With half a billion and counting registered users on China's Twitter-like micro blogging website Sina Weibo, the country's increasingly vocal army of netizens could be among the biggest challenges facing the world's second largest economy's new leadership, which officially assumes power this month. The Chinese people have taken to the internet in a big way in recent times to protest against everything from corruption, pollution to food safety, posing a never-seen-before problem for President Xi Jinping and his team who are going to rule the country for the next 10 years. The most significant consequence of this growing, powerful online force is the speed at which the new government will need to respond to citizen discontent, said analysts. "They will have to tackle issues faster. Social media rings transparency; we certainly saw that in Arab Springs and what we are seeing right now is no different," said SMU Assistant Professor of Corporate Communication (Education) Michael Netzley.