As of January 9, the following search terms are blocked on Sina Weibo (not including the “search for user” function).
Zhou Yongkang: The former security czar and Politburo Standing Committee member is under investigation for corruption, according to Reuters and the New York Times. If dealt an official charge, Zhou would be the biggest “tiger” that Xi Jinping has gone after in his campaign to stop corruption among both “tigers” and “flies.”
See also sensitive words posted on October 10 and December 25.
- Tiger Zhou (周老虎)
- Politburo Zhou (周政法)
- instant noodles+leave office (方便面＋下台): Netizens have nicknamed Zhou Master Kang (Kang Shifu 康师傅), after a popular brand of instant noodles that shares one character in common with his name (kang 康, also in Zhou Yongkang 周永康). When “Master Kang” was blocked from Weibo searches in 2012, users resorted to calling Zhou “instant noodles.”
- instant noodles+have a mishap (方便面＋出事)
- instant noodles+double detention (方便面＋双规)
- instant noodles+caught (方便面＋被抓)
- instant noodles+arrested (方便面＋被捕)
- Xi+tiger (习＋老虎)
- Wu Bing+white glove (吴兵＋白手套): Sichuan businessman Wu Bing was detained in Beijing on August 1, according to mainland news outlets. Wu was allegedly one of the Zhou family’s “white gloves,” the middle man for illegal financial dealings who kept them looking “clean” [zh].
Miscellaneous:
- Ling Gu (令谷): Son of Ling Jihua, aide to former president Hu Jintao. Ling Gu died when his Ferrari crashed in March 2012. The elder Ling was politically punished for covering up his son’s death.
- Politics and Law Commission (政法委): retested
Via CDT Chinese.
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 on our 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.
Have a sensitive word tip? Submit it to CDT through this form:
