Chinese Internet Users and the Chinese People Are Different Groups and Classes

Internet users do not represent the people. China has 1.3 billion people, an online audience of 900 million, and 100 million internet users who participate in comment sections. The internet users in the comment sections we happen to see are an even smaller minority. They do not represent the people as a whole; on the contrary, they often represent the most backward segment. I have always been optimistic about the Chinese people, but not about Chinese internet users.

The central point is that the small and very small bourgeoisie and the lumpenproletariat do not represent the proletariat.

I previously wrote “The Syndrome of Being Surrounded by the Small and Very Small Bourgeoisie.”

It described this phenomenon in some detail: “people” are surrounded by the small and very small bourgeoisie and take the voices of those “around them” to be the voice of the proletariat. This is wrong. It is one reason the proletariat’s voice has been usurped. Proletarians are on assembly lines, in the fields, in Somalia, and in Afghanistan. They do not exploit anyone or bully anyone.

There is no need to care too much about what internet users say in comment sections—that is, the voices in any online community, whether Douban, Zhihu, Xueqiu, Weibo, or Xiaohongshu. They do not represent the people or the mainstream. Nor do they represent the petty bourgeoisie, the bourgeoisie, or the powerful and privileged. Be wary of “everyone around me says so”: the “people around you” are often members of the small and very small bourgeoisie.

p.s. According to data from around 2020, nearly 600 million people had a monthly income below 1,000 yuan, and nearly 1 billion had a monthly income below 2,000 yuan.