By inadvertently “saying the quiet part out loud,” three recent media gaffes have touched off public debate on questions usually left unspoken. For some Chinese social media users, these blunders...
Chinese debate over Japan’s release of treated wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has thus far been characterized by disinformation, nationalism, and heavy online censorship....
Word(s) of the Week: “It is a bit ridiculous, but you must obey.” (是有点搞笑，但是你要服从, Shì...
The sudden and unexplained closure of a number of WeChat accounts dedicated to gay, trans,...
A Singapore paper’s publication of a blistering opinion piece criticizing Xi Jinping did not...
Attributing consumers’ lack of spending power to people not working hard enough is like blaming the victims of a flood for not running fast enough to escape the deluge."
— WeChat blogger @张所长 (Zhāng Suǒzhǎng, “Director Zhang”), commenting on how e-commerce livestreamer Li Jiaqi’s barbed query about stagnant wages is particularly resonant in the current economic downturn
By inadvertently “saying the quiet part out loud,” three recent media gaffes have touched off public debate on questions usually left unspoken. For some Chinese social media users, these blunders have provided an opportunity to discuss the problems of wage stagnation, official corruption or indifference, politically sensitive dates, and the paradoxes of online censorship and self-censorship. One gaffe involved state media outlet People’s Daily censoring a video it had produced to promote the upcoming Asian Games, which will be held from September 23-October 8 in Hangzhou. The video, “A...
Chinese debate over Japan’s release of treated wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power...
Word(s) of the Week: “It is a bit ridiculous, but you must obey.” (是有点搞笑，但是你要服从, Shì...
The sudden and unexplained closure of a number of WeChat accounts dedicated to gay, trans,...
A Singapore paper’s publication of a blistering opinion piece criticizing Xi Jinping did not...
With hundreds of documented (and censored) online sobriquets, Xi Jinping is arguably the most...
In only his second trip abroad this year, Xi Jinping attended this week’s BRICS summit in South Africa in the hope of scoring a major political victory. The five-member group—comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—announced at the end of the summit on Thursday that it would add six new members as of January 2024: Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Xi argued that the “historic” membership expansion “shows the determination of BRICS countries for unity and cooperation with the broader developing countries.” As Steven Erlanger, David...
Catastrophic flooding caused by Typhoon Doksuri has killed at least 21 people, left approximately...
After one month without making a public statement or appearance, Qin Gang was removed from his...
Ten young volleyball players and their coach were killed and four others injured when the roof of...
It has now been almost a month since Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang made a public appearance....
China’s Ministry of Public Security has initiated a new campaign against online rumors following...
Dechen Pemba Dechen Pemba is the founder and editor of High Peaks Pure Earth, a website that translates Tibetan social media and blog content into English. Born in the UK, Pemba has worked with the International Campaign for Tibet in Berlin and studied in Beijing for two years. She has a masters degree from SOAS in London, and also writes a personal blog. In an interview conducted by email, Pemba spoke to CDT about her work amplifying Tibetan voices, through both her website and the Tibetan Film Festival, while also offering her recommendations of recent Tibetan films, books, and resources...
On May 18, 2023, blogger and activist Wu Gan was released from prison after serving an eight-year...
Last week, the U.N. Human Rights Council began its 53rd session in Geneva, where country...
Tsering Yangzom Lama was born in Nepal to Tibetan refugee parents, and later moved to Vancouver....
As of June 7, the Twitter account belonging to Bei Zhenying, wife of well-known blogger...
The sight of a lone man standing before a row of tanks in Beijing is perhaps the most enduring...
By inadvertently “saying the quiet part out loud,” three recent media gaffes have touched off public debate on questions usually left unspoken. For some Chinese social media users, these blunders have provided an opportunity to discuss the problems of wage stagnation, official corruption or indifference, politically sensitive dates, and the paradoxes of online censorship and self-censorship. One gaffe involved state media outlet People’s Daily censoring a video it had produced to promote the upcoming Asian Games, which will be held from September 23-October 8 in Hangzhou. The video, “A...
