As of May 10, the following search terms are blocked on Sina Weibo (not including the “search for user” function).
Migrant Worker’s Death: 22-year-old Yuan Liya, who came to Beijing from Anhui Province, fell to her death on May 3 from the Jingwen Apparel shopping mall. While the Beijing police concluded that she committed suicide, hundreds protested on May 8 calling for a full account of her death. Many suspect she was sexually assaulted and thrown from the building where she worked. See also Sensitive Words updates from May 8 and May 9.
• Zhong Tao (钟涛): Head of Jingwen Apparel.
• Jing+wen (京+wen): Alternate writing of Jingwen (京温).
• Yuan Liya (袁莉亚): Alternate writing of Yuan Liya (袁利亚).
Two Weibo Accounts Suspended for “Intentionally Spreading Rumors”: Prominent law professor and activist He Bing (@何兵) can no longer post on Weibo after he reposted a weibo from “Xiaoshanjunzi” (@萧山君子) about the alleged 2009 murder of a Guizhou Province cadre by a young university graduate whose website was shut down [zh]. Xiaoshanjunzi’s account is currently inaccessible.
• He Bing (何兵)
• six-point statement (六点声明): He Bing responded to the suspension of his right to post on Weibo with a six-point statement [zh].
• seven don’t mentions* (七不讲): According to a directive leaked on Weibo, universities are being instructed not to allow lecturers to discuss “universal value, freedom of the press, a civil society, civic rights, historical mistakes committed by the Communist Party, elite cronyism, and an independent judiciary.”
* This post was edited to change the translation of 七不讲 to “seven don’t mentions.”
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.
