It is well known that many Chinese local governments are cash-strapped, burdened by excessive debt, and searching for ways to replenish their depleted coffers. Reports abound of local governments, utilities, and even police...
The Douban comment was not inflammatory. In fact, it didn’t even betray an overt opinion. But for censors, it was too much. “A note for posterity: this will be Inner Mongolia’s last Mongolian-language gaokao,” it read. Censors...
A middle school literature exam in Chengdu has triggered the latest outburst of anti-Japanese nationalism. Students were asked to analyze an excerpt from “Fallen Azaleas,” an amateurish piece of fiction by the virtually unknown...
If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 in the United States, or find local resources in the International Suicide Prevention Wiki. The murder of a...
China’s population decline looks set to continue despite the possibility of a traditional Dragon-Year “baby bump” and signs of a post-pandemic uptick in marriage rates after nine successive years of decline. A recent report from...
A post about a Guangzhou public opinion poll showing the largest drop in public satisfaction in 30 years has been deleted after being published by the WeChat account of He Wenwei, a Guangzhou-based business consultant who blogs...
A set of reports published this week provide more detail about the brutality of repression against Uyghur women and the pervasiveness of forced labor in Xinjiang that taints global supply chains. Accompanying these revelations...
A fire in Xinyu, Jiangxi Province killed 39 people and injured nine more on Wednesday, January 24. It was the second deadly blaze to claim student lives in a single week: a fire in an elementary school in Henan killed 13...
Two deadly school fires in China within the last week have led to a surge of online criticism of inadequate fire safety measures, as well as complaints about online censorship, government callousness, and a dearth of media...
An extraordinarily sycophantic question posed in a Shanghai math exam is CDT’s quote of the day: “Thus far, Volumes One, Two, Three, and Four of ‘Xi Jinping’s The Governance of China’ have been published. If these four volumes...
Some recent restrictions placed on historical books, museum exhibits, and academic discourse have brought renewed attention to the Chinese Communist Party’s attempts to rewrite history, control the historical narrative, and...
In December 2021, Tibet Action Institute (TAI) issued a report “Separated from Their Families, Hidden From the World,” exposing a vast system of boarding schools for Tibetan children that aims to assimilate them into Han Chinese...
In the current repressive environment, how do Tibetans in Tibet hold onto their cultural identity? How does the world find out what is happening there? How do exiles stay connected with their families and homeland? Where can we...
An incident earlier this year in which two schoolteachers in Guizhou Province were swept away and drowned while collecting pebbles—reportedly at the behest of their superiors, who hoped to spruce up the campus in advance of an...
Less than a month after the conclusion of China’s hypercompetitive annual university entrance examination (“gaokao”), a satirical meme about an imaginary university has been banned on Weibo. The meme and its censorship reveal...
A new draft patriotic education law submitted last week to the National People’s Congress Standing Committee is spurring spirited online debate. Broad in scope, the draft law includes provisions for the role of Chinese...
A recent incident illustrates what a minefield it has become to discuss anything, past or present, related to the Chinese military. This week, a history lecturer at Lanzhou University was accused by someone online of...
On May 18, a social media post (archived here) announced the impending closure and demolition of a well-known museum dedicated to documenting the lives and improving the welfare of China’s migrant workers. The Museum of Working...
Click on the image to download Firefly for circumvention
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