By examining the Guo Meimei case from the viewpoint of public surveillance, this study aims to examine the populist phenomenon of weblog society in China. After tracking the development of the case, we found that populist netizens express a backlash against regulation by the political authorities, and release their feelings of dissatisfaction on the net. Additionally, the populist phenomenon creates a "synopticon" communication framework, which can be regarded a social network of an "issue-centered" style. The paper also shows that there is still a long way to go before the ideal of civil society can be realized in China.