With hundreds of documented (and censored) online sobriquets, Xi Jinping is arguably the most nicknamed leader in recent Chinese history. To stay ahead of the censors, online Chinese have long resorted to using homophones,...
Sometimes, it’s the censors who imbue a joke with political power. Earlier this week, Weibo user @怪以德服人猫’s account was deleted for violating Weibo policy. Their likely violation? A joke, described by some netizens as “very...
In mainland China, August 1 is known as PLA Day or Army Day, and commemorates the establishment of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in 1927. This year, the celebration of the PLA’s 96th anniversary coincided with a...
“Four Won’t Youth” (四不青年, sì bù qīngnián) is the latest appellation for discontented youth, who in this case “won’t date, won’t marry, won’t buy a home, and won’t have kids.” Four Won’t Youth, like other similar terms...
There has been much discussion and dissection of the optics of the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s recent visit to Beijing, during which he met with Foreign Minister Qin Gang, Director of the CCP Central Foreign Affairs...
Today, June 15, is Xi Jinping’s 70th birthday. The birthday itself is a taboo topic on Weibo. Commentary has been restricted to state-affiliated accounts, all of which relay identical pablum about well-wishes from friendly heads...
The (talk) show is over. Comedian Li Haoshi, who made a joke involving the People’s Liberation Army last weekend, has been detained by Beijing police according to a report from BBC’s Chinese news service. As of publication, no...
Word(s) of the Week: Forge Exemplary Conduct, Fight to Win (作风优良，能打胜仗 zuòfēng yōuliáng, néngdǎ shèngzhàng) On Saturday at the Century Theater in Beijing, a stand up comic joked that his dogs’ pursuit of squirrels brought to mind...
At times, parsing propaganda for deeper meaning is difficult. At others, the (unintentional) message is hidden in plain sight. In October 2018, one bus passenger in Guizhou’s Nayong County realized that a roadside billboard...
“Voices of Protest” is a special edition of CDT’s monthly “Voices of…” video series. This 15-minute video is a compilation of video footage, images, and audio from the large, spontaneous public protests that broke out in a...
A Party-controlled Weibo account’s attempt to shame a young woman for violating pandemic restrictions backfired this week after one netizen flipped the prompt on its head by blaming Xi Jinping for instituting the restrictions in...
In his landmark political report before the 20th Party Congress, Xi Jinping hailed China’s “tenacious pursuit” of its dynamic zero-COVID policy, an indication the policy is here to stay, despite consistent domestic criticism. At...
Following one man’s daring political protest against Xi Jinping’s continued rule and harsh zero-COVID policies on the eve of China’s 20th Communist Party Congress, citizens and activists have launched a poster campaign in...
Late last week, censors wiped Weibo clean of posts documenting the chaos of pandemic control measures in Lhasa, Tibet. In mid-August, Tibet began reporting thousands of new cases in the region’s first documented outbreak...
At a press conference on September 13, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning fielded a reporter’s question about the Biden administration’s plans to expand restrictions on semiconductor exports to China with a fiery...
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...
A Chinese government official’s Weibo post lecturing Japan about the danger of amending its constitution—standard nationalist fare on the microblogging site—turned into a forum for criticizing a 2018 Chinese constitutional...
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...
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