Criticism of Taiwan's 'Single' President Tsai Ing-wen Sparks Anger in China

Shen Lu and Steven Jiang
CNN
According to an op-ed in Xinhua, an official state-published newspaper, being an unmarried and childless woman makes Tsai unfit for her job.

Viewpoint

05.24.16

“It’s Time for Us To Set a New Political Agenda for Hong Kong”

Jonathan Landreth, Susan Jakes & more
Last month, midway through a whirlwind tour of United States universities, Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong took a break for a crab cake and mac-and-cheese lunch at a Manhattan brasserie. Wong, 19, came to international prominence during the...

China's Internet Propaganda Is More Subtle and Sophisticated Than It Ever Has Been

Nikhil Sonnad
Quartz
Internet mercenaries are paid by the government to spread propaganda messages online.

Media

05.20.16

The Chinese Trolls Who Pump Out 488 Million Fake Social Media Posts

David Wertime
They are the most hated group in Chinese cyberspace. They are, to hear their ideological opponents tell it, “fiercely ignorant,” keen to “insert themselves in everything,” and preen as if they were “spokesmen for the country.” Westerners bemoan...

In China, Government Workers Push Rosy, Diverting Views Online

Paul Mozur
New York Times
The common belief that people who post pro-party online messages are paid 50 cents per post leads people in China to call them the Fifty Cent Party.

Media

05.19.16

Backward Thinking about Orientalism and Chinese Characters

David Moser
For those of us who teach and research the Chinese language, it is often difficult to describe how the Chinese characters function in conveying meaning and sound, and it’s always a particular challenge to explain how the writing system differs from...

China Breaks Official Silence on Cultural Revolution's 'Decade of Calamity'

Tom Phillips
Guardian
Communist party’s decision not to address the anniversary until 24 hours after it had passed underlined its discomfort.

China's Cultural Revolution: 50th Anniversary Unmarked by State Media

Stephen McDonell
BBC
How to handle the era's contentious legacy has remained a challenge to China's Communist rulers to this day.

China Watchdog Clamps Down on Nationalist Tabloid

Financial Times
China rebukes nationalist Chinese tabloid Global Times over an online poll ahead of Taiwan’s presidential inauguration and dubbing Donald Trump a “buffoon.”

Live-Streaming Apps Flourish in China

Li Yuan
Wall Street Journal
Welcome to China’s flourishing, new reality-show industry, where regular people use smartphones to live stream whatever suits their whims.

Media

05.12.16

Chinese Is Not a Backward Language

Thomas S. Mullaney
Even in the age of China’s social media boom, and billion-dollar valuations for Beijing-based IT start-ups, prejudice against the Chinese language is alive and well. One would be forgiven for thinking that by 2016, the 20th century’s widespread...

Move over Captain America, "Captain China" Is on the Way

Zheping Huang
Quartz
Joe and Anthony Russo, directors of the Marvel franchise’s last two films, will co-produce China’s own version of Captain America.

China Box Office: 'Captain America' Conquers with $96.1-Million Opening Weekend

Julie Makinen
Los Angeles Times
The movie is likely to pass the 1-billion renminbi ($153-million) mark, said an analyst from film industry consulting firm.

Baidu Should Have Even Higher Standards Than Google, Because It's All China's Citizens Have

Zheping Huang
Quartz
Many believe Baidu's claims that it performs strict due diligence before accepting ads.

China Turns to Song and Dance in Thanking Workers on Disputed Island

Jane Perlez and Yufan Huang
New York Times
One of the most applauded songs of the evening was “This Is the Kind of Man We Want to Marry.”

'Big Daddy Xi' No More? Chinese President's Nickname Nixed

Tom Phillips
Guardian
Propaganda officials warn state media off using moniker after push to portray leader as man of the people appears to backfire.

China Enlists Rap Video for Military Recruitment

Gabriel Wildau
Financial Times
China’s military has released a rap music video titled “Battle Declaration” as part of a campaign to lure young recruits.

China Investigates Baidu After Student’s Death From Cancer

Austin Ramzy
New York Times
Chinese regulators have begun an investigation into the Internet giant Baidu due to misleading medical advertising.

Baidu, China's Version of Google, Is "Evil," a Growing Number of Users Say

Zheping Huang
Quartz
A Chinese college student recently died of cancer after receiving questionable treatment from a hospital advertised on Baidu.

