Chinese users rattled by Twitter hiring former state-affiliated exec as its China chief

Last week, Twitter hired Kathy Chen to be its new head of China, despite the social network being blocked in the country.

But Chen's former history working for the Chinese military has sent waves across the Twittersphere, especially among Chinese users who fear this means Twitter plans to start working closely with the Communist government, which has shown no hesitation in censoring online sentiment or issuing blanket bans on sites.

Google and its sites like Gmail and YouTube are blocked in the country, as are Facebook and Instagram, Dropbox, and publications like The New York Times, Bloomberg and The Economist, to name some.

Twitter itself has been blocked in the country since 2009, allowing its Chinese rival, Sina Weibo, to thrive. But Weibo is famously and tightly screened in China by the ruling Communist Party, and posts that offend the government's sensibilities are often deleted by officials.

As a result, Twitter has become a popular alternative for Chinese people, especially those living overseas, to freely express themselves in their native language. Famous Chinese artist and political dissident Ai Wei Wei, for example, is an active user on the platform, where he tweets in both English and Chinese to his 325,000 followers.

Wen Yunchao, a U.S.-based political dissident, noted on his Twitter account that Chen had worked for the Chinese military for seven years and later headed an anti-virus software company in a joint venture with connections to the Ministry of Public Security.

"It's only reasonable to question the direction of a company by its personnel decisions," Wen wrote.

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Translated, Wen says:

Cisco has been criticized for selling high-end network devices to help authorities in China to build its national firewall. Kathy Chen served Cisco China as its general manager between 2010 and 2013, and was responsible for cooperating with the government. It's worth investigating how much of a role she had in the construction of the Great Firewall of China.

Upon news of her appointment, an Australia-based Chinese artist posted:

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Other users have also taken to threatening and pleading with CEO Jack Dorsey to reverse the decision to hire Chen:

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Perhaps not helping calm Chinese users, Chen retweeted a dog wearing a People's Liberation Army cap -- the Communist Party's military forces. 

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Shortly after, people started sharing her post with comments suggesting that her Communist ties are not far behind her.

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Who is Kathy Chen?

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Chen graduated with a computer science degree from North Jiaotong University, according to Chinese media reports.

She then started working as a technical engineer for a military research institute in 1987. Later, she worked for tech firms DEC, Compaq and 123COM.

What's rankled everyone is her employment at anti-virus software company Jinchen, a joint venture whose local partner was owned indirectly by the Ministry of Public Security.

Twitter said it was common practice for the Chinese government to assign graduates to jobs in the 1980s.

In an emailed statement, Twitter said it was common practice for the Chinese government to assign graduates to jobs in the 1980s. Chen's computer science degree made her a prime candidate for a job as a junior engineer in the People's Liberation Army, the company said.

"When the Chinese economy further opened up with reform in the early 1990s, Kathy chose to pursue her passion for a technology career by switching to the private sector in 1994," the statement said.

Twitter also noted that her role with Jinchen was to represent the interests of majority shareholder Computer Associates, a U.S. tech firm, and it pointed out that she "never worked for the Ministry of Public Security."

Chen, who will be based in Hong Kong, was most recently an executive with Microsoft Asia-Pacific Research and Development Group before being hired by Twitter.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

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