By 2005 blogs had crashed the cultural gates. China’s editors, station directors, and pub-lishers had always acted as cultural “gatekeepers:” deciding who could and couldn’t becomeknown through publication, TV and film appearances, and musical performances. In a majorcultural power-shift, pop cultural icons could emerge through blogs, forums, chatrooms, andpersonal websites, completely outside of the government approved cultural structures.But while Communist Party propaganda department had lost control over China’s cul-ture, in the realm of politics the gates and walls are constantly being rebuilt, upgraded, andreinforced. It would be impossible for a dissident political leader to rise to popularity in thesame way that Mu Zimei rose to stardom.

This situation is reinforced by recent survey results—surprisingto many Westerners—showing that most urban Chinese Internet users actually trust domesticsources of news and information more than they trust the information found on foreign newswebsites (Guo et al.2005, pp. 66–67).

While the Chinese government has supportedthe development of the Internet as a tool for business, entertainment, education, and infor-mation exchange, it has succeeded in preventing people from using the Internet to organizeany kind of viable political opposition.

They are determined to prevent the Internet from serving as a tool for “colorrevolution” in the way that online media and communication tools empowered activists inUkraine and Lebanon. Thus in 2005 the Chinese government updated its regulations control-ling online news and information, and aggressively leaned on organizations hosting onlinechatrooms and blogs to stop the spread of online discussions about recent local governmentcrackdowns against farmer protests in the Chinese countryside.

Though government statements emphasize anti-pornography crackdowns, ONI found the primary focus of China's filtering system to be on political content. Public security organs and internet service providers employ thousands of people – nationwide, at multiple levels – as monitors and censors. Their job is to monitor everything posted online by ordinary Chinese people and to delete objectionable content.