CDT presents a new monthly series of censored content that has been added to our “404 Deleted Content Archive.” Each month, we will publish a summary of content blocked or deleted (often yielding the message “404:...
Amid a new two-month “Clear and Bright” campaign by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) to clean up internet content that “maliciously incites” polarization, pessimism, anxiety, and other negative sentiments,...
.bluesky-embed { margin: auto; margin-bottom: 1rem !important; } The death of Jerome Cohen last...
In the run-up to the Global Women’s Summit slated for October in Beijing, which will mark the 30th...
This is the full transcript, lightly edited for grammar and clarity, of an interview with Jessica...
Chinese companies have to teach [content moderators certain] information, so that they can then attempt to memory-hole it. AI doesn't completely obviate that, but to the extent that you can program in some of that stuff, like the Tiananmen Square Massacre, you don't have to educate actual humans on these things that you want memory-holed."
— Jessica Batke, co-author of "The Locknet: How China Controls Its Internet and Why It Matters," on how AI is being used to facilitate censorship by Chinese cyberspace authorities and platform moderators
CDT presents a new monthly series of censored content that has been added to our “404 Deleted Content Archive.” Each month, we will publish a summary of content blocked or deleted (often yielding the message “404: content not found”) from Chinese platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Xiaohongshu (RedNote), Bilibili, Zhihu, Douban, and others. Although this content archived by CDT Chinese editors represents only a small fraction of the online content that disappears each day from the Chinese internet, it provides valuable insight into which topics are considered “sensitive” over time by...
Amid a new two-month “Clear and Bright” campaign by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC)...
In the run-up to the Global Women’s Summit slated for October in Beijing, which will mark the 30th...
This is the full transcript, lightly edited for grammar and clarity, of an interview with Jessica...
Some popular social media accounts that depict “lying down”—eschewing the rat race in favor of a...
The critically acclaimed U.S.-Australian body-horror movie “Together” launched in China on...
Citizen journalist and COVID-whistleblower Zhang Zhan, who spent four years in prison for her in-depth reporting from Wuhan in the early days of the pandemic, was sentenced to another four years in a closed-door trial in Shanghai on September 19. International diplomats and observers were denied entry to the trial, and it is not known whether Zhang had any legal representation. Press-freedom and human-rights groups condemned the latest sentence, widely viewed as retaliation for Zhang’s continued outspokenness about China’s human-rights violations against prisoners, political dissidents, and...
China’s National Bureau of Statistics published new data on Wednesday showing that urban youth...
On Monday, Reuters reported on the story of a man who tried to flee Gaza by crossing the border...
Several public opinion surveys published over the last few months paint a picture of China’s role...
The “Gen Z” protest movement that toppled Nepal’s government last week has sent shockwaves around...
Monday’s edition of the People’s Daily included a letter in the sports section that appeared to...
In the run-up to the Global Women’s Summit slated for October in Beijing, which will mark the 30th anniversary of that city’s influential 1995 U.N. World Conference on Women, some WeChat accounts focused on feminism and women’s empowerment have been blocked or had their content deleted. Earlier this month, feminist blogger Jiang Chan (姜婵, Jiāng Chán) had her official WeChat account blocked. The account now displays a message saying that it has been blocked, and that the content cannot be viewed because it is in violation of Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) regulations. Jiang hasn’t...
Citizen journalist and COVID-whistleblower Zhang Zhan, who spent four years in prison for her...
In 2021, Tibet Action Institute (TAI) published a groundbreaking report exposing the extensive use...
Following rare mass protests that broke out in the city of Jiangyou in Sichuan province earlier...
Recent revelations have ignited widespread outrage over a Telegram group in which tens of...
After Beijing granted authorization in December, construction on what would be the world’s largest...
CDT presents a new monthly series of censored content that has been added to our “404 Deleted Content Archive.” Each month, we will publish a summary of content blocked or deleted (often yielding the message “404: content not found”) from Chinese platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Xiaohongshu (RedNote), Bilibili, Zhihu, Douban, and others. Although this content archived by CDT Chinese editors represents only a small fraction of the online content that disappears each day from the Chinese internet, it provides valuable insight into which topics are considered “sensitive” over time by...
Amid a new two-month “Clear and Bright” campaign by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC)...
Some popular social media accounts that depict “lying down”—eschewing the rat race in favor of a...
The critically acclaimed U.S.-Australian body-horror movie “Together” launched in China on...
