This week, many organizations and media outlets commemorated the tenth anniversary of the 709 (July 9) or "Black Friday" crackdown, a coordinated detention of more than 300 rights lawyers and activists in...
Wednesday is the tenth anniversary of the 709 (July 9) or "Black Friday" crackdown, a coordinated detention of more than 300 rights lawyers and activists in 2015 that was a key moment in the authoritarian...
If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at...
This year, Shanghai launched a system of traffic safety codes which “aggregates records of traffic...
June 30 marked the fifth anniversary of Beijing’s imposition of a heavy-handed national security...
This is my country, and it belongs to the People."
— Rights lawyer Zhou Shifeng, explaining why he will not leave China and why he continues to petition the Chinese authorities to overturn his case. After the 709 "Black Friday" crackdown that targeted hundreds of lawyers, Zhou was given one of the harshest sentences, a seven-year prison term.
This week, many organizations and media outlets commemorated the tenth anniversary of the 709 (July 9) or "Black Friday" crackdown, a coordinated detention of more than 300 rights lawyers and activists in 2015 that coincided with a marked authoritarian shift in the early Xi Jinping era. CDT has published a roundup of tenth anniversary coverage and activities, including an online gathering of Chinese civil society groups, a joint statement and U.N. appeal by 31 international rights groups, and assessments of the impact of the crackdown on Chinese civil society, rights protection...
If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at...
This year, Shanghai launched a system of traffic safety codes which “aggregates records of traffic...
Amid recurrent China-Taiwan tensions and rising geopolitical instability, investigative journalist...
At The New York Times on Monday, columnist Li Yuan describes how, as "wages stagnate and jobs...
On June 4, Safeguard Defenders published a new report on the practice of "forced...
Chinese authorities have arrested dozens of writers of Boys’ Love (BL), or danmei, a genre of online homoerotic fiction featuring male protagonists, and typically created by and for women. This latest crackdown appears driven by a variety of factors, such as the patriarchal government’s efforts to control women and censor content that it considers sexually “deviant”; outdated and overly restrictive legal definitions of obscenity; and cash-strapped local police departments pushing the boundaries of their respective jurisdictions. Yi Ma and Eunice Yang from the BBC described the scope of the...
Last summer, the Chinese government released a proposal for a national internet ID system. The...
A fragile ceasefire appears to have paused 12 days of war between Israel and Iran, which has...
China’s AI industry has drawn increasing media attention as its progress generates excitement and...
Several reports over the past two weeks have shed light on the ongoing human rights issue of...
Numerous public opinion surveys from around the world have highlighted a significant shift in...
June 30 marked the fifth anniversary of Beijing’s imposition of a heavy-handed national security law (NSL) on Hong Kong, which has altered the sociopolitical landscape of the city by undermining its democratic institutions, weakening civil society, and severely curtailing a wide range of freedoms. In the last five years, groups of opposition politicians have been jailed, labor unions and universities cowed, once prominent media outlets shuttered, public protests quashed, and June 4 commemorations banned. Many Hong Kong activists and organizations have been forced into exile, and some have...
Several reports over the past two weeks have shed light on the ongoing human rights issue of...
This year’s 36th anniversary commemorations of the June 4 crackdown were marked by intense,...
28-year-old activist Joshua Wong faces new charges under Hong Kong’s national security law that...
June 4, the date of the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, is among the most sensitive dates on the Chinese...
Updated at 07:53:00 PDT on June 5, 2025: This post has been updated to include information about...
This week, many organizations and media outlets commemorated the tenth anniversary of the 709 (July 9) or "Black Friday" crackdown, a coordinated detention of more than 300 rights lawyers and activists in 2015 that coincided with a marked authoritarian shift in the early Xi Jinping era. CDT has published a roundup of tenth anniversary coverage and activities, including an online gathering of Chinese civil society groups, a joint statement and U.N. appeal by 31 international rights groups, and assessments of the impact of the crackdown on Chinese civil society, rights protection...
If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at...
This year, Shanghai launched a system of traffic safety codes which “aggregates records of traffic...
Amid recurrent China-Taiwan tensions and rising geopolitical instability, investigative journalist...
At The New York Times on Monday, columnist Li Yuan describes how, as "wages stagnate and jobs...
On June 4, Safeguard Defenders published a new report on the practice of "forced...
This week, many organizations and media outlets commemorated the tenth anniversary of the 709 (July 9) or "Black Friday" crackdown, a coordinated detention of more than 300 rights lawyers and activists in 2015 that coincided with a marked authoritarian shift in the early Xi Jinping era. CDT has published a roundup of tenth anniversary coverage and activities, including an online gathering of Chinese civil society groups, a joint statement and U.N. appeal by 31 international rights groups, and assessments of the impact of the crackdown on Chinese civil society, rights protection...
Wednesday is the tenth anniversary of the 709 (July 9) or "Black Friday" crackdown, a...
June 30 marked the fifth anniversary of Beijing’s imposition of a heavy-handed national security...
Amid recurrent China-Taiwan tensions and rising geopolitical instability, investigative journalist...
Last summer, the Chinese government released a proposal for a national internet ID system. The...
A fragile ceasefire appears to have paused 12 days of war between Israel and Iran, which has...
June 30 marked the fifth anniversary of Beijing’s imposition of a heavy-handed national security law (NSL) on Hong Kong, which has altered the sociopolitical landscape of the city by undermining its democratic institutions, weakening civil society, and severely curtailing a wide range of freedoms. In the last five years, groups of opposition politicians have been jailed, labor unions and universities cowed, once prominent media outlets shuttered, public protests quashed, and June 4 commemorations banned. Many Hong Kong activists and organizations have been forced into exile, and some have...
This year’s 36th anniversary commemorations of the June 4 crackdown were marked by intense,...
28-year-old activist Joshua Wong faces new charges under Hong Kong’s national security law that...
Updated at 07:53:00 PDT on June 5, 2025: This post has been updated to include information about...
In yet another challenge to press freedom in Hong Kong, government authorities have targeted...
Government censorship in China has increasingly targeted books, bookstores, and publishers. Last...
In late 2020, CDT acquired and verified a collection of propaganda directives issued by central Party authorities to state media at the beginning of that year. These directives were issued on an almost daily basis in early 2020 through the early weeks of what would become the COVID-19 pandemic, and shed light on the propaganda machinery’s efforts to grapple with the outbreak. They were originally published between September and December, 2020 as the Minitrue Diary series, after the censorship and propaganda organs’ Orwellian online nickname 真理部 Zhēnlǐ bù, or "Ministry of...
In late 2020, CDT acquired and verified a collection of propaganda directives issued by central...
In late 2020, CDT acquired and verified a collection of propaganda directives issued by central...
A recent WeChat post reveals that some Chinese schools and universities are using special software...
In the two weeks since the Ministry of Public Security and the Cyberspace Administration of China...
A pair of recently surfaced screenshots appear to offer unusual detail about a special month-long...
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...
In 2014, Leta Hong Fincher published her first book, Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender...
Starting in March 2008, Tibetans across the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), Qinghai, Gansu, and...
Surveys have shown that Xi Jinping’s hardline foreign policy is increasingly unpopular abroad....
Jeremy Wallace, associate professor of Government at Cornell University, joined CDT to discuss his...
Evidence of human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in Xinjiang has...
If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 in the United States or find local resources in the International Suicide Prevention Wiki. Two recent incidents have reignited public concern about civil aviation safety in China, particularly as it pertains to the mental health of airline pilots. On July 1 in Jilin, Heilongjiang province, a 31-year-old China Southern Airlines pilot surnamed Li, reportedly upset after having failed a competency evaluation that disqualified him from flying, stabbed two of his colleagues (who were...
This year, Shanghai launched a system of traffic safety codes which “aggregates records of traffic...
June 30 marked the fifth anniversary of Beijing’s imposition of a heavy-handed national security...
A fragile ceasefire appears to have paused 12 days of war between Israel and Iran, which has...
China’s AI industry has drawn increasing media attention as its progress generates excitement and...
At The New York Times on Monday, columnist Li Yuan describes how, as "wages stagnate and jobs...
This week, many organizations and media outlets commemorated the tenth anniversary of the 709 (July 9) or "Black Friday" crackdown, a coordinated detention of more than 300 rights lawyers and activists in 2015 that coincided with a marked authoritarian shift in the early Xi Jinping era. CDT has published a roundup of tenth anniversary coverage and activities, including an online gathering of Chinese civil society groups, a joint statement and U.N. appeal by 31 international rights groups, and assessments of the impact of the crackdown on Chinese civil society, rights protection...
Wednesday is the tenth anniversary of the 709 (July 9) or "Black Friday" crackdown, a...
If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at...
This year, Shanghai launched a system of traffic safety codes which “aggregates records of traffic...
June 30 marked the fifth anniversary of Beijing’s imposition of a heavy-handed national security...
Chinese authorities have arrested dozens of writers of Boys’ Love (BL), or danmei, a genre of...
If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 in the United States or find local resources in the International Suicide Prevention Wiki. Two recent incidents have reignited public concern about civil aviation safety in China, particularly as it pertains to the mental health of airline pilots. On July 1 in Jilin, Heilongjiang province, a 31-year-old China Southern Airlines pilot surnamed Li, reportedly upset after having failed a competency evaluation that disqualified him from flying, stabbed two of his colleagues (who were...
This year, Shanghai launched a system of traffic safety codes which “aggregates records of traffic...
