ABSTRACT
Local governments ignore the strong influences of microblog. Currently, with regard to most of online public opinions caused by public emergencies, local governments or related departments start responding only after the public opinions were heated. In the PX incident, the local government noticed the public surging emotions right after the collective petition, but it failed to handle it first time. It’s after two days later that it announced “Clarification about the Refining-Chemical Integration Project in Zhenhai”, admitted that collective petition happened and promised to “follow the strictest emission standards”. It’s far slower than the “prime four hours” to deal with public opinions. Much as the explanation was made, the eects were barely satisfactory. Later on, “microblog users can’t send pictures”, “Zhenhai” and “PX” were listed as sensitive words in Ningbo, which all the more stimulated the public aversion because the government’s “aggressiveness” and “arrogance” catalyzed the incident. So far the obsession of hierarch is still deep-rooted in Chinese people’s mind and the ocial oriented thinking can only weaken the government’s service functions in the face of online public opinions and make the public
confused about the principal and subordinate status in public management.
