Virtual political participation," or "wang shang yi zheng" in Chinese, is a new trend sweeping the Chinese capital as the two annual political caucuses, the NPC and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, are underway in Beijing.

For the first time, discussions are taking place both inside and outside the conference hall. Influenced by the "people first" philosophy adopted by President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, delegates are paying attention to the "representatives at large" who congregate online and message their views to the meetings.

To facilitate this dialogue, two of the largest state-run media, Xinhua News Agency and People's Daily, are covering conference proceedings exhaustively on their Web sites (xinhuanet.com and people.com.cn), and inviting visitors to post their opinions and responses on major issues. People's Daily offers a cell phone messaging service as well.

Among the topics under discussion at the two conferences is an amendment to the constitution that would include human rights protections in the law of the land. Xinhuanet posted a questionnaire on human rights, eliciting 4,399 responses between March 5 and March 9. Surprisingly, just 45 percent said it was a good idea to write into the constitution a clause requiring the government to "respect and protect human rights."

Respondents said their biggest human rights concerns were the issues of equality and access to information. About 14 percent said the right to survival is the primary human right.

These answers reflect the fact that for decades the government has defined human rights as fulfilling the people's most basic needs, and defended its human rights record with the claim that feeding, housing and clothing 1.3 billion people was its first duty.

Other topics broached on the Web site include the excessive taxation of farmers, the stagnation of the northeast industrial zone, and the problem of corruption among officials. More than 100,000 responses have been received.

Zhou Xisheng, president of Xinhuanet, told United Press International that the message boards were an attempt to bridge the gap between the people and the policy makers. "Our surveys show that these topics are of major concern to the people," he said.

Responses are sorted and passed on to government officials or conference delegates only if they are deemed appropriate.

"As a Web publisher, we retain the right to properly edit and screen the messages," Zhou said. "After we receive a message, we check to verify the facts of the issues that are raised, and sometimes we forward them to the relevant government officials." He said if messages are destructive or untruthful they will not be posted or passed on.

Within the party, debate has raged over the wisdom of encouraging political discussion online. Some leaders say it's an efficient and constructive way to channel opinions from the bottom up, while others worry that too much "noise" would be let in. But like the reformer Deng Xiaoping, who acknowledged that when one opens a window a few flies are bound to get in, many liberal leaders are willing to risk it.

The deputy commissioner of the Communist Party, Cheng Siwei, recently told journalists that it didn't bother him when he read online debates about something he had said. Cheng said, "This is the Internet users' freedom and a reflection of democracy."

Despite all of this apparent openness, most people who post messages online exercise self-censorship when it comes to political opinions. Mild criticism of the government and suggestions for improvements are generally allowed, but political challenges are very rare. Most sites screen out radical messages.

For example, on March 6, after Wen Jiabao gave his government work report for 2003 to a joint session of the two congresses, Xinhuanet set up a bulletin board for comments. Most of the respondents said they approved of Wen's work and style. One message read, "A transparent and accountable government is what people want, but how long do we have to wait -- 5 years, 10 years, 20 years? No matter how long, we support that goal."

Asked what to do about the problem of corrupt officials, one respondent replied, "Catch one, kill one!" Another one said the system could not be expected to stop corruption because it was the system that supported it. "Corrupt officials have their own territories that protect, and even promote them," the writer said.

People are mindful that there is a limit to official tolerance of dissent. Cases like that of Liu Di, a 22-year-old Beijing Normal University student who, along with two others, spent a year in prison for anti-government postings, serve as a warning to overzealous critics.

Messages that do get posted are read by millions of people every day. Even top officials visit the popular public opinion sites. Last year during the SARS outbreak, Hu Jintao was shown on television praising a doctor for his strategy to curb the disease. "Your suggestions are very good," he said. "I read them on the Web."

The trend of virtual political participation goes beyond Beijing. The Shanghai People's Conference, for example, received 3,500 online messages, 50 percent commenting on government operations, 3 percent expressing concern over democracy, and 25 percent asking the government to help solve practical problems.

According to a survey by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences last December, 72 percent of Internet users said they wished the government would pay more attention to people's opinions, while 61 percent wished to have more opportunity to comment on the government's work. With 79.5 million Internet users in the country, that could add up to plenty of advice for the country's leadership.

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