President Hu chats with online community

By Yang Lifei and Lydia Chen  |   2008-6-20  |     ONLINE EDITION

President Hu Jintao (center) smiles while chatting with netizens on a BBS community forum at People.com.cn this morning. Hu revealed during his first online chat with the public that gathering opinions from the Internet were a key source for him to learn of the issues people care about the most. Li Changchun (third from right), member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Liu Yunshan (far left), member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, accompanied Hu during the chat. More in photo gallery

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PRESIDENT Hu Jintao made his first online chat with the public today, revealing that online opinions was a key source for him to learn of the issues people care about the most.

The 20-minute chat, which started at 10am at Qiangguo BBS of People.com.cn, was part of Hu's inspection tour of People's Daily as he congratulated the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China for its 60th anniversary.

The Website of People's Daily announced Hu's chat at 9:30am today and began to collect questions submitted via the Internet.

Hu took three online questions during the short chat.

The president told netizens that reading news, both domestic and international, was usually what he enjoyed the most while surfing the Internet.

"But at the same time, I also would like to know what the online public is talking and thinking about and what their suggestions are to help the Party and government work," Hu continued, emphasizing that his government is paying "much attention" to the online world.

"The Internet is a key channel to collect the public's ideas, which are the basis for the government to carry out work and make decisions," Hu said.

Though busy running the country, Hu said he tried to get online as much as possible and Qiangguo BBS, a popular online community forum featuring political discussions, is always on the President's browsing list.

The number of Internet users in China has already surpassed 220 million, and is the second largest next only to the United States.