As of April 19, the following search terms are blocked on Sina Weibo (not including the “search for user” function).
A screenshot from Weibo of the taxi story on the website of the official China Daily.
Hong Kong Paper Takes Readers for a Ride: Ta Kung Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper backed by the Chinese Communist Party, reported yesterday that an unsuspecting Beijing cabby picked up to-be premier Xi Jinping on March 1. The driver, Guo Lixin, apparently did not recognize Xi until the two began to chat about air pollution on the way to the Daioyutai State Guesthouse. “You are the first one to ever recognize me,” the paper quoted Xi.
The official Xinhua News Agency picked up the story, as did many overseas media and tens of thousands of Weibo users, before the story was revealed to be a hoax. Ta Kung Pao has issued an apology.
Cabby Guo Lixin holding a note allegedly written for him by Xi Jinping. (Ta Kung Pao)
• Guo Lixin (郭立新)
• Diaoyutai (钓鱼台)
• dress as a commoner to conceal one’s identity (微服): As in “travel in disguise [to see how the commoners live]” (微服私访), “make a royal inspection in disguise” (微服出巡), etc.
• Xi+fake news (习+假新闻)
• Xi+hire (习+出租)
• Xi+hail a taxi (习+打的)
• Xi+hail a car (习+打车)
• Xi+Taxi Brother (习+的哥)
• Xi+secretary-general (习+总书记)
• xi+secretary-general (xi+总书记)
• secretary-general+hail a car (总书记+打车)
• secretary-general+hail a taxi (总书记+打的)
• may the wind fill your sails (一帆风顺): Ta Kung Pao reported that Guo asked Xi to write this classic idiom for him as a souvenir of their meeting. The paper ran a photo of Guo showing off Xi’s gift.
All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results.
Browse all of CDT’s collected sensitive words in this bilingual Google spreadsheet.
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.