‘Doctor Strange’ Writer Says China-Tibet Remarks Don’t Represent Marvel

Edward Wong
New York Times
A growing uproar from critics accusing Marvel of racism in casting a white actress in a role that should have gone to an Asian actor

China Just Earned Its Worst Ever Score in an Annual Global Press Freedom Survey

Charlie Campbell
Time
Freedom House scored China 87/100—with higher marks indicating greater restrictions—on press freedom in its 2016 survey.

China Wants to Own Small Stake in Web Firms

Li Yuan
Wall Street Journal
The Chinese government’s control over the Internet could get even tighter, with regulators floating a proposal for the state to take 1% stakes in major Chinese Internet.

Book Debate Raises Questions of Self-Censorship by Foreign Groups in China

Edward Wong
New York Times
The American Bar Association rejected a book written by the Chinese human rights lawyer Teng Biao.

Chinese Corruption Gets House of Cards Treatment with Communist Mini-Series

Tom Phillips
Guardian
State-sanctioned TV drama will focus on the Communist Party’s resolve to eradicate corruption.

The Spy Who Loved Me? Chinese Warned Off Dating Foreigners

Vivian Kam, Anna Kook and Georgia...
CNN
A poster widely displayed across Beijing tells the story of a female civil servant who is wooed by a foreign spy posing as a visiting scholar.

China Internet Star Papi Jiang Promises 'Corrections' after Reprimand

BBC
One of China's biggest internet stars Papi Jiang has promised to "correct" herself, following warnings from government officials.

China Warns of Foreign Spies with 'Dangerous Love' Campaign

Associated Press
China is marking National Security Education Day with a poster warning young female government workers about dating handsome foreigners.

Conversation

04.19.16

Fifty Years Later, How Is the Cultural Revolution Still Present in Life in China?

Guobin Yang, Federico Pachetti & more
Fifty years ago this May 16, Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, a chaotic, terrifying, and often deadly decade-long campaign to “purify” C.C.P. ideology and reassert his political dominance...

Producer James Schamus in Beijing: "China Is Becoming the New Hollywood"

Patrick Brzeski
Hollywood Reporter
The former Focus Features CEO said China is leveraging its booming box office to replicate Hollywood's success.

China Bans Rich Kids From TV So They Can’t Embarrass Their Parents or the State

Hannah Beech
Time
Their hedonistic antics of some younger members of China's elite are thought to have no place amid a national austerity drive.

Twitter’s Chief in China Raises Eyebrows Over Military Past and Résumé

New York Times
Twitter's new Chinese chief appointment has aroused fears of potential censorship.

Media

04.15.16

A ‘Lost’ Daughter Speaks, and All of China Listens

A woman in her mid-40s cradled a scrap of blue cloth checkered with red. “Have you seen this before?” she asked. “Do you recognize this pattern?”I held it up to the light and noticed the cotton edges had frayed and tattered over years. “We already...

China Welcomes Stephen Hawking on Weibo with Awe

BBC
The British astrophysicist amassed two million followers within hours of launching his account on Tuesday.

China Says Tech Firms Pledge to Counter Online Terror Activities

Ben Blanchard
Reuters
Twenty-five companies, including Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu, have signed on the help the government.

Conversation

04.12.16

Should Internet Censorship Be Considered a Trade Issue?

Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, Susan Shirk & more
A new report from the Office of the United States Trade Representative lists, for the first time, Chinese Internet censorship as a trade barrier. The possible implications are complex: it could strengthen the hand of U.S. businesses, but also stands...

U.S. Adds China’s Internet Controls to List of Trade Barriers

Paul Mozur
New York Times
The limits have posed a significant burden to foreign suppliers, hurting both Internet sites and users who depend on them for business.”

China Newspaper Calls ‘Zootopia’ American Propaganda

Scott Cendrowski
Fortune
People's Liberation Army newspaper put forth Zootopia’s swapping of the roles of predator and prey as proof of its agitprop.

China Steps up Panama Papers Censorship after Leaders' Relatives Named

Tom Phillips
Guardian
It's dangerous for higher leaders regarding internal party credibility as much as the broader public.

A Chinese Journalist Reflects on Reporting the China-Africa Story

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more
How foreign journalists report on the China-Africa story is often determined by the national origin of their news organization. While there are no doubt exceptions, the U.S. news media frequently frame China as the neo-colonial aggressor and Africa...

The Architect of China’s Great Firewall Was Himself Blocked by the Firewall

Charlie Campbell
Time
Fang Binxing was himself blocked from viewing a South Korean website during a talk at the Harbin Institute of Technology.

China Censors Mentions of ‘Panama Papers’ Leaks

Michael Forsythe and Austin Ramzy
New York Times
The names of relatives of several top leaders are found in the documents exposing offshore companies, but most citizens will never hear of the news.

Media

04.05.16

Chinese Censors Rush to Make ‘Panama Papers’ Disappear

David Wertime
On April 3, the Washington, D.C.-based non-profit International Committee of Investigative Journalists dropped what struck many as a bombshell: news that a leaked trove of 11.5 million previously secret files from Panama-based law firm Mossack...

Foreign Press in China Face Fewer Visa Delays but Obstacles Remain, FCCC Finds

Committee to Protect Journalists
Authorities have attempted to discourage correspondents from reporting on sensitive stories.

China Is Pretending That Hong Kong’s “Best Film” Award Winner Doesn’t Exist

Josh Horwitz
Quartz
Ten Years, the film about growing anxiety that Beijing is eroding HK's freedoms, is unlikedly to be released in China.

China's Churning out Hip-Hop Propaganda Videos to Win over Young People

Siyi Chen
Quartz
It’s still questionable, however, how much of their political message actually gets through.

Media

03.29.16

‘River Town’ the Movie

Jonathan Landreth from China Film Insider
Not since Iron and Silk premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1991 has a movie based on a memoir about teachers on the front lines of U.S.-China relations come to the big screen. Director Shirley Sun’s mostly-English-language film adaptation of...

China’s Latest Proposed Internet Regulations Would Make Foreign Websites Impossible to Reach

Josh Horwitz
Quartz
Any website that has not procured its domain from inside China will not be accessible.

China Editor Resigns over Media Censorship

BBC
Under the "reason for resignation" section, he wrote: "Unable to bear your surname".

Excitement in China as Google, Instagram Jump Great Firewall—for Just Two Hours

Simon Denyer and Xu Yangjingjing
Washington Post
Access may have become possible because Google had introduced a series of new IP servers.

China ‘Detained 20 over Xi Resignation Letter’

John Sudworth
BBC
The letter focuses on what it says is Xi's “gathering of all power” in his own hands and restrictions on freedom of speech.

Green Space

03.25.16

Facebook CEO Defies China Smog; Spoof Projects Nostril-Hair Air Filters

Michael Zhao
At least a few of Facebook’s 1.5 billion users now know that founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg ran several miles in some of Beijing’s most notorious smog on Friday March 18 while he was in the city attending a conference. Famously sharing his...

Chinese Activist in N.Y. Says Beijing Officials 'Abducted' His Parents and Brother

Los Angeles Times
An influential Communist Party critic with more than 220,000 Twitter followers said authorities detained his family in Guangdong.

Hong Kong Bookseller Returns from China after Three-Month Absence

James Pomfret, Twinnie Siu and Clare...
Reuters
It sparked fears that Chinese authorities were overriding the "one country, two systems" formula.

China’s Satirical Internet Queen Just Got $2 Million in Funding

Zheping Huang
Quartz
Nicknamed “Papi Jiang,” the graduate student from Beijing’s Central Academy of Drama is famous for her mocking videos.

Excerpts

03.22.16

Beyond ‘Chicken or Beef’ Choices in China Debates

Jeffrey Wasserstrom
Growing up in California with no special interest in China, one of the few things I associated with the big country across the Pacific was mix-and-match meal creation. On airplanes and in school cafeterias, you just had “chicken or beef” choices,...

China Censors Say: Hey, Stop Picking on Facebook Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg

Emily Rauhala
Washington Post
People posted photoshopped pictures of him jogging through other Tiananmen tableaus after his facebook update.

Features

03.21.16

A Thousand Yes-Men Cannot Equal One Honest Advisor

Several cadre leaders have been punished for breaking the law, and nearly all of them have said: There isn’t enough internal supervision and no one warned me; if there’d been someone there whispering in my ear, I wouldn’t have committed such grave...

Conversation

03.21.16

Cracks in Xi Jinping’s Fortress?

Andrew J. Nathan, Rana Mitter & more
Two remarkable documents emerged from China last week—the essay “A Thousand Yes-Men Cannot Equal One Honest Advisor,” which appeared on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, and an open letter calling for Xi Jinping’s...

People’s Daily Chief Warns of ‘Historic Mistake’ if China Loses Grip on New Media

Eva Dou and Josh Chin
Wall Street Journal
“To lose speech is to lose power,” Yang Zhenwu wrote in a lengthy essay published Monday.

At China’s Legislative Meeting, ‘Fake Foreign Media’ Take a Lower Profile

Esther Fung and Rose Yu
Wall Street Journal
Foreign-looking journalists in media that have links to Chinese state-controlled media were called.