China: Netizen Party announced

From forcing the rescue of hundreds of brick kiln slave laborers last year and seeing it through long after local bodies gave up to being analytical piranhas when dealt obvious official lies, and numerous examples in between, it seems some netizens have realized their comparative advantage over local government authorities and this hubris now brings us the China Netizen Party. These are its founding bylaws:

中国网民党章程暨成立宣言

Bylaws and Founding Declaration of the China Netizen Party

  

  序言

Preface

  一、中国网民党的性质和宗旨序言
  二、中国网民党的四项基本原则
  三、中国网民党的三大基本任务
  四、中国网民党的党员登记、党部设立与党费党产
  五、中国网民党党员的日常学习与工作
  六、中国网民党党员的誓言

1. Preface to the Nature and Objectives of the China Netizen Party
2. The Four Basic Principles of the China Netizen Party
3. The Three Major Tasks of the China Netizen Party
4. Member Registration, Establishment of Party Chapters, and Party Fees and Assets of the China Netizen Party
5. Daily Study and Work for Members of the China Netizen Party
6. Oath for Members of the China Netizen Party

  2007年是中国网民胜利的一年,“华南虎”、“欧阳坑”等欺骗中国人民和世界人民的事件都一一遭到中国网民的深刻揭批。这充分说明了在网络时代,愚民政策愚不了网民。中国网民从此站起来了!我们决意组建中国网民党,作为彻底抛弃盲信、盲从的象征,作为中国从此进入网络时代的标志,作为中国社会民意表达大变革的里程碑,我们站起来了。

2007 was a year of victory for Chinese netizens, as one-by-one they laid bare and denounced such incidents as the “South China Tiger” to “Ouyang's Crater” and other which deceived both the Chinese People and the world. This clearly illustrates that in the Internet Age, obscurantist policy no longer has its desired effect on The Netizen. The Chinese Netizens hereby rise up! We are determined to form the Chinese Netizen Party to serve not only as a symbol of the complete abandonment of fanaticism and blind assent, but also as a sign that China has entered the Internet Age and a revolutionary milestone in public opinion within Chinese society, that we have now risen.

  一、中国网民党的性质和宗旨:

1. Preface to the Nature and Objectives of the China Netizen Party:

  1、中国网民党似党而非党
  2、中国网民党只有人性没有“党性”
  3、中国网民党只有团结互爱没有阶级斗争
  4、中国网民党只有合法经营没有巧取豪夺
  5、中国网民党只有正义与良知没有暴力加欺骗
  6、中国网民党誓与一切欺骗、伪造、撰改为敌
  7、中国网民党誓与一切删贴、锁贴等冷热暴力为仇
  8、中国网民党必须坚持人民的领导,坚持“只要人民怀疑,我们就去调查”的重要原则

1. The China Netizen Party both is and isn't a Party;
2. The China Netizen Party bears the characteristics of humanity only and a political party not at all;
3. The China Netizen Party is of unity and mutual love only and class struggle not at all;
4. The China Netizen Party is of lawful operations only and forced or sly profiteering not at all;
5. The China Netizen Party is of justice and conscience only and violence and deceit not at all;
6. The China Netizen Party swears to take all deceit, forgery and revisionism as its enemy;
7. The China Netizen Party swears hatred at all deletion of posts, censorship and other such forms of violence;
8. The China Netizen Party will hold The People's leaders to the key principle of The People of “where there's doubt, we'll investigate”.

  二、中国网民党的四项基本原则:

2. The Four Basic Principles of the China Netizen Party:

  1、公开 2、理性 3、非暴力 4、统一行动

1. Open;
2. Rational;
3. Non-violent;
4. Unified in action;

  三、中国网民党的三大基本任务:

3. The Three Major Tasks of the China Netizen Party:

  1、揭露一切欺骗与虚伪行为,还世间以朗朗乾坤;
  2、扫平一切冷热暴力,还天下以大同社会;
  3、宣传“全民参与、齐说真话”的思想,最终促成还权于民。

1. Expose all deceitful and hypocritical behavior, restore balance in the world;
2. Put down violence in all its forms, restore perfect harmony to society;
3. Call for an ideology of “all-citizen involvement, speak the truth in unison”, with the ultimate goal of restoring power to the people.

