Official takes back ‘scum’ remark

A senior official in Guizhou Province apologized Monday for using "improper words" on his Sina Weibo following previous posts describing Web users who criticize their "motherland" as "scum" and telling them to emigrate to the US.

Chen Mingming, vice-governor of the province, wrote in a Monday post that as a Web user and a provincial-level official, he should be more cautious about his expressions online when discussing with other Web users.

The deputy governor's inappropriate comments came after some Weibo users asked him to heed troubles in China rather than worry about other countries, when he questioned why deadly shootings had happened in the US again in a Sunday repost of the Miami shooting rampage.

Chen explained the purpose of reposting the news was to tell the public not to keep lambasting the problems in China all the time and forget to praise its growth, "though criticism and supervision are deemed acts of patriotism."

The official also said earlier on Weibo that he would like to disclose the property of his immediate family members, after some Web users questioned whether his assets had been secretly transferred to the US.

However, his outspokenness won some supporters, who said the officials' opinions should also receive the same respect as other users.

"The interactions between Chen and other users are a new attempt showing that he wants to receive public supervision and should be encouraged," Wang Tianding, dean of the School of Journalism and Communication at Xi'an International Studies University, told the Global Times, adding that officials are always deemed mysterious and distant from the public, but Chen is acting differently.

Chen is one of the very few high-ranking officials who has a verified active Weibo account. He has 5,326 posts and nearly 288,000 followers so far.

But Wang said officials had to be careful with their choice of language. "Vulgar words bring down their images," Wang said, adding this also reflects problems in the system of promoting officials. But he said that this shouldn't discourage officials from speaking out online, just encourage them to mind their words.

"Officials' behavior online can also be regarded as part of the government's publicity campaign even though they put the information in their personal Weibo accounts," said Wei Wuhui, an associate professor at the School of Media and Design with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, adding that once you are verified to be a government official on social media, users will treat you as a public figure.