Chinese Coup Rumors Run Wild Online, Then Disappear

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-21/chinese-coup-rumors-run-wild-online-then-disappear-adam-minter.html

by J3L2404 • 14 years ago

44 11 14 years ago

bloomberg.com

judgej2• 14 years ago

Here we see the folly of censorship. If one farts in a vacuum, the fart quickly spreads to occupy the entire area.

meric• 14 years ago

It spreads so far and wide it disappears very quickly too.

seanmcdirmid2• 14 years ago

The rumor was only censored, it wasn't obliterated. The weibo crowd will just start using code words to keep talking about it.

riobard2• 14 years ago

Really bad journalism and reporting. No fact-checking, no reliable sources, just pure speculations based on random “tweets” (from the Chinese clone of Twitter named Sina Weibo).

TL;DR:

1. A high-profile politician was relieved of duty.

2. A famous businessman tweeted a cryptic message about the censorship about this event on Sina Weibo.

3. Someone tweeted that there was police and military vehicles in front of the central government and thought it might be a coup.

4. Someone else tweeted that s/he heard gunshot.

5. Someone claimed it was actually fireworks (which was actually banned in inner parts of Beijing except for a few days during the Spring Festival).

6. The term “coup“ was then put into the censorship list of Sina Weibo and thus became unsearchable.

7. A spokesman of the Foreign Ministry denied rumors of the coup.

Seriously, what's the point of this kind of stuff?

adjwilli• 14 years ago

When censorship doesn't allow proper journalism, speculation is better than nothing.

seanmcdirmid2• 14 years ago

Living in China, I was going to reply the same way. Without factual information, all you have are rumors. The opacity of the CCP necessarily leads to crap like this.

Bloomberg was meta-reporting on the rumor, where it is factually verifiable that the rumor has arisen. In the absence of real information rumors are very important to our daily life; e.g., if chinadaily explicitly refutes a rumor, it gains some possibility of actually being true since otherwise they probably would not have taken the effort to refute it. I can understand why Bloomberg would take the presence of a rumor as news, not claiming any truth to the rumor as fact.

We are still on edge with the Wang Lijun Chengdu consulate incident. What the heck was that all about (we still don't have any clue)? Something is up, and since this year is a leadership change, there is a lot of power jockeying going on, really anything could happen. Its going to be a very interesting year to say the least.

yaix2• 14 years ago

You forgot 3.b) Somebody else posted links to show that these photos where not from a few nights ago, but from 2 years ago.

"Bad journalism"? It is what it says it is: reporting of a major rumor that goes around Weibo. How is that not news worthy?

riobard2• 14 years ago

Don't get me started on that one. That rumor is quoted from The Epoch Times, a U.S.-based “newspaper” with a very clear political agenda. This isn't a trustworthy source to quote from if you know even a tiny bit about this agency's motivation and track record of faking stuff.

BTW the quoted picture [1] is a freaking tank, not any ordinary armed police/military vehicles from the previous rumor. Any one with a common political sense would immediately understand the implication of the appearance of a tank in the center of Beijing at times other than the National Day Parade. The Epoch Times, as usual, went to far on making this crap up.

The author had clearly checked the photos and verified they were indeed from two years ago for the preparation of the 60th National Day, what is the point of bringing this up? And since when does quoting disproved rumors from untrustworthy sources make good journalism?

[1] http://asianconservatives.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Cou...

olalonde• 14 years ago

> Regarding last night’s internet rumors that loud noises in Beijing were caused by gunfire … actually the citizens of Beijing welcome the news that oil prices will rise and spontaneously gather in the streets to set off fireworks and celebrate. Don’t worry about a coup!

Actually, I've heard several fireworks in Shenzhen today (even heard one while writing this comment). I'm surprised anyone would assume a gunshot when fireworks are so common (at least, in the area where I live).

Chinese Coup Rumors Run Wild Online, Then Disappear

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