A banner year for Chinese films and filmmakers at the 61st Taipei Golden Horse Awards has attracted much attention on Chinese social media, despite strict ongoing censorship of any topic connected to the awards. This...
On Wednesday, German auto manufacturer Volkswagen (VW) announced that it would sell its operations in Xinjiang. The move comes after years of pressure from rights groups that have documented the Chinese government’s...
The full report can be read in PDF form here. Below is a brief introduction. A pilot study...
The U.N. climate summit known as COP29 concluded over the weekend in Baku, capital of the oil-rich...
A series of violent “revenge on society” attacks by disgruntled individuals—most recently,...
Today, the school issued its latest notice: in order to prevent us from leaving campus on Saturdays and Sundays, classes have been rescheduled to weekends. I have no idea when things will return to normal."
— From an essay from a young college student describing the crackdown that followed the exuberant youthful trend of "night-cycling to Kaifeng" for fun, food, and frivolity
A banner year for Chinese films and filmmakers at the 61st Taipei Golden Horse Awards has attracted much attention on Chinese social media, despite strict ongoing censorship of any topic connected to the awards. This year’s Golden Horse Award winners, announced on November 23, include Best Narrative Feature and Best Director for Lou Ye’s “An Unfinished Film,” a work of docu-fiction about a film crew caught up in the COVID pandemic lockdown of Wuhan; Best Leading Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and the Audience Choice Award for “Bel Ami,” Geng Jun’s LGBTQ+-themed black comedy; and...
A series of violent “revenge on society” attacks by disgruntled individuals—most recently,...
The full report can be read in PDF form here. Below is a brief introduction. A pilot study...
On WeChat last weekend, "Fatty Zhao, scholar of Song Dynasty history" reflected on a...
A predictive policing tool described as a “Crowd Mood Monitoring and Early Warning System,” on...
For college students in the city of Zhengzhou, Henan province, it was a brief moment of freedom: a...
At the Associated Press, Fu Ting reports mounting pressure on China’s independent bookstores and other cultural channels and venues: Independent bookstores have become a new battleground in China, swept up in the ruling Communist Party’s crackdown on dissent and free expression. The Associated Press found that at least a dozen bookstores in the world’s second-largest economy have been shuttered or targeted for closure in the last few months alone, squeezing the already tight space for press freedom. One bookstore owner was arrested over four months ago. The crackdown has had...
At the end of a landmark national security trial that concluded on Tuesday, Hong Kong’s High Court...
On Saturday, Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden met in Lima, Peru on the sidelines of the...
A veil of silence has fallen around the car ramming attack that killed 35 and injured 43 in...
China is leading the global trend towards cyber sovereignty, a norm based on the use of technology...
Xi Jinping’s latest diplomatic tour began this week in Peru, where he will participate in the...
On Wednesday, German auto manufacturer Volkswagen (VW) announced that it would sell its operations in Xinjiang. The move comes after years of pressure from rights groups that have documented the Chinese government’s grave abuses—including forced labor—against Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in the region, and the attendant complicity of Western corporations that operate there. However, based on the company’s statements, economics rather than human rights may have been the primary motivation for its recent decision-making. Reuters first reported on VW’s exit from Xinjiang and the extension of...
Concern is mounting over the health of imprisoned civil society activist and human-rights lawyer...
Two years after Peng Lifa’s courageous one-man protest on Beijing’s Sitong Bridge against Xi...
China’s investments in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are increasingly moving away from...
Ren Xinyi, the daughter of Ren Zhiqiang—a 73-year-old former real-estate magnate currently serving...
In a two-part podcast interview with The Economist’s Drum Tower, former Canadian diplomat...
A banner year for Chinese films and filmmakers at the 61st Taipei Golden Horse Awards has attracted much attention on Chinese social media, despite strict ongoing censorship of any topic connected to the awards. This year’s Golden Horse Award winners, announced on November 23, include Best Narrative Feature and Best Director for Lou Ye’s “An Unfinished Film,” a work of docu-fiction about a film crew caught up in the COVID pandemic lockdown of Wuhan; Best Leading Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and the Audience Choice Award for “Bel Ami,” Geng Jun’s LGBTQ+-themed black comedy; and...
A series of violent “revenge on society” attacks by disgruntled individuals—most recently,...
On WeChat last weekend, "Fatty Zhao, scholar of Song Dynasty history" reflected on a...
A predictive policing tool described as a “Crowd Mood Monitoring and Early Warning System,” on...
For college students in the city of Zhengzhou, Henan province, it was a brief moment of freedom: a...
Less than a week after a shocking “Xianzhong” car attack that left 35 dead in Zhuhai, a recent...
A banner year for Chinese films and filmmakers at the 61st Taipei Golden Horse Awards has attracted much attention on Chinese social media, despite strict ongoing censorship of any topic connected to the awards. This year’s Golden Horse Award winners, announced on November 23, include Best Narrative Feature and Best Director for Lou Ye’s “An Unfinished Film,” a work of docu-fiction about a film crew caught up in the COVID pandemic lockdown of Wuhan; Best Leading Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and the Audience Choice Award for “Bel Ami,” Geng Jun’s LGBTQ+-themed black comedy; and...
A series of violent “revenge on society” attacks by disgruntled individuals—most recently,...
The full report can be read in PDF form here. Below is a brief introduction. A pilot study...
A predictive policing tool described as a “Crowd Mood Monitoring and Early Warning System,” on...
A spate of “revenge against society” attacks that have left dozens dead and more injured over the...
At the Associated Press, Fu Ting reports mounting pressure on China’s independent...
At the end of a landmark national security trial that concluded on Tuesday, Hong Kong’s High Court sentenced 45 pro-democracy figures to up to ten years in prison. Forty-seven democratic politicians, activists, and organizers were arrested and charged in January 2021 with conspiracy to commit subversion under the National Security Law. The charges related to their participation in organizing an unofficial primary election in 2020 ahead of a legislative election. In February 2023, the trial began. In May of this year, the court convicted 14 defendants who contested the accusations and...
The People’s Republic of China celebrated its 75th anniversary on Tuesday, October 1. The...
New research documents the repressive effects of Hong Kong’s national security laws. This week,...
In the face of growing government repression, many residents of Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and various...
The first sentencing under Hong Kong’s new Article 23 national security law (officially called the...
Uyghur villages have been Sinicized in Xinjiang. Local communities have been displaced for...
A recent WeChat post reveals that some Chinese schools and universities are using special software to identify and punish students who “scale the wall”—that is, circumvent China’s Great Firewall (GFW) to access overseas websites and portals. The post begins with a not-very-convincing exchange of WeChat messages between three students—identified as “student A,” “student B,” and “student C,” respectively—discussing their university’s use of the ABT Online Behavior Management System (安博通上网行为管理, Ānbótōng shàngwǎng xíngwéi guǎnlǐ) to identify and punish fellow students who circumvented the GFW to...
In the two weeks since the Ministry of Public Security and the Cyberspace Administration of China...
A pair of recently surfaced screenshots appear to offer unusual detail about a special month-long...
Over the past two weeks, the Biden administration has issued a series of regulations intended to...
Popular online writer Shen Maohua, who writes under the pen name Wei Zhou, is known for his...
As citizens revolt against never-ending lockdowns and local governments “resolutely struggle...
On September 12, 2003, John Battelle published the first post on chinadigitaltimes.net: Here’s what a Google Search on “china weblog” yields, I’m looking forward to seeing ours at the top soon! China’s online population at the start of that year was nearly 60 million. Ten years later, it was fast approaching 600 million, and now, after 20, it is well over a billion. This new completely revised and hugely expanded update to our ebook series, formerly known as “the Grass Mud Horse Lexicon,” aims to capture something of the enormous explosion of online speech that accompanied this growth, with...
In 2014, Leta Hong Fincher published her first book, Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender...
Starting in March 2008, Tibetans across the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), Qinghai, Gansu, and...
Surveys have shown that Xi Jinping’s hardline foreign policy is increasingly unpopular abroad....
Jeremy Wallace, associate professor of Government at Cornell University, joined CDT to discuss his...
