The Study Of Contemporary Chinese Cyber-populism

A dedicated research on Cyber-populism ideological trend of contemporary China should be strengthened in consideration of current social condition,objective requirements for learning historical lessons,present weak populism basic theoretical research,and main profound theoretical issues.From academic perspective,the systematic development of cyber-populism research helps to enhance people's comprehensive understanding of cyber-populism and further enriches the development of populist basic theoretical research and even the theoretical study of social thought.From practical perspective,it helps to improve the effectiveness of online populism alleviation and to promote the modernization of national governance systems and governance capabilities,as well as provide experience for the improvement of global governance capabilities.At present,cyber-populism trend spreads like overwhelming torrents,which is closely related to the domestic and international environment: the lack of sense of responsibility in the political participation of the public,confrontation dilemmas frequent appeared in interest expression during the social transition,and the social anxiety in the internet era and the democratic crisis intensified by global political right-wings.The outbreak of contemporary Chinese Cyber-populism,mainly manifested by public sentiment crisis,can be divided into three stages and five types.The three stages include the public sentiment breakout with Post Bar and Blog as media during 1994-2009,civil carnival with Weibo as carrier during 2009-2012,political mentality populism of the people after 18 th National Congress of the CPC in Nov.2012.Six types of online populist events can be listed as follow: the confrontation between the rich and poor(such as“Hangzhou Brake Case”,2009),the opposition between the government and the people(such as "My dad is Li Gang Case,2010),anti-intellectualism(such as “Fudan University Mount Huangshan case”,2010),the bottom narrative(such as “ Xia Junfeng case ”,2011),misleading patriotism(such as“Anti-Japanese and Diaoyu Island Protection Parade”,2012)and environmental protection(such as “Shifang Molybdenum Copper Incident”,2012).As different stages of Cyber-populism have presented varied deductive situations,different types of Cyber-populism also have diverse deductive characteristics.From the perspective of induced factors,the continuous interaction of complexcontradictions,in terms of economic,political,social,cultural,ecological civilization construction,party building,and other aspects,is the premise and foundation for the emergence of cyber-populism;some people has lost their faith in social progress,missed happiness in material abundance,gathered anger in pursuing rationality,and accumulated resentment in the grateful era,all of which is the important factors in the generation and deduction process of Cyber-populism.It can also be put from perspective of specific manifestations.In the dimension of the induced factors,sticking to interest contention as the core and focusing on the lower and middle class with fairness as the basic value orientation,which is the primary feature of the deep interpretation of populism in contemporary China;emphasizing the resistance narrative represented by public-opinion-based trials and realizing moral and emotional group identity and mass revelry is an important manifestation of populism in contemporary China;for social influence,cyber violence accompanied by enthusiasm,induced stratification the chasm and society fragmentation have become another feature of the continued deduction of populism in contemporary China.Cyber-populism surely has certain positive value in following values of vulnerable groups,strengthening internet supervision,and improving citizens' political literacy.However,compared with positive value,it has much more major social harm,which deserves much wider attention from all sectors of the community.The Cyber-populism ideological trend is manifested as the bottom people,jeer and confrontational narratives,directly referring to officials,the rich,police,experts and scholars,which is contrary to the spirit of democracy and the rule of law.It will inevitably constitute a serious interference in the cultivation and practice of socialist core values,dispel authority of the social elite,and induce the loss of the government's credibility.Being hostile to social elites,who master most social resources has shaped the “Hostility +” mentality for officials,the rich,the police,experts and other groups.The romantic description of the life of ordinary people and the worship of the general public,under the extreme deduction of the convergence of nationalism,will inevitably further fuel the violent temperament in the society,and will easily induce the people to move toward a zero-sum game in shaping the polarization psychology,deviating from the development direction of social rationality and peace.Cyber-populism's advocation on dualistic discourse mode will further deepen trust crisis among social strata and intensify the class opposition among the public,which will inevitably further widen the gap between social strataand induce society fragmentation;cyber-populism admires the concept of “No gap between the rich and the poor”,which misleads people to equate common prosperity with average wealth or simultaneous prosperity,and to view shared development as average development or development in the same direction.It advocates to achieve shared