Netizen Voices: Sardonic Comments on “How to Get Back at Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi” Offer Socio-Political Commentary on China
Ongoing Sino-Japanese diplomatic tensions—touched off last month by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae...
cadres
Translation: Filmmaker Describes Monitoring by Local Cadre in Urumqi
In March, despite questionable jurisdiction, Xinjiang authorities hit Yunnan-based independent filmmaker Guo Zhenming with a 75,000 yuan (US$10,300) fine and the confiscation of some of his equipment for alleged...
Translations: What the “4+4” Medical Scandal Reveals About Second-Generation Privilege
A viral scandal that started out as the tale of one doctor’s extramarital affairs and medical malpractice has exploded into a wide-ranging societal discussion encompassing medical and personal ethics, research fraud, “returnee”...
Heilongjiang Cadre Expelled from Party for Reading Forbidden Publications
A local cadre from the northern province of Heilongjiang was recently expelled from the Chinese Communist Party for reading illegal publications with “serious political issues,” making him the latest among dozens of officials to...
Chengyu For Xi Jinping’s New Era (Part 1)
Xi Jinping’s New Era has inspired the creation of a host of “new chengyu”: idiomatic, often four-character, literary expressions that are the kernel of a larger tale. The following New Era chengyu are all references to infamous...
Translation: The Problems of Inefficient Infrastructure Spending Are Beginning to Surface
After a decades-long infrastructure spending spree, many of China’s local governments now find themselves saddled with unsustainable levels of debt and a surplus of vastly ambitious but often underutilized infrastructure...
Netizen Voices: Anti-Corruption Education for the Spouses of 140 High-Ranking Cadres in Hunan Province
According to reports on Hunan TV, Global Times, and related WeChat public accounts, the spouses of 140 high-ranking cadres in Hunan province recently attended an “anti-corruption” educational activity sponsored by the provincial...
Translation: Lu Dewen—“Bureaucratic Formalism Has Made It Impossible for Local Cadres to Get Anything Done”
In a recent essay, Lu Dewen (吕德文, Lǚ Déwén)—a sometimes controversial Wuhan University sociologist whose research focuses on rural governance—argues that bureaucratic formalism, meaningless busywork, and technological hegemony...
Students to Receive “Proper Guidance” After Viral Mockery of Official Inspection Tours
An undergraduate’s video mimicking official “inspection” tours has become a flashpoint of discussion over cadres’ imperious attitudes and the reflexive deference shown to them in society. Shot on the campus of Yunnan State Land...
An Anticlimactic End to the “Arctic Catfish” Scandal
After 200 days, the long-running “Arctic Catfish” scandal has reached a conclusion, dissatisfying and anticlimactic as it may be. It began after social media user “Arctic Catfish” (北极鲶鱼, Běijí Niányú), a young Chinese woman...
Translation: Sharp Eyes—A Year in Rural Surveillance
Surveillance in Chinese cities is ubiquitous, with highly visible security cameras trained on most every intersection, public space, and building, but over the past decade, it has been seeping into the countryside as well. In an...
Xi Jinping Invites You To A Video Call
A novel propaganda method—a “video call” from Xi Jinping delivering Lunar New Year’s well-wishes—inspired titters after China Central Television (CCTV) shared it on Weibo. The Weibo link sent users to a faux WeChat...
Translation: “Ten Questions for Central Government Policymakers” (Attributed to Ma Xiaoli)
The following article addresses “central government policymakers” and poses ten direct questions about China’s long-running “zero-COVID” policy, which was in effect until a sudden policy shift on December 7, 2022. Its form and...
Interview: Jeremy Wallace on the Chinese State’s “Limited, Quantified Vision”
Jeremy Wallace, associate professor of Government at Cornell University, joined CDT to discuss his new book, Seeking Truth and Hiding Facts: Information, Ideology, and Authoritarianism in China. In a wide-ranging conversation,...
Netizen Voices: Officials in Chengde Backtrack on Multi-generational Punishment for COVID Scofflaws
On August 30, the Chengde High-Tech Industry Development Zone in Hebei province announced a range of detailed and draconian punishments for anyone violating local pandemic prevention measures. Most extraordinarily, the...
Cadres Instructed To Buy, Buy, Buy China Out of Property Crisis
Are cadres the answer to China’s property market crunch? Some local officials seem to believe so. Hundreds of thousands of homebuyers across China have boycotted their mortgages payments in protest against the stalled...
In Shanghai, Doctors Battle Officialdom and Exhaustion
As state media rings with Xi Jinping’s pronouncement that “persistence is victory” in Shanghai’s fight against Omicron—now sometimes referred to as “The Battle to Protect Shanghai”—a different martial metaphor reigns on social...
Translation: “Can’t they do anything to save us?” An Elderly Shanghai Man’s Telephone Plea
Recently, a recording of a five-minute phone call made by an elderly Shanghai man to his neighborhood committee has been circulating on the Chinese internet and social media. During the call, the man [identified here only as...
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