Along with the “Open Letter” to Xinjiang Netizens, Tianshan Net also published an article by a commentator on the significance of the reopening of the Internet and the responsibilities expected of netizens now that everything is back to normal. Here is our translation:
Starting May 14th, Internet service has been fully restored: you can chat on QQ, you can search on Baidu, and you can post on bulletin boards.
This is long-awaited news for the 700 thousand Internet users in our region; for the over 20 million people in Xinjiang this is a good thing.
Recently, following the confirmation of a new round of aid to help Xinjiang surge forward, a group 19 city and province representatives finished a high-level inspection tour of Xinjiang; with the Central Committee’s Xinjiang Work Conference about to begin, Xinjiang has a historical opportunity for considerable growth, opening, and development. It is in this context that Internet service has been restored to Xinjiang, which is timing of extraordinary significance.
This news brings warmth to the popular sentiment of the people. It means our lives are finally back to normal and shows that the Party and the government, by ensuring stability, has care, empathy, and respect for the people.
This is a forceful and effective signal. It means that peace has returned to this region of our lives and shows that the Party has the confidence and ability to protect social stability in an open Internet environment.
This is a rallying call that excites the heart. It means that just before a historical opportunity for great development, that we shall, to the largest extent possible, use all our information resources, gather all our strength, and realize developmental breakthroughs and lasting peace in Xinjiang.
After the July 5th Incident, due to the need to protect social stability and in accordance with the decisions of the Central Committee and Autonomous Regional Party Committee, the regional government implemented management measures over the network going into and leaving Xinjiang, over text messaging, and over international and long distance phone calls, cutting off, in a timely manner, the ability of law breakers to join together to instigate and plot. These facts prove that this instance of communication management measures was timely, correct, and effective, serving an important role in the Party and government’s efforts to rapidly take care of the July 5th Incident and guarding against further instances of violent criminal activity. After the July 5th Incident, the overall situation throughout the region became more stable and benefited from the active effects produced by communication management.
There are two sides to every issue. To separate the truth from the facts, it must be said that communication management is an important measure to undertake for the protection social stability in times of urgency. However, it also affected normal economic life throughout Xinjiang and inconvenienced the communication needs of the daily work and life of the masses.
In spite of these effects and inconveniences, cadres and peoples of every ethnicity within our region stood as one for protecting the motherland, united together to protect all peoples, and strove to protect overall social stability, overcoming the difficulties that occurred at work and in everyday life over this period of time, giving full understanding and support to communication management.
It is precisely this precious ability to consider the situation without regard to one’s personal comforts, to take into account the larger issues, that forms the unyielding foundation for the protection of stability in Xinjiang and protecting ethnic unity. It is precisely this precious ability to distinguish right from wrong, to understand things well, that created the conditions for the prompt, complete reinstatement of the Internet.
We must not ignore the fact that, due to the influence of complicated issues both within and outside our borders, our responsibility for protecting stability in our region remains as arduous as before. The exploitation of the Internet by the “Three Forces” to coordinate and plan destructive activities has not ceased. And so we must value and cherish the need to maintain vigilance even more, and through one’s actual activities and actions contribute to construction of a safe and healthy Internet environment and work hard to protect social stability and strengthen ethnic unity.
If the nobleman1 loves the Internet, he will use it with moral discretion. The revered sage once said, “Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement which is contrary to propriety.”2 Even in the world of the Internet, which some people consider to be a “personal space,” the bottom line of civil behavior exists all the same. Every netizen must remember: say no words harmful to unity, do nothing harmful to stability, do not pass on political videos that do not serve the interests of the state.
If the nobleman loves the Internet, he will use it with restraint. “Any freedom that does not have standards to measure by is mere indulgence.” The Internet surely provides a broad, unmatched platform, but it is a space that belongs to real rule of law, any activity that violates the rights of others, harms public interest, or damages the interests of the nation must be punished according to the law.
We can’t live without an open Internet environment, but we definitely cannot live without stability and social order, because without the latter, we would have nothing.
And so, when we are speaking freely on QQ, when were are publishing our opinions on forums, when we are speaking our mind on microblogs, never forget the moral demands of a civilized person, never forget the rule of law under every citizen.
A healthy, open Internet environment needs the vigilant protection of each and every one of us.
[1]:^ The author here is referring specifically to the Confucian concept of a “gentleman” or a “nobleman,” 君子.
[2]:^ Analects XII, 1
