"Lucky she was from CCTV. If it were anyone else, they wouldn’t have been so polite."
"So the mighty Party-controlled media finally get a taste of the iron fist of socialism."
"Now CCTV reporters can enjoy the same treatment as foreign media."

— Chinese social media comments about a reporter from state-broadcaster CCTV being prevented by police from reporting on a gas-leak explosion in Yanjiao, Hebei, that killed seven people and injured 27.

 

CDT Highlights

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Police Prevent State Media From Reporting on Yanjiao Explosion: “The Party Muffled Its Own Mouthpiece”

After an explosion caused by a gas leak destroyed a four-story building, killing seven and injuring 27 in Yanjiao, a commuter town located about 20 miles east of Beijing, reporters from state-media outlets China Central Television (CCTV) and China Media Group (CMG) rushed to report from the scene, only to be pushed away by uniformed police and guards.  The video below, compiled by CDT Chinese editors, shows images of the destruction and videos of the CCTV and CMG journalists being hustled away from the scene: The incidents resulted in public criticism of the heavy-handed tactics, an unusual...

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“Two Sessions” Conclude with Xi, CCP Further Consolidating Power

The story of this year’s Two Sessions was that it has become ever more scripted by the Party, with Xi Jinping at its core. At the annual gatherings of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) and advisory Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the premier’s traditional post-meeting press conference was eliminated, and online censors targeted criticism of Xi and references to self-serving representatives. Even before the end of the meetings, The Economist noted that although “Mr Xi has no high-profile role in the congress […,] it was made abundantly clear that this...

Words of the Week: “Criminalizing Creditors” by Accusing Them of “Picking Quarrels”

Many entrepreneurs and ordinary citizens welcomed the news that provincial prosecutors in Guizhou are investigating a local government for arresting businesswoman Ma Yijiayi and her lawyers and accusing them of “picking quarrels,” simply for trying to collect a legitimate debt from the deadbeat local government.  The case has highlighted the problem of judicial and police misconduct and overreach, particularly the “criminalization of creditors”—in other words, using the machinery of state to intimidate legitimate creditors who are just trying to collect debts they are owed.  The ever more...

Police Prevent State Media From Reporting on Yanjiao Explosion: “The Party Muffled Its Own Mouthpiece”

After an explosion caused by a gas leak destroyed a four-story building, killing seven and injuring 27 in Yanjiao, a commuter town located about 20 miles east of Beijing, reporters from state-media outlets China Central Television (CCTV) and China Media Group (CMG) rushed to report from the scene, only to be pushed away by uniformed police and guards.  The video below, compiled by CDT Chinese editors, shows images of the destruction and videos of the CCTV and CMG journalists being hustled away from the scene: The incidents resulted in public criticism of the heavy-handed tactics, an unusual...

Police Prevent State Media From Reporting on Yanjiao Explosion: “The Party Muffled Its Own Mouthpiece”

After an explosion caused by a gas leak destroyed a four-story building, killing seven and injuring 27 in Yanjiao, a commuter town located about 20 miles east of Beijing, reporters from state-media outlets China Central Television (CCTV) and China Media Group (CMG) rushed to report from the scene, only to be pushed away by uniformed police and guards.  The video below, compiled by CDT Chinese editors, shows images of the destruction and videos of the CCTV and CMG journalists being hustled away from the scene: The incidents resulted in public criticism of the heavy-handed tactics, an unusual...

Hong Kong Article 23 National Security Law Fast-tracked Under CCP Pressure

Hong Kong is set to pass a new domestic national security law that critics worry will further curtail civil liberties already endangered by the 2020 National Security Law imposed by China. The passage of domestic security legislation is a requirement of Article 23 of Hong Kong’s Basic Law, but a previous effort to introduce it in 2003 sparked a June 1 protest march, attended by approximately 500,000 Hongkongers, that forced officials to shelve the bill. This version of the bill was first floated in January and is now, due in no small part to strong Chinese pressure, being rushed through Hong...

Translation: Special One-Month Reconnaissance Operation Against “Overseas Cyber Forces”

A pair of recently surfaced screenshots appear to offer unusual detail about a special month-long operation, held in Beijing and involving over 40 Ministry of Public Security computer specialists from around the country, to combat “overseas cyber forces” in the battle for public opinion. The apparently leaked internal instructions from the Ministry of Public Security are likely to be the result of an email breach. They include the names and locations of many of the computer-specialist officers, as well as the name and contact information of the individual in charge of the operation. At some...

New eBook: China Digital Times Lexicon, 20th Anniversary Edition

On September 12, 2003, John Battelle published the first post on chinadigitaltimes.net: Here’s what a Google Search on “china weblog” yields, I’m looking forward to seeing ours at the top soon! China’s online population at the start of that year was nearly 60 million. Ten years later, it was fast approaching 600 million, and now, after 20, it is well over a billion. This new completely revised and hugely expanded update to our ebook series, formerly known as “the Grass Mud Horse Lexicon,” aims to capture something of the enormous explosion of online speech that accompanied this growth, with...

