Sensitive Words: Protests, Arrests, and More

As of April 29, the following search terms are blocked on Sina Weibo (not including the “search for user” function).

The “Nine Gentlemen”: Nine activists were arrested last week after demanding that public servants disclose their financial assets, including Zhao Changqing and human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi. Another protester, Li Wei, is missing, as activist Hu Jia explains:

@hu_jia: Li Wei is missing. No official documentation of his arrest has been received, as opposed to the other nine. RT @tengbiao: Yuan Dong, Zhang Baocheng, Ma Xinli, Hou Xin, Zhao Changqing, Ding Jiaxi, Wang Yonghong, Sun Hanhui, Li Wei, and Qi Yueying. However you count it, there are 10. The last two must have been detained as criminals. Were others arrested for calling for financial disclosure? #ninegentlemenoffinancialdisclosure

• financial disclosure+nine gentlemen (财产公示+九君子)
• Zhao Changqing (赵长青)
• Ding Jiaxi (丁家喜)

Yuan Dong, one of the "nine gentlemen" arrested after publicly calling on officials to disclose their financial assets. (@azurefoxlee)

Yuan Dong, one of the “nine gentlemen” arrested after publicly calling on officials to disclose their financial assets. (@azurefoxlee)

“Terrorist” Attack in Xinjiang: 21 died last week in clashes between the police and ethnic Uyghurs in Kashgar, a prefecture-level town which borders Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The Chinese authorities and have accused the U.S. of a double standard for refusing to call this a “terrorist act.”

• Selibuya (色力布亚): The town in Kashgar Prefecture where the officers were killed.
• World Uyghur Congress (世维会)

Other:

• 25th anniversary (25周年): It is unclear why this is blocked. Reader suggestions are welcome.


 

Additionally, the following search terms have been blocked as of April 27.

Chengdu Environmental Protest: Chengdu netizens have objected to the construction of a petrochemical plant planned for Pengzhou, a town within the city limits. A number of netizens have suggested demonstrating against the project on May 4th, Youth Day, on Jiuyan Bridge, the site of May 4, 2008 protests against a p-Xylene (PX) plant in Pengzhou. On Weibo, the Chengdu authorities announced that they had arrested those calling for the demonstration, which they condemned as “inciting illegal assembly.”

• Chengdu PX project (成都PX项目)
• May 4th+Jiuyan Bridge+take a walk (5月4日+九眼桥+散步)
• Pengzhou+PX (彭州+PX)
• Pengzhou+petrochemicals (彭州+石化): retested

Other:

• Real Estate Party (地产党): A reference to the property owned by Party officials, both at home and abroad.

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 posts (April 27 and April 29).

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