China’s National Bureau of Statistics published new data on Wednesday showing that urban youth...
Some international students in China have taken to social media platform RedNote (Xiaohongshu) to...
CDT presents a new monthly series of censored content that has been added to our “404 Deleted Content Archive.” Each month, we will publish a summary of content blocked or deleted (often yielding the message “404: content not found”) from Chinese platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Xiaohongshu (RedNote), Bilibili, Zhihu, Douban, and others. Although this content archived by CDT Chinese editors represents only a small fraction of the online content that disappears each day from the Chinese internet, it provides valuable insight into which topics are considered “sensitive” over time by...
.bluesky-embed { margin: auto; margin-bottom: 1rem !important; } The death of Jerome Cohen last...
This is the full transcript, lightly edited for grammar and clarity, of an interview with Jessica...
Citizen journalist and COVID-whistleblower Zhang Zhan, who spent four years in prison for her...
The critically acclaimed U.S.-Australian body-horror movie “Together” launched in China on...
On Monday, Reuters reported on the story of a man who tried to flee Gaza by crossing the border...
“After six years of reporting in Hong Kong, and at eight months pregnant, I’m very sad to be leaving my colleagues, friends and the place I’ve called home,” wrote senior Bloomberg News reporter Rebecca Choong Wilkins in an X post on Saturday. As other outlets confirmed, the Hong Kong government refused to renew Choong Wilkins’ visa in what many journalists and media organizations have described as the latest blow to press freedom in the city. David Pierson at The New York Times provided more information on the incident: The journalist, Rebecca Choong Wilkins, was not given a reason for her...
You Must Take Part in Revolution is a graphic novel by Badiucao, political cartoonist and former...
June 30 marked the fifth anniversary of Beijing’s imposition of a heavy-handed national security...
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 June, ChinaFile published a new report, "The Locknet: How China Controls Its Internet and Why It Matters"—the product of 18 months’ work by Jessica Batke, ChinaFile’s senior editor for investigations, and Laura Edelson, assistant professor of computer science at Northeastern University. The report gives a concise but thorough overview of China’s online censorship system, including the motivations behind it and the mechanisms by which it is implemented. It expands on the familiar image of the "Great Firewall" as a perimeter barrier, adopting a broader...
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...
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...
You Must Take Part in Revolution is a graphic novel by Badiucao, political cartoonist and former CDT contributor, and Melissa Chan, a journalist who in 2012 became the first reporter to be expelled from China in more than a decade. The book was conceived in the wake of the 2019 Hong Kong protests, and follows the divergent paths of three friends in Hong Kong and Taiwan from their involvement in the protests through to 2035. CDT: I’m sure anyone reading CDT is familiar with each of you separately. How did the two of you come to join forces? Melissa Chan: I’d interviewed Badiucao for a...
On September 12, 2003, John Battelle published the first post on chinadigitaltimes.net: Here’s...
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...
CDT presents a new monthly series of censored content that has been added to our “404 Deleted Content Archive.” Each month, we will publish a summary of content blocked or deleted (often yielding the message “404: content not found”) from Chinese platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Xiaohongshu (RedNote), Bilibili, Zhihu, Douban, and others. Although this content archived by CDT Chinese editors represents only a small fraction of the online content that disappears each day from the Chinese internet, it provides valuable insight into which topics are considered “sensitive” over time by...
Amid a new two-month “Clear and Bright” campaign by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC)...
Some popular social media accounts that depict “lying down”—eschewing the rat race in favor of a...
The critically acclaimed U.S.-Australian body-horror movie “Together” launched in China on...
China’s National Bureau of Statistics published new data on Wednesday showing that urban youth...
On Monday, Reuters reported on the story of a man who tried to flee Gaza by crossing the border...
CDT presents a new monthly series of censored content that has been added to our “404 Deleted Content Archive.” Each month, we will publish a summary of content blocked or deleted (often yielding the message “404: content not found”) from Chinese platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Xiaohongshu (RedNote), Bilibili, Zhihu, Douban, and others. Although this content archived by CDT Chinese editors represents only a small fraction of the online content that disappears each day from the Chinese internet, it provides valuable insight into which topics are considered “sensitive” over time by...
Amid a new two-month “Clear and Bright” campaign by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC)...
.bluesky-embed { margin: auto; margin-bottom: 1rem !important; } The death of Jerome Cohen last...