Chinese debate over Japan’s release of treated wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power...
With hundreds of documented (and censored) online sobriquets, Xi Jinping is arguably the most...
China’s housing market woes continue, with recent data showing tumbling residential sales among...
An underpass in Zhengzhou has quietly become a site of contention over artistic freedom. A...
The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been...
By inadvertently “saying the quiet part out loud,” three recent media gaffes have touched off public debate on questions usually left unspoken. For some Chinese social media users, these blunders have provided an opportunity to discuss the problems of wage stagnation, official corruption or indifference, politically sensitive dates, and the paradoxes of online censorship and self-censorship. One gaffe involved state media outlet People’s Daily censoring a video it had produced to promote the upcoming Asian Games, which will be held from September 23-October 8 in Hangzhou. The video, “A...
Chinese debate over Japan’s release of treated wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power...
Word(s) of the Week: “It is a bit ridiculous, but you must obey.” (是有点搞笑，但是你要服从, Shì...
The sudden and unexplained closure of a number of WeChat accounts dedicated to gay, trans,...
A Singapore paper’s publication of a blistering opinion piece criticizing Xi Jinping did not...
With hundreds of documented (and censored) online sobriquets, Xi Jinping is arguably the most...
A new draft patriotic education law submitted last week to the National People’s Congress Standing Committee is spurring spirited online debate. Broad in scope, the draft law includes provisions for the role of Chinese media outlets and online platforms in promoting patriotic education; punishments for various behaviors deemed insulting or unpatriotic; and guidelines for expanding patriotic education in Hong Kong, Macao, self-governing Taiwan, and even overseas Chinese communities further afield. While the draft law emphasizes “promoting the spirit of patriotism,” the broader...
In the latest example of shrinking space for free expression in Hong Kong, authorities there have...
Sunday marked the 34th anniversary of the 1989 June 4th crackdown. In Hong Kong, in a stark sign...
Local media outlets in Hong Kong report that hundreds of books on political topics including the...
World Press Freedom Day, on May 3, has rarely been a time for celebration in China, where...
This week, a long-expected national security trial of 47 Hong Kong pro-democracy figures began....
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...
As citizens revolt against never-ending lockdowns and local governments “resolutely struggle...
On Thursday, the Canadian government announced that it will ban Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE...
On Monday of last week, Malaysian musician Namewee (Wee Meng Chee, 黃明志) learned that his YouTube...
Tsering Yangzom Lama was born in Nepal to Tibetan refugee parents, and later moved to Vancouver. She received her B.A. from the University of British Columbia and a MFA in creative writing from Columbia University. Her debut novel, We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies, tells a multigenerational story of a Tibetan family over the course of 50 years. Opening with the invasion of Tibet by Chinese forces in 1950, the story then follows two sisters as they flee their country with their family, establishing a new home in Nepal and later Canada. It is a rich, lyrical story that touches on issues of...
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...
China’s soft power initiatives are often derided by Western observers as ineffective or...
This is the full transcript, edited lightly for grammar and clarity, of an interview with Jeremy...
By inadvertently “saying the quiet part out loud,” three recent media gaffes have touched off public debate on questions usually left unspoken. For some Chinese social media users, these blunders have provided an opportunity to discuss the problems of wage stagnation, official corruption or indifference, politically sensitive dates, and the paradoxes of online censorship and self-censorship. One gaffe involved state media outlet People’s Daily censoring a video it had produced to promote the upcoming Asian Games, which will be held from September 23-October 8 in Hangzhou. The video, “A...
A Singapore paper’s publication of a blistering opinion piece criticizing Xi Jinping did not...
In only his second trip abroad this year, Xi Jinping attended this week’s BRICS summit in South...
China’s housing market woes continue, with recent data showing tumbling residential sales among...
The Chinese government has suspended the publication of youth unemployment data, an indication of...
Over the past month, in response to disappointing economic data, various Chinese government...
