This Tuesday, China went abuzz with rumors that Jiang Zemin, former President of the PRC, had died. Supporting evidence was the fact that Jiang, age 84, was absent from the recent 90th celebrations of the Communist Party of China, and that a motorcade of official cars had been seen arriving at the 301 Hospital in Wukesong, a People’s Liberation Army hospital said to cater to the health of the top Chinese leadership.

Furthermore, the Chinese authorities have stayed silent on the topic. According to some, the authorities usually deny rumors of this kind by publishing news reports on the whereabouts of affected top leaders.

Users on Sina Weibo, a microblogging service, have been posting the rumours, creatively bypassing the automatic censorship mechanisms blocking mentions of Jiang. Some accounts have been closed down by censors as a result.

Regardless of whether Jiang is dead or not, the rumors illustrate a major weakness in Chinese official and media information dissemination: There are few trusted sources of official information and censorship contributes to confusion of what is factual.

We have seen this on other occasions recently, such as the Fukushima nuclear accident, after which rumors of high radiation levels in China – and that one could prevent sickness by eating (potentially lethal amounts) of iodized salt – spread via text messages and online forums.

With lack of trust in official messages, this will continue to happen. In crisis scenarios it causes unnecessary worry and suffering. The cure is transparency and quick reporting. That would also save the authorities the headache of having to manage the rumors.

Patrik Lockne
Consultant at the Springtime office in Beijing