In China jibes such as “No one would treat you as dumb if you don’t talk,” or “It seems that I heard a swarm of mosquitoes humming” are commonly passed between good friends, but how would you react if your government spoke to you like that?

Last week, a teacher surnamed Jiang at Guichi District in Chizhou City, east China’s Anhui Province, sent a message to a local government’s official public account on China’s leading social media platform WeChat, a portal where people can ask questions on local affairs, demanding authorities to investigate into an alleged unfair distribution of subsidies, but only to receive a reply of “No one would treat you as dumb if you don’t talk.”

Not believing the government would reply in such a rude manner, Jiang thought it must be a mistake and sent the message again, and this time, the reply was changed into “It seems that I heard a swarm of mosquitos humming.”

The government has issued an apology on China’s Twitter-like platform Weibo on May 5, citing it was a technical problem which was operated by a third party, “The account was not hacked or infected with a virus. The inappropriate content are auto-replies from the system."

The government vowed to learn their lesson, improve the system, and strengthen management to regulate the operation of its WeChat account.

At the same time, Chinese Internet users inquire about the issue Jiang raised in the message, rather than just focusing on the ridiculous auto replies. 

Director of Provincial Situation Studies Center at the Party School of Anhui Zhang Biao told Xi’an Evening News that it could make the public feel close by communicating in a humorous way, but the content had to be correct. At the same time, outsourcing its official account, an important platform to contact the public, to a third party, is irresponsible. 

China has embraced a digital government as well as utilizing online consultation on social media during the past few years to make government services more accessible and efficient to its citizens.