They want to cover up and smother the truth. This type of 'cover-up' in fact exposes the truth. A journalist’s scars are a testament."

— WeChat blogger Zhang Feng (@张3丰的世界), commenting on the initial cover-up of two suspicious drowning deaths in Bijie, Guizhou Province, and the subsequent beating of a journalist investigating the deaths. A local police station deputy and two auxiliary officers were detained, accused of the beating, and removed from duty.

 

CDT Highlights

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Minitrue: June 4 Content Restrictions for Douyin Official Accounts and Key Opinion Leaders

The following instructions have been leaked and distributed online. For June 3rd, 4th, 5th: all official accounts are forbidden from posting content, and all key opinion leaders are banned from posting brand-related advertising content. The restrictions will end on Tuesday, June 6th.  Security Precautions:  *All those running official accounts must pay close attention to trends in the comment sections of old posts. Comments and reposts are forbidden from displaying content including, but not limited to: lit candle emojis, numbers with unclear implications, slogans, tanks, old...

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Mosque Demolition Sparks Clashes Between Armed Police and Hui Muslim Residents in Yunnan

The partial demolition of a historic mosque in rural Yunnan this past weekend ignited conflict between local Hui Muslim residents and armed police. The clashes in Najiaying, a village in Yuxi, China, began when residents discovered that cranes had been moved into the compound of the Najiaying mosque, and that demolition of the mosque was imminent. The conflict is the latest chapter in the implementation of the central government’s “sinicization” policies. Similar “sinicization” measures in the past have sparked contention—and in some cases, popular protests—over the erasure of overt Islamic...

Minitrue: June 4 Content Restrictions for Douyin Official Accounts and Key Opinion Leaders

The following instructions have been leaked and distributed online. For June 3rd, 4th, 5th: all official accounts are forbidden from posting content, and all key opinion leaders are banned from posting brand-related advertising content. The restrictions will end on Tuesday, June 6th.  Security Precautions:  *All those running official accounts must pay close attention to trends in the comment sections of old posts. Comments and reposts are forbidden from displaying content including, but not limited to: lit candle emojis, numbers with unclear implications, slogans, tanks, old...

Minitrue: June 4 Content Restrictions for Douyin Official Accounts and Key Opinion Leaders

The following instructions have been leaked and distributed online. For June 3rd, 4th, 5th: all official accounts are forbidden from posting content, and all key opinion leaders are banned from posting brand-related advertising content. The restrictions will end on Tuesday, June 6th.  Security Precautions:  *All those running official accounts must pay close attention to trends in the comment sections of old posts. Comments and reposts are forbidden from displaying content including, but not limited to: lit candle emojis, numbers with unclear implications, slogans, tanks, old...

Minitrue: June 4 Content Restrictions for Douyin Official Accounts and Key Opinion Leaders

The following instructions have been leaked and distributed online. For June 3rd, 4th, 5th: all official accounts are forbidden from posting content, and all key opinion leaders are banned from posting brand-related advertising content. The restrictions will end on Tuesday, June 6th.  Security Precautions:  *All those running official accounts must pay close attention to trends in the comment sections of old posts. Comments and reposts are forbidden from displaying content including, but not limited to: lit candle emojis, numbers with unclear implications, slogans, tanks, old...

Hong Kong Government Purges Politically Sensitive Books from Libraries

Local media outlets in Hong Kong report that hundreds of books on political topics including the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre are no longer available in the city’s public libraries, after the city’s Leisure and Cultural Services Department ordered librarians to ensure that their collections contained nothing in violation of the National Security Law. This is the latest example of government censorship in Hong Kong that further restricts free speech and attempts to rewrite history. Helen Davidson from The Guardian described the extent of the book purge: On Tuesday, Hong Kong media outlets reported...

Translation: Special One-Month Reconnaissance Operation Against “Overseas Cyber Forces”

A pair of recently surfaced screenshots appear to offer unusual detail about a special month-long operation, held in Beijing and involving over 40 Ministry of Public Security computer specialists from around the country, to combat “overseas cyber forces” in the battle for public opinion. The apparently leaked internal instructions from the Ministry of Public Security are likely to be the result of an email breach. They include the names and locations of many of the computer-specialist officers, as well as the name and contact information of the individual in charge of the operation. At some...

Interview: Joshua Kurlantzick on Beijing’s Global Media Offensive

Surveys have shown that Xi Jinping’s hardline foreign policy is increasingly unpopular abroad. Given the CCP’s mixed success using soft power to repair China’s image, party propagandists have increasingly resorted to sharper global-influence operations, often via foreign media. Pro-CCP narratives are propagated through the media, particularly on sensitive topics such as former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and China’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang. These narratives reveal that the media is a major component of China’s influence operations abroad. Understanding how the...

