[O]ver the past year, there have been so many incidents of note [....] The heartbreaking thing is that when these incidents occurred, the major media outlets were suddenly nowhere to be seen. [...I]nstead the media, who have not even learned how to speak out on major news events, issued a slew of self-congratulatory New Year’s tributes."

— From a WeChat article by Xi Huajun, noting that "New Year's tribute" pieces by most major Chinese new outlets failed to mention the most notable and newsworthy events of 2024

 

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Netizen Voices on TikTok “Refugees”: “We All Know This Isn’t Going to End Well, so Let’s Enjoy This ‘Global-village Moment’ While We Can”

Jan 17, 2025

As the U.S. Supreme Court voted to uphold a law forcing either the sale or ban of ByteDance-owned TikTok, “TikTok refugees” continued flocking to the Chinese-language app Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote. The influx of new foreign accounts has both puzzled and fascinated Xiaohongshu’s Chinese members, and raised challenges for the platform’s censorship and language-support capabilities. Screenshots being shared on Chinese social media reveal that Xiaohongshu has instituted real-name registration rules requiring a Chinese SIM card—thus kicking some overseas users off the app—and is also...

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Sinopsis: CCP Subnational Influence in Malaysia

Jan 15, 2025

At Sinopsis, Rachel Lee examines CCP influence operations in Malaysia’s eastern state of Sabah, which have sought to capitalize on the local influence of diasporic Chinese in business, politics, and education. From the report’s abstract: The banality of decontextualised CCP influence operations — bestowing titles on individuals, establishing organisations, maintaining personal contact, and organising events — often invites underestimation of their effectiveness. Compared to alternative methods of power projection, such as formal diplomacy, state-linked investment, propaganda and...

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Netizens Call for Attention to Prisoners in Southeast Asia Scam Operations

Jan 15, 2025

The high-profile kidnapping and rescue of 31-year-old actor Wang Xing from a telecom-scam compound on the border of Myanmar and Thailand has incited heated discussion on the Chinese internet. Wang was found last week, just two days after his girlfriend chose to go public and plead for help online. The Global Times lionized the Chinese government’s role in the rescue, writing that Wang “has returned to the embrace of his motherland, which makes him feel warm, secure, and free. While in a foreign country, it was the strength of his motherland that gave him courage and hope.” But many netizens...

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Minitrue Plus Five: January 18, 2020 – Naming Rights & Subjects’ Complaints Over Women’s Volleyball Biopic

Jan 18, 2025

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...

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Minitrue Plus Five: January 18, 2020 – Naming Rights & Subjects’ Complaints Over Women’s Volleyball Biopic

Jan 18, 2025

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...