development by means of internally “liquidating original sin” and externally“expelling foreign investment”,which is a wrong choice to realize the shared development.They can do nothing but encouraging irrational thinking and illegal shared development,undermining social order and damaging legal authority,which will certainly destroy the foundation of contemporary China's shared development and endanger the shared development.Given that cyber-populism is the specific manifestation of global populism inundation and regional localization in contemporary China,it is necessary to draw lessons from foreign experience in settling with populism.In the Soviet Union,Lenin has adopted a "radical-to-radical" way to replace Social Democratic Party with Socialist Revolutionary Party in terms of thinking,maintaining a revolutionary posture in the forefront of populism,which has quickly gained the support of the masses and finally grasped the political power in the October Revolution.However,the Soviet Union's response to populism has left us a lot of painful lessons.The Social Democratic Party has succeeded because of a more radical revolutionary strategy than the Socialist Revolutionary Party.However,after the victory,they not only failed to timely clear the negative impact of the radical revolutionary strategy,but continued to follow a more radical strategy,all of which made the Soviet Union's arduous rush into a “radical to more radical” pattern and ultimately suffered from the accumulated mistakes of Stalin Mode.This essentially represents Soviet-Union-style Maxism's failure to combat populism.In Latin America,the Narodnik leaders,with Peronism as sample,conquered populism with populism,adopting populist political and economic strategies that cater to people in the bottom strata with good short-term benefits,which can often quickly win the support of mostly urban labor.However,this kind of political and economic policy just like “living beyond” and “draining the pond to get all fishes”,gradually plunging the country into a vicious circle of politics and economy and deeply trapped in the "middle income trap".In Central and Eastern Europe,some countries,such as Hungary,have inherited the political and cultural traditions in accordance with the actual political and social conditions,forming a democratic system that is inferior but can withstand the crisis,which successfullyrestrained the formation of a Latin American populist authoritarian rule.That can also be regarded as a successful experience in dealing with populism.Although the harsh historical lessons of the drastic changes in Eastern Europe cannot provide us with good references,their way to deal with the populist crisis does.As socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era,to relieve Cyber-populism,we must take Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese characteristics for a New Era as guidance,practice the people-first thinking,and improve power and competitiveness,as well as authority and attraction of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.We should,with main contradictions of the new era society as base,continue to enhance the people's sense of gain,happiness,security,and guide the people to shape the value identity of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.Then,we can demonstrate social justice in the process of dispelling the appeal of cyber-populist interests.At present,people should take development stage of contemporary Chinese social transformation into consideration,combine history with times,face up to the inevitability of the emergence of online populism and its persistence,observe global populist history in a vertical view,make comparison from global perspectives,and see Cyber-populism relief as a long-term and arduous work.Besides,it is necessary to adhere to the unity of theoretical research and technical differentiation,to strengthen scientific research on online populism,and to achieve accurate identification of the populist elements in online public opinion.The follow-up analysis of the populism ideological trends can provide a strong support for the Cyber-populism ideological trends relief.To relieve contemporary Chinese Cyber-populism,we should take Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as guide.We should strengthen public education to cultivate responsible and positive citizens in the new era and strengthen the guidance of civil society mentality to improve their rationality and capacity in term of political participation,helping them participate rationally.We should also focus on social problem,stick to a strategy targeted at people's livelihood and politics,spare no efforts to solve some major issues that is easy to induce Cyber-populism,especially for some problems likely to question public power,making it easy to show public interests with more expression channels.We should improve sense of gains,happiness and security for people,which narrows the room for Cyber-populism incubation.We should have a clear-cut connotation ofshard development and resist the distraction from Cyber-populism trend,steadily improving people's sense of gains,happiness,and security by means of shared development and ensuring public fairness and justice.In the end,the role of law and standard in internet environment governance should be increasingly improved to promote governance effectiveness,remove the hostility and rage in internet space,and shape a fair and upright internet space,creating a favorable environment for Cyber-populism relief.