Yes, what are these books about, generally?

There are three Internet-specific books on the list. Over the years, each of the authors has contributed to my understanding of how the Communist Party manages the Internet, and how effective or not it might be. In the case of Yang Guobin, while he’s clear-eyed about the Party’s abilities to manage the Internet, he still offers a somewhat hopeful interpretation of Chinese activism online. It may not be directly advancing democracy in the Western sense, but it is giving citizens online more democratic-like freedoms and giving them a space, a public forum, where they can develop some of the patterns and habits of democracy. This is something you’ll also find in Johan Lagerkvist’s After the Internet, Before Democracy. Lagerkvist also has a relatively hopeful view. The Internet may not be speeding China towards democratization in the short-term, but he believes that inevitably it will make that transformation easier. He’s extremely cognizant, though, of the technological determinism of the cyber-utopians, this idea that the Internet will just lead to democratization. He rejects that, and tries to offer a different understanding, which is quite helpful. What’s really interesting about Lagerkvist’s work is that he compiles different threads of thought about the Internet, and there are many. This list of books – even just the three that are specifically related to the Internet – are just a fraction of the amount of ink that’s been spilled over the Chinese Internet…

And ultimately it’s about whether the Internet in China will lead to democracy or whether it could be a more sinister force, leading to, say, some sort of nationalist autocracy? Is that the key question?

Yes, and it fits into the larger question of “Whither China?” and “Whither the Chinese Communist Party?” which is the big question that everybody asks themselves when they come here, especially to cover it as a story, as journalists do. That’s why I’ve got Anne-Marie Brady’s book on my list as well, Marketing Dictatorship. She focuses on the Party-state’s ability to adapt after Tiananmen in 1989, and focus its efforts in propaganda to reinforce certain concepts that it wants to spread and have be absorbed by the public. These include not only embracing the market economy, but also embracing one-party rule, the need for social stability, nationalism, and, selectively, anti-foreign sentiment. [Source]

Read more interviews about China from the Five Books series, via CDT.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Internet censorship, Internet development, propaganda, weibo
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“Reach victory in the People’s war against Apple and Steve Jobs.”

First Lady’s iPhone: Peng Liyuan, the wife of President Xi Jinping, was spotted in Mexico last week taking a photo of Mayan ruins with her iPhone. A photo of Peng and her phone went viral on Weibo earlier this week. This March, a CCTV program criticized Apple for charging certain maintenance fees in China that it did not elsewhere. Despite a Weibo gaff that exposed pro-government forces behind the Apple-bashing, and ensuing netizen disgruntlement with CCTV, Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote a formal apology to its Chinese users and promised a change in policy.

• Peng+cell phone (彭+手机)
• Peng+take a photo (彭+拍照)
• Peng+apple (彭+苹果)
• Peng+iPhone (彭+iphone)
• first lady+cell phone (第一夫人+手机)
• first lady+apple (第一夫人+苹果)
• first lady+iPhone (第一夫人+iphone)
• first lady+ cell phone (国母+手机)
• first lady+apple (国母+苹果)
• first lady+iPhone (国母+iphone)
• Mrs. Xi+cell phone (习夫人+手机)
• Mrs. Xi+take a photo (习夫人+拍照)
• Mrs. Xi+apple (习夫人+苹果)
• Mrs. Xi+iPhone (习夫人+iphone)
• peng+liyuan

Other: Current situation of the ideological sphere (当前意识形态领域情况): News and discussion of an internal Party document titled “Circular on the Current Situation of the Ideological Sphere” (关于当前意识形态领域情况的通报) has been heavily censored since early May. Fei Chang Dao has tracked online censorship of the document, while China Copyright and Media has gleaned information on its contents.

All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results.

Browse all of CDT’s collected sensitive words in this bilingual Google spreadsheet.

CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information. To add words, check out the form at the bottom of CDT Chinese’s latest sensitive words post.

Have a sensitive word tip? Submit it to CDT through this form:

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Apple, censorship, Internet censorship, Ministry of Truth, Peng Liyuan, Sensitive Words Series, weibo, Xi Jinping
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Tiananmen Continued: Terms related to the anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre, known in Chinese simply as “Six Four” (as in June 4). See also yesterday’s Sensitive Words post.

