Abstract: Since the beginning of the 21st century,online public opinions have become an unignorable force in social governance in China.Its motivations can be listed as follows:on the technical level,the use of new media in the internet environment has brought convenience in the citizen participation in the public opinions;on the economic level,the structural differentiation of China's social interests brought about by the reform and opening-up has triggered strong demand for citizen participation itself;the advancement of political civilization construction and governance modernization have opened up space for the Chinese citizens' participation in public opinions.With the increasing active citizen participation in online public opinions,related researches are also being increased in number,but most confined to the negative public opinion events,rather than systematic theoretical construction based on the needs of governance practice and perspective.In particular,there is a lack of analysis on the level of citizen participation and governance optimization based on the expression of citizen interests.As a result,many important issues are ignored,and the practical value of promoting the guidance of public opinions and the optimization of governance practice is also weakened.Furthermore,the governance errors that triggered the crisis of public opinions in practice have occurred repeatedly,resulting in a decline in the credibility of the government and even a negative influence on social harmony and stability.For the present research on online public opinions in China,it is of urgent need to attach importance to the practice process of promoting modernization of governance,and strengthen the research perspective of citizen participation.Meanwhile,we will continue to deepen the theoretical research and practice of governance modernization by taking the researches on the citizen participation in the public opinions as a breakthrough point.

Key words: citizen participation, citizen participation in online public opinions, governance modernization