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...
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...
China and India’s geopolitical rivalry has reached a nadir, with both countries all but barring...
The culprits behind the beating of a reporter in Guizhou that scandalized China have been...
This week, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) released...
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.
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...
A performance video of “Red Child’s Eighteen Wins,” a January 2023 song by the folk-rock band Slap...
The culprits behind the beating of a reporter in Guizhou that scandalized China have been...
A pair of recently surfaced screenshots appear to offer unusual detail about a special month-long...
A recent incident illustrates what a minefield it has become to discuss anything, past or present,...
If the lesson last week was “Don’t laugh about the PLA,” this week’s message seems to be, “Don’t...
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...
This week, a set of reports emerged alleging that Chinese state-backed actors perpetrated...
Exactly one year ago, a consortium of media outlets released the Xinjiang Police Files, a cache of...
Tensions rose in the wake of the G7 summit last weekend, as China weathered accusations of being...
Chinese state media’s external-facing content has become increasingly known for its aggressive...
Local media outlets in Hong Kong report that hundreds of books on political topics including the...
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...
This week, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) released...
The partial demolition of a historic mosque in rural Yunnan this past weekend ignited conflict...
Exactly one year ago, a consortium of media outlets released the Xinjiang Police Files, a cache of...
The shuttering of the Beijing LGBT Center marks the latest setback for China’s queer community. In...
The full report can be read in PDF form here. Below is a brief introduction. A CDT investigation...
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...
A performance video of “Red Child’s Eighteen Wins,” a January 2023 song by the folk-rock band Slap...
A pair of recently surfaced screenshots appear to offer unusual detail about a special month-long...
A recent incident illustrates what a minefield it has become to discuss anything, past or present,...
If the lesson last week was “Don’t laugh about the PLA,” this week’s message seems to be, “Don’t...
On May 18, a social media post (archived here) announced the impending closure and demolition of a...
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...
China and India’s geopolitical rivalry has reached a nadir, with both countries all but barring...
The culprits behind the beating of a reporter in Guizhou that scandalized China have been...
The partial demolition of a historic mosque in rural Yunnan this past weekend ignited conflict...
This week, a set of reports emerged alleging that Chinese state-backed actors perpetrated...
If the lesson last week was “Don’t laugh about the PLA,” this week’s message seems to be, “Don’t...
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...
World Press Freedom Day, on May 3, has rarely been a time for celebration in China, where...
This week, a long-expected national security trial of 47 Hong Kong pro-democracy figures began....
The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been...
On Saturday, a Hong Kong court sentenced pro-democracy figure and former Apple Daily owner Jimmy...
Hong Kong’s national security purge shows no signs of slowing down, two and a half years after...
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...
Over the past two weeks, the Biden administration has issued a series of regulations intended to...
Popular online writer Shen Maohua, who writes under the pen name Wei Zhou, is known for his...
As citizens revolt against never-ending lockdowns and local governments “resolutely struggle...
On Thursday, the Canadian government announced that it will ban Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE...
On Monday of last week, Malaysian musician Namewee (Wee Meng Chee, 黃明志) learned that his YouTube...
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...
Jeremy Wallace, associate professor of Government at Cornell University, joined CDT to discuss his...
Evidence of human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in Xinjiang has...
China’s soft power initiatives are often derided by Western observers as ineffective or...
This is the full transcript, edited lightly for grammar and clarity, of an interview with Jeremy...
Xi Jinping’s call in 2013 to “tell China’s story well” accelerated an existing trend of Chinese...
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...
Tensions rose in the wake of the G7 summit last weekend, as China weathered accusations of being...
On May 18, a social media post (archived here) announced the impending closure and demolition of a...
In recent weeks, Chinese authorities have raided foreign firms, imposed exit bans, restricted...
China’s infamous urban management agents, known as chengguan, have a new rural equivalent, the...
The following instructions were posted online. To all provincial, autonomous regional, and...
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...
A performance video of “Red Child’s Eighteen Wins,” a January 2023 song by the folk-rock band Slap...
The culprits behind the beating of a reporter in Guizhou that scandalized China have been...
The partial demolition of a historic mosque in rural Yunnan this past weekend ignited conflict...
This week, a set of reports emerged alleging that Chinese state-backed actors perpetrated...
A recent incident illustrates what a minefield it has become to discuss anything, past or present,...
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...
Tensions rose in the wake of the G7 summit last weekend, as China weathered accusations of being...
May 10, 2023 marked the second anniversary of the detention of program-think (Biānchéng suíxiǎng,...
The full report can be read in PDF form here. Below is a brief introduction. A CDT investigation...
Snow? In Hebei? In May? Don’t even joke about it.A young man in a small city in southern Hebei was...
The following instructions were posted online. To all provincial, autonomous regional, and...
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...
This week, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) released...
Exactly one year ago, a consortium of media outlets released the Xinjiang Police Files, a cache of...
May 10, 2023 marked the second anniversary of the detention of program-think (Biānchéng suíxiǎng,...
The full report can be read in PDF form here. Below is a brief introduction. A CDT investigation...
Snow? In Hebei? In May? Don’t even joke about it.A young man in a small city in southern Hebei was...
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...
After conducting nucleic acid testing on its 26 million residents this week, Shanghai remains...
Evergrande offices across China have been beset by protesting retail investors and homeowners...
Anyone who has boarded an airplane in the last 20 years knows what stands between arrival at the...
This spring, while nationalist fervor to “support Xinjiang cotton” swelled online,...
In early December, President Xi Jinping declared that China had eliminated absolute poverty. His...
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...
This week, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) released...
The partial demolition of a historic mosque in rural Yunnan this past weekend ignited conflict...
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...
Word(s) of the Week: Forge Exemplary Conduct, Fight to Win (作风优良，能打胜仗 zuòfēng yōuliáng, néngdǎ...
“Zero-COVID nail houses” (防疫钉子户, fángyì dīngzihù) are people who still adhere to strict virus...
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...
Three years and three months after whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang’s death from COVID-19, the...
At least 12 women have accused famed screenwriter Shi Hang of sexual harassment. The accusations...
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...
On Wednesday, CCP Secretary General Xi Jinping and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to...
Proposed regulations on the development of generative artificial intelligence models issued by...
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...
This week, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) released...
Exactly one year ago, a consortium of media outlets released the Xinjiang Police Files, a cache of...
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...
This week saw the proliferation of COVID conspiracy theories on Chinese social media, the...
While the official position from Beijing is that China remains a neutral observer of the...
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...
A recent incident illustrates what a minefield it has become to discuss anything, past or present,...
If the lesson last week was “Don’t laugh about the PLA,” this week’s message seems to be, “Don’t...
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...
After conducting nucleic acid testing on its 26 million residents this week, Shanghai remains...
Evergrande offices across China have been beset by protesting retail investors and homeowners...
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...
Tensions rose in the wake of the G7 summit last weekend, as China weathered accusations of being...
May 10, 2023 marked the second anniversary of the detention of program-think (Biānchéng suíxiǎng,...
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...
A massive, months-long heat wave has scorched regions in central China. Intense droughts and...
This Wednesday marked the one-year anniversary of floods in Henan on July 20, 2021, when historic...
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...
World Press Freedom Day, on May 3, has rarely been a time for celebration in China, where...
This week, a long-expected national security trial of 47 Hong Kong pro-democracy figures began....
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...
Over the past two weeks, the Biden administration has issued a series of regulations intended to...
On Sunday, another U.S. Congressional delegation traveled to Taiwan, less than two weeks after...
Click on the image to download Firefly for circumvention
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