As of March 12, the following search terms were blocked on Sina Weibo (not including the “search for user” function).
“No Difference in Suppression” (Rebel Pepper)
Kunming train station attack:The March 1 knife attack left 29 people dead and and more than 140 injured. China calls the horrific attack an act of terrorism carried out by Uyghur separatists from Xinjiang, in the country’s far west.
- Xinjiang+knife (新疆＋刀)
- Xinjiang+terror (新疆＋恐怖)
- Uyghur+cut (维吾尔族＋砍)
- Guilin+Ximenqiao (桂林＋西门桥): A rumor has spread online that attackers from Xinjiang in Guilin’s Ximenqiao train station hacked to death the owner of a BMW, and that they were planning a bigger attack. Xinhua reports that a man entered a woman’s BMW on Cansong Road (not the train station), robbing and then stabbing her to death [zh].
- Xinjianger+Guilin (新疆人＋桂林)
- Guilin train station (桂林火车站)
- Guilin Ximenqiao+BMW driver (桂林西门桥＋宝马车司机)
- Ximenqiao+BMW driver+Xinjiang suspect (西门桥＋宝马车司机＋新疆疑犯)
- pi maozi [fur hats] (皮帽子): Derogatory term for Uyghur men.
Flight MH370: The Malaysia Airlines red-eye from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing went missing over the weekend. The international search has still not turned up any remains, and frustration with Malaysian authorities is mounting about conflicting information.
- China Martyrs Brigade (中国烈士旅): Overseas Chinese press are reporting that the organization has issued a statement claiming responsibility for the missing flight.
Shen Peiping Under Investigation for Graft: The vice governor of Yunnan is being investigated for “serious violations of Party discipline and the law.”
- Shen Peiping under investigation+He Guoqiang (沈培平被调查＋贺国强): Shen is rumored to have given favors to He Jintao, son of former Politburo Standing Committee member He Guoqiang.
- He Jintao (贺锦涛)
Also Blocked:
- Liu Xia+house arrest (刘霞＋软禁): The wife of imprisoned Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo has been under house arrest since her husband’s sentence began in 2009.
- Cao Shunli (曹顺利): The human rights activist was denied medical care earlier in the month and was last reported near death due to kidney failure. There appear to be no updates on her situation since March 5.
- defend freedom of the press (捍卫新闻自由)
Via CDT Chinese.
Browse all of CDT’s collected sensitive words on our bilingual Google spreadsheet.
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.
Have a sensitive word tip? Submit it to CDT through this form:
