Censors Delete Claim That China’s Bad Economy Is Packing Jails

WeChat has censored an article on a trending question on Douyin: “Why are jails packed this year?” The article, a short synthesis of a viral genre of short video, claimed that detention centers are overfilled due to...

If a phrase as trivial as 'It’s snowing in Xi’an' crosses a legal red line, then any jests or inadvertent remarks made by ordinary Internet users could easily become 'legal pitfalls.'”

— WeChat blogger Songqingren, commenting on a recent case in which authorities in Xi'an arrested a woman for "rumor-mongering" just because she posted a video incorrectly claiming that it was snowing in Xi'an

 

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Censors Delete Claim That China’s Bad Economy Is Packing Jails

WeChat has censored an article on a trending question on Douyin: “Why are jails packed this year?” The article, a short synthesis of a viral genre of short video, claimed that detention centers are overfilled due to China’s economic woes and increasingly aggressive policing:  1. Severe economic pressure. The frequency of crime in the “new economy” is attributable to the desperate measures many have resorted to. Many individuals have taken to industries that are  illicit or semi-illicit: multi-level marketing, money laundering, and crypto-fraud. A number of businesses with falling...

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As PRC Outlasts Soviet Union, Xi Jinping Warns of “Stormy Waves”

The People’s Republic of China celebrated its 75th anniversary on Tuesday, October 1. The anniversary is both political spectacle and the advent of a week-long holiday marked by decidedly apolitical leisure travel. On the eve of the anniversary, Xi Jinping delivered a speech in front of 3,000 guests, both foreign and domestic, in the Great Hall of the People. At The Guardian, Helen Davidson wrote about the relatively muted political celebrations in Beijing:  “The road ahead will not be smooth, there will definitely be difficulties and obstacles, and we may encounter major tests such as...

Human Rights Watch Report Shows Decline of Academic Freedom in Hong Kong

New research documents the repressive effects of Hong Kong’s national security laws. This week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report titled “We Can’t Write the Truth Anymore,” detailing the decline in academic freedom and the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly in Hong Kong. The 80-page report is based on interviews, conducted between October 2022 and June 2024, with 25 academics and eight students from all eight publicly funded Hong Kong universities. Here is a summary of some of the main findings: University officials have harassed the once...

Censors Delete Claim That China’s Bad Economy Is Packing Jails

WeChat has censored an article on a trending question on Douyin: “Why are jails packed this year?” The article, a short synthesis of a viral genre of short video, claimed that detention centers are overfilled due to China’s economic woes and increasingly aggressive policing:  1. Severe economic pressure. The frequency of crime in the “new economy” is attributable to the desperate measures many have resorted to. Many individuals have taken to industries that are  illicit or semi-illicit: multi-level marketing, money laundering, and crypto-fraud. A number of businesses with falling...

Another Militant Attack in Pakistan Kills Chinese Citizens, Imperils Chinese Investments

In what is becoming an increasingly regular occurrence, a militant group carried out a deadly attack against Chinese citizens in Pakistan. The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for a suicide car-bombing outside Karachi airport on Sunday that killed two Chinese workers and injured at least eight other people. Despite the Pakistani government’s constant security guarantees, Chinese investments and personnel continue to face a perilous environment in a country at the heart of China’s regional development strategy. Adil Jawad from the Associated Press provided more details...

As PRC Outlasts Soviet Union, Xi Jinping Warns of “Stormy Waves”

The People’s Republic of China celebrated its 75th anniversary on Tuesday, October 1. The anniversary is both political spectacle and the advent of a week-long holiday marked by decidedly apolitical leisure travel. On the eve of the anniversary, Xi Jinping delivered a speech in front of 3,000 guests, both foreign and domestic, in the Great Hall of the People. At The Guardian, Helen Davidson wrote about the relatively muted political celebrations in Beijing:  “The road ahead will not be smooth, there will definitely be difficulties and obstacles, and we may encounter major tests such as...

Translation: Chinese Universities Install Software to Identify and Punish Students Who Circumvent the Great Firewall

A recent WeChat post reveals that some Chinese schools and universities are using special software to identify and punish students who “scale the wall”—that is, circumvent China’s Great Firewall (GFW) to access overseas websites and portals. The post begins with a not-very-convincing exchange of WeChat messages between three students—identified as “student A,” “student B,” and “student C,” respectively—discussing their university’s use of the ABT Online Behavior Management System (安博通上网行为管理, Ānbótōng shàngwǎng xíngwéi guǎnlǐ) to identify and punish fellow students who circumvented the GFW to...

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...

Another Militant Attack in Pakistan Kills Chinese Citizens, Imperils Chinese Investments

In what is becoming an increasingly regular occurrence, a militant group carried out a deadly attack against Chinese citizens in Pakistan. The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for a suicide car-bombing outside Karachi airport on Sunday that killed two Chinese workers and injured at least eight other people. Despite the Pakistani government’s constant security guarantees, Chinese investments and personnel continue to face a perilous environment in a country at the heart of China’s regional development strategy. Adil Jawad from the Associated Press provided more details...