By inadvertently “saying the quiet part out loud,” three recent media gaffes have touched off public debate on questions usually left unspoken. For some Chinese social media users, these blunders have provided an opportunity to discuss the problems of wage stagnation, official corruption or indifference, politically sensitive dates, and the paradoxes of online censorship and self-censorship. One gaffe involved state media outlet People’s Daily censoring a video it had produced to promote the upcoming Asian Games, which will be held from September 23-October 8 in Hangzhou. The video, “A...
Chinese debate over Japan’s release of treated wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power...
Word(s) of the Week: “It is a bit ridiculous, but you must obey.” (是有点搞笑，但是你要服从, Shì...
The sudden and unexplained closure of a number of WeChat accounts dedicated to gay, trans,...
With hundreds of documented (and censored) online sobriquets, Xi Jinping is arguably the most...
China’s housing market woes continue, with recent data showing tumbling residential sales among...
Chinese debate over Japan’s release of treated wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has thus far been characterized by disinformation, nationalism, and heavy online censorship. This in turn has fueled fear and uncertainty among the Chinese public, leading to an uptick in anti-Japanese sentiment, harassment and crank-calling of Japanese businesses at home and abroad, government and consumer boycotts of various Japanese products, and the panic-purchasing and hoarding of salt (erroneously believed to protect against radiation exposure) by some Chinese consumers. The...
With hundreds of documented (and censored) online sobriquets, Xi Jinping is arguably the most...
Earlier this week, Apple removed over 100 generative AI and ChatGPT-related apps from its mainland...
China’s Ministry of Public Security has initiated a new campaign against online rumors following...
A quickly retracted Zhejiang report on provincial cremation statistics has shed new light on...
On July 7, the Chinese Quora-like Q&A site Zhihu announced that users will no longer be able...
The sudden and unexplained closure of a number of WeChat accounts dedicated to gay, trans, asexual, and feminist issues marks the latest setback for LGBTQ+ and women’s speech rights in China. The mass account closures happened on the eve of the August 22 Qixi Festival, a traditional celebration of the union of lovers long denied a chance to be together. It was unclear whether the date of the closures was coincidental or intentionally symbolic. A partial list of the accounts closed include: Flying Cat Brotherhood (飞天猫兄弟盟 fēitiānmāo xiōngdì méng), a gay men’s group; Transtory (船思 chuánsī), a...
Earlier this week, Apple removed over 100 generative AI and ChatGPT-related apps from its mainland...
Mourning continues for eleven people—a coach and ten members of a girls’ volleyball team in...
China’s Ministry of Public Security has initiated a new campaign against online rumors following...
A CCTV report posted to Bilibili celebrating construction workers laboring in extreme heat came...
On July 7, the Chinese Quora-like Q&A site Zhihu announced that users will no longer be able...
Even before the lifting of China’s long-standing “zero-COVID” policy in early December of last year, there were signs of a surge in Omicron cases nationwide. Since then, China has experienced a tsunami of infections—first in larger cities, and then in the countryside—amid concerns about shortages of needed medications, the increasing risk of medical debt, and unreliable official data on the numbers of infections and deaths. Despite the recent Lunar New Year celebration in which hundreds of millions of residents went traveling and returned to their hometowns, there are signs that the wave of...
After conducting nucleic acid testing on its 26 million residents this week, Shanghai remains...
Evergrande offices across China have been beset by protesting retail investors and homeowners...
Anyone who has boarded an airplane in the last 20 years knows what stands between arrival at the...
This spring, while nationalist fervor to “support Xinjiang cotton” swelled online,...
In early December, President Xi Jinping declared that China had eliminated absolute poverty. His...
Dechen Pemba Dechen Pemba is the founder and editor of High Peaks Pure Earth, a website that translates Tibetan social media and blog content into English. Born in the UK, Pemba has worked with the International Campaign for Tibet in Berlin and studied in Beijing for two years. She has a masters degree from SOAS in London, and also writes a personal blog. In an interview conducted by email, Pemba spoke to CDT about her work amplifying Tibetan voices, through both her website and the Tibetan Film Festival, while also offering her recommendations of recent Tibetan films, books, and resources...