Quote of the Day: “Nowadays, People are Proving Their Patriotism by Destroying Bottles of Nongfu Spring Water”

In recent weeks, two very familiar household names in China—Nobel prize-winning novelist Mo Yan and bottled water company Nongfu Spring—have come under fire from extreme Chinese nationalists, who have accused the pair of odd bedfellows of being insufficiently patriotic and overly pro-Japanese. In Mo Yan’s case, the controversy originated with a nationalist blogger who filed a court order to stop the acclaimed novelist from “defaming” China’s heroes and martyrs. Nongfu Spring’s troubles began with rumors of a business rivalry with another Chinese bottled water company (the Wahaha Group),...

Police Prevent State Media From Reporting on Yanjiao Explosion: “The Party Muffled Its Own Mouthpiece”

After an explosion caused by a gas leak destroyed a four-story building, killing seven and injuring 27 in Yanjiao, a commuter town located about 20 miles east of Beijing, reporters from state-media outlets China Central Television (CCTV) and China Media Group (CMG) rushed to report from the scene, only to be pushed away by uniformed police and guards.  The video below, compiled by CDT Chinese editors, shows images of the destruction and videos of the CCTV and CMG journalists being hustled away from the scene: The incidents resulted in public criticism of the heavy-handed tactics, an unusual...

U.S. Pushback Against TikTok, Global Trends Toward Cyber Sovereignty

TikTok, the popular social media platform owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has been under intense pressure from the U.S. government over the past few weeks. It now faces a Congressional bill, “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” which would force ByteDance to divest TikTok to avoid the app being effectively banned in the U.S. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the bill 352 to 65 after it was unanimously approved by the Energy and Commerce Committee earlier this month. President Biden stated his intention to sign the bill into law...

U.S. Pushback Against TikTok, Global Trends Toward Cyber Sovereignty

TikTok, the popular social media platform owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has been under intense pressure from the U.S. government over the past few weeks. It now faces a Congressional bill, “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” which would force ByteDance to divest TikTok to avoid the app being effectively banned in the U.S. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the bill 352 to 65 after it was unanimously approved by the Energy and Commerce Committee earlier this month. President Biden stated his intention to sign the bill into law...

Translation: My Hometown Survived the Pandemic

Even before the lifting of China’s long-standing “zero-COVID” policy in early December of last year, there were signs of a surge in Omicron cases nationwide. Since then, China has experienced a tsunami of infections—first in larger cities, and then in the countryside—amid concerns about shortages of needed medications, the increasing risk of medical debt, and unreliable official data on the numbers of infections and deaths. Despite the recent Lunar New Year celebration in which hundreds of millions of residents went traveling and returned to their hometowns, there are signs that the wave of...

Human Rights

Latest

Words of the Week: “Criminalizing Creditors” by Accusing Them of “Picking Quarrels”

Many entrepreneurs and ordinary citizens welcomed the news that provincial prosecutors in Guizhou are investigating a local government for arresting businesswoman Ma Yijiayi and her lawyers and accusing them of “picking quarrels,” simply for trying to collect a legitimate debt from the deadbeat local government.  The case has highlighted the problem of judicial and police misconduct and overreach, particularly the “criminalization of creditors”—in other words, using the machinery of state to intimidate legitimate creditors who are just trying to collect debts they are owed.  The ever more...

Politics

Latest

Trump, Self-Serving Representatives, and Criticism of Xi Among Censored Topics in Run-Up to China’s “Two Sessions”

The Two Sessions, the annual gatherings of China’s rubber-stamp National People’s Congress and advisory Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, are often accompanied by the censorship of discussion of the goings-on in Beijing. Last year, censors nearly uniformly quashed online discussion of Xi Jinping’s unanimous reappointment to an unprecedented third five-year term as president. This year, thanks to a new tool from Citizen Lab that can be used to track search censorship across a number of Chinese digital platforms, CDT Chinese editors have been able to put together a list of...

Society

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Sun Liping’s “Three Simple Points” About Reviving the Economy Deleted From WeChat

On February 28, a post by Tsinghua University sociologist Sun Liping about reviving the Chinese economy was deleted from WeChat, continuing a trend toward increased censorship of articles about the state of the economy. As a sociologist who studies poverty, inequality, and the social transformations brought about by market economic reforms, Sun Liping is well-placed to discuss the current challenges facing the Chinese economy. CDT Chinese editors have archived and republished Sun’s deleted post, adding it to our extensive archive of content (censored and uncensored) about current economic...

China & the World

Latest

Quote of the Day: “Fifteen Months Later, Despite 50 Alterations and Deletions, Censors Have Yet to Approve This Film.”