Evidence of human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in Xinjiang has...
On Wednesday, German auto manufacturer Volkswagen (VW) announced that it would sell its operations in Xinjiang. The move comes after years of pressure from rights groups that have documented the Chinese government’s grave abuses—including forced labor—against Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in the region, and the attendant complicity of Western corporations that operate there. However, based on the company’s statements, economics rather than human rights may have been the primary motivation for its recent decision-making. Reuters first reported on VW’s exit from Xinjiang and the extension of...
On Saturday, Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden met in Lima, Peru on the sidelines of the...
Xi Jinping’s latest diplomatic tour began this week in Peru, where he will participate in the...
Following a hotly contested U.S. election that reverberated across Chinese social media, drawing...
China has extended its dominance at home and abroad over critical minerals that are essential to...
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Brazil-China relations, and a series of high-level...
A banner year for Chinese films and filmmakers at the 61st Taipei Golden Horse Awards has attracted much attention on Chinese social media, despite strict ongoing censorship of any topic connected to the awards. This year’s Golden Horse Award winners, announced on November 23, include Best Narrative Feature and Best Director for Lou Ye’s “An Unfinished Film,” a work of docu-fiction about a film crew caught up in the COVID pandemic lockdown of Wuhan; Best Leading Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and the Audience Choice Award for “Bel Ami,” Geng Jun’s LGBTQ+-themed black comedy; and...
A series of violent “revenge on society” attacks by disgruntled individuals—most recently,...
The full report can be read in PDF form here. Below is a brief introduction. A pilot study...
On WeChat last weekend, "Fatty Zhao, scholar of Song Dynasty history" reflected on a...
A predictive policing tool described as a “Crowd Mood Monitoring and Early Warning System,” on...
A spate of “revenge against society” attacks that have left dozens dead and more injured over the...
On WeChat last weekend, "Fatty Zhao, scholar of Song Dynasty history" reflected on a recent fire at a Shandong university. The students’ escape route was blocked by facial recognition turnstiles through which they scanned one by one, even as the smoke made that more difficult. Despairing of the students’ compliance in the face of danger, Zhao cites a pair of historical episodes by way of explanation: Recently, I’ve been busy working on a book manuscript, and haven’t had time to post on WeChat or check the news. Only after finishing the first draft yesterday did I have a...
A predictive policing tool described as a “Crowd Mood Monitoring and Early Warning System,” on...
China is leading the global trend towards cyber sovereignty, a norm based on the use of technology...
Following a hotly contested U.S. election that reverberated across Chinese social media, drawing...
The Municipal Bureau of Justice in Karamay, Xinjiang posted—and later deleted—a skit to Douyin...
China Media Project has published a translation of an extended article by Qin Shi at the Mang Mang...
A series of violent “revenge on society” attacks by disgruntled individuals—most recently, targeting innocent bystanders in Changde, Wuxi, Zhuhai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shenzhen, Suzhou, and Shanghai—has prompted an array of suggestions about how to deter and punish such incidents. After a November 11 car-ramming attack that killed 35 and injured 43 in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, Xi Jinping issued a rare response in which he called for "strengthened prevention and control of risks at the source." In a meeting on Friday, China’s Ministry of Justice “urged local mediators to carry out...
A predictive policing tool described as a “Crowd Mood Monitoring and Early Warning System,” on...
Less than a week after a shocking “Xianzhong” car attack that left 35 dead in Zhuhai, a recent...
At the end of a landmark national security trial that concluded on Tuesday, Hong Kong’s High Court...
A veil of silence has fallen around the car ramming attack that killed 35 and injured 43 in...
The Municipal Bureau of Justice in Karamay, Xinjiang posted—and later deleted—a skit to Douyin...
On March 16, China’s National Bureau of Statistics announced that the Chinese economy was off to a good start in 2024, with reported 5.3% year-on-year GDP growth in the first quarter of the year. The better-than-expected data was touted by various Chinese state media outlets online, although many of those news posts had comment filtering enabled, perhaps in anticipation of negative or skeptical reactions from social media users. Two items in particular seemed to strike netizens as overly optimistic: the reported “nationwide average per-capita disposable income” figure of 11,539 yuan...
