Marriage Rates in China Plunge to Record Low

Marriage rates in China continued to plummet last year, deepening the country’s demographic crisis and highlighting the public’s changing attitudes towards marriage, childbirth, family planning, and more. Despite...

When ordinary people break in: We get arrested for 'picking quarrels and provoking trouble.'
When the government breaks in: 'We were impatient for results and excessively hasty in carrying out our work.'"

— A Weibo user, commenting on an incident in which local law enforcement in Datong's historic district smashed a lock and broke into a shop late at night to turn the lights on. Datong has been pressuring local merchants to keep their lights on all night during the Spring Festival holiday so that the city looks more "festive" for tourists.

 

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Words of the Week: “Breaking in to Turn on Lights” (撬锁点灯, qiàosuǒ diǎndēng)

Earlier this month, netizens were incensed over a viral video that showed firefighters and other uniformed officers breaking into a shop in Datong, Shanxi province late at night in order to turn on the lights—ostensibly, to force the shop owner to comply with a local initiative “suggesting” that businesses in the city’s historic district leave their lights on all night to make the area look more festive for tourists during the Lunar New Year. Local officials eventually issued an apology, citing "improper methods," “poor communication and misunderstandings,” "impatience for...

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“Wolf Warrior” Lu Shaye Appointed as China’s Special Representative for Europe

Last week, the Chinese government confirmed the appointment of Lu Shaye as its Special Representative for European Affairs. Lu was previously the Chinese Ambassador to France and known for his incendiary statements which earned him a reputation as one of China’s quintessential “wolf warriors.” His appointment at a time of growing tension between Europe and the U.S. may signal the Chinese government’s intent to take a harder stance towards Europe, some analysts argue. In a press conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Guo Jiakun provided the only official public remarks on Lu...

Sinicization Campaigns Target Hui Communities and Mosques

Steadily growing over the past few years, the Chinese government’s Sinicization campaigns have targeted a number of Muslim minority groups. These campaigns are perhaps most visible through the transformation of mosques, which have been the site of confrontation between police and local protesters. Several recent media pieces shine light on this dynamic in Hui communities and describe how their Muslim identities have changed over time. This week, Hannah Theaker and David Stroup published a 91-page report titled “Making Islam Chinese: Religious Policy and Mosque Sinicisation in the Xi Era.”...

Minitrue Plus Five: February 14, 2020 – Authentic Feelings, Poems and Songs

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...