Fake tiger shows impact of public opinion in China

It all started with a farmer, a photo and a claim - a sighting of a rare tiger in the local woods, curled up and staring right at the camera. A man claimed a reward for snapping this digital photo - which proved to be faked - of a rare South China tiger.

Ultimately, the scandal revealed popular disgust with government and corruption and showed that public opinion, amplified by the Internet, can occasionally win out in authoritarian China.

"In my opinion, this is the struggle between the truth and government interest," Yu Hai, a sociology professor at Fudan University, said in a phone interview this week. "Zhou's just a normal farmer who was inspired by money. The big boss behind this is, of course, the officials of Shaanxi province."

First intrigued and then outraged by the photo, China's online community quickly exposed it as a paper tiger - an old poster propped up among the trees - and kept the pressure on officials, accusing them of supporting the fake to boost tourism in relatively poor Shaanxi.

The deep skepticism among Chinese toward the government, especially local officials, was also made clear over the weekend, when thousands rioted in the southwestern province of Guizhou over the accusation that police poorly investigated the death of a teenage girl.

Online outrage has kept up pressure on the government, which this week fired the local Communist Party secretary, county government head, police chief and another official.

A year ago, online anger also pushed the central government to investigate illegal labor practices after postings accused authorities of ignoring the use of child slaves in brick factories.

The tiger story began when Zhou, a 54-year-old farmer and hunter, heard that a person could win more than 1 million yuan (about US$146,000) for finding an endangered South China tiger in the wild, where it hadn't been seen in more than 20 years, according to state media accounts.

Last October, he emerged from the woods in Shaanxi with his claim of a tiger sighting.

Officials in Shaanxi embraced his claim, awarding him 20,000 yuan (about US$2,920) and praise at a press conference little more than a week later.

"After the careful examination, experts confirmed the authenticity of the photos. That means the tiger has been found again after more than 20 years," the China Daily newspaper quoted Shaanxi Forestry Administration Bureau Deputy Director Zhu Julong as saying.

The glow didn't last. China's online community almost immediately suspected a fake. The tiger was too shiny, they said. And no matter where it was snapped among the trees, its position never changed.

When someone came up with an old poster with a photo that looked strikingly like the tiger and posted it online, the public called for an official investigation.

But Shaanxi officials stuck to their story.

With a rare tiger in their area, the officials knew they could bring in a lot of money by boosting tourism and creating a nature reserve, said Yu, the university professor.

Finally, under increasing pressure, the Shaanxi officials confirmed the photos as a hoax this week. Zhou was arrested on charges of fraud, accused of propping up the poster in the woods and shooting it with a borrowed digital camera.

But the anger in China isn't so much about Zhou.

"A small number of officials ignored science, common sense and broiling public opinion to play with the public trust," the Southern Metropolitan Daily, a popular newspaper known for its aggressive reporting, said this week. "When the wisdom of the people stripped away the emperor's new clothes, the officials lied and used bureaucracy to keep the truth from coming out."

The newspaper even hinted that Zhou might have had some help from officials. Seven officials have been fired, including Zhu, the forestry official, and six others have been disciplined.