• 89: As in 1989.
• 64+24: The 24th anniversary of June 4. Chinese Twitter users have been discussing “6424.”
• tank
• anniversary
• hk64: Refers to Hong Kong commemorations of June 4.
• viiv: Six Four in Roman numerals, another Twitter term.
• (big) yellow duck: The latest take on Tank Man.
• candlelight (烛光): Alludes to candlelight vigils.
• Jisi month+Yiwei day (己巳月+乙未日): In the traditional 60-year cycle, the first term is equivalent to May-June 1989, the second to a number of dates in the same year including June 4.
• square of eight (八的平方): 8²=64
• memorial ceremony (祭奠)
• inappropriate for the public (不适宜对外公开): A message Sina sometimes displays when a user’s weibo has been deleted.
• Internet block (网络封锁)
• Hexie Farm (蟹农场): Retested.
• sensitive word (敏感词)

Other: Xi+movie star (习+影帝)

All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results.

Browse all of CDT’s collected sensitive words in this bilingual Google spreadsheet.

CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information. To add words, check out the form at the bottom of CDT Chinese’s latest sensitive words post.

Have a sensitive word tip? Submit it to CDT through this form:

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 1989 protests, censorship, Internet censorship, Ministry of Truth, Sensitive Words Series, weibo
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Sina Weibo, gagged.

Update: The form for readers to submit tips on blocked keywords will be available at the bottom of all future English Sensitive Words posts. The form itself is in Chinese.

In April 2011, CDT Chinese began tracking keywords blocked from Sina Weibo search results, collecting them on a public Google spreadsheet. Among the obscenities and names of foreign media are terms which outline the arc of events, from “Wukan” on December 6, 2011 to “Wen Jiabao + leave office” on March 6, 2013 and beyond. Now all 2057 terms (and counting) are available in English.

The Grass-Mud Horse list includes the English translation of each blocked keyword, as well as link to the relevant Sensitive Words post and information on retests where available. The list will continue to expand so long as Weibo blocks search results.

You can view the list below or by clicking this link.

CDT encourages reader tips, which you may submit via the form provided below the list on this post and at the bottom of every CDT Chinese Sensitive Words (敏感词库) post.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: censorship, Internet censorship, Sensitive Words Series, weibo
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“Don’t you know about the praying mantis that waved its arms angrily in front of an approaching carriage,” warned the philosopher Zhuangzi, “unaware that they were incapable of stopping it? Such was the high opinion it had of its talents” (Burton Watson, trans.). Images of the angry mantis facing a car wheel are circulating online today.

In 2012, CDT identified 118 terms blocked from Weibo search results around the anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre. Many of those terms are now blocked again. There is also overlap between this list and Jason Ng’s automated test results, reported today by Citizen Lab.

CDT reported more censored keywords related to Tiananmen on May 25 and 28. Compare this year’s blocked terms to last year’s (lists one and two).

As of June 3, the following search terms are blocked on Sina Weibo (not including the “search for user” function).

Numbers and Dates:
• 35: Shorthand for May 35th.
• 63+1: 64, i.e. June 4.
• 65-1: 64.
• 24 years (24年): It is the 24th anniversary of the massacre.
• june
• Jun+4th
• thirty-five (三十五)
• twenty-four (二十四)
• six+four (六+四)
• six 4 (六4)
• 6 four (6四)
• liusi: Pinyin for “six four” (六四 liù sì).
• bajiu: Pinyin for “eight nine” （八九 bā jiǔ）.
• six four (陆肆)
• six four (陆四)
• six four (六肆)
• eight nine (捌玖)
• eight nine (捌九)
• eight nine (八玖)
• six four (六four)
• six four (six四)
• six+four
• eight eight (八八): 8×8=64

• today (今天)
• tomorrow (明天)
• that year (那年)
• that day (那天)
• special day (特殊的日子)

Commemoration:
• Ai Xiaoming (艾晓明): Prof. Ai of Sun Yat-sen University is calling for people to wear black shirts in remembrance of Tiananmen. Meanwhile, Shenzhen University is cracking down on the black shirt movement.
• Victoria Park (维园)
• evening event (晚会)
• candle (蜡烛): Like last June, Sina Weibo has removed the candle emoticon.
• black shirt (黑衫)
• redress (平反)
• commemorate (纪念)

