Adam Minter, Columnist

Chinese Suggestions for Improving Internet Disappear

May 14, 2013 at 10:41 PM UTC

Adam Minter is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering the business of sports. He is the author, most recently, of “Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale."

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Chinese president Xi Jinping may claim to be interested in hearing the voice of his people, but it’s increasingly clear that this openness doesn’t always extend to people on the Internet.

On Sunday night, billionaire real-estate developer Pan Shiyi tweeted to his 15.3 million followers on Sina Weibo, China’s leading social-media platform: “Soon I might meet a top government Internet regulator,” he announced. “Anything you’d like me to pass along?” By 7:48 a.m. the next morning the tweet had been re-posted 3,455 times and generated 3,891 comments.