(boker chadash alai…) 

Rebecca MacKinnon’s open letter to US newbie president Obama has already been widely quoted in many blogs. Her advice to the president: use your team’s web savvyness to talk to the Chinese people, not just their government.

One can hardly disagree with a call for more open conversation, and everybody who has been following just any China report in the American or European media the last few years would tell you how influential the Internet has grown here. It is changing the face of China! It is the new revolution!

Is it really?

300 million Internet users is a high number by any standard, but its worth remembering that by percentage of the population, Internet penetration in China stands on just over 21%, about the world average, only slightly higher than the Asian average, about half the penetration in Europe and a mere third of the figure for North America.

President Obama and his team can benefit a lot from engaging themselves with the Chinese netizens. However, they may run the risk of getting a somewhat distorted answer to that eternal question: “What do Chinese people think”.

It’s easy to get swept away with excitement over the sheer number of net users here, Especially for observers who themselves spend large chunks of their lives online (and don’t we all?), but it might be more prudent to keep in mind that even in these wired times, an overwhelming majority of the Chinese people, especially the two largest sectors: migrant workers and peasants, remain virtually offline. As always, they are the people everyone talks about, but (almost) no one is talking to.

Will Obama talk to her?

 *one more thing

You’d think the evil spirits would take the hint by now