As 2025 draws to a close, CDT editors are compiling a series of the most notable content (Chinese) from across the Chinese internet over the past year. Topics include this year’s most outstanding quotes, reports, podcasts and videos, sensitive words, censored articles and essays, “People of the Year,” and CDT’s “2025 Editors’ Picks.”
This year-end video compiled by CDT Chinese editors offers a month-by-month look back on the major events of 2025, as illustrated by popular—and sometimes censored—viral video content from around the Chinese internet. The 2025 year-end feature draws on content from CDT’s “Voices of …” monthly video series.
Among the many topics and events in our video compilation: doctors expressing concerns about the quality of generic medications in China; cross-provincial arrests of danmei erotica writers; the unfairness of the “dual-track” pension system; censorship of content related to the death of Hu Dehua, son of former leader Hu Yaobang; protests in Jiangyou in support of the family of a bullied schoolgirl; intense censorship related to torture-related deaths of RSDL detainees; a political slogan protest in Chongqing; backlash to a fireworks display in Shigatse, Tibet; privacy violations in Chikungunya-prevention work in Guangdong; multi-platform bans of some popular online influencers; and the deadly fire at Hong Kong’s Wang Fuk Court housing complex.