A recent WeChat post from oft-controversial entrepreneur, publicity hound, and philanthropist Chen...
Even before the lifting of China’s long-standing “zero-COVID” policy in early December of last...
After conducting nucleic acid testing on its 26 million residents this week, Shanghai remains...
Evergrande offices across China have been beset by protesting retail investors and homeowners...
Anyone who has boarded an airplane in the last 20 years knows what stands between arrival at the...
On Wednesday, German auto manufacturer Volkswagen (VW) announced that it would sell its operations in Xinjiang. The move comes after years of pressure from rights groups that have documented the Chinese government’s grave abuses—including forced labor—against Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in the region, and the attendant complicity of Western corporations that operate there. However, based on the company’s statements, economics rather than human rights may have been the primary motivation for its recent decision-making. Reuters first reported on VW’s exit from Xinjiang and the extension of...
Concern is mounting over the health of imprisoned civil society activist and human-rights lawyer...
Two years after Peng Lifa’s courageous one-man protest on Beijing’s Sitong Bridge against Xi...
Despite this year’s disappointing, propagandistic line-up of winners for the 34th China Journalism Award, some Chinese investigative journalists continue to ply their trade with dogged reporting, commitment to keeping the public informed and holding the powerful accountable, and artful dodging of the many roadblocks thrown at them by Party, government, and censors. (For more coverage of investigative journalism in China, see CDT’s extensive Chinese and English archives on the topic.) Two recent Chinese-language articles highlight these reporters and their day-to-day efforts. The first...
On the eve of “Journalists’ Day” on November 8, the All-China Journalists Association announced...
A murderous rampage in Zhuhai, Guangdong that left 35 dead and scores wounded was met with a now...
On Tuesday, Donald Trump was elected the next president of the United States. The election had been closely observed from China, by both the government and the populace. The Chinese government’s official response has so far been muted. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “We respect the choice of the American people and congratulate Mr. Trump on being elected as president of the United States.” Xi Jinping later called Donald Trump to congratulate him on his victory and express hope for this new period in U.S.-China relations. Trump’s election did not catch the...
Given the potential global consequences of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, it has naturally...
China’s State Council unveiled new policies last week intended to promote parenthood and foster a...
The U.N. climate summit known as COP29 concluded over the weekend in Baku, capital of the oil-rich country of Azerbaijan after two weeks of tense negotiations. Some of the major outcomes include an agreement by rich countries to provide $300 billion in climate finance annually by 2035, a broad goal for public and private actors to raise $1.3 trillion in climate finance annually by 2035, and an agreement on global market rules for buying and selling carbon credits. Global South countries, which are disproportionately impacted by climate change, blasted these results as woefully inadequate and...
Posting about politics on Weibo can sometimes look like a game of Russian Roulette: without...
Last week, the Jamestown Foundation published the second installment of a two-part investigation...
A series of violent “revenge on society” attacks by disgruntled individuals—most recently, targeting innocent bystanders in Changde, Wuxi, Zhuhai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shenzhen, Suzhou, and Shanghai—has prompted an array of suggestions about how to deter and punish such incidents. After a November 11 car-ramming attack that killed 35 and injured 43 in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, Xi Jinping issued a rare response in which he called for "strengthened prevention and control of risks at the source." In a meeting on Friday, China’s Ministry of Justice “urged local mediators to carry out...
A predictive policing tool described as a “Crowd Mood Monitoring and Early Warning System,” on...
Less than a week after a shocking “Xianzhong” car attack that left 35 dead in Zhuhai, a recent...
On Thursday, the Canadian government announced that it will ban Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE from its 5G networks. The move comes as the Biden administration debates imposing further sanctions on Hikvision, a Chinese surveillance camera company, for supplying and operating equipment in Xinjiang mass detention camps. Both of these developments bring renewed attention to the role of Chinese technology companies in problematic surveillance activities and the role of sanctions in combating their alleged abuses. Catharine Tunney and Richard Raycraft from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation...