On May 18, 2023, blogger and activist Wu Gan was released from prison after serving an eight-year...
Last week, the U.N. Human Rights Council began its 53rd session in Geneva, where country...
Sometimes, it’s the censors who imbue a joke with political power. Earlier this week, Weibo user @怪以德服人猫’s account was deleted for violating Weibo policy. Their likely violation? A joke, described by some netizens as “very Soviet,” that could mean whatever the reader or listener wants it to mean—thus implicitly implicating the censors who read something nefarious into it, and decided to take it down. Here is CDT’s translation of the joke: While out and about on vacation, I stubbed my toe on something. Upon closer inspection, I saw it was a bronze lamp. It was smudged, so I...
The slogans that make up the “12 Core Socialist Values” are a common sight on Chinese...
Having “ulterior motives” (别有用心, bié yǒu yòng xīn), an accusation often lobbed at...
In mainland China, August 1 is known as PLA Day or Army Day, and commemorates the establishment of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in 1927. This year, the celebration of the PLA’s 96th anniversary coincided with a major (and possibly corruption-related) shake-up in the PLA’s Rocket Force; some Central Military Commission guidelines for enhancing “Party-building” in the military; and a Ministry of State Security exhortation to mobilize the masses to assist with counter-espionage work. The PLA, somewhat counterintuitively, has also become associated with a crackdown on...
“Four Won’t Youth” (四不青年, sì bù qīngnián) is the latest appellation for discontented youth, who in...
An incident earlier this year in which two schoolteachers in Guizhou Province were swept away and...
As an extreme heat wave across Earth’s northern hemisphere fuels record-breaking temperatures in China, Europe, and North America, U.S. special envoy for climate change John Kerry is visiting Beijing this week for high-level discussions on climate-change issues. The resumption of dialogue that had stalled due to geopolitical tensions between the world’s two largest greenhouse-gas emitters is a positive sign, but substantive policy agreements are urgently needed to meet global climate goals and avoid existential catastrophe. At Sixth Tone, Ding Rui summarized the record-breaking heat wave...
On the surface, neither the film “Barbie” nor a write-up of an academic’s research on migrant...
Over the past few weeks, several think tanks have published reports evaluating the expansion and...
The sudden and unexplained closure of a number of WeChat accounts dedicated to gay, trans, asexual, and feminist issues marks the latest setback for LGBTQ+ and women’s speech rights in China. The mass account closures happened on the eve of the August 22 Qixi Festival, a traditional celebration of the union of lovers long denied a chance to be together. It was unclear whether the date of the closures was coincidental or intentionally symbolic. A partial list of the accounts closed include: Flying Cat Brotherhood (飞天猫兄弟盟 fēitiānmāo xiōngdì méng), a gay men’s group; Transtory (船思 chuánsī), a...
Earlier this week, Apple removed over 100 generative AI and ChatGPT-related apps from its mainland...
Mourning continues for eleven people—a coach and ten members of a girls’ volleyball team in...
A group of students under the impression they had discovered a WeChat “bug” that hides the phrase “200 jin of dumplings” (roughly 220 pounds) had in fact stumbled upon an obscure insult for Xi Jinping that triggers automatic censorship. In the course of daily conversation, the students found that messages preceded by the term “200 jin of dumplings” (200斤饺子) were not received by their counterparts. Juvenile hilarity ensued. They sent each other curses and confessions: “200 jin of dumplings, you’re a stupid c***,” “200 jin of dumplings, you’re an idiot,” “200 jin of dumplings, piggy,” and...
This week saw the proliferation of COVID conspiracy theories on Chinese social media, the...
While the official position from Beijing is that China remains a neutral observer of the...
