Conversation
09.25.20
Technical Difficulties
Citing national security concerns, the Trump administration announced...
Conversation
08.27.20
The Future of China Studies in the U.S.
As an extraordinarily fraught school year begins, the study of China on U.S. campuses (or their new virtual equivalents), as well as China’s role in university life more broadly, has recently become a subject of scrutiny and debate. What is the...
Forbidden Feeds: Government Controls on Social Media in China
PEN International
Based on extensive interviews with writers, poets, artists, activists, and others personally affected by the government’s grip on online expression, as well as interviews with anonymous employees at Chinese social media companies, this report...
China Disrupts Global Companies’ Web Access as Censorship Bites
Groups fear being forced to use expensive VPN software surveilled by Beijing.
Google Says ‘No Changes’ to Mapping Platform in China after Report
Google denied a media report that claimed the tech giant was re-launching its mapping functions in China, where many of its services are blocked.
Viewpoint
11.03.17
The Future of Particle Physics Will Live and Die in China
from Foreign Policy“Don’t you dare kill my project.”
My phone interview with a senior official at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) had started with bland, yet polite, responses. But it took a sharp turn toward audible agitation and...
Apple’s Decision to Remove VPN Apps from the App Store in China Explained by Tim Cook
Tim Cook has responded to criticisms that Apple is quietly removing apps from the App Store for the Chinese government.
Joining Apple, Amazon’s China Cloud Service Bows to Censors
Days after Apple yanked anti-censorship tools off its app store in China, another major American technology company is moving to implement the country’s tough restrictions on online content.
Apple ‘Pulls 60 VPNs from China App Store’
The BBC understands that as many as 60 VPNs were pulled over the weekend. Apple said it was legally required to remove them because they did not comply with new regulations. It refused to confirm the exact number of apps withdrawn, but did not...
Conversation
05.09.17
Can China’s Approach to Internet Control Spread around the World?
Earlier this month, citing concerns over “cyber sovereignty,” China’s Internet regulators announced new restrictions on the country’s already tightly controlled Internet—further curbing online news reporting and putting Party-appointed editors in...
China Compiles Its Own ‘Wikipedia,’ but Public Can’t Edit It
It’ll be free. It’ll be uniquely Chinese. It’ll be an online encyclopedia to rival Wikipedia — but without the participation of the public. And don’t expect entries on “Tiananmen Square 1989” or “Falun Gong spiritual group” to come up in your...
American Unrest Proves China Got the Internet Right
Beijing has been criticized for its Great Firewall and online censorship. Now it's looking prescient.
China’s Digital Dictatorship
Turn the spotlight on the rulers, not the ruled: Instead of rating citizens, the government should be allowing them to assess the way it rules
China is Censoring People’s Chats Without Them Even Knowing About It
Censorship in WeChat group chats is prevalent, and is done so that the sender isn’t even aware a piece of text has been scrubbed
Putin Brings China’s Great Firewall to Russia in Cybersecurity Pact
The Kremlin has joined forces with Chinese authorities to bring the internet and its users under greater state control
Conversation
11.28.16
Should Facebook Self-Censor to Enter the Chinese Market?
The social network Facebook has reportedly developed software to suppress posts from users’ feeds in targeted geographic areas, a feature created to help the giant social media network gain access to China, where it is blocked. Facebook Chief...
Facebook Said to Create Censorship Tool to Get Back into China
The social network has quietly developed software to suppress posts from appearing in people’s news feeds in specific geographic areas
China Presses Tech Firms to Police the Internet
Third-annual World Internet Conference aimed at proselytizing China’s view to global audience
The China Africa Project
11.17.16
China’s Controversial, Out-Sized Role in Africa’s Digital Revolution
Africa is home to one of the fastest growing technology markets in the world. In fact, more African households own a mobile phone...
Conversation
06.30.16
Where Is China’s Internet Headed?
Lu Wei, the often combative Chinese official known as China’s “Internet Czar,” will step down, and is to be replaced by a former deputy of Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The personnel change comes after a period of mounting restrictions on China’s...
China Web Tsar Admits Censorship Troubles
“We have indeed called for reinforcements over prominent online problems, this is the truth.”
China Ranks Last of 65 Nations in Internet Freedom
Chinese officials will be able to impose a prison sentence of up to seven years on a person convicted of creating and spreading “false information” online.
Viewpoint
04.22.15
Will China’s New Anti-Terrorism Law Mean the End of Privacy?
A newly drafted Chinese anti-terrorism law, if enacted in its current form, will empower Beijing to expand its already nearly unchecked policing of the...
Media
04.21.15
This Chart Explains Everything You Need to Know About Chinese Internet Censorship
What goes through a Chinese web user’s head the moment before he or she hits the “publish” button? Pundits, scholars, and everyday netizens have spent years trying to parse the (ever-shifting) rules of the Chinese Internet. Although Chinese...
Why Do the Chinese Hack? Fear
To ensure its survival, the Chinese Communist Party has decided that it must control the Internet.
