Chinese grassroots governors promote livestream governance to shore up local economy

Screenshot of Wu Yunbo on Kuaishou

Chinese grassroots governors are interacting with netizens via livestream platforms, where they answer people’s questions, elaborate on policies, and try to expand new markets. Livestream governance has become a novel way to narrow the information gap between multiple layers of government and local residents while also trying to shore up local economies.

Internet celebrity + county mayor + host = Modern Chinese governor

“The most-asked question in my livestream chat room was ‘Are you fake?’” Liu Jianjun said.

Liu, known as an internet celebrity on Kuaishou, a popular Chinese livestream platform, is the mayor of Duolun County in northern China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. “I livestream every day to convince my audiences that I am a real county mayor,” Liu said.

Unlike the glamorous background of a typical internet star, Liu often appears at vegetable greenhouses, night markets, and field sobriety testing sites on his livestream channel to create an online portfolio for the historical county.

Liu established the livestreaming system for local government organizations in June 2019 to help narrow the information gap between the county government and local residents. The system requires officials to answer questions directly in accordance with the residents’ needs and gives them a platform to elaborate on central and local governments’ policies.

“Advertising is not a technical problem, but an economic one in current times. It’s related to the local economy and whether it will elicit wildly divergent responses from all walks of life,” said Liu. How to promote effective communication in the internet-dominated era is a challenge faced by all levels of government in China.

“Livestreaming on mobile apps unveils a new dimension of governance for small and unique counties such as Duolun,” Liu added.

Liu has racked up more than 166,000 followers on the Kuaishou and Douyin livestream platforms, with thousands of viewers watching and interacting with him and related agencies and officials.

Liu is not the only Chinese official to resort to new channels for public communication.

As the annual Two Sessions are set to open on May 21 and 22, respectively, delegates of the National People’s Congress, the top legislature organ, will submit and discuss bills and drafts based on people’s difficulties and concerns during the meetings.

Besides visiting residents door by door, Wu Yunbo, an NPC member and a local Party chief in Tongliao city, Inner Mongolia, is using Kuaishou to collect public opinion by interacting with netizens.

Because of the pandemic, it has been harder for officials to understand the thoughts and needs of farmers and herdsmen before this year’s Two Sessions. However, livestream platforms can serve as an express tunnel that links delegates with individuals, according to Wu.

“There is no conflict between being a NPC delegate and a celebrity on livestream platforms, especially when I realize how significant it is for expanding market for local products, and the flexible role it plays in rural revitalization, both of which are necessary for revamping the countryside,” Wu noted.

New way for local specialties amid coronavirus pandemic

As the outbreak of coronavirus almost froze the retail industry in China due to nationwide transportation restrictions, livestream has opened up a new channel for local specialties and a way to alleviate poverty.

“Look at the cellophane noodles and the Tartary buckwheat noodles! They are organic and locally grown at high altitude,” promoted Hu Rong, the deputy township mayor of Jichuan, NW China’s Gansu Province, as she livestreamed in villagers’ houses.

Stranded agricultural products, such as vegetables and fruit, were introduced through livestreaming platforms, which allowed sellers to reach more customers than traditional retail channels as the e-commerce platforms help people buying the process.

Since April 8, Douyin and government agencies of Hubei province have launched intensive number of livestreams to boost the recovery of the hardest-hit region amid the pandemic, during which time goods worth of 172 million yuan (about $24 million) were sold out, according to Hubei Daily.

On April 27, a joint livestream sales promotion by Kuaishou and CCTV to help Hubei set a single-day sales record by selling 27,500 bags of local specialty noodles of Wuhan within one minute, reaching 80.12 million yuan in total sales volume.

Livestream users in China will reach 524 million, creating an e-commerce market worth more than 900 billion yuan (around $126 billion) in 2020, according to IMedia.