As of October 27, the following search terms are blocked on Sina Weibo (not including the “search for user” function):
Protests in Ningbo: Thousands in the coastal city are demonstrating against the expansion of a petrochemical plant.
– Zhenhai (镇海): Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Company, which is planning to expand its plant’s capacity.
– PX: Paraxylene, one of the chemicals the plant would produce. Protesters in Xiamen successfully blocked a PX plant from being built their city in 2007.
– tear gas (催泪弹): Netizens report the Ningbo special police have thrown tear gas at protesters.
– We want to survive, we want to get by (我们要生存 我们要活命): Slogan seen on a banner carried by protesters.
– collectively petition officials (集体上访)
– Ningbo + take a walk (宁波+散步)
– impose martial law (戒严): Re-tested.
– blockade (封锁): Re-tested.
Other:
– Yinggehai (莺歌海): Village in Hainan Province where residents are protesting the construction of a coal-burning power plant.
– Zhao Lianhai (赵连海): Activist who advocated for the parents of children poisoned by melamine-tainted milk powder in 2008. In 2010 he was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison.
– Fan Qihang (樊奇杭): The first “Beat Black case” in Chongqing. Fan was sentenced to death and executed in September 2010.
Note: All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results.
CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information. To add words, check out the form at the bottom of CDT Chinese’s latest sensitive words post.