Word(s) of the Week: “It is a bit ridiculous, but you must obey.” (是有点搞笑，但是你要服从, Shì yǒudiǎn gǎoxiào, dànshì nǐ yào fúcóng.) A policeman admitting that a traffic restriction “is a bit ridiculous, but you must obey” has gone viral for its unintentionally piquant commentary on life in China. The phrase comes from a video taken by a Tesla driver during a traffic stop in Hangzhou, where a police officer refused the driver permission to drive across a bridge “because [your car] is a Tesla.” The driver protests, “That’s ridiculous!” The policeman answers, “It is a bit ridiculous,...
Dechen Pemba Dechen Pemba is the founder and editor of High Peaks Pure Earth, a website that...
An underpass in Zhengzhou has quietly become a site of contention over artistic freedom. A...
Even before the lifting of China’s long-standing “zero-COVID” policy in early December of last year, there were signs of a surge in Omicron cases nationwide. Since then, China has experienced a tsunami of infections—first in larger cities, and then in the countryside—amid concerns about shortages of needed medications, the increasing risk of medical debt, and unreliable official data on the numbers of infections and deaths. Despite the recent Lunar New Year celebration in which hundreds of millions of residents went traveling and returned to their hometowns, there are signs that the wave of...
After conducting nucleic acid testing on its 26 million residents this week, Shanghai remains...
Evergrande offices across China have been beset by protesting retail investors and homeowners...
Chinese debate over Japan’s release of treated wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has thus far been characterized by disinformation, nationalism, and heavy online censorship. This in turn has fueled fear and uncertainty among the Chinese public, leading to an uptick in anti-Japanese sentiment, harassment and crank-calling of Japanese businesses at home and abroad, government and consumer boycotts of various Japanese products, and the panic-purchasing and hoarding of salt (erroneously believed to protect against radiation exposure) by some Chinese consumers. The...
With hundreds of documented (and censored) online sobriquets, Xi Jinping is arguably the most...
Earlier this week, Apple removed over 100 generative AI and ChatGPT-related apps from its mainland...
As an extreme heat wave across Earth’s northern hemisphere fuels record-breaking temperatures in China, Europe, and North America, U.S. special envoy for climate change John Kerry is visiting Beijing this week for high-level discussions on climate-change issues. The resumption of dialogue that had stalled due to geopolitical tensions between the world’s two largest greenhouse-gas emitters is a positive sign, but substantive policy agreements are urgently needed to meet global climate goals and avoid existential catastrophe. At Sixth Tone, Ding Rui summarized the record-breaking heat wave...
At the halfway point of the COP27 international climate-change summit, there are encouraging signs...
A massive, months-long heat wave has scorched regions in central China. Intense droughts and...
A new draft patriotic education law submitted last week to the National People’s Congress Standing Committee is spurring spirited online debate. Broad in scope, the draft law includes provisions for the role of Chinese media outlets and online platforms in promoting patriotic education; punishments for various behaviors deemed insulting or unpatriotic; and guidelines for expanding patriotic education in Hong Kong, Macao, self-governing Taiwan, and even overseas Chinese communities further afield. While the draft law emphasizes “promoting the spirit of patriotism,” the broader...
In the latest example of shrinking space for free expression in Hong Kong, authorities there have...
Sunday marked the 34th anniversary of the 1989 June 4th crackdown. In Hong Kong, in a stark sign...
A new draft patriotic education law submitted last week to the National People’s Congress Standing Committee is spurring spirited online debate. Broad in scope, the draft law includes provisions for the role of Chinese media outlets and online platforms in promoting patriotic education; punishments for various behaviors deemed insulting or unpatriotic; and guidelines for expanding patriotic education in Hong Kong, Macao, self-governing Taiwan, and even overseas Chinese communities further afield. While the draft law emphasizes “promoting the spirit of patriotism,” the broader...
U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping met on Monday in Bali for their...
Over the past two weeks, the Biden administration has issued a series of regulations intended to...
Click on the image to download Firefly for circumvention
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