  四、中国网民党的党员登记、党部设立与党费党产:

4. Member Registration, Establishment of Party Chapters, and Party Fees and Assets of the China Netizen Party

  1、凡认同中国网民党宗旨、基本原则与基本任务的全世界无论国籍、种族、性别、年龄的网民均可自行宣布为中国网民党成员,所有党员一律不予注册、登记
  2、中国网民党各党部根据地域、爱好、行业、论坛等可自由组建,党部领袖内部民主选拔,所有党员均可自由同时加入多个党部
  3、中国网民党无须交纳任何党费,亦无任何党产。

1. Regardless of nationality, race, gender or age, any netizen on earth who identifies with the objectives, basic principles and basic tasks of the Chinese Netizen Party may declare themselves members of the China Netizen Party, and all party members without exception are not to sign up or register in any fashion;
2. The China Netizen Party collects no party fees or assets.

  五、中国网民党党员的日常学习与工作:

5. Daily Study and Work for Members of the China Netizen Party

  1、学习、实践和宣传正义与良知是中国网民党最重要的工作
  2、中国网民党所有党员都要深刻认识到惟有正义与良知才能拯救中国。而朗朗乾坤、大同社会的最终确立,取决于我们今日的努力
  3、中国网民党的目的就是揭批谎言,以遍布中国的各种网络社区、论坛、网站为战斗阵地。网络是我们的武器,网民是我们的军队!

1. Study, practice and speak out in the two main areas of China Netizen Party work, justice and conscience;
2. All members of the China Netizen Party must profoundly understand that righteousness and conscience alone can save China. And the ultimate establishment of an ideal society for all depends on our efforts today.
3. The objective of the China Netizen Party is to expose and denounce lies, with all internet communities, forums and websites in China as our battle positions. Networks are our weapons, netizens are our troops!

  六、中国网民党党员的誓言

6. Oath for Members of the China Netizen Party

  中国网民党的历史使命的实现取决于全体党员的共同奋斗!荣辱与共、同舟共济,让我们紧紧团结在广大人民的周围,为正义而战!为良知而战!正义万岁!良知万岁!!中国网民万万岁!!!

  Realization of the China Netizen Party's historical mission depends upon the joint efforts of all party members! Together through the good and bad, joined in times of trouble, let us firmly unite the majority of the people and fight for justice! And for conscience! Long live Justice! Long live Conscience! Long live The Chinese Netizen!

  中国网民党中央委员会、
  中国网民党代理主席 张不为
  二00八年二月四日

China Netizen Party Central Committee
China Netizen Party Acting Chairman, Zhang Buwei
February 4, 2008

  中国网民党联系办法:
  skype:zhangbuwei1989 gmail:zhangbuwei1989@gmail.com

China Netizen Party means of contact:
Skype: zhangbuwei1989
Gmail: zhangbuwei1989@gmail.com

The birth of the CNP was announced this month by Guo Quan, the former Nanjing University professor now preparing to sue both Yahoo! and Google after recently discovering he'd become victim of the online equivalent of being disappeared, with his name filtered out of search results on the two search engines’ Chinese sites. His chances of really being disappeared look higher now too after Guo wrote an open letter late last year calling for increased democracy and just last month started his own political party to that effect, the New People's Party, believed to be the reason he lost his teaching job.

Fittingly, one of the few places mention of the CNP can now be found within China is in the midst [zh] of discussions of the offline rescue missions organized spontaneously by netizens this past week for those trapped by the snow, where readers can be seen networking quickly, constantly updating and redirecting efforts accordingly, cooperating with police who alone weren't able to keep up.

Guo, a historian known for his work on the Nanjing Massacre as well as a harsh anti-Japanese stance in general, while with those credentials alone is fit to represent a large portion of China's 200,000,000 netizen population, it was probably a smarter move to stick with his political party and name ‘Zhang Buwei’ as the China Netizen Party's acting chairman. Guo, it should be mentioned, has done scandal-busting work of his own. Zhang himself has not yet written publicly about the CNP, but was willing to answer a few text-based questions:

Q 网民党现在有网站,或者博客吗?