Today’s quote of the day comes from a CDT Chinese faux “Dragon Seal” visual about acclaimed sixth-generation filmmaker Wang Xiaoshuai’s battle to get his latest film “Above the Dust” 《沃土》(Wòtǔ, “fertile soil”) past the censors at China’s National Film Bureau. The film will make its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday, minus the censors’ seal of approval: Variety’s Patrick Frater explored the film’s historical subject matter and the director’s commitment to having his film screened in Berlin: With a young teen boy as the protagonist, the film depicts a...

Law

Latest

U.S. Pushback Against TikTok, Global Trends Toward Cyber Sovereignty

TikTok, the popular social media platform owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has been under intense pressure from the U.S. government over the past few weeks. It now faces a Congressional bill, “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” which would force ByteDance to divest TikTok to avoid the app being effectively banned in the U.S. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the bill 352 to 65 after it was unanimously approved by the Energy and Commerce Committee earlier this month. President Biden stated his intention to sign the bill into law...

Information Revolution

Latest

WeChat “Bug” Turns Out To Be Obscure Insult for Xi Jinping

A group of students under the impression they had discovered a WeChat “bug” that hides the phrase “200 jin of dumplings” (roughly 220 pounds) had in fact stumbled upon an obscure insult for Xi Jinping that triggers automatic censorship.  In the course of daily conversation, the students found that messages preceded by the term “200 jin of dumplings” (200斤饺子) were not received by their counterparts. Juvenile hilarity ensued. They sent each other curses and confessions: “200 jin of dumplings, you’re a stupid c***,” “200 jin of dumplings, you’re an idiot,” “200 jin of dumplings, piggy,” and...

Culture & the Arts

Latest

Quote of the Day: “Nowadays, People are Proving Their Patriotism by Destroying Bottles of Nongfu Spring Water”

In recent weeks, two very familiar household names in China—Nobel prize-winning novelist Mo Yan and bottled water company Nongfu Spring—have come under fire from extreme Chinese nationalists, who have accused the pair of odd bedfellows of being insufficiently patriotic and overly pro-Japanese. In Mo Yan’s case, the controversy originated with a nationalist blogger who filed a court order to stop the acclaimed novelist from “defaming” China’s heroes and martyrs. Nongfu Spring’s troubles began with rumors of a business rivalry with another Chinese bottled water company (the Wahaha Group),...

The Great Divide

Latest

Translation: My Hometown Survived the Pandemic

Even before the lifting of China’s long-standing “zero-COVID” policy in early December of last year, there were signs of a surge in Omicron cases nationwide. Since then, China has experienced a tsunami of infections—first in larger cities, and then in the countryside—amid concerns about shortages of needed medications, the increasing risk of medical debt, and unreliable official data on the numbers of infections and deaths. Despite the recent Lunar New Year celebration in which hundreds of millions of residents went traveling and returned to their hometowns, there are signs that the wave of...

Sci-Tech

Latest

U.S. Pushback Against TikTok, Global Trends Toward Cyber Sovereignty

TikTok, the popular social media platform owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has been under intense pressure from the U.S. government over the past few weeks. It now faces a Congressional bill, “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” which would force ByteDance to divest TikTok to avoid the app being effectively banned in the U.S. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the bill 352 to 65 after it was unanimously approved by the Energy and Commerce Committee earlier this month. President Biden stated his intention to sign the bill into law...

Environment

Latest

African Union Bans Donkey-Hide Trade in Response to Unsustainable Chinese Demand 

At a recent summit in Ethiopia, the African Union (AU) decided to approve a 15-year continent-wide ban on the slaughter of donkeys for their hides. Donkey hides are a key component of the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) ingredient known as ejiao (“donkey-hide gelatin”), whose demand in China has boomed over the past decade and decimated donkey populations in Africa. The Donkey Sanctuary, one of the world’s largest equine charity organizations, celebrated the announcement and described its significance This historic decision taken by the African Union recognises, at the highest level of...

Hong Kong

Latest

Hong Kong Article 23 National Security Law Fast-tracked Under CCP Pressure

Hong Kong is set to pass a new domestic national security law that critics worry will further curtail civil liberties already endangered by the 2020 National Security Law imposed by China. The passage of domestic security legislation is a requirement of Article 23 of Hong Kong’s Basic Law, but a previous effort to introduce it in 2003 sparked a June 1 protest march, attended by approximately 500,000 Hongkongers, that forced officials to shelve the bill. This version of the bill was first floated in January and is now, due in no small part to strong Chinese pressure, being rushed through Hong...

Taiwan

Latest

Taiwanese Election Weathers Chinese Influence Efforts

Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lost its legislative majority in the country’s general election on Saturday, but its presidential candidate Lai Ching-te was elected with 40 percent of the vote. Chinese authorities met the news with censorship and distraction, and with rhetorical bluster that raised some eyebrows among Chinese social media users. The outcome was a success in that a fair and democratic election took place with a peaceful transfer of power and concession by the losing parties, demonstrating once more that Taiwan is a healthy, functioning democracy. But the...

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