Beijing’s Deadliest Fire In Two Decades Went Unreported For Hours—A Reckoning With Censorship Followed
The suppression of news about a Beijing hospital fire that killed 29 last week has inspired vigorous discussion of censorship on the Chinese internet. Just after noon on Tuesday, April 18, a fire broke out in southwestern...
Read MoreCensors Delete Essay That Blames Xi Jinping for Poverty of “Kong Yiji”
Censors deleted an essay suggesting that Xi Jinping was responsible for the youth unemployment crisis that has given birth to the viral “Kong Yiji literature” genre. The “Kong Yiji” meme is a reference to a 1918 Lu Xun story of...
Read MoreNetizen Voices: Cyberspace Administration Moves to Censor AI Bots, “And It’s Over Before It’s Begun”
Proposed regulations on the development of generative artificial intelligence models issued by China’s top internet regulator would require “AI-produced content [to] embody core socialist values.” The 12 core socialist values...
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Macron’s Beijing Trip Reinforces Sino-Franco Ties, Alienates U.S., Worries Europe
Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron fled a protest-rattled Paris and traveled to Beijing for a high-profile visit with General Secretary Xi Jinping. One of Macron’s main stated objectives was to ensure that China...
Read MoreHarsh Prison Sentences for Pioneering Civil Rights Lawyers Xu Zhiyong, Ding Jiaxi
Civil rights lawyers Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi have been sentenced to 14 and 12 years in prison, respectively, on charges of “subversion of state power” after closed door trials in Linshu County, Shandong. The charges stem from...
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China’s BRI Bailouts Draw Mixed Reception
Several reports published over the past two weeks shine a light on China’s lending practices abroad, in the context of an ongoing international debt crisis along parts of the BRI. The reports trace the evolution of BRI loans and...
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Li Wenliang’s Wailing Wall, March 2023: “This Society Allows Only One Voice—the Sound of Mutual Applause”
Nearly three years and two months 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,...
Read MoreMan Imprisoned For “Inciting Subversion” Believed to be Legendary Chinese Blogger
For 12 years, the anonymous Chinese blogger program-think eluded authorities while writing on the most sensitive of topics: the Great Firewall, the Tiananmen Massacre, high-level factional politics, freedom of speech, and more....
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Censors Delete Viral “Kong Yiji Literature” Anthem
Every movement needs its anthem. In the now-censored musical parody “Sunny Side Kong Yiji,” the emergent “Kong Yiji literature” wave seems to have found one of its own. “Kong Yiji literature” is a genre of self-deprecating...
Read MoreWord(s) of the Week: “Kong Yiji Literature” (孔乙己文学, Kǒng Yǐjǐ Wénxué)
“Kong Yiji literature” emerged as a self-deprecating meme among young Chinese netizens who joke that their academic credentials have made them “unemployable,” too overeducated or overqualified for the jobs currently available....
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