Does the China Netizen Party have a website or blog?

A 没有

No

Q 大概什么时候可以见一个?

When can we see one?

A 暂时没这个计划 我们主要通过Email和skype联系 主要在国内论坛上活动

There is no plan for one at present. We'll mainly be keeping contact through e-mail and Skype. Most of our activity will be on mainland forums.

Q 微博客也没有?比如‘饭否’或Twitter. 去年网志年会微博客是一个关键话题

Not even a microblog, like Fanfou or Twitter? This was a key topic at last year's Chinese Blogger Conference.

A 这个我不懂

Not sure about that.

Q 在中国立党不安全,你和郭泉和别的网民党党员将面对的危险多大?

It's not safe to go establishing parties in China; how likely is it that this will prove dangerous for you, Guo Quan and other members?

A 我和郭随时可能被中共打压 我们都已经做好了坐牢的准备 网民党成员的压力要小些 因为网民党的章程没有把自己定义成真正的政党性质

The CCP might take Guo or me down at any time. We're already well-prepared that we might go to jail. Pressure on members of the China Netizen Party will be slightly less, because the bylaws of the China Netizen Party don't define us a proper political party.

Q 网民是怎么样可以说明自己的网民党成员或者党支持者的身份?比如在自己的博客上放广告,牌子等。现在在国内几乎找不到关于网民党的资料

How do you plan to confirm membership, or how are members supposed to identify themselves as supporters or members? Badges for their blogs, for example. There's little information on the China Netizen Party to be found online in China right now.

A 刚才上面说了,我党并不属于真正意义上的政党,所以我党成员并不需要随时都公开自己的身边
此其一
其二
我党成员内部有一定的分工 ,大家接到相关工作安排后,便前往各个论坛开展工作,所以也不需要公开自己的身份

Like I just said, the Party isn't a proper political party, so members don't need to always need to identify themselves publicly. That's one; second is that all work is divided internally among party members, and when they receive their respective work assignments, they just go and carry out that work on the bbs forums, so they don't need to disclose their identities.

Q 你党会继续做像胡佳那种主动博客工作吗
另外,你对胡佳他这种事业有什么看法?

Will your party carry on the kind of blogging work Hu Jia was doing? And, what is your thought on the kind of work Hu Jia did?

A 我所在的新民党的工作跟胡佳的工作性质是一样的
我对他和他的事业都充满崇敬之情

The nature of of the work of my current party, the New People's Party, is identical to the work Hu Jia did. I have nothing but admiration for him and his work.

Q 我刚在博讯看了一位叫安均写了一篇因为网民党‘不要阶级斗争’而拒绝参与;你觉得胡佳这种所谓”一个人的人权组织“在中国有多大的发展空间?

I just read a piece on Boxun from an An Jun, who wrote that s/he rejects the China Netizen Party because it itself “rejects class struggle”; how space for growth do you think there is in China for the kind of “one-man human rights organization” work that Hu Jia was doing?

A 空间非常大 因为维权有很多领域,比如:下岗职工、失地农民等等 同时维权还是全国性质的,有地域之分 所以说维权(包括其他民运)工作是绝对不存在参与的人或组织过多 这样的现象,恰恰相反,在如今的中共面前,这样的人或组织越多越好,我们也可以提倡人海战术,把中共淹没在我们的吐沫之下是完全可能的

There's an extremely large space, because there are so many fields in which rights need to be defended; like laid-off workers, peasants who've lost their land, etc. At the same time, upholding rights is something countrywide, with regional elements. This is why there exists absolutely no cases of there being too many people or groups taking part in the rights movement's (and other democratic movements’) work. Precisely on the contrary, in the face of the CCP at present, the more these kinds of people and groups, the better. We could even advocate for human wave tactics and drown the CCP in a flood of our spit, it's completely possible.

Q 按我的理解,郭泉在学者的事业中是经常待着一个反日立场;你觉得这一点会影响国内城内的(即,大部分)网民决定参与还是不参与网民党吗

According to my standing, in his academic career Guo Quan frequently took an anti-Japan stance, do you think this will affect mainland urban (ie. most) netizens’ decision to get involved in the China Netizen Party?

