Late last month, a rash of food-stall, restaurant, shop, and factory closures in Chaozhou and Shantou, two prefectural-level cities in China’s southern Guangdong province, went viral online. Many Chinese social media users...
Confronted with a rapidly aging population, a declining birthrate, and socioeconomic shifts that have made younger people less likely to marry or have children, China’s State Council this week unveiled a new slate of policies...
This summer’s heavy rainfall and flooding in southern China has prompted many local governments to solicit flood relief donations from the public, but public reaction has been notably cynical, even hostile. A combination of...
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...
As Chinese local governments struggle with high levels of debt, moribund infrastructure projects, falling tax revenues, shrinking land-use fees, and increased demands for local welfare spending, some local government departments...
On Chinese social media, the phrase “weak spot” (软肋, ruǎn lèi) is often used metaphorically to refer to family members—particularly children—used as leverage by public security, state security, or government authorities to...
In recent weeks, residents of the cities of Chongqing and Chengdu have been posting screenshots of their natural gas bills online and complaining of mysterious gas consumption spikes since the installation of new “smart” gas...
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...
After an explosion caused by a gas leak destroyed a four-story building, killing seven and injuring 27 in Yanjiao, a commuter town located about 20 miles east of Beijing, reporters from state-media outlets China Central...
At least seven people died and 27 were injured Wednesday when an explosion caused by a gas leak ripped through a four-story building in Yanjiao, a town in Sanhe city, Hebei province. Yanjiao, located approximately 20 miles east...
Provincial prosecutors in Guizhou have set up a special investigative team to look into the case of a female entrepreneur who, along with members of her legal team, was detained and accused of “picking quarrels and provoking...
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...
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...
Ten young volleyball players and their coach were killed and four others injured when the roof of their middle-school gymnasium in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang province, collapsed during a practice on Sunday. The tragedy has touched...
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...
The “White-haired Movement” (白发运动, Báifà Yùndòng) refers to protests led by elderly and retired workers in Wuhan and Dalian in February 2023, and in Guangzhou in January 2023. The protesters were objecting to medical insurance...
On February 15, just weeks before the opening of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) legislative session in Beijing, thousands of Chinese retirees in the cities of Wuhan and Dalian held large demonstrations against...
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,...
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