Tourism Push and Continued Labor Coercion Mark New Phase in Xinjiang Repression

Exactly one year ago, a consortium of media outlets released the Xinjiang Police Files, a cache of tens of thousands of files showing images of Uyghur detainees in Xinjiang’s concentration camps and manuals for enforcing their subjugation. In the year since then, despite multiple high-level U.N. reports documenting forced labor and “serious human rights violations” in Xinjiang that “may constitute […] crimes against humanity,” the CCP has continued to enforce coercive policies in the region with impunity. Recent articles and reports document a new phase of repression in Xinjiang, one marked...

Minitrue: June 4 Content Restrictions for Douyin Official Accounts and Key Opinion Leaders

The following instructions have been leaked and distributed online. For June 3rd, 4th, 5th: all official accounts are forbidden from posting content, and all key opinion leaders are banned from posting brand-related advertising content. The restrictions will end on Tuesday, June 6th.  Security Precautions:  *All those running official accounts must pay close attention to trends in the comment sections of old posts. Comments and reposts are forbidden from displaying content including, but not limited to: lit candle emojis, numbers with unclear implications, slogans, tanks, old...

Translation: Special One-Month Reconnaissance Operation Against “Overseas Cyber Forces”

A pair of recently surfaced screenshots appear to offer unusual detail about a special month-long operation, held in Beijing and involving over 40 Ministry of Public Security computer specialists from around the country, to combat “overseas cyber forces” in the battle for public opinion. The apparently leaked internal instructions from the Ministry of Public Security are likely to be the result of an email breach. They include the names and locations of many of the computer-specialist officers, as well as the name and contact information of the individual in charge of the operation. At some...

Local Police Identified as Assailants of Journalist in Guizhou

The culprits behind the beating of a reporter in Guizhou that scandalized China have been identified: a local vice-police chief and two auxiliary officers perpetrated the assault.  On May 30, Jimu News reporter Li Xiancheng arrived in Zhijin County, a rural area of Guizhou Province, to investigate the drowning of two middle school teachers who were carried away by a flood after a hydroelectric power plant discharged water. Shangyou News reported that while Li was interviewing the relatives of the deceased teachers, a man claiming to be their neighbor accosted him and demanded to know...

Translation: My Hometown Survived the Pandemic

Even before the lifting of China’s long-standing “zero-COVID” policy in early December of last year, there were signs of a surge in Omicron cases nationwide. Since then, China has experienced a tsunami of infections—first in larger cities, and then in the countryside—amid concerns about shortages of needed medications, the increasing risk of medical debt, and unreliable official data on the numbers of infections and deaths. Despite the recent Lunar New Year celebration in which hundreds of millions of residents went traveling and returned to their hometowns, there are signs that the wave of...

Human Rights

Latest

Minitrue: June 4 Content Restrictions for Douyin Official Accounts and Key Opinion Leaders

The following instructions have been leaked and distributed online. For June 3rd, 4th, 5th: all official accounts are forbidden from posting content, and all key opinion leaders are banned from posting brand-related advertising content. The restrictions will end on Tuesday, June 6th.  Security Precautions:  *All those running official accounts must pay close attention to trends in the comment sections of old posts. Comments and reposts are forbidden from displaying content including, but not limited to: lit candle emojis, numbers with unclear implications, slogans, tanks, old...

Politics

Latest

Comedian Pulls Back Curtain On Censorship Process After Army Joke Incident

The (talk) show is over. Comedian Li Haoshi, who made a joke involving the People’s Liberation Army last weekend, has been detained by Beijing police according to a report from BBC’s Chinese news service. As of publication, no other outlets have been able to verify the BBC’s reporting. While Li may still have his freedom, his stage career is likely over: the Chinese Performing Arts Association blacklisted him. Many of those who have spoken in Li’s defense have been censored. In the aftermath of the Li Haoshi Incident, one writer took to Weibo to write about their experience navigating...

Society

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Translation: Censored Lyrics and Reactions to Guangdong Rapper Vyan’s “Land of Hope”

On March 25th, Guangdong-based rapper Liu Wanli, better known as Vyan (pronounced “vee-yen”) was invited to appear on “One Seat,” a lecture program that has been called “China’s TED Talks.” In his appearance, he performed an original rap song titled “Land of Hope,” which made reference to a number of current events and societal issues, including the case of Xiaohuamei, a trafficked woman and mother of eight who was kept chained in a shed in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province. Vyan’s performance attracted a great deal of attention online, with many netizens praising his...

China & the World

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State Media Hails Evacuation of Chinese Citizens, Others from Sudan

Heavy fighting between rival military groups in Sudan’s capital of Khartoum has put local and foreign civilians in peril. Over the past week, Chinese, American, and other governments implemented evacuation plans to escort their citizens to safety, traversing breakdowns in multiple ceasefires between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. China completed two rounds of large-scale maritime evacuations that carried over 1,300 of its citizens to safety. And while state media outlets celebrated the operation, which was particularly successfully compared to previous ones in...

