China Mobile launch "Ask the Premier" to expand Chinese Democracy

China Mobile launch "Ask the Premier" to expand Chinese Democracy. Just in time for the annual full sessions of the National People's Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Xinhuanet.com and China Mobile have launched a campaign called "Ask the Premier" to promote "democracy with Chinese characteristics".

"For several consecutive days, we were seeing a dozen mobile phone messages coming in every second through our platform," said Ms. Xu, a staff with China Mobile who asked to be identified only by her surname. "Surprisingly, all the questions were addressed to Premier Wen Jiabao."

By Tuesday, more than 250,000 text messages were sent as a response to the campaign, mainly from blue-collars, farmers, and students. According to Beijing-based political observer, the Chinese government encourages grass-root citizens to "orderly participate in politics" to expand democracy.

Maybe It's kinda weird when you have China and democracy in the same sentence. On the other hand, it's nice to see how mobile technology makes politics more accessible for ordinary Chinese people.

(source)