Posting about politics on Weibo can sometimes look like a game of Russian Roulette: without knowing where the pitfalls lie, at some point one is bound to run into trouble. Hot takes can lead to quick suspensions. Asking for...
Microblogging platform Weibo is cracking down on speech about crackdowns on speech. In a weekly “safety” digest published to an official Weibo administrators’ account, the platform announced that it had...
Hu Xijin has seemingly been banned from posting to Chinese social media platforms. Hu, formerly the editor-in-chief of the nationalist tabloid Global Times, appears to have run into trouble for “misconstruing” the...
Current affairs blogger Xiang Dongliang has had his Weibo account banned for reporting Hu Xijin, a nationalist blogger and retired editor-in-chief of the Global Times, for using a VPN to circumvent the Great Firewall of China...
A number of Chinese internet users were under the mistaken impression that China’s stern warnings and the threat of a People’s Liberation Army attack on her plane might deter Nancy Pelosi from visiting Taiwan. Her safe arrival...
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and five other House Representatives landed in Taiwan on Tuesday evening as part of a tour of Asian democracies, details of which were leaked to the Financial Times in mid-July. Pelosi’s...
Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated on Friday, July 8 while campaigning in Nara, Japan. Abe, 67, was the longest serving Prime Minister in Japanese history—he held office briefly from 2006-2007 and then...
On March 18, President Joe Biden spoke for almost two hours with President Xi Jinping in the leaders’ first virtual meeting since November. The call addressed the Sino-US relationship and, most prominently, China’s stance toward...
An end-of-year listicle created by China’s internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China, is a time capsule of the Chinese Communist Party’s view on Chinese digital culture—what it wants people to read, watch, and...
Several national Olympic committees have warned their athletes about bringing personal phones and other electronic devices to the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, citing fears of digital surveillance in China. Meanwhile, the...
Tennis star Peng Shuai has been “reappeared” in an apparent campaign by Chinese authorities to defuse and undermine the burgeoning #WhereIsPengShuai movement. Peng disappeared from the public eye after accusing a senior Party...
In recent weeks, a number of prominent Chinese epidemiologists have cautioned against “quarantine overreach,” pointing out the human toll of a continuing “zero-Covid” policy and reigniting a debate over the best policy for China...
Welcome to the post-game analysis of the Hu vs. Li smackdown that has occupied much of our attention over the last week. In one corner, we had Li Guangman, a relatively unknown blogger who rose to fame when his fiery essay about...
This week, many Chinese netizens, like the rest of the world, have been fixating on a crisis-stricken Afghanistan. The Chinese government has reiterated that it would not “interfere with Afghanistan’s internal affairs,” and that...
After many months virtually COVID-free, the highly contagious delta variant has now spread from Nanjing to more than a dozen Chinese cities, prompting local lockdowns, travel bans, and long lines for testing. As of Thursday, the...
A Taliban spokesperson’s claim that China is a “friend” incited an online furore after nationalist Chinese media figures shared the statement approvingly. “We have been to China many times and we have good relations with them,”...
One animal more equal than others; Li Wenliang’s Wailing Wall; June 4 and Hong Kong; sexual assault and power; nationalism and fake news Welcome back to CDT’s usually weekly updates, also available as an email newsletter via...
Last week, a Weibo post by the CCP Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, China’s top legal enforcement authority, ignited a firestorm of controversy on Chinese social media. The controversy began after the...
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