In the run-up to the Global Women’s Summit slated for October in Beijing, which will mark the 30th...
This is the full transcript, lightly edited for grammar and clarity, of an interview with Jessica...
Citizen journalist and COVID-whistleblower Zhang Zhan, who spent four years in prison for her...
Amid a new two-month “Clear and Bright” campaign by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) to clean up internet content that “maliciously incites” polarization, pessimism, anxiety, and other negative sentiments, a number of extremely popular online influencers have been hit with multi-platform content bans. Although the reasons for the bans are not entirely clear, there is no shortage of online speculation and commentary, some of it focused on the increasingly difficult task of navigating censorship-related “red lines.” Among those banned this month were educational influencer and...
This is the full transcript, lightly edited for grammar and clarity, of an interview with Jessica...
The critically acclaimed U.S.-Australian body-horror movie “Together” launched in China on...
Some international students in China have taken to social media platform RedNote (Xiaohongshu) to...
In June, ChinaFile published a new report, "The Locknet: How China Controls Its Internet and...
On the evening of August 29, Chinese Valentine’s Day, passersby in Chongqing’s University Town...
CDT presents a new monthly series of censored content that has been added to our “404 Deleted Content Archive.” Each month, we will publish a summary of content blocked or deleted (often yielding the message “404: content not found”) from Chinese platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Xiaohongshu (RedNote), Bilibili, Zhihu, Douban, and others. Although this content archived by CDT Chinese editors represents only a small fraction of the online content that disappears each day from the Chinese internet, it provides valuable insight into which topics are considered “sensitive” over time by...
.bluesky-embed { margin: auto; margin-bottom: 1rem !important; } The death of Jerome Cohen last...
Citizen journalist and COVID-whistleblower Zhang Zhan, who spent four years in prison for her...
On Monday, Reuters reported on the story of a man who tried to flee Gaza by crossing the border...
The “Gen Z” protest movement that toppled Nepal’s government last week has sent shockwaves around...
On the evening of August 29, Chinese Valentine’s Day, passersby in Chongqing’s University Town...
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...
In the run-up to the Global Women’s Summit slated for October in Beijing, which will mark the 30th anniversary of that city’s influential 1995 U.N. World Conference on Women, some WeChat accounts focused on feminism and women’s empowerment have been blocked or had their content deleted. Earlier this month, feminist blogger Jiang Chan (姜婵, Jiāng Chán) had her official WeChat account blocked. The account now displays a message saying that it has been blocked, and that the content cannot be viewed because it is in violation of Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) regulations. Jiang hasn’t...
Citizen journalist and COVID-whistleblower Zhang Zhan, who spent four years in prison for her...
In 2021, Tibet Action Institute (TAI) published a groundbreaking report exposing the extensive use...
A host of measures intended to stifle dissent allowed Beijing’s military parade last week to take place without any major disruptions. The following is a summary of some of these examples of censorship and control. Some of these measures were implemented before the parade began. A recent censorship directive, leaked online and later translated by CDT, advised cyber-regulators to remain vigilant against a long list of “ideological risks” related to the upcoming military parade and other events during the third quarter of the year. Last week, Laura Bicker at the BBC detailed how Beijing...
New reporting on two large collections of leaked documents sheds light on the trade of...
The Chinese government’s external-propaganda efforts are receiving a boost from AI. A report...
The following censorship instructions, issued by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. (Black text boxes ██ indicate words that were intentionally blacked out in the leaked images.) Briefing on Ideological Risks During the Third Quarter of 2025 I. Major Events (1) September 3 marks the 80th anniversary of China’s victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the global war against fascism. Exercise vigilance against the propagation of erroneous historical views about World War II that distort or negate the righteousness of the...
On Tuesday, Xi Jinping presided over a major military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the...
Reports and other media articles over the past month detail the ways in which the technology and...
China is scheduled to host a large-scale “Victory Day” military parade on September 3 to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II (referred to in China as the “War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.”) China and Japan’s diverging narratives around the war have generated tension between the two countries. The Japanese government has reportedly asked foreign leaders to skip next week’s parade in Beijing due to its alleged anti-Japanese overtones, leading the Chinese government to lodge a protest in response. An article in the Global Times claimed that the Japanese...
The two back-to-back summits that U.S. President Donald Trump hosted over the past week, first...
Recent articles have highlighted the ways in which various Chinese groups attempt to circumvent...
