A novel propaganda method—a “video call” from Xi Jinping delivering Lunar New Year’s well-wishes—inspired titters after China Central Television (CCTV) shared it on Weibo. The Weibo link sent users to a faux WeChat...
On Tuesday, China’s National Bureau of Statistics announced that the country’s population had declined for the first time in 60 years. This marks a pivotal moment for what now may no longer be the world’s most populous country,...
The ten censored essays collected below are a first draft of an unauthorized history of the extraordinary year 2022, compiled by CDT Chinese editors. Toward the end of the year, discontent over the zero-COVID policy burgeoned...
Nearly three years after whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang’s death from COVID-19, the “Wailing Wall” that emerged in the comments section under his last Weibo post continues to serve as a repository for the hopes, dreams, worries,...
2022 was an extraordinary year in China, and our editors’ “best of” picks from CDT and other media outlets reflect the many dramatic events that shaped people’s lives. It was the third and apparently final year of China’s...
The following censorship instructions have been leaked and distributed online. 9:23 P.M. [Notice from the Science and Technology Department] All Teachers: In response to the directive from the Provincial Party Committee...
The following censorship instructions have been leaked and distributed online. Confidential★One Year Guidelines and Requirements for Reporting on Pandemic Prevention and Control Measures (13) (December 24, 2022) All media should...
The following censorship instructions have been leaked and distributed online. Based on the national public memorial requirements just issued today, there will be a public mourning period from November 30 to December 7, and the...
The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. Cyberspace Administration of China 6:11 P.M., November 29, 2022 Notification: Thorough Clean-up and...
On Monday of last week, Malaysian musician Namewee (Wee Meng Chee, 黃明志) learned that his YouTube account had been hacked and all of its content deleted. His account, created in 2006, had 3.27 million subscribers and over 1,000...
This week saw the proliferation of COVID conspiracy theories on Chinese social media, the suppression of a popular hashtag about the Xuzhou trafficking and abuse case, and a Global Times broadside aimed at discrediting the...
While the ongoing lockdown of Xi’an has thrust millions of people into health and food insecurity, online public outrage must contend with state media’s heart-warming stories of “noodles helping noodles.” Even Jia Pingwa, the...
Editor’s Note: As we enter 2022, CDT has compiled a special series of features for our readers, offering a look back at the people, events, controversies, memes and sensitive words that defined the past year. Some of this...
CDT’s editors have made their annual selections of favorite content, from CDT and elsewhere, over the past year. Sophie Beach, Operations and Communications Manager Interview: Emeka Umejei On The “Unequal Equal” Relationship...
Minority languages in China are increasingly under threat. Over the past week, the language learning app Talkmate and the online video streaming site Bilibili appeared to remove Tibetan and Uyghur languages from their platforms...
One of Fang Fang’s most outspoken detractors had a change of heart when those she had maligned came to her aid. Li Dan, a 31-year-old woman from Sichuan, used to attack Fang Fang and her supporters incessantly. She was not...
Last April, Weibo user “Marilyn Monroe” (@玛丽莲梦六) wrote a widely-shared post of vignettes from the Wuhan lockdown. The user reported that they were “asked to tea” soon after the post went viral, and later disappeared. Now they...
Volunteer subtitle groups that translate uncensored American television shows and films are highly popular in China. Yet the future of one of the largest and most popular subtitling sites, Renren Yingshi, is murky after police...
Click on the image to download Firefly for circumvention
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