Chinese Authorities Compromise Millions in Cyberattacks
Hijacking the computers of millions of innocent Internet users around the world shows China's disregard for Internet governance norms.
China Appears to Attack GitHub by Diverting Web Traffic
In recent attacks on sites that try to help Internet users in China circumvent censorship, the Great Firewall appears to have been used as a weapon.
Q. and A.: Adam Fisk on Evading Internet Censorship in China
GreatFire.org’s “mirrored” websites and the Internet bandwidth-sharing service Lantern have allowed users to access the open Internet.
U.S. Coding Website GitHub Hit With Cyberattack
The attack appears to underscore how China’s Internet censors increasingly reach outside the country.
Media
02.23.15
Five Predictions for Chinese Censorship in the Year of the Sheep
Blocked websites, jailed journalists, and nationalist rhetoric have long been features of the Chinese Communist Party’s media control strategy. During the Year of the Horse, which just ended on China’s lunar calendar, President Xi Jinping and his...
China’s Internet Censorship Anthem Is Revealed, Then Deleted
Cyberspace Administration employees Sang lines like, “An Internet power: Tell the world that the Chinese Dream is uplifting China.”
The NYRB China Archive
02.09.15
China: Inventing a Crime
from New York Review of BooksIn late January, Chinese authorities announced that they are considering formal charges against Pu Zhiqiang, one of China’s most prominent human rights lawyers, who has been in detention since last May. Pu’s friends fear...
Sinica Podcast
11.25.14
Internet Wrangling in Wuzhen
from Sinica PodcastKaiser Kuo hosts alone this week as we turn our attention to the World Internet Conference (English site) last week, when a...
China’s Decision to Expel Journalists to Hong Kong is Now Blowing Up in its Face
Hong Kong has one of the highest rates of Western journalists per capita of any non-Western city in the world, including a number of the best foreign correspondents in the business.
The Revolution Will Not Be Instagrammed
Mainland Chinese felt no effects from the protests roiling Hong Kong—until Beijing pulled the plug on another social network.
Media
09.25.14
An Internet Where Nobody Says Anything
Here is what a court in Urumqi, the capital of China’s western Xinjiang region, concludes Ilham Tohti, a balding, thick-set, 44-year-old professor, did: “Using ‘Uighur Online...
China Clamps Down on Web, Pinching Companies Like Google
China's government has draped a darker shroud over Internet communications in recent weeks, a situation that has made it more difficult for Google and its customers to do business.
Sinica Podcast
05.27.14
History of the Internet in China
from Sinica PodcastThe Internet has always been near and dear to our hearts here at Sinica. Four years ago, our very first show covered Google China and the fracas that followed their decision to pull out of China. And in the years since, we've frequently talked...
Media
03.21.14
“We’ll Know It When We’re There”
Martin Johnson (not his real name), is a co-founder of the China-based Internet freedom advocacy collective GreatFire.org....
New Regulations for Online Video Sharing
China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television issued a notice including rules such as real name registration for all users uploading to video sharing sites.
The Censorship Pendulum
People like to hear voices critical of the government, so social media companies can’t silence them entirely.
Caixin Media
10.21.13
Is Freedom of Thought in China Just a Dream?
The Shanghai Free Trade Zone was recently launched. The measure is commonly regarded as an attempt by the leadership of the Communist Party to further economic reform, which has slowed over the past decade. It is also part of what policymakers...
The Chinese Communist Party Has Embraced the Internet—For Public Polling
Beijing has started to glean political intelligence from the same systems they restrict access to.
Sinica Podcast
02.08.13
Revenge of the Call-in Show
from Sinica PodcastCurious what happened to Sinica last week? Well ... as it turns out, our call-in show from two weeks ago wasn’t exactly pleased with how quickly we managed to...
China's Top Censor's New Leadership Role Raises Fears
Chinese propaganda boss Liu Yunshan has risen to the country’s top leadership in what could be a perilous sign for online debate.
Sinica Podcast
05.07.11
Crazed Madmen, Foreign and Domestic
from Sinica PodcastDespite losing almost a dollar for every dollar of revenue last year, Chinese Facebook clone Renren (人人网) made a spectacular launch on Wall Street last week, raising U.S.$743.4 million in a crazed initial public offering. So it’s no surprise that...
Sinica Podcast
03.25.11
Where Did the Internet/Salt Go?
from Sinica PodcastIn less time than it took Chinese netizens to strip their supermarkets of common table salt, China ended its live-and-let-live policy with regards to the most commonly used tools for evading the country’s Internet restrictions. Recent weeks have...
The NYRB China Archive
02.20.11
The Secret Politburo Meeting Behind China’s New Democracy Crackdown
from New York Review of BooksIn an NYRblog post on February 17 (“Middle East Revolutions: The View from China”), I discussed Chinese government’s efforts to...
The NYRB China Archive
02.17.11
Middle East Revolutions: The View from China
from New York Review of BooksChinese authorities have done what they can to block news of Egyptian people-power from spreading to China. Reports about Egypt in China’s state-run media have been brief and vacuous. On February 6, at the height of the protests, the People’s...