As of July 1, the following search terms are blocked on Sina Weibo (not including the “search for user” function).
July 1 protests in Hong Kong. (Facebook)
Hong Kong Protests: As Typhoon Rumbia threatened to interrupt, the Civil Human Rights Front continued its march from Victoria Park to Central today, calling for universal suffrage in Hong Kong. Protests are held in the Special Administrative Region every July 1, the anniversary of the handover from Great Britain to China.
- Central (中环): The area of Hong Kong where the rally ended.
- seven one+take a walk (七一+散步): The numbers refer to July 1. “Taking a walk” is a euphemism for publicly protesting.
- march (游行): Retested.
- 游xing: The first character and the pinyin romanization of the second character in the word “march.”
- you行: The pinyin romanization of the first character in the word “march,” followed by the second character in the same word. Retested.
- youxing: The pinyin romanization of “march.” Retested.
Violence in Xinjiang: Security tightened in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region after last week’s attacks on police stations and other buildings in Turpan and Hotan left as least 39 dead and dozens injured. Military exercises in the capital, Urumqi, came as a response to “terrorist attacks.”
- leather hat (皮帽子): A derogatory term for Uyghurs, who make up about 45% of the population of Xinjiang. July 5 will mark the fourth anniversary of clashes between ethnic Uyghurs, who are mostly Muslim, and Han Chinese.
Screenshot of a Weibo search for “Communist Party.” “According to relevant laws and regulations, search results for ‘Communist Party’ cannot be displayed.” “A lonely birthday,” remarks @文三娃. (Weibo)
Other:
- Communist Party (共产党): Today is the 92nd anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. Retested.
- (three) stupid prostitutes (（三个）呆婊): “Stupid prostitutes” (呆婊 dāi biǎo) sounds similar to “represent” (代表 dàibiǎo). This is an alterate writing of the (Three) Represents, a political concept coined by former president Jiang Zemin.
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.
Have a sensitive word tip? Submit it to CDT through this form:
