China in big push against opinion-leading blogs

Bestselling Chinese author Murong Xuecun had nearly 4 million followers on his Twitter-like microblog. One day in May his account disappeared. So did his profiles on several other social media sites. No explanation was given, but one is starting to emerge.
Many famous Chinese, from pop stars to scholars, journalists to business tycoons, have amassed substantial online followings, and these larger-than-life personalities don't always hew to the Communist Party line.
Now Beijing is tightening its grip on China's already heavily restricted Internet by making influential microbloggers uncomfortable when they post material the government doesn't like.
Murong, whose real name is Hao Qun, is among those whose microblog accounts have been silenced in recent months. Over the past two weeks, Internet censors have called microbloggers to meetings and state media have accused some of undermining socialism and promoting Western values through lies and negative news.

It is a development that dims hopes China's new Communist Party leadership under Xi Jinping will tolerate more freewheeling discussion on the Internet and in the official media.
Many of the online personalities call attention to social injustices and question government policies. Some are advocates for democracy, freedom of speech and human rights, and others are radicals who believe China has strayed from its communist roots.

Popular microbloggers, including real estate mogul Pan Shiyi, who helped force new government air quality standards through his campaign of posting daily pollution indexes, were asked at a meeting in Beijing to agree to seven standards: obey the law, uphold the socialist system, guard the national interest, protect individual rights, keep social order, respect morals and ensure factuality.

The edicts are broad enough to have a chilling effect on what China's nascent opinion leaders say online. State media has since publicized the standards, urging all Chinese netizens to follow suit, underlining Beijing's determination to stay in control of the message and its fast changing medium, the Internet. More than half of China's 1.1 billion people are online.
"I think they are making so much effort because they feel it has become increasingly difficult to control public opinion," said Yang Dali, a political scientist and director of the University of Chicago Center in Beijing. "But one challenge is the mainstream media do not have much credibility, and another challenge is to live with a much more diverse world.