Places:
• TAM: Abbreviation for Tiananmen.
• tiananmen
• square
• Tiananmen (天安门)
• square (广场): As in Tiananmen Square (天安门广场).
• Jinshuiqiao (金水桥)
• Changan Avenue (长安街)
• Muxidi (木樨地)
• Gongzhufen (公主坟)

Events:
• take to the streets (上街)
• against bureaucratic profiteering (反官倒): The first half of a slogan from the Tiananmen protests. The second half is “against corruption” (反腐败).
• tank (坦克)
• martial law (戒严)
• student movement (学运)
• student strike (学潮)
• suppress (镇压)
• massacre (屠杀)
• march (游行)
• Beijing massacred (北京屠城): 屠城 túchéng literally means to slaughter all the inhabitants of a conquered city.

People:
• Ding Zilin (丁子霖)
• Zhang Xianling (张先玲)
• Hu Yaobang (胡耀邦)
• Zhao Ziyang (赵紫阳)
• Li Peng (李鹏)
• Yuan Mu (袁木)
• Yan Jiaqi (严家其)

All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results.

Browse all of CDT’s collected sensitive words in this bilingual Google spreadsheet.

CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information. To add words, check out the form at the bottom of CDT Chinese’s latest sensitive words post.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 1989 protests, censorship, Internet censorship, Ministry of Truth, Sensitive Words Series, weibo
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[Source]

The “Dishonest Amercans” series is not an isolated case of state media attacking foreign companies—as Wenxiong Zhang recently outlined in an article for CDT, foreign firms often face scrutiny in the Chinese media. In April, Apple CEO Tim Cook issued an apology after CCTV lashed out at the company. But, netizens quickly rallied to criticize CCTV when the attempted orchestration of a weibo coup against Apple was revealed. Global Voices points out that in this case too, China’s online community was quick to criticize People’s Daily for their actions:

Lei Yi, a prominent Chinese historian weighed in, writing [zh] on the popular microbloging service Sina Weibo sarcastically:

三十年前，我们被教育说美国人民生活在水深火热之中，但美国人民是好的，等待我们去解放。三十年后，我们教育说，美国人“无德无信”

Thirty years ago, we were educated that Americans all lived in extreme misery, but American people were good, they were waiting to be liberated by us. Thirty years later, we are educated that Americans are dishonest and not reliable.

[...]Changchun Qiche lamented [zh]：

美国人无德无信是个例，所以需要挖掘。中国人特别是官员，无德无信是常例，有德有信才稀奇，才需要报道。

Americans’ dishonesty and unreliability are isolated cases, so it’s worth digging into. Chinese, especially official, dishonesty and unreliability are the norm, their honesty and reliability are rare, hence they are worth to be reported. [Source]

After netizens began commenting on People’s Daily’s most recent addition to the series, the Chinese news media took note. A post from chinaSMACK translates coverage from the Chinese media, including a piece from Sina noting that the name of the column was changed after the controversy emerged:

From Sina (May 28):

People’s Daily Online Criticizes the United States: “Dishonest Americans” Name Changed

On May 22, People’s Daily Online’s column “Dishonest Americans” telling stories of the experiences and Americans that Chinese people have encountered in the United States aroused attention on the internet. Owing to the column’s title being the subject of controversy, People’s Daily Online has already altered the column title to “The Americans You Don’t Know”. [Source]

At her New York Times blog, Didi Kirsten Tatlow points out that, if the series’ title was changed to lighten contention, the move may not have been effective—web-users continue to scold People’s Daily:

The change hasn’t done much good among Chinese netizens who took the opportunity, in a slew of online comments, to berate their own people, particularly their leaders, for pointing the finger at Americans when they are flawed themselves.

“I suggest they run a series called Dishonest Party Members and Dishonest Officials, they’d have a lot more to choose from,” posted a person called Xiao Rui.

