children were abducted and sold to brickyards in several counties in Shanxi (a province west of Beijing) then forced to labour 14 hours a day without sufficient food. 

Although the local government began taking action in April, officials stayed tight-lipped until it was too late – and headlines such as “Brick Kilns: Where were the authorities?” started grabbing above and below the fold coverage in the national newspapers throughout June, and indeed still are. In terms of the media reaction, the crisis was exacerbated by the fact that the scandal first came to the media’s attention through the parents of the abducted children. Utilizing these ‘new information technologies’ (i.e. the Internet), parents garnered public support by telling their horrific stories and appealed for netizens to sign their online petition. Subsequently, the story was first picked up by local media – the snowball effect (and for good reason) doing the rest.

There is little doubt that even if the local government had been open and transparent from the very beginning back in April national newspapers still would have ordered extra ink by the barrel to cover the story. However, as the vice-minister said, “Had the government kept the media and the public informed, we would have seen a different result on discussion of officials’ accountability.”

This on-going scandal is highlighting the need for Chinese government officials – at all levels – to be media savvy and have the skills to deal with the media in a crisis. It’s encouraging that the vice-minister alluded to some key crisis management skills (communicate early, frequently and actively engage the media) that should be utilized in the future. Furthermore, his admission that ‘bad news’ is becoming harder to control, could lead to more openness and transparency of government top to bottom.

However, no matter how fluffy this all sounds, talk of open and transparent government will have no effect on how the ‘sensitive’ issues are discussed. Well, they aren’t discussed at all actually.  There is nothing transparent about the events of ’89; the Government’s subsequent silence is why nearly 18 years on it is still hotly talked about in Western media. Perhaps the vice-minister could take some advice from his own words: “It has been repeatedly proved ‘information blockage’ is like walking into a dead end.” Somehow, I don’t think that one’s going to make it out of the pipeline – blocked, or unblocked.