On Monday of last week, Malaysian musician Namewee (Wee Meng Chee, 黃明志) learned that his YouTube...
A group of students under the impression they had discovered a WeChat “bug” that hides the phrase...
A banner year for Chinese films and filmmakers at the 61st Taipei Golden Horse Awards has attracted much attention on Chinese social media, despite strict ongoing censorship of any topic connected to the awards. This year’s Golden Horse Award winners, announced on November 23, include Best Narrative Feature and Best Director for Lou Ye’s “An Unfinished Film,” a work of docu-fiction about a film crew caught up in the COVID pandemic lockdown of Wuhan; Best Leading Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and the Audience Choice Award for “Bel Ami,” Geng Jun’s LGBTQ+-themed black comedy; and...
On WeChat last weekend, "Fatty Zhao, scholar of Song Dynasty history" reflected on a...
A spate of “revenge against society” attacks that have left dozens dead and more injured over the...
On March 16, China’s National Bureau of Statistics announced that the Chinese economy was off to a good start in 2024, with reported 5.3% year-on-year GDP growth in the first quarter of the year. The better-than-expected data was touted by various Chinese state media outlets online, although many of those news posts had comment filtering enabled, perhaps in anticipation of negative or skeptical reactions from social media users. Two items in particular seemed to strike netizens as overly optimistic: the reported “nationwide average per-capita disposable income” figure of 11,539 yuan...
A recent WeChat post from oft-controversial entrepreneur, publicity hound, and philanthropist Chen...
Even before the lifting of China’s long-standing “zero-COVID” policy in early December of last...
On WeChat last weekend, "Fatty Zhao, scholar of Song Dynasty history" reflected on a recent fire at a Shandong university. The students’ escape route was blocked by facial recognition turnstiles through which they scanned one by one, even as the smoke made that more difficult. Despairing of the students’ compliance in the face of danger, Zhao cites a pair of historical episodes by way of explanation: Recently, I’ve been busy working on a book manuscript, and haven’t had time to post on WeChat or check the news. Only after finishing the first draft yesterday did I have a...
A predictive policing tool described as a “Crowd Mood Monitoring and Early Warning System,” on...
China is leading the global trend towards cyber sovereignty, a norm based on the use of technology...
The U.N. climate summit known as COP29 concluded over the weekend in Baku, capital of the oil-rich country of Azerbaijan after two weeks of tense negotiations. Some of the major outcomes include an agreement by rich countries to provide $300 billion in climate finance annually by 2035, a broad goal for public and private actors to raise $1.3 trillion in climate finance annually by 2035, and an agreement on global market rules for buying and selling carbon credits. Global South countries, which are disproportionately impacted by climate change, blasted these results as woefully inadequate and...
China’s “distant-water fishing” (DWF) activities are both figurative and literal. Figuratively,...
Two research reports published this week underscore how authorities in Tibet have displaced local...
At the end of a landmark national security trial that concluded on Tuesday, Hong Kong’s High Court sentenced 45 pro-democracy figures to up to ten years in prison. Forty-seven democratic politicians, activists, and organizers were arrested and charged in January 2021 with conspiracy to commit subversion under the National Security Law. The charges related to their participation in organizing an unofficial primary election in 2020 ahead of a legislative election. In February 2023, the trial began. In May of this year, the court convicted 14 defendants who contested the accusations and...
The People’s Republic of China celebrated its 75th anniversary on Tuesday, October 1. The...
New research documents the repressive effects of Hong Kong’s national security laws. This week,...
At the Associated Press, Fu Ting reports mounting pressure on China’s independent bookstores and other cultural channels and venues: Independent bookstores have become a new battleground in China, swept up in the ruling Communist Party’s crackdown on dissent and free expression. The Associated Press found that at least a dozen bookstores in the world’s second-largest economy have been shuttered or targeted for closure in the last few months alone, squeezing the already tight space for press freedom. One bookstore owner was arrested over four months ago. The crackdown has had...
Following a hotly contested U.S. election that reverberated across Chinese social media, drawing...
While the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre was massively censored within mainland China...
Click on the image to download Firefly for circumvention
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