A 网民党的主要宗旨是在国内网络揭批虚假,跟是否反日无关,我们的党员在加入的时候也从来没有提出过这样的问题

The main aim of the China Netizen Party is to expose and denounce the untrue, and any opposition to anti-Japanese sentiment is irrelevant; our party members haven't raised this this kind of question as they joined up.

Q 然后最后一个问题是,网民党对网络中立性运动和知识共享组织有什么立场?

And the last questions, what is the China Netizen Party's stance on net neutrality and Creative Commons?

A 网民党对网络中立性运动和知识共享组织是非常赞许和支持的,也是网民党宗旨和目标函盖内容之一

The China Netizen Party strongly applauds and supports internet neutrality and Creative Commons, both key tenets and goals of the China Netizen Party.

Q 现在没有博客或网站,以后有兴趣的人应该到哪里获得最近消息?

With no blog or website at present, where should those interested go for the latest information in the future?

A 我党对外公告就会及时通报各个媒体

The party will circulate announcements through various media.

Released along with the party's bylaws is a letter from Guo:

郭泉:就中国网民党的成立谈中国网民的网络革命

Guo Quan: Upon the establishment of the China Netizen Party, a word on the Chinese netizens’ internet revolution

今天(2008年2月4日),中国新民党长沙党部代理主席张不为先生接受中国新民党中央党部的指令,组建了中国网民党,并出任中网党代理主席,领衔负责中国新民党的网络革命指导工作。张先生31岁,学生时代即立志推进中国民主化进程,几年来热心民主事业,关注维权斗争,曾在去年一年里遭遇中共迫害致使损失财产五万之巨。

Today (Feb. 4, 2008), Acting Chairman of the China New People's Party, Changsha Chapter, Mr. Zhang Buwei received instructions from the Chinese New People's Party Central Committee to form the China Netizen Party, serve as its first acting Chairman, and take the lead in directing the work of the China Netizen Party's internet revolution. Mr. Zhang is 31 years old, and during his student days sought to advance the process of democratization in China, fighting in recent years for the democratic cause and in raising awareness of civil rights. Last year he suffered persecution from the CCP leading to asset losses already of a sum of 50,000 RMB.

2007年一年,中国网民在找真相、说真话的行动中,表现突出,获得巨大成功,赢得了广大中国人民的尊敬和爱戴。现举三个杰出的战例:

第一例:2007年6月5日,无锡市市长书记在湖滨饭店开会研究蓝藻问题,表示“其实我们这几天在水厂里已经喝自来水烧的开水了,”并当着记者的面喝下 “自来水”。其间还专门让另一领导监督烧水,使用透明杯以示“真实”。事后网友查出该饭店使用德国SBOK(世保康)家庭厨房净水系统。原来领导喝的此 “自来水”非百姓喝的彼“自来水”。

Over the year of 2007, Chinese netizens succeeded outstandingly as they acted to seek out and speak the truth, winning widespread respect and esteem from the Chinese people.

Guo's letter goes on to list three examples, the first being when in June city leaders in Wuxi, Jiangsu, whose main water supply is algae-infested Tai Lake, held a press conference demonstrating the tap water to be drinkable, two claims that Guo says were put to rest by one netizen who did some simple fact-checking and discovered that the “real” water the city leaders were photographed drinking came out from the restaurant faucet filtered first by a German water purification system. The second example is Chang'e, who went up, disappeared, reappeared, and only sent back one photograph, which, as with Guo's third and most relevant example, the ‘South China Tiger’, netizens quickly proved had been manipulated, despite several very public official protestations to the contrary. In the Tiger case, in case you missed it, the lies went much further and dominated online discussion for months. The general conclusion it seemed was that all official public statements are now up for the most scientific of scrutiny and that no similar future lies will go unpunished, adding at the same time to an already-weakened sense of faith in the government.

