Internet in China: the Bible trumps Mao’s Little Red Book (and the Pope tops the Prime Minister)
Beijing ( AsiaNews) - The Bible has trumped Mao's Little Red Book; Christians far outnumber members of the Communist Party; Pope Francis is more popular than Li Keqiang and Jesus tops Xi Jinping. These are the surprising results of an analysis conducted by Foreign Policy on Weibo, the popular Chinese micro-blogging site. A researcher analyzed the flow of words quoted on the site, used by about 300 million Chinese, and has compiled a ranking of popularity.
There are about 17 million biblical
quotations compared to 60 thousand attributable to Chairman Mao. Users
who discuss the various Christian churches are 41.8 million, while those who
speak of the Communist Party are 5.3 million. In
addition, although present every day in the national press - and often also the
international press - President Xi Jinping is mentioned by 4 million: Jesus
Christ, much less present in the national media, 18 million. Similarly,
Pope Francis has many more entries than Prime Minister Li Keqiang.
According
to Bethany Allen, who led the study, the results "are amazing" but
they have a logical explanation: about 100 thousand Chinese officials in charge
of censoring the network "has a big role to play, as it is their job to
delete anything that may be deemed politically sensitive, so any entry
containing the names of top leaders in China is more likely to be deleted in
order to avoid controversy".
This
of course does not mean that there is no complaints against Christianity:
" If you search for posts made in underground churches, communities or
those who refuse to register with the state, it produces a blank search page,
with a notice reading, 'results cannot be displayed due to relevant laws and
regulations'. This is also true for other sensitive topics from religious point of view
[such as Tibet, the Dalai Lama and Uyghurs - ed] . "
Allen,
however,
hastens to add that this type of analysis is not an exact science: "To the people of China Communist
ideology is no longer of interest, while Christianity continues to attract
people. For more than two decades, in spite of everything, the Christian
population and the presence in China continue to grow".
26/07/2012
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