I don’t have a lot of faith in the Chinese: They have bad tastes, they’re generally disgusting and I may not have witnessed a bigger herd of sheep ever in my life or a group of people so unwilling to take the lead on and responsibility for anything. But every so often, I am reminded why.

Such as today, when Tan Zuoren was sentenced to five years in prison for “incitement to subversion” of state power. Tan is an activist and environmentalist in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. He had been working on an independent investigation into the collapse of school buildings in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and trying to ascertain the names of some 5,000 children who died as a result. He had publicly blamed the government for the schools’ shoddy construction, but the cited reason for his sentence was comments he had made in e-mail messages about the 1989 crackdown on demonstrators at Tian’anmen Square. The court never mentioned his earthquake investigation, though this is the obvious suspected reason.

China has a handful of such activists, willing to speak out against the government and criticize it for its (perceived) wrongdoings. A lot of them, like Tan, are imprisoned. The most recent case involved Liu Xiaobo, who was sentenced to 11 years for his involvement with Charter 08 (a petition calling for freedom of speech, human rights and free elections, among other things). Ai Weiwei, an outspoken artist and supreme critic of the Chinese government, has so far managed to avoid being arrested.

When dissenting voices are quelled so swiftly (in Tan’s case, the verdict was handed down in under 10 minutes), and a stamp of government approval is a prerequisite for everything, few people will bother to think for themselves. There’s a saying in China: You can do as you please, as long as it pleases the government. The deputy program director of Amnesty International in Hong Kong, Roseann Rife, summed up Tan’s verdict nicely:

“The message,” Ms. Rife adds, “is that civil society can participate, if at all, only under the government’s guidance and with its permission.”

The only outlet Chinese citizens seem to have to voice their opinions is the Internet. New words and catchphrases spread like wildfire over Chinese forums. The Chinese government is well aware of this, even going so far as to inviting netizens to participate in political affairs. Last year, after the death of an inmate in Yunnan Province aroused public suspicions of abuse and a cover up by prison officials, the government quelled the outcry by inviting netizens to participate in an independent investigation of the death. Alas, they were met with uncooperative officials and their investigation turned up inconclusive. It was a savvy propaganda move, designed to give Chinese citizens the feeling that their government is more open and more amenable to hearing their grievances. But the government knows online cynicism is still virtual and therefore poses very little threat in reality. CMP’s astute analysis:

In the government handling of the “eluding the cat” case we can glimpse an eerie phenomenon emerging in China: the rise of virtual political participation as a proxy and foil for real political empowerment. Notice, political rights are not on offer to China’s citizens. But if we believe the hype China’s state media are selling us, China’s “netizens” are in political ascent.

And that is why this latest catchphrase supporting Tan is so ironic. Tan’s given name, Zuoren (谭作人), is a homonym for “be a person” (做人): Wo yao zuo ren (我要做人) means, “I want to be a person,” but uses Tan’s name, so it really reads “I want Zuoren.” Clever, these netizens. Perhaps they do want to be people, with real rights and real voices that are capable of effecting change and that will be heard by their government, and their sentiment belies a subconscious awareness that their virtual selves are not real. But then, if their sentiment is of the virtual world, is it a real sentiment? Or will it not translate and netizens just keep going on as sheep?

As an aside: China blocks searches on Liu Xiaobo. The first time I googled his name, I was able to get search results, but none of the links worked — I’d get messages of not being connected to the Internet or server is down or the like. Going back to the search results brought up the same. After a new URL to another site and a few reloads, I am granted access to the Internet again. As of now, you can still google Tan Zuoren, but I suspect this won’t be the case for long.