更多的例子我也不多举了,我相信2008年将是中国网民党创造辉煌战绩的一年。中国根本没有真正的新闻,只有宣传;中国的“新闻”里根本没有真相,只有谎言。这正是中国网民党大展鸿图的时刻。

我想2008年,除了揭批谎言外,中国网民党还可以做的事情很多。

中国网民党可以积极调查中共不愿意公布的事件真相,例如湖南湘西自治州凤凰县凤大公路堤溪段的凤凰大桥坍塌,所有新闻里根本没有最基本的伤亡人数、没有事件的基本资料、没有设计单位的名称、没有施工单位的名称,读者最迫切想知道的新闻要件全不出现。

I won't list all the other examples here, but I believe that 2008 stands to be a year of brilliant exploits for the China Netizen Party. China has no real news, it only has propaganda; China's “news” bears no truth, it contains only lies. Now is the time for the China Netizen Party to unleash its master plan.

I think that in 2008, aside from exposing and denouncing lies, there are many other things the China Netizen Party could also do.

The China Netizen Party could actively investigate the truth behind incidents the CCP wishes not to disclose, the collapsed bridge in Fenghuang, Hunan, for example, where not only were there no basic body counts in the news, but also no basic information about the incident; from the architect's name to the construction company's name, the essential news readers wanted most urgently to know did not appear.

[…]

类似这样的事情,中国网民党应该做的事情是,积极地有组织地调查死难者的人数、姓名、年龄、性别,发布事件真相,让中国人民看到在中共新闻里看不到的事实真相。

2008年新年伊始,一场大雪让中国南方陷入皑皑冰雪中,到底冻死多少人、到底饿死多少人,他们死在哪里?他们叫什么?他们是男是女?他们曾经以何为生?最近又传出广州火车站有滞留旅客被践踏而死,那么他叫什么,他家在哪里?中国网民党应该紧密团结起来,分工合作,发挥人民战争的优势,还历史一个真相,让每个最平凡的人在这个国度都能留下自己的姓名和事迹。

让善良不被埋没,让邪恶无处遁形。

让每个正直的中国人的呐喊都能传遍全世界,让一切希望中国民主强大的人们都能感受到中国人民对民主的渴望追求和浴血奋战。

已经开始的2008年,是网络战争的一年。
这一年里,网络是我们的武器,网民是我们的军队!
最后,我衷心祝愿我们伟大的国家早日实现民主,人民安居乐业,国家民主强大!

With incidents like this, what the China Netizen Party ought to do is to go and actively investigate the numbers of dead, their names, their ages, their genders, and release the truth of the incident, letting the Chinese people see what they can't in the CCP news.

As the new year of 2008 began, the south of China was buried under heavy ice and snow, but how many people froze to death? How many starved to death? Where did they die? What were their names? Where they men or women? What did they once do for a living? Recently there's been news from Guangzhou that one of the stranded travelers was trampled to death. Well, what was his name? The China Netizen Party ought to stay closely united, so labor can be divided, to unleash the advantage of a people's battle, to restore truth to history, and allow for every common person in this nation to at least leave behind their own names and deeds.

Let not goodness be buried over, and leave evil with nowhere left to hide.

Let every upright Chinese person shout out across the world, and let all those who hope for a strong, democratic China see the bloody battle the Chinese people are fighting in their desire for and pursuit of democracy.

2008, which has already begun, will be a year of internet warfare.

This year, the internet will be our weapon, and the the netizens our troops!

Finally, it is my heartfelt wish that our great nation will see democracy realized soon, allowing our people to live happily and our democratic country to grow strong!

With the CNP communicating over private networks and routine net censorship presumably taking care of the rest, there's been almost no discussion online on mainland websites of this new party; overseas anti-CCP website Boxun featured one short piece from writer An Jun:

安均/写给草民的网民党:
1/你们写道不要阶级斗争.很好!建议取消阶级斗争!
2/你们写道只有人性没有党性,很好!建议反对党性与反对兽性并举!
3/你们没有写:是否要建工青妇?请不要搞一党独抓,把自己搞成独裁党!
4/你们没有写:是否要把国家的新闻媒体变成你们的喉舌/缸门?建议废除”国家媒体党私有化”!彻底取消党的缸门!
5/按理说,你们没有阶级斗争,就不会视天下人.视与自己观点不同的人群为敌对势力!与人类为敌吧?
以上,只是觉得你们写的怪好玩的,而给你们多写一/二句.千万别以为我是你们的同伙!

