Netizen Voices: As Sino-Japanese Tensions Rise, “Tourism is Treated like a Chamberpot, a Disposable Tool”
The diplomatic crisis between China and Japan continues to intensify, following Japanese Prime...
online censorship
CDT’s “404 Deleted Content Archive” Summary for October 2025, Part Two
CDT presents a monthly series of censored content that has been added to our “404 Deleted Content Archive.” Each month, we publish a summary of content blocked or deleted (often yielding the message “404: content not found”)...
CDT’s “404 Deleted Content Archive” Summary for October 2025, Part One
CDT presents a monthly series of censored content that has been added to our “404 Deleted Content Archive.” Each month, we publish a summary of content blocked or deleted (often yielding the message “404: content not found”)...
Taiwanese Singer Zheng Zhihua’s Boarding Difficulties at Shenzhen Airport Spur Debate About Disability Access in China
Taiwanese singer Zheng Zhihua’s complaint about a difficult experience boarding a flight at Shenzhen’s main airport has spurred heated online debate about barrier-free access for disabled people in China. Both Zheng and the...
Netizen Voices: Tencent’s Positive Energy Algorithm Task Force and the Perils of “Information Cocoons”
This week, a report at IT Home described recent corporate initiatives in the fight to promote "positive energy" and suppress "malicious" negativity online. (As China Media Project explains,...
Translation: Q&A – What Should I Do if I’ve Accidentally Used a Sensitive Word in My WeChat Post?
The following translations are from a series of posts on WeChat public account 育知录 Yuzhilu—a reference to a quotation from the Great Learning, one of Confucianism’s "Four Books": 育人先育己，知世先知人 Yù rén xiān yù jǐ,...
CDT Quote of the Day: Local Media Excuses Failure to Report on Elementary School Vehicular Attack—“Our Hands Are Tied, Too”
Police and media silence after a car plowed into a large crowd of students and parents near an elementary school in the city of Shiyan, Hubei province, has angered many Chinese netizens. Video shared online showed a white sedan...
Netizen Voices: “Stop Complaining, Hu Xijin. You Played a Part in This.”
Two posts from nationalist pundit and former Global Times Editor-in-Chief Hu Xijin criticizing what he describes as a “collective silence” on Chinese social media have sparked intense discussion on Chinese and overseas websites....
Translations on Chikungunya and Mosquito Eradication in Guangdong: “Hand Over Your Keys or We’ll Pick the Locks!”
Public backlash has forced local officials in Pengyuan—a community in the city of Jiangmen, Guangdong province—to rescind an order requiring residents to surrender their keys so that sanitation workers can enter outbuildings to...
The Guardian Interviews Chinese Fighters for Ukraine
The involvement of Chinese nationals in Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine received widespread media attention earlier this year. This included an extended interview by Chinese journalist Chai Jing with one such...
Translations: “How Can a Country That Blocks the Nobel Website Hope to Win a Nobel Prize?”
The news that two more Japanese scientists were awarded Nobel Prizes in the natural sciences has been met with considerable consternation on the Chinese internet. Shimon Sakaguchi of Osaka University and two American scientists,...
CDT’s “404 Deleted Content Archive” Summary for September 2025
CDT presents a new monthly series of censored content that has been added to our “404 Deleted Content Archive.” Each month, we will publish a summary of content blocked or deleted (often yielding the message “404: content not...
Translations: As CAC Tackles “Malicious” Negativity Online, Popular Influencers Zhang Xuefeng, Hu Chenfeng, Lan Zhanfei Hit With Bans
Amid a new two-month “Clear and Bright” campaign by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) to clean up internet content that “maliciously incites” polarization, pessimism, anxiety, and other negative sentiments, a number...
Ahead of Global Women’s Summit in Beijing, More Feminist Content Blocked on WeChat
In the run-up to the Global Women’s Summit slated for October in Beijing, which will mark the 30th anniversary of that city’s influential 1995 U.N. World Conference on Women, some WeChat accounts focused on feminism and women’s...
Full Interview Transcript: Jessica Batke and Laura Edelson on China’s “Locknet”
This is the full transcript, lightly edited for grammar and clarity, of an interview with Jessica Batke, ChinaFile’s senior editor for investigations, and Laura Edelson, assistant professor of computer science at Northeastern...
Translations: “Lying Down” Vloggers Banned for Espousing the Simple Life
Some popular social media accounts that depict “lying down”—eschewing the rat race in favor of a more frugal, less ambitious, low-consumption lifestyle—have recently been deplatformed, to the dismay of their many fans. Although...
Interview: Jessica Batke and Laura Edelson on China’s “Locknet”
In June, ChinaFile published a new report, "The Locknet: How China Controls Its Internet and Why It Matters"—the product of 18 months’ work by Jessica Batke, ChinaFile’s senior editor for investigations, and...
Minitrue: Chengdu Cybersecurity Corps on “Ideological Risks During Third Quarter 2025”
The following censorship instructions, issued by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. (Black text boxes ██ indicate words that were intentionally blacked out in the leaked images.)...
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