The role of the internet and the “angry youth” are observed to play a part in China’s response to President Obama’s policy of raising the tariff to 35% on tires imported from China. The voices on the internet seem to have exerted pressure on the Chinese government to retaliate US punitive tariff measure. In other words, the collective voices, expressed via the internet, can have a political will, power and influence on Chinese national and international policies. This political dynamic has been emerging for the past 10 years. And it will be very interesting to observe how the government handles this growing online nationalism and its impact on the government’s policies.

The Chinese government’s strong countermove followed a weekend of nationalistic vitriol against the United States on Chinese Web sites in response to the tire tariff. “The U.S. is shameless!” said one posting, while another called on the Chinese government to sell all of its huge holdings of Treasury bonds.

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The Chinese government sometimes organizes blog postings to defend its own policies. But some postings on the tire decision have been implicitly critical of the Chinese government, making it unlikely that they are part of an orchestrated effort.

“Why did our government purchase so much U.S. government debt?” said one posting signed by a “Group of Angry Youths.” It continued, “We should get rid of all such U.S. investments.”

via China Moves to Retaliate Against U.S. Tire Tariff – NYTimes.com.