Last summer, the Chinese government released a proposal for a national internet ID system. The...
China’s AI industry has drawn increasing media attention as its progress generates excitement and...
At The New York Times on Monday, columnist Li Yuan describes how, as "wages stagnate and jobs...
June 4, the date of the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, is among the most sensitive dates on the Chinese...
This week, many organizations and media outlets commemorated the tenth anniversary of the 709 (July 9) or "Black Friday" crackdown, a coordinated detention of more than 300 rights lawyers and activists in 2015 that coincided with a marked authoritarian shift in the early Xi Jinping era. CDT has published a roundup of tenth anniversary coverage and activities, including an online gathering of Chinese civil society groups, a joint statement and U.N. appeal by 31 international rights groups, and assessments of the impact of the crackdown on Chinese civil society, rights protection...
Wednesday is the tenth anniversary of the 709 (July 9) or "Black Friday" crackdown, a...
If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at...
This year, Shanghai launched a system of traffic safety codes which “aggregates records of traffic...
June 30 marked the fifth anniversary of Beijing’s imposition of a heavy-handed national security...
Chinese authorities have arrested dozens of writers of Boys’ Love (BL), or danmei, a genre of...
At The New York Times on Monday, columnist Li Yuan describes how, as "wages stagnate and jobs disappear, the promise of upward social mobility is eroding, especially for those from modest backgrounds. For many […], the Chinese Dream no longer feels achievable." Similar themes have featured prominently on CDT in recent months, from uproar over the "4+4" fast-track for medical qualifications to commentary on the decline of former "golden ticket" degrees like computer science and the resurgent appeal of official careers. Other examples include gallows humor...
In late 2020, CDT acquired and verified a collection of propaganda directives issued by central...
In late 2020, CDT acquired and verified a collection of propaganda directives issued by central...
On March 16, China’s National Bureau of Statistics announced that the Chinese economy was...
A recent WeChat post from oft-controversial entrepreneur, publicity hound, and philanthropist Chen...
Even before the lifting of China’s long-standing “zero-COVID” policy in early December of last...
June 30 marked the fifth anniversary of Beijing’s imposition of a heavy-handed national security law (NSL) on Hong Kong, which has altered the sociopolitical landscape of the city by undermining its democratic institutions, weakening civil society, and severely curtailing a wide range of freedoms. In the last five years, groups of opposition politicians have been jailed, labor unions and universities cowed, once prominent media outlets shuttered, public protests quashed, and June 4 commemorations banned. Many Hong Kong activists and organizations have been forced into exile, and some have...
Several reports over the past two weeks have shed light on the ongoing human rights issue of...
This year’s 36th anniversary commemorations of the June 4 crackdown were marked by intense,...
Over the past couple weeks, the U.S. government has unleashed a barrage of policies that would restrict the ability of Chinese students to study in the United States. These measures strike at a key pillar of U.S.-China relations, and they have generated intense anxiety among current and prospective Chinese exchange students. According to data from the Institute of International Education, between 2023 and 2024, there were 277,398 Chinese students studying in the U.S., generating over $14.2 billion for the American economy. A cable signed last Tuesday by Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered...
Tibet’s future remains imperiled by the Chinese government’s continued efforts to sever the...
Amid recurrent China-Taiwan tensions and rising geopolitical instability, investigative journalist...
The Chinese animated film "Ne Zha 2" has continued its record-breaking run, grossing over $2 billion worldwide and remaining on China’s top-five box-office list over 110 days after its release. But the film’s success has belied its curated image and masked a broader chill for the Chinese box office. Many Chinese companies and schools have organised patriotic outings and repeat viewings to boost box-office figures. Articles and comments critical of "Ne Zha 2" have been deleted from social media platforms, and Chinese bloggers and reviewers have reported being criticized or...
The massive success of Ne Zha 2, boosted by patriotic group-buys and shielded by censors, buoyed a...
The recent “4+4” scandal, which started with the public exposure of one doctor’s extramarital...
Last week, Beijing hosted the fourth China-CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) Forum. While this triennial gathering was described as a ministerial-level meeting, the presidents of Brazil, Colombia, and Chile attended, showing their commitment to deepen ties with China. In the backdrop were American tariffs and U.S.-China geopolitical competition, two factors that have ramped up pressure on CELAC members. At Dialogue Earth, Fermín Koop, Jack Lo Lau, and Juan Ortiz described the outcome of the forum and noted its emphasis on multilateralism, which was perhaps a subtle...
In response to reports that India and Pakistan have agreed to a tenuous ceasefire following...
The 2025 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders last week highlighted...