An Jun: To the grassroots netizen party:
1. You write that you don't want class struggle. That's great! I recommend that you eliminate class struggle!
2. You write that you will bear only the characteristics of humans and none that of a political party, that's great! I recommend anti-party-ness and anti-brutality alike!
3. You didn't write on whether you will establish unions and associations for youth and women. Please don't pull a one-party power-snatch and turn yourselves into the Dictator Party!
4. You didn't write on whether or not you intend to turn the country's news media into your own mouthpieces. I recommend the abolition of “Party-privatized state media”! Cancel outright all party mouthpieces!
5. Logically speaking, if you won't have class struggle, then won't be seeing everyone out there. See all groups with views different than yours as hostile forces then! Does that mean you'll have humans as your enemies though?

What I've written here is just a few words because I think you've written is weird and silly. Don't ever think that I'm on your side!

Fragments of related commentary could be found on the snow disaster thread on Tianya where the bylaws were first posted:

作者:红手心 回复日期:2008-2-5 8:50:07 
大陆网民站起来 决意组建中国网民党

Mainland netizens, stand up! Form the China Netizen Party with determination!

作者:NEAborigines 回复日期:2008-2-5 8:55:26 
民间活动政治化的结果就是夭折
我的话很难听啊
呵呵

Grassroots activities that get politicized end up getting aborted
What I'm saying doesn't sound very nice
Hehe

作者:磨刀inger 回复日期:2008-2-5 10:02:03 
虽然不好听,但实在~~

It may not sound nice, but it's realistic….

作者:akismylife 回复日期:2008-2-5 15:07:22
网络上有中国的良心和希望

The hope and conscience of China is on the internet.

16 comments

  • Rhys

    Thanks for the above translation. Just a correction to Guo Quan’s cv. I understand he is an associate professor of literature at Nanjing Normal University (南京师范大学), not Nanjing University. He has a PhD from Nanjing University in Chinese philosophy. I’ve heard since sending his letters to CCP, as well as his financial losses, he is no longer allowed to supervise postgraduate students.

  • chinese buddhist

    Netizen Party? I wanna Party too! Name picked out: MICKEY MOUSE PARTY. Please publicize my MMP too! Any help would be much appreciated.

  • statshater

    Good luck, from Norway, China Netizens! :)

  • mahathir_fan

    Nice effort. Good luck to this party.

    But as always, it does not matter how democratic China becomes. China can have many many political parties. China is already having regular elections every 5 years. But as long as the Communist Party continues to enjoy popular support and win these elections, the West will refuse to call China a Democracy.

    It is like in Singapore. The ruling party wins every election, but they don’t call Singapore a democracy despite they having elections and enjoying popular support, instead they give it some junkie other name like “Authoritarian”. Or in Iran where they have so many candidates and a very competitive electorate, at the end of the day, they still don’t call Iran a democracy but some other name – a “theocracy”.

    When they finally have to admit China is a democracy, they will invent some other name to give to describe China’s political system instead of just calling it a democracy because they will refuse to admit it.

  • What a very perverse definition you have of what a regular election is. In your magical reality, what is the reason that people in China continue to get heavy prison sentences and are subject to various heavy-handed forms of persecution when they try and establish their own independent political parties, parties which are consistently excluded from NPC elections?

  • Wu Di

    mahathir_fan: Whether the west or you or anyone *calls* China a democracy or not or “refuse to admit” that China is already democratic is *completely* beside the point.

    Whether China is democratic or authoritarian or totalitarian should be decided by looking at facts on the ground, or by asking people who live there — and these facts (as John Kennedy points out) and people don’t corroborate your views.

    I for one have never heard any Chinese tell me how democratic this country is.

  • mahathir_fan

    No use for me to respond. I wrote something 24 hours ago and it is still not published. Please note the policy on moderation:

    “Comments containing hate speech, obscenity, and personal attacks will not be approved.”

    Did my posting include hate, obscenity or personal attacks?

    In fact, is my posting even out of topic when we are discussing about political parties in China?

    Are you here to inform or are you here to influence?

  • XMH

    学生民主促进会,暂名“孟党”,一再南京师范大学附属中学成立,旨在维护学生的民主权利。希望我们密切合作。

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