Wrote Author Yuenan, “Bring your wives and mistresses and all your illegally-born children back to China and you won’t need to waste energy calling people names anymore.” [Source]

While Global Times’ coverage of the “Americans You Don’t Know” née “Dishonest Americans” series also notes public disapproval, it mentions that some web-users “applauded the column.” The Global Times goes on to present the story as a lesson well suited to both China and the U.S.:

Many believed that the negative accounts of Americans could hardly serve as an “objective picture”, but were instead an over-generalization and a prejudiced portrait of the US.

At the same time, the People’s Daily’s work has also won some support. On Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, some netizens applauded the column, saying it is time to end the “courting manners” that many Chinese have toward foreigners.

Closer examination shows that two extreme views dominate Chinese public opinion about the US. It is clearly split into either a total repudiation or wholehearted agreement. Therefore, any comment that tilts to one side will be heavily attacked by the other.

However, this is also applicable to US observations of China. It has become an old trick for the US media or observers to deliberately select part of China’s image, usually unfavorable, to magnify and hype up its negative influence. Thus, a generally fair observation with checks and balance against extreme views is what both countries lack. [Source]

© josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: anti-americanism, netizens, party ideology, people's daily, state media, U.S. relations, weibo
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Enter Hu Xijin, Chief Editor of Global Times and a favorite punching bag of Weibo users. Hu weighed in on the Weibo spat between Zhang and Wang [zh] and the ensuing rage at his paper on the evening of May 28, calling out “big Vs” (popular Weibo users with verified accounts) for fanning the flames:

Click to enlarge.

@胡锡进: An evening chat. Muckraking posts that expose people’s secrets and posts that unfairly label people always get hot on Weibo. Wait and see, Weibo’s big Vs will prove themselves incorrigible. How many people are flawless? How many can withstand libelous public opinion? You speak ill of me, I’ll speak ill of you, and in the end there won’t be any decent people left on Weibo. A contribution to the dress-rehearsal in “democracy.”

夜话。揭人隐私的扒粪帖，给人扣帽子的棍子帖，都是微博上最容易火的。等着瞧吧，微博上的大v最后一个也好不了。有几个人能没一点毛病？有几个人能经得起舆论编排？你臭我，我臭你，最后的结果就是微博上没好人呵。就都算为“民主”彩排做贡献啦。

This post has disappeared from Hu’s account, but not this second snipe at his critics from May 29:

@胡锡进: This afternoon, @王文 [Wang Wen] returned to give a lecture at Global Times English after leaving the paper four months ago to establish @人大重阳 [Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Remin University], where he has already enjoyed initial success. He spoke about the cumulative effect of eight years at Global Times, including the many scholars and friends he met and the contacts and experiences here that enabled him start his new project. His former colleagues gave him a round of applause. Finally, one person mentioned that on Weibo, many people curse us, and everyone laughed. [Source]

今天下午@王文 回环球时报英文版讲课，他4个月前离开了报社，主持@人大重阳 的创建，如今他已经有了最初的成就。他讲了环球时报8年对他人生的重要积累，包括他交了那么多学者朋友，这些人脉和经验助推了他的新事业。他的英文版前同 事们报以掌声，笑声。最后有人提到微博上有人骂我们，大家又笑了。

Commenters on this second weibo were hardly laughing:

@封新城: I’m a “small V” who can’t get popular, but I’m scared of this post.

咱也是一不入流的的小V，可还是给这个帖子吓着了。

@羊肉88串: Have a publicly televised debate, see who laughs and who cries. But this won’t be allowed, and everybody understands why.

来一场公开电视辩论，看谁哭谁笑。不过，这是不被允许的，大家都懂。

@就是要学习2012: Editor Hu, isn’t your performance evaluated according to how much people curse you online? The louder the scolding, the greater your contribution. You all use the weight behind your social status to cover up your present interests. Understandable.

胡主编，你的绩效考核是不是根据网上的骂声来做的。网上骂声越大，说明贡献越大。这也对，因为你们本来就是用身后名来换眼前利的吗！可以理解。

@蚂蚁爬上树: Finally, someone mentioned that on Weibo, many people curse us, and everyone wiped the spittle from their faces and laughed happily…

最后有人提到微博上有人骂我们，大家抹着满脸的唾沫星子，开心的笑了。。。

@风之杀小童鞋: Okay, so at Global Times English, you enjoy a higher degree of free speech than they do over at Nanfang.

嗯，在英文版享受比南方系还高的言论自由

@郑一红: This is what it means to have confidence in the path!

这就是道路自信！

A reference to the three confidences.

@西海的方向: If Editor Hu really paid no attention to the criticism of netizens, then he wouldn’t have given us this type of Ah Q response. You always pay a price when you sell your soul for money and status. Let’s hope that this Ah Q spirit can allow Editor Hu to forget the unease in his heart as he holds the frisbee in his mouth, allowing his spirit and mind some peace.

胡编如果真正不在意网络上的批评的话，就不会有这种阿Q式的回应。出卖灵魂换取金钱和地位总是要付出代价的，希望这种阿Q精神能让胡编忘记叼飞盘时的耻辱和夜深时内心深处的不安，让你的灵魂和精神得到安宁。

@冷月看江湖: When you squat at the main entrance, everyone smiles.

说到你蹲在大门口，大家都笑了。

Via CDT Chinese. Translation by Josh Rudolph.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Global Times, Hu xijin, Netizen Voices, state media, weibo
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Does Wang Qishan Want Them Home?: Chinese media reported earlier on Tuesday [zh] that Central Discipline and Inspection Commission Secretary Wang Qishan was going to require that the children of cadres at the ministerial level or above return to China within a year after they have finished their studies abroad. The story has since been refuted in English-language Chinese press and deleted elsewhere [zh].

• high officials+children studying abroad (高官+留学子女)
• children of high officials+return home (高官子女+回国)

Li Jianguo: A corruption investigation on then-Politburo member Li Jianguo began late this January.

• Li Jianguo+investigation (李建国+调查)

Anniversary of Tiananmen Massacre: Keywords are blocked liberally every year as the anniversary of the crackdown on protesters in and around Tiananmen Square approaches. CDT reported six related blocked keywords on May 25. Dozens were blocked last year.

• twenty-fourth anniversary (二十四周年)
• Victoria Park+evening event (维园+晚会): A candlelight vigil is held in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park every year.
• Szeto Wah (司徒华)

All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results.

Browse all of CDT’s collected sensitive words in this bilingual Google spreadsheet.

CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information. To add words, check out the form at the bottom of CDT Chinese’s latest sensitive words post.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 1989 protests, censorship, Internet censorship, Li Jianguo, Ministry of Truth, official corruption, Sensitive Words Series, Szeto Wah, Wang Qishan, weibo
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“We recently helped the head of a police bureau in Jieyang, Guangdong, delete a set of stories from the web, but I cannot tell you exactly who it was,” said a representative of one black PR firm that sells its services on Taobao, an online marketplace, under the title Geshigoufang.

“We can clean your name from blogs, forums, news websites, Weibo [China's version of Twitter], everything,” he added. “It costs 13,000 yuan (£1,200) to have a story deleted from the People’s Daily website or from Xinhua,” he added.

“It is a bit more expensive because those are government websites. Also for the People’s Daily you have to show us the webpage you want to disappear and we have to ask the editors there whether it is too risky to delete,” he said.

[…] An editor at Xinhua, the state news agency, said she had heard of the practice but that it was “ethically bad” and “technically very difficult” to erase stories from Xinhua and that she had never heard of anyone doing such a thing. [Source]

‘Black PR’ firm Yage Time was previously the subject of an in-depth article at Caixin (via CDT), which detailed its pioneering business model of publishing negative content about companies and then soliciting payment to have it removed.

“Online reputation management” is also used by celebrities, companies and private individuals in the West, but these services focus—at least publicly—on burying unfavorable search results. Their Chinese counterparts’ tactics for uprooting negative content at the source, Moore writes, occasionally include sending out fake government censorship notices. Bribery is more common, however: three former Baidu employees were arrested last summer after being fired for carrying out paid deletions.

Other weapons in the ambitious official’s arsenal include surveillance devices and feng shui.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: officials, online media, people's daily, public relations, weibo, Xinhua
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Three Detained in Guangzhou After Applying for Tiananmen Commemoration: Li Weiguo, Xu Xiangrong, and Li Wensheng were detained by the police in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, after they applied for city approval for a public Tiananmen Massacre demonstration. RFA reports [zh].

• Li Weiguo (李维国)
• Xu Xiangrong (徐向荣)
• Li Wensheng (李文生)
• 24th anniversary (24周年): This year marks the 24th anniversary of the massacre.
• youxing: Pinyin spelling of “march” (游行 yóuxíng)
• march (游行): retested（复测）

• Bao Pu (鲍朴): Founder of New Century Press in Hong Kong, which publishes books on subjects banned in mainland China. New Century will release Tiananmen democracy activist Chen Yizi’s memoir on June 4 [zh], the anniversary of the crackdown.

All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results.

Browse all of CDT’s collected sensitive words in this bilingual Google spreadsheet.

CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information. To add words, check out the form at the bottom of CDT Chinese’s latest sensitive words post.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 1989 protests, censorship, Internet censorship, Ministry of Truth, propaganda, Sensitive Words Series, weibo
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In a grainy, black-and-white video of her final performance, Zhu Ling sweeps across the stage in a black skirt and white blouse before taking a seat behind a guqin, the six-stringed Chinese zither. She’s been feeling sick recently, and you can tell she’s a little nervous. But her fingers are precise. They pluck out a cautious melody.

Zhu has no idea she’s been poisoned.

A heavy metal is coursing through her body, brutalizing her neurological system. By the time the rare element is finally diagnosed and purged, Zhu will be physically ruined, her brilliant mind permanently damaged, her mental capacities reduced to that of a 6-year-old. She will forever be trapped in 1995, believing she’s a student at China’s most prestigious technical university.

She will miss everything that happens next.

Zhu’s story has straddled and defined two ends of the Internet revolution, connecting two decades, two continents, and two generations. She was probably the first person whose life was saved thanks to crowdsourced medical advice.

Nearly two decades later, her case has become the subject of what may be the largest amateur online manhunt in history, as millions of strangers in two countries unite on message boards and social media to scour the world for the only suspect in her poisoning, a woman barely seen or heard from since 1995—her college roommate.

It all began with an SOS made of ones and zeroes.[...]

[Source]

Click through to read Kevin Morris’ captivating narration of the Zhu Ling story in its entirety.

© josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: human flesh search engines, Internet, weibo, Zhu Ling
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Wu Changlong embraces his father. He was found innocent and released from prison after serving 12 years. (Wu Huaying)

As of May 19, the following search terms are blocked on Sina Weibo (not including the “search for user” function).

Intertwined Injustices in Fujian: On June 24, 2001, a bomb exploded at the Fuqing City Discipline Inspection Commission in Fujian Province, killing one person. Wu Changlong and Chen Keyun were charged with the bombing, although they have always claimed innocence. The Fuzhou Intermediate People’s Court found them and several others guilty in 2004. The case was appealed and went to the provincial courts. In December 2005, the Fuzhou Supreme People’s Court again found Chen and Wu guilty and gave them both suspended death sentences. Wu’s sister, Wu Yinghua, continued to advocate for her brother.

This month Mr. Wu was found not guilty and released from prison. VOA reports that a censorship directive has been issued to the press barring them from reporting on his case [zh].

In 2009, Ms. Wu began assisting Lin Xiuying to seek justice after Lin’s daughter, Yan Xiaoling, died the year before after being gang raped. The police claimed that Yan had instead died from an ectopic pregnancy; Lin suspected the local police were involved. Ms. Wu helped Lin, who is illiterate, to blog and post video testimony about her daughter’s case. Ms. Wu and two others were detained in July 2009 and prosecuted. Ms. Wu was released from prison a year later.

Human Rights in China and Deutsche Welle [zh] have more information on both cases.

• Fuqing Discipline Inspection Commission Bombing Incident (福清纪委爆炸案)
• Wu Changlong (吴昌龙)
• Wu Yinghua (吴英华)
• Lin Xiuying (林秀英)
• Chen Keyun (陈科云)

Other:

• Pantu (潘涂)

All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results.

Browse all of CDT’s collected sensitive words in this bilingual Google spreadsheet.

CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information. To add words, check out the form at the bottom of CDT Chinese’s latest sensitive words post.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: censorship, Chen Keyun, defending rights, Fujian, Fuqing, Internet censorship, Lin Xiuying, Ministry of Truth, Pantu, Sensitive Words Series, weibo, Wu Changlong, Wu Yinghua
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Dear Nameless Censor, I know you possess enormous power but you have no right to delete what I write, and you have no right to intrude into my life. Most importantly, you have no right to deprive me of my freedom of speech, because freedom of speech is my inviolable constitutional right.

I know that in this country, at this time, you are far more powerful than me–I am merely an ordinary citizen, a writer who writes for a living, while you, a nameless censor, have the power to push me off a cliff with just one phone call.

Still, I am writing you this letter because I believe your awesome powers are only temporary. You can delete my words, you can delete my name but you cannot snatch the pen from my hand. In the years to come this pen of mine will fight a long war of resistance, and continue to write for as long as it takes for me to see the light of a new dawn. I believe you will not be able to hide in the shadows forever because the light of a new dawn will also expose the place where you are hiding. Dear Nameless Censor, when that time comes, the whole world will know who you are. [Source]

Read more by and about Murong Xuecun via CDT.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Internet censorship, Murong Xuecun, weibo
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Not long ago, scholar Zhang Xuezhong, Xiao Xuehui, Song Shinan and lawyer Si Weijiang all saw their Weibo accounts deleted. They each had large numbers of followers, who spread their words to an even wider audience. But all of a sudden their names have disappeared. Nobody knows why, or who ordered it, but we all know that a new round of a censorship campaign has commenced. As in 1957, 1966 and 1989, Chinese intellectuals are feeling more or less the same fear as one does before an approaching mountain storm: the scariest thing of all is not being silenced or being sent to prison; it is the sense of powerlessness and uncertainty about what comes next. There is no procedure, no standard, and not a single explanation. It’s as if you are walking into a minefield blindfolded. Not knowing where the mines are buried, you don’t know when you will be blasted to pieces.

Two days later, at 10pm on 11 May, my Weibo accounts with Sina, Tencent, NetEase, and Sohu were deleted simultaneously. When the web staff from these sites got in touch with me several minutes later, they told me more or less the same story: they were following an order from a “superior department”, whose identity they could not reveal because of a confidentiality agreement. In fact, such departments are as numerous as hairs on an ox: State Council Information Office, State Internet Information Office, Propaganda Department, Public Security Bureau, the secretary of a dignitary … Almost every department and dignitary can order internet companies to delete information and accounts while they themselves hide in the dark. Seeing speeches that trigger their ire, they can make them disappear for ever by simply picking up the telephone receiver.

I am mentally prepared for such things to happen, but when they do, I still feel dismayed and angry. I am a “big V” [verified user] on Weibo, possessing over 8.5m followers across the four web portals, and 3.96m in Sina alone. In a period of over three years, I had posted more than 1,900 Weibo messages totalling more than 200,000 words, each written with deliberation and care. In a split second, however, they were all brought to naught. [Source]

Read more by and about Murong Xuecun via CDT.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Internet censorship, Murong Xuecun, weibo
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Lawyers “Surround and Watch” Black Jails: On May 13, 11 rights defense lawyers were detained and beaten for attempting to visit a black jail in Ziyang, Sichuan Province. Since then, the weibo accounts of several public intellectuals have been shuttered, including writer Murong Xuecun‘s.

• Ziyang black jail (资阳黑监狱)
• surround and watch+black jails (围观+黑监狱)
• rights defense lawyers (维权律师)

Other:
• Wang Bu (王补): The former Beijing Public Security Bureau Chief of Scientific Research, who passed away in 1997. On the “Wuxi Economy” TV program, Zhu Ling’s father recently disclosed that Mr. Wang gave his notes on Zhu Ling’s case to Zhu’s parents before his death.
• red bandits (赤匪)
• red bandits (红匪)
• gong bandits (Gong匪): Alternate writing of 共匪 gōng fēi, i.e. communist bandits (共产党匪).
• gongfei

All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results.

Browse all of CDT’s collected sensitive words in this bilingual Google spreadsheet.

CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information. To add words, check out the form at the bottom of CDT Chinese’s latest sensitive words post.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: black jails, censorship, defending rights, Internet censorship, Ministry of Truth, Sensitive Words Series, weibo, Zhu Ling
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