This week, many organizations and media outlets commemorated the tenth anniversary of the 709 (July 9) or "Black Friday" crackdown, a coordinated detention of more than 300 rights lawyers and activists in 2015 that coincided with a marked authoritarian shift in the early Xi Jinping era. CDT has published a roundup of tenth anniversary coverage and activities, including an online gathering of Chinese civil society groups, a joint statement and U.N. appeal by 31 international rights groups, and assessments of the impact of the crackdown on Chinese civil society, rights protection...
Wednesday is the tenth anniversary of the 709 (July 9) or "Black Friday" crackdown, a...
If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at...
Over the past two weeks, the Biden administration has issued a series of regulations intended to halt China’s development of advanced technologies. The measures restrict the export of advanced chips, design software, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment that are crucial to China’s military, AI, and supercomputing initiatives. While the impact of these regulations remains to be seen, this “major watershed” demonstrates a significant U.S. policy shift towards a more aggressive approach to China, and risks accelerating technological and economic decoupling between the two countries across...
Popular online writer Shen Maohua, who writes under the pen name Wei Zhou, is known for his...
As citizens revolt against never-ending lockdowns and local governments “resolutely struggle...
June 30 marked the fifth anniversary of Beijing’s imposition of a heavy-handed national security law (NSL) on Hong Kong, which has altered the sociopolitical landscape of the city by undermining its democratic institutions, weakening civil society, and severely curtailing a wide range of freedoms. In the last five years, groups of opposition politicians have been jailed, labor unions and universities cowed, once prominent media outlets shuttered, public protests quashed, and June 4 commemorations banned. Many Hong Kong activists and organizations have been forced into exile, and some have...
Chinese authorities have arrested dozens of writers of Boys’ Love (BL), or danmei, a genre of...
This year’s 36th anniversary commemorations of the June 4 crackdown were marked by intense,...
At The New York Times on Monday, columnist Li Yuan describes how, as "wages stagnate and jobs disappear, the promise of upward social mobility is eroding, especially for those from modest backgrounds. For many […], the Chinese Dream no longer feels achievable." Similar themes have featured prominently on CDT in recent months, from uproar over the "4+4" fast-track for medical qualifications to commentary on the decline of former "golden ticket" degrees like computer science and the resurgent appeal of official careers. Other examples include gallows humor...
In late 2020, CDT acquired and verified a collection of propaganda directives issued by central...
In late 2020, CDT acquired and verified a collection of propaganda directives issued by central...
If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 in the United States or find local resources in the International Suicide Prevention Wiki. Two recent incidents have reignited public concern about civil aviation safety in China, particularly as it pertains to the mental health of airline pilots. On July 1 in Jilin, Heilongjiang province, a 31-year-old China Southern Airlines pilot surnamed Li, reportedly upset after having failed a competency evaluation that disqualified him from flying, stabbed two of his colleagues (who were...
This year, Shanghai launched a system of traffic safety codes which “aggregates records of traffic...
Last summer, the Chinese government released a proposal for a national internet ID system. The...
As China continues to tighten information flows in and out of the country, how reliable are statistics from official Chinese sources? Recent media pieces have highlighted the deepening lack of government transparency and accuracy when it comes to important data, and its implications for research related to China. The latest example is from Rebecca Feng and Jason Douglas at The Wall Street Journal, who wrote this week about how “Beijing has stopped publishing hundreds of statistics, making it harder to know what’s going on in the country”: Land sales measures, foreign investment data and...
An acidic waste spill by a Chinese company in Zambia has created a massive environmental crisis...
On Tuesday morning, a county in Tibet experienced one of its strongest earthquakes in years....
June 30 marked the fifth anniversary of Beijing’s imposition of a heavy-handed national security law (NSL) on Hong Kong, which has altered the sociopolitical landscape of the city by undermining its democratic institutions, weakening civil society, and severely curtailing a wide range of freedoms. In the last five years, groups of opposition politicians have been jailed, labor unions and universities cowed, once prominent media outlets shuttered, public protests quashed, and June 4 commemorations banned. Many Hong Kong activists and organizations have been forced into exile, and some have...
This year’s 36th anniversary commemorations of the June 4 crackdown were marked by intense,...
28-year-old activist Joshua Wong faces new charges under Hong Kong’s national security law that...
Amid recurrent China-Taiwan tensions and rising geopolitical instability, investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker Chai Jing has revisited and updated her iconic 2012 interview with Gao Binghan, a survivor of the Chinese Civil War who escaped with the Nationalists to Taiwan at the age of 13. Now 90 years old, Gao saw his family torn apart by civil war between the Communists and the Nationalists, and says he fears that the two sides’ successors are once again inching toward war. “Politics is ruthless,” says Gao in his recent interview with Chai. “Those who forget that history of...
Amid recurrent China-Taiwan tensions and rising geopolitical instability, investigative journalist...
Global tributes poured in following the death of Pope Francis on Monday, as world leaders and...
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