CDT presents a new monthly series of censored content that has been added to our “404 Deleted Content Archive.” Each month, we will publish a summary of content blocked or deleted (often yielding the message “404: content not found”) from Chinese platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Xiaohongshu (RedNote), Bilibili, Zhihu, Douban, and others. Although this content archived by CDT Chinese editors represents only a small fraction of the online content that disappears each day from the Chinese internet, it provides valuable insight into which topics are considered “sensitive” over time by...
.bluesky-embed { margin: auto; margin-bottom: 1rem !important; } The death of Jerome Cohen last...
Citizen journalist and COVID-whistleblower Zhang Zhan, who spent four years in prison for her...
A pair of recently surfaced screenshots appear to offer unusual detail about a special month-long operation, held in Beijing and involving over 40 Ministry of Public Security computer specialists from around the country, to combat “overseas cyber forces” in the battle for public opinion. The apparently leaked internal instructions from the Ministry of Public Security are likely to be the result of an email breach. They include the names and locations of many of the computer-specialist officers, as well as the name and contact information of the individual in charge of the operation. At some...
Over the past two weeks, the Biden administration has issued a series of regulations intended to...
Popular online writer Shen Maohua, who writes under the pen name Wei Zhou, is known for his...
Amid a new two-month “Clear and Bright” campaign by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) to clean up internet content that “maliciously incites” polarization, pessimism, anxiety, and other negative sentiments, a number of extremely popular online influencers have been hit with multi-platform content bans. Although the reasons for the bans are not entirely clear, there is no shortage of online speculation and commentary, some of it focused on the increasingly difficult task of navigating censorship-related “red lines.” Among those banned this month were educational influencer and...
Some popular social media accounts that depict “lying down”—eschewing the rat race in favor of a...
The critically acclaimed U.S.-Australian body-horror movie “Together” launched in China on...
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...
Amid a new two-month “Clear and Bright” campaign by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) to clean up internet content that “maliciously incites” polarization, pessimism, anxiety, and other negative sentiments, a number of extremely popular online influencers have been hit with multi-platform content bans. Although the reasons for the bans are not entirely clear, there is no shortage of online speculation and commentary, some of it focused on the increasingly difficult task of navigating censorship-related “red lines.” Among those banned this month were educational influencer and...
This is the full transcript, lightly edited for grammar and clarity, of an interview with Jessica...
The critically acclaimed U.S.-Australian body-horror movie “Together” launched in China on...
After Beijing granted authorization in December, construction on what would be the world’s largest hydropower dam has now begun. The site is located along the Yarlung Tsangpo River in southeastern Tibet, and it has drawn criticism from Tibetan rights groups concerned about social and ecological impacts, and downstream countries concerned about the potential weaponization of water flows. Helen Davidson at The Guardian summarized the massive scale of the proposed project: Construction of the world’s biggest hydropower megadam has begun, China’s premier has said, calling it the “project of the...
As China continues to tighten information flows in and out of the country, how reliable are...
An acidic waste spill by a Chinese company in Zambia has created a massive environmental crisis...
“After six years of reporting in Hong Kong, and at eight months pregnant, I’m very sad to be leaving my colleagues, friends and the place I’ve called home,” wrote senior Bloomberg News reporter Rebecca Choong Wilkins in an X post on Saturday. As other outlets confirmed, the Hong Kong government refused to renew Choong Wilkins’ visa in what many journalists and media organizations have described as the latest blow to press freedom in the city. David Pierson at The New York Times provided more information on the incident: The journalist, Rebecca Choong Wilkins, was not given a reason for her...
You Must Take Part in Revolution is a graphic novel by Badiucao, political cartoonist and former...
June 30 marked the fifth anniversary of Beijing’s imposition of a heavy-handed national security...
China is scheduled to host a large-scale “Victory Day” military parade on September 3 to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II (referred to in China as the “War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.”) China and Japan’s diverging narratives around the war have generated tension between the two countries. The Japanese government has reportedly asked foreign leaders to skip next week’s parade in Beijing due to its alleged anti-Japanese overtones, leading the Chinese government to lodge a protest in response. An article in the Global Times claimed that the Japanese...
You Must Take Part in Revolution is a graphic novel by Badiucao, political cartoonist and former...
Amid recurrent China-Taiwan tensions and rising geopolitical instability, investigative journalist...
Click on the image to download Firefly for circumvention
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