His Internet empire, Sina.com, hosts hundreds of millions of Net users and online expression that is unprecedented in both scale and intensity.
The mind-boggling statistic is well known – China is home to nearly half a billion Internet users. And Sina's Weibo, or microblog, rules the roost. It's the country's biggest social media site, with sleek functionality compared to both Twitter and Facebook.
Unlike other high-profile China dotcom( CEOs,) Chao is not a technocrat with an engineering degree. He's a former TV reporter from Shanghai who pursued further studies in the United States. (It's safe to say he's probably the most influential alumnus of the University of Oklahoma School of Journalism.)
I interviewed Chao at Sina.com headquarters in (Beijing) in mid-June, before the July 23rd Wenzhou train tragedy which has been called a "watershed moment" for the site.
The high-speed train collision killed 39 people and sparked a massive outpouring of anger directed at officials for their handling of the crash.( Much of )that outrage played out on Sina Weibo. But even before then, Weibo actively played host to fierce online debates about corruption and social injustice in China.
Chao is well aware of the power his Website has in advancing freedom of expression in China. He says: "China has become much more open and much more transparent. People have a lot of freedom to express themselves and Weibo can bring that freedom to a next level. Not only can they express, they can distribute that content and opinions with their Weibo account."