Law

Latest

Local Police Identified as Assailants of Journalist in Guizhou

The culprits behind the beating of a reporter in Guizhou that scandalized China have been identified: a local vice-police chief and two auxiliary officers perpetrated the assault.  On May 30, Jimu News reporter Li Xiancheng arrived in Zhijin County, a rural area of Guizhou Province, to investigate the drowning of two middle school teachers who were carried away by a flood after a hydroelectric power plant discharged water. Shangyou News reported that while Li was interviewing the relatives of the deceased teachers, a man claiming to be their neighbor accosted him and demanded to know...

Information Revolution

Latest

WeChat “Bug” Turns Out To Be Obscure Insult for Xi Jinping

A group of students under the impression they had discovered a WeChat “bug” that hides the phrase “200 jin of dumplings” (roughly 220 pounds) had in fact stumbled upon an obscure insult for Xi Jinping that triggers automatic censorship.  In the course of daily conversation, the students found that messages preceded by the term “200 jin of dumplings” (200斤饺子) were not received by their counterparts. Juvenile hilarity ensued. They sent each other curses and confessions: “200 jin of dumplings, you’re a stupid c***,” “200 jin of dumplings, you’re an idiot,” “200 jin of dumplings, piggy,” and...

Culture & the Arts

Latest

Folk-rock Band “Slap” Melds Ming Dynasty Fiction with Shrewd Social Satire

A performance video of “Red Child’s Eighteen Wins,” a January 2023 song by the folk-rock band Slap (耳光乐队, Erguang Yuedui), has been attracting much attention lately on Chinese social media and Chinese Twitter. The folk tune combines iconic characters and scenes from the classical Ming Dynasty novel “Journey to the West” with biting satirical commentary on current and recent events in China and the world. The extensive lyrics—detailing 18 so-called “wins”—are chock-full of familiar references to the events of the past several years. There are sly mentions of China’s now-abandoned...

The Great Divide

Latest

Translation: My Hometown Survived the Pandemic

Even before the lifting of China’s long-standing “zero-COVID” policy in early December of last year, there were signs of a surge in Omicron cases nationwide. Since then, China has experienced a tsunami of infections—first in larger cities, and then in the countryside—amid concerns about shortages of needed medications, the increasing risk of medical debt, and unreliable official data on the numbers of infections and deaths. Despite the recent Lunar New Year celebration in which hundreds of millions of residents went traveling and returned to their hometowns, there are signs that the wave of...

Sci-Tech

Latest

Translation: Special One-Month Reconnaissance Operation Against “Overseas Cyber Forces”

A pair of recently surfaced screenshots appear to offer unusual detail about a special month-long operation, held in Beijing and involving over 40 Ministry of Public Security computer specialists from around the country, to combat “overseas cyber forces” in the battle for public opinion. The apparently leaked internal instructions from the Ministry of Public Security are likely to be the result of an email breach. They include the names and locations of many of the computer-specialist officers, as well as the name and contact information of the individual in charge of the operation. At some...

Environment

Latest

Signs of Sino-U.S. Cooperation at COP27, But Climate Pledges Still Fall Short

At the halfway point of the COP27 international climate-change summit, there are encouraging signs that China and the U.S. may put aside geopolitical tensions in order to collectively stave off existential catastrophe for the world. However, both countries are currently falling short of the emission-reduction goals agreed upon in the 2015 Paris Agreement, and small, developing nations most at risk of a warming planet are demanding greater efforts. Caixin summarized China’s engagement with the U.S. at COP27: China’s climate envoy Xie Zhenhua said he met with his U.S. counterpart John Kerry...

Hong Kong

Latest

Hong Kong Government Purges Politically Sensitive Books from Libraries

Local media outlets in Hong Kong report that hundreds of books on political topics including the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre are no longer available in the city’s public libraries, after the city’s Leisure and Cultural Services Department ordered librarians to ensure that their collections contained nothing in violation of the National Security Law. This is the latest example of government censorship in Hong Kong that further restricts free speech and attempts to rewrite history. Helen Davidson from The Guardian described the extent of the book purge: On Tuesday, Hong Kong media outlets reported...

Taiwan

Latest

Xi and Biden Show Resolve, Cool Tensions in Bali Meeting

U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping met on Monday in Bali for their first in-person meeting since Biden took office. Buoyed by their recent political victories at home, the two leaders sought to stabilize the deteriorating Sino-U.S. relationship and clarify their respective priorities. Some progress was made by renewing high-level talks on important issues such as climate change, but it remains to be seen whether this meeting provided a sustainable foundation for the fraught rivalry between the two countries. At The Wall Street Journal, Andrew Restuccia, Ken...

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