Latest headlines from China Digital Times, covering world, with clear attribution and direct links to the original publisher.
"Lately, I’ve grown used to quiet, uneventful days." Several users have reported permanent suspensions from WeChat Moments and QQ after posting this sentence, which apparently triggered keyword scans with its non-sequential incorporation of Xi Jinping’s name: 习惯了近来平平淡淡的日子。 Xíguàn le jìnlái píngpíngdàndàn de rìzi. The sentence thus joins Xi’s ever-expanding wardrobe of "skins"—a gaming term for […]
The exposure of faulty brake-pedal brackets in the Maextro V800, a luxury EV manufactured by Huawei and JAC, has resulted in a wave of online censorship, deleted opinion pieces, a high-level government investigation, and what appears to be a coordinated campaign to undermine the credibility of Dongchedi (懂车帝, Dǒngchēdì), the automotive-review platform that brought the […]
Frank Darabont’s iconic 1994 film "The Shawshank Redemption" is no newcomer to China. Long established as users’ top-rated movie on IMDb, Shawshank holds the same rank on China’s Douban. On one hand, the film was screened by Shanghai officials to mark China’s first Constitution Day in 2014; on the other, it was targeted by censors […]
While "positive energy" prevails in China’s domestic news reporting, this is far from true with coverage of foreign countries. To make things at home seem even rosier, there is a steady stream of sensational content selectively emphasizing the dangers and discomforts plaguing other countries. Prominent recent examples include the focus on alleged dangers confronting travellers […]
A statement from the Forum 2000 Foundation and International Coalition for Democratic Renewal (ICDR)—of which CDT founder and editor-in-chief Xiao Qiang is a member—adds to widespread calls for the release of Burmese democracy advocate Min Zin, a U.S. citizen. Min Zin was detained in Kunming on June 3 after traveling to China for a conference; […]
Fears are growing for labor-rights advocate and citizen journalist Feng Rui (also known by his pen name 小五, Xiǎo Wǔ), who has reportedly fallen ill due to lengthy interrogations while in detention. Feng was detained in Guangzhou on September 14 for allegedly “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a charge widely seen as retaliation for his […]
The post translated below, from WeChat account 守一手记 (Shǒuyī Shǒujì, “Shouyi’s Notes”), examines conflicting attitudes and selective scrutiny on Chinese social media when it comes to foreign views of China. Foreign media coverage may be met with hostility, and foreign involvement identified, without evidence, behind "hyping" of public safety issues, but foreign praise is often […]
Twenty students at Harbin Engineering University (HEU) were given disciplinary warnings for using unauthorized VPNs to circumvent the Great Firewall in order to access overseas websites and conduct academic research. The university released a statement announcing that, during a two-day period in late September, it had caught and punished seven undergraduates and 13 graduate students […]
CDT presents a monthly series of censored content that has been added to our “404 Deleted Content Archive.” Each month, we publish a summary of content blocked or deleted (often yielding the message “404: content not found”) from Chinese platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, Douyin (TikTok’s counterpart in the Chinese market), Xiaohongshu (RedNote), Bilibili, Zhihu, […]
