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
Why Facebook’s China Adventure Will Need More than Censorship to Succeed
As social network develops tools to restrict users so China will let it in, some experts say it is ‘light years’ behind rivals already in place
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...
'Social' Feature Turns China’s Alipay Into a Hook-up App
Alipay update leads to suggestive content flooding the typically staid financial app
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
German Automaker Chief Removed After ‘Racist Rant’ in China
German carmaker Daimler has apologized and removed a senior executive from his job after he made racist remarks in a row over parking
Features
11.18.16
Chinese and American City-Dwellers Differ on Trump Win
City-dwellers in China and the United States are among the greatest beneficiaries of the international trade deals President-elect Trump...
China Presses Tech Firms to Police the Internet
Third-annual World Internet Conference aimed at proselytizing China’s view to global audience
Why Chinese Netizens Cheer Trump
To online 'Trump Guards,' the U.S. race pits a corrupt official against a plain-spoken outsider
The 80-Year-Old Runway Model Reshaping China’s Views on Aging
Last year, at 79, Mr. Wang walked the runway for the first time, his physique at his age causing a national sensation
A Toddler Dies as Her Mother Checks Her Phone, and China Wrings Its Hands
The toddler’s death has led to an outpouring of anger on Chinese social media about the dangers of being obsessed with one’s phone
And the Award for ‘Best Corruption Apology by a Chinese Official’ Goes To…
The winner so far is Li Chuncheng, former deputy party chief of Sichuan province, who is now serving 13 years’ jail time for abusing power and bribery
I Broadcast Myself on the Chinese Web for Two Weeks
In the process, I learned why Chinese millennials can't seem to unplug from the live-streaming craze.
China’s Internet Child-Safety Policies Could Force Changes at Tech Firms
Tech companies doing business in China might have to adjust operations to comply with proposed rules
Risk of Vanishing: More than 1,300 Elderly Go Missing in China Every Day
Online app helps find 100 lost seniors as research shows growing dementia threat
U.S. Presidential Debate Inspires Schadenfreude in China
Many Chinese took to social media to heap scorn on both candidates
Propaganda and Censorship Remain China’s Favored Tools of Control
Recent court rulings rapping people questioning the party-state’s tales about war heroes reflect leaders’ insecurity over their rule
China’s Streaming Craze Launches a Billion Shooting Stars
The owner of streaming app Inke is China’s newest unicorn thanks to a 19-fold increase in value
Mystery of China’s ‘Ghost Uber Drivers’
An eruption of creepy faces on driver profiles has spooked potential passengers
Media
05.20.16
The Chinese Trolls Who Pump Out 488 Million Fake Social Media Posts
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.”...
Sinica Podcast
04.19.16
Public Opinion with Chinese Characteristics
from Sinica PodcastThe immense popularity of social media has afforded China watchers a terrific window onto public opinion in China. In recent years, a slew of English-language websites have emerged to interpret the various trends and phenomena, discourse, and...
China Censors Mentions of ‘Panama Papers’ Leaks
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
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...
On Social Media in China, Size 0 Doesn’t Make the Cut
Women—and some men—are boasting that they are paper thin by posting photographs of their waists behind a vertical piece of A4 paper.
Beauty and the East: China's Plastic Surgery Boom
China’s social media and selfie obsessions are creating a new vanity craze and a market for cosmetic surgery.
‘Eyes on China’: Illuminating Life Across a Changing Country
Two photographers living in China set up a collective Instagram account.
China's Rich Face Criticism After Mark Zuckerberg's Charity Pledge
China has a fast growing number of super-rich -- it created 242 billionaires in the past year alone.
It’s Complicated: Mark Zuckerberg’s Donation Spurs Philanthropy Debate in China
Some Chinese Internet users are asking: is it a kind-hearted gift or a tax dodge?
Media
11.27.15
‘Personal Media’ in China Takes a Hit From Pre-Publication Censorship
Observers have long thought that Chinese authorities censor the media depending on type: the censorship of traditional media is primarily conducted in advance, with a thorough inspection of news and discussion before publication;...
China Shuts Down Service For Some Phones With Foreign Messaging Apps
As mobile users try to evade censorship in China through software, the government appears to be trying a new technique to head off such attempts.
Media
11.20.15
China Censors Online Outcry After ISIS Execution
On November 18, the Islamic State (IS) released photos of what it claimed were two executed hostages. The photos, appearing in the terrorist group’s English-language magazine Dabiq, depict two men with bloodied faces, the word “executed...
Media
10.13.15
Chinese Censors Are Giving North Korea a P.R. Makeover
On October 10, Liu Yunshan, a member of the elite Politburo Standing Committee and one of the seven most powerful men in China, paid a visit to North Korea to observe a massive parade commemorating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the...
Media
