TikTok Caught Up in Romanian Election Turmoil

by Arthur Kaufman | Dec 10, 2024

Romania’s presidential election has taken a dramatic turn. Far-right, pro-Russian ultranationalist candidate Calin Georgescu won the first round of voting on November 24, but President Klaus Iohannis (whose party’s...

When women have problems, [the authorities] pretend to be blind and dumb, but when they want something from us, they won’t shut up about it.”

— A Weibo user, commenting on the silence from government officials and the All-China Women’s Federation amidst a scandal about quality defects and false advertising by many Chinese brands of sanitary pads. This lack of government concern is in stark contrast to constant calls from state media and government officials for Chinese women to "do their part" to solve the demographic crisis by having as many as three children.

 

PHOTO OF THE DAY

CDT Highlights

Latest

Two Years After Zero-COVID, A Rare White Paper Remembrance

Dec 9, 2024

A WeChat essay detailing the day that China’s “zero-COVID” policy ended has become a rare space for public remembrance of the 2022 White Paper Movement. Originally published as part of a 13-part series on the lockdowns, the essay reflects on the arbitrary imposition of lockdowns and their equally arbitrary removal. The brief essay is laden with the peculiar bureaucratic language of the pandemic, all of which, the author asserts now, “feels like a dream”: At 5:00 p.m. on December 7, 2022, China lifted its lockdown. The virus simply “disappeared,” and with it, the “zero-COVID” policy. Now two...

More Stories
  • Recent News
  • Human Rights
  • Translation
  • Politics
  • Hong Kong
  • Information Revolution
  • CDT Bookshelf
  • Economy
  • Society
  • Sci-Tech
  • Law
  • The Great Divide

Chinese Government Leverages Inbound Tourism to Boost External Propaganda

Dec 6, 2024

In a global public opinion climate marked by polarized views of China, one common tactic employed by the Party-state apparatus to dispel potential criticism is encouraging foreigners to come see China in person. Numerous articles and events over the past month have exhibited these external propaganda efforts in the realm of professional, tourist, and academic visits, along with people-to-people exchanges. In the professional domain, one classic example is junkets to Xinjiang for foreign journalists, aimed at producing flattering accounts of the state of human rights in the region that can...

More Stories

Volkswagen Exits Xinjiang After Criticism About Complicity in Human Rights Abuses

Nov 27, 2024

On Wednesday, German auto manufacturer Volkswagen (VW) announced that it would sell its operations in Xinjiang. The move comes after years of pressure from rights groups that have documented the Chinese government’s grave abuses—including forced labor—against Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in the region, and the attendant complicity of Western corporations that operate there. However, based on the company’s statements, economics rather than human rights may have been the primary motivation for its recent decision-making. Reuters first reported on VW’s exit from Xinjiang and the extension of...

More Stories

Censors Remove Reflections on Democracy Inspired by Korean Crisis

Dec 6, 2024

Korea’s political crisis has spurred a host of commentary and reflection in China despite censorship. While state broadcaster CCTV issued minute-by-minute updates on the crisis, censors have taken down translations of articles from The Atlantic and The Guardian that were published to WeChat. “South Korea’s Warning for Washington,” by Bryan Klass in The Atlantic and “Democracy Isn’t Supposed to Work Like This” by Raphael Rashid in The Guardian have both been censored on WeChat. The former argues “one person—a power-hungry politician or a self-serving general—could destroy decades of progress...

More Stories