China’s President Hu Jintao had a brief online chat with members of the People’s Daily‘s ‘Strong Country’ online forum this morning.
The whole chat lasted about four minutes. President Hu answered three questions asked by three netizens. The three questions were:
1. Do you use the Internet?
2. What do you do on the Internet?
3. Netizens have put up a lot of suggestions about the country; do you read them?
President Hu said that he did use the Internet quite often, though not every day. He pointed out that the People’s Daily‘ Strong Country Forum is one of the few sites he checks every time he gets online.
He said the Internet is an important source of news as well as a channel where the president can find out what netizens’ concerns are, and a way to gather their opinions. Then the moderator said the President was very busy and announced the end of the talk. Hu wished everyone good health and happy life.
Possibly because of the sudden increase of traffic, many netizens who were eager to have a word with their president found the site inaccessible. Nevertheless, their unanswered questions are posted on the forum. Some of the questions:
– Are you angry with the harsh questions posted on the forum?
– What do think of the 93% support rate for your government?
– What is your comment on the performance of the Chinese people in the face of disasters this year?
This is a video of Hu’s online chat session that has been uploaded to Youku.com:
- People’s Daily Strong Country Forum (Chinese): Strong Country Forum, A must read of President Hu