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.

SEE ALSO: Medium is the latest website to be blocked in China

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.

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: