Abstract: Does the Internet create a more equal structure to political engagement? Using the Weibo data of the selected opinion leaders in Xia Junfengs case， this paper gave an analysis of the internal network structure. It was found that opinion leaders act as an agency in transforming individual demands into public topics and online political engagement takes on a polar structure of “individual-opinion leader-the public”. Besides， characterized by monopoly， only those opinion leaders with social and economic importance could play a steady role; however， they tend to have different perspectives and viewpoints， which could help to relieve the pressure of public opinions.

Key words: online political engagement, opinion leader, social network analysis