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What do you do on the Internet Mr. President?

BEIJING
Fri Jun 20, 2008 4:31am EDT
Chinese President Hu Jintao waves after meeting at the Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. headquarters in Kadoma, western Japan May 10, 2008. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Hu Jintao answered just two questions in his online debut on an official website on Friday, the first being -- what do you usually do on the Internet?

Nearly 200 questions awaited Hu on the website of People's Daily (www.people.com.cn), the Communist Party's mouthpiece, shortly after an unexpected announcement that Hu would chat with his country's 221 million Internet users later in the morning.

Hu began the "chat" by saying his work was "usually relatively busy and it is impossible for me to surf the web every day".

The first question he answered was what did he usually do on Internet.

"The first thing is read domestic and foreign news. Second, it's what interests people on the Internet and I like to see their advice and suggestions on the work of our party and country."

The second question he answered was whether he could see the problems and suggestions raised by people on the Internet.

His answer? "We pay a lot of attention to the advice and suggestions raised by surfers... We need to listen to the people's voices broadly and consolidate people's wisdom to do things and make decisions.

"To find out public opinion and collect people's wisdom through the Internet is also an important channel."

His online chat lasted 20 minutes. "Why did it ends so quickly? asked a disappointed surfer who wrote under the name of Love Blog.

Hu promised to "seriously read and study" the posts sent to him.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Nick Macfie and Roger Crabb)



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