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(ECNS) -- Chinese netizens are most interested in education and anti-corruption out of twelve topics that include housing prices, environmental protection, hukou (residence registration system), healthcare, food safety, and employment, according to a report on the social mentality of the Chinese Internet, released by Fudan University in Shanghai.
The report is based on an eight-month study of 1,800 users of Sina Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter. The study shows that 23.8% of netizens are interested in education and 22.9% in fighting corruption, with environmental protection (18.1%) and housing prices (17.6%) next.
People born in the 1970s are said to be most interested in education (30.9% of the total), while 22.2% of those born in the 1950s and 21.4% from the 1960s follow the subject. By comparison, younger generations are less attentive. Among people born in the 1990s, 12.8% show an interest, whereas for the 1980s generation the number is only 10.7%.
When discussing education, 42.7% of the people are concerned about pressure on students, 17.5% blame educational methods for the decreasingly ideological social climate, 14.8% think that disparity in educational resources aggravates social injustice, and 5.2% believe the educational system contributes to a 'brain drain'.
Meanwhile, with a series of scandals coming to light, teacher-student relationships have gradually become a hot topic, with 5.7% of Sina Weibo users paying close attention.
As regards corruption issues, 22.7% of civil servants are concerned about the topic, while slightly more people (23.3%) who work elsewhere are interested.
However, the downfall of corrupt high-ranking officials and related news get most attention and spread most widely. According to the report, 48.2% of people interested in corruption have re-posted news about official investigations and resignations, making it the single hottest topic. Another 20.3% focus on the fight against corruption, and the probe into its causes, in one particular field.
Meanwhile, netizens are positive about the anti-corruption campaign of the Chinese central government. Satisfaction and attention results correlate, with both scoring highly. Among the 12 listed topics, anti-corruption campaigns received the highest satisfaction rating, with 6.6% of the 1,800 sampled "highly satisfied". By contrast, education has the second highest satisfaction rating, with 1.5% similarly approving.
The report also notes that people from the lowest sections of society are the most pessimistic about current anti-corruption campaigns, out of the four major sectors of the population (including intellectuals and professional technicians; business elites and high net worth individuals; institutional workers within the party, government and army; manual workers and the unemployed).
Data shows 3.3% of the underprivileged sector directly expresses their dissatisfaction, twice the ratio of institutional workers (1.6%), and four times that of business elites (0.8%). Intellectuals and professional technicians are the second most dissatisfied, with 2.6% pessimistic.
Institutional workers seem to have a contradictory attitude towards anti-corruption policies. Data shows only 7.6% of them feel positive, with 6.5% neutral and 1.6% negative, with the rest (84.3%) withholding their position.
According to the report, "Given the delicate identity of institutional workers, the inclination to not reveal their feelings is worth scrutiny. Judging by several individual comments, it can be inferred that the intensive sanctions and prohibitions introduced by the central government have had an impact on grass-roots civil servants."
Around 394 out of the 1800 Weibo users offered suggestions on how to curb corruption. Most (68.8%) consider institutional pledges to be efficient, exceeding the number of those supporting continual strikes against corrupt officials.
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