“Minister Qian, Sina news had published a commentary article about the news article we published.” One of Qian Liang’s staff reported.
“Oh? What did the article say?”
“The article says we are showing our determination to crack down on counterfeits and imitations and demonstrate our unit’s guts to take up responsibility and face public scrutiny. This is what a responsible government unit should do!” The staff replied excitedly.
All these years, the Industry and Commerce Bureau had been the target of scolding by the people. When they arrest those counterfeits and imitation sellers, people will scold them for bullying the people and confiscating their money. But people do not know they had shut down many illegal workshops and stopped the public from buying inferior counterfeits.
Some people know the products are fake but still buy them to save money. After that, they will complain about the Bureau for not doing their job.
The Bureau has to stop those counterfeits and imitations, and when they overlooked some imitation sellers, they will be scolded by the people and accused of them covering up!
The Bureau’s staff are used to getting scolded. The factories’ bosses will treat them with respect if they need their help. But when they don’t need their help, no one is willing to be their friends.
This is the first time the Bureau was praised openly, and the staff is overjoyed.
Qian Liang knew this must be Feng Yu’s doing to cheer for them.
All the major online news websites started to repost this article, and two factions appear on the forums. One side says the article is correct and the Bureau’s job is not easy. The other side felt these news websites are sucking up to the Bureau, as they are also under the Bureau’s jurisdiction.
“Eh, is this a joke? How can anyone say the Bureau is doing the right thing? This will be implying that the Bureau was not doing their job in the past. If not, why are there so many fake goods around?”
“You cannot say this too. Everyone knows there are many fake products around, but we will still buy them because they are cheap. If everyone doesn’t buy fake products and imitations, they will slowly disappear from the market. The Bureau can’t finish catching all of them.”
“Bullshit. Is one of your family members working in the Bureau? Let me tell you this. Those people in the Bureau are useless and corrupted.”
“Did you see it with your own eyes? Why didn’t you report against them?”
“These officials will cover up for each other, and it is useless even if I reported.”
“Get lost. These are all your guesses. You can come online and can type so fast, you should be someone educated. How can you be so stupid? You are too negative, and I think you should be those people who like to complain at your workplace.”
“F**k! It is none of your business how I act at my workplace!”
“You dare to curse?! #$$%#%&^@#%@^%$”
Both were debating about the article, and it suddenly becomes a fight. The moderator who was monitoring the forum quickly banned them from posting.
This morning, all the forum moderators received instructions to look out for discussions about this issue and to influence people to believe the higher-ups are serious about this crackdown. They must also prevent those negative people from making this crackdown into something bad.
The internet is on the rise, and many people realized that they can say whatever they want as no one knows who they are. They can just create a nick and post rumors.
It felt good to be noticed by others. But other than feeling satisfied, they have no monetary gains. At least, the internet still has not developed to this stage now.
Of course, these people exist everywhere in this world, and it’s impossible to stop them. Even when the internet requires users to use their real names, they will still be around. They will post rumors and then claimed their accounts were hacked.
The discussion over this topic gained momentum on the forums. The moderators influenced the netizens’ opinions by pushing up those positive posts, pushing down the negative ones, and banning those attacking the Bureau’s crackdown. Things slowly changed, and more people started believing Sina’s article.
This article had not stated the Industry and Commerce Bureau is right. It only pointed out what they are lacking.
It is considered an objective article, which is slightly biased. The next day, < People’s Daily> published Sina’s article, and more people read it.
Why did the higher-ups want to control the media? It is because they want to control the public’s opinions. Many people had said overseas media has the freedom of speech. But look at the number of fake news reported overseas. Today, they will report XXX President is assassinated, and tomorrow there will be news of the YYY Prime Minister coming out of the closet. Just look at Hong Kong’s tabloids. How many of their articles are fake and taken out of context?
Also, China is slowly opening up their media. They started allowing the privatization of magazines and media. The various online forums that appeared recently became another channel for them to spread the news.
Not everyone that goes online is rational. Many of them will believe whatever nonsense they read online and don’t admit it even if they know it’s fake later on.
The higher-ups have a good impression of Sina, as it is on the government’s side.
Many people criticized the government leaders for not doing their job, but they don’t know how much they had done. Also, they will twist the facts on some of the things the leaders had done.
Many people will pass judgments based on speculations and not facts. For example, when they saw an illegal street vendor getting his pushcart confiscated, they will sympathize with him. But they forgot that this street vendor had blocked the walkways and cheated money.
This time, the Industry and Commerce Bureau had become the topic of discussion everywhere. This incident is considered a scandal as they exposed themselves by admitting China has many imitations and counterfeits.
But after the public’s opinion was influenced, everyone accepted it and started to cooperate with the higher-ups on the crackdown. When the Central Industry and Commerce Bureau staff went to the grassroots levels for inspections, the local authorities tried to cover up. But the public quickly reported against them.
Many small factories without approvals and produces poor quality products are exposed.
After all these factories are closed down, many people cheered.
Of course, there are opposing voices. But as more and more articles with pictures showing the Bureau’s crackdown results appeared, these opposing voices quiet down.
Even the higher-ups noticed this and felt the Industry and Commerce Bureau had done a good job!
