CDT’s year-end roundups of memorable quotes and censored terms have both highlighted public frustration with the state of the economy and the government’s efforts to enforce positive perceptions of it. The trend...
Viral video and transcripts of two unusually critical speeches about the state of the Chinese economy—by economists Gao Shanwen and Fu Peng, respectively—have been deleted from multiple platforms almost as fast as netizens can...
For the past several months, China’s State Council Information Office has been hosting a series of press conferences intended to showcase the accomplishments of various government ministries and provincial-level...
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...
Today’s quote of the day derives from netizen backlash to the Communist Youth League’s (CYL) recent video broadside against “lying down”—referring to the much-discussed phenomenon of people slacking off, quietly giving up, or...
Chinese netizens have had a lot to say about economist Ma Jiantang’s prescription for adapting to the “era of longevity” by reclassifying workers between the ages of 60-70 as “the youthful elderly,” those between the ages of...
Today’s CDT Quote of the Day is a response to the recent tide of online public discussion about the new “adjusted leave” (调休, tiáoxiū) holiday schedule that has lengthened certain Chinese public holidays, while at the same time...
Among Xi Jinping’s many Party-bestowed titles and hundreds of banned netizen nicknames is one that points to his penchant for claiming personal leadership over and insight into seemingly everything: “Compass-in-Chief.” The...
Many entrepreneurs and ordinary citizens welcomed the news that provincial prosecutors in Guizhou are investigating a local government for arresting businesswoman Ma Yijiayi and her lawyers and accusing them of “picking...
This year’s Two Sessions—the annual meetings of the legislative National People’s Congress (NPC) and the advisory Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)—are taking place amid grim economic conditions. The...
On February 28, a post by Tsinghua University sociologist Sun Liping about reviving the Chinese economy was deleted from WeChat, continuing a trend toward increased censorship of articles about the state of the economy. As a...
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...
“It’s as if the words ‘layoffs’ and ‘unemployment’ are somehow disgraceful, so instead people insist on using euphemisms such as ‘flexible employment,’ ‘[workforce] optimization,’ ‘slow employment’ (also ‘delayed employment’),...
In the midst of a troubled economy and stock market rout, a People’s Daily Online article trumpeting a supposed nationwide “air of optimism” drew so many derisive comments last week that its related hashtag was censored on...
A 2016 People’s Daily article predicting that China would enter the club of “high-income” nations by 2024 was recently deleted from People’s Daily Online. The deletion was likely due to the article being “maliciously reposted”...
CDT Chinese editors have compiled a series of year-end articles on special topics such as 2023’s most sensitive and oft-censored words (parts one and two), most notable reports, outstanding people of the year (stand-up...
At the close of 2023, CDT Chinese has compiled a series of year-end articles on a number of special topics, including sensitive words (part one and part two), censored articles, “rollover scenes,” and people of the year. This...
The following themes, and the six covered in part two, are not the “most censored” words of 2023 but rather a retrospective of topics that the Party-state deemed unfit for Chinese eyes, selected by our Chinese team. While some...
Click on the image to download Firefly for circumvention
CDT is a non-profit media site, and we need your support. Your contribution will help us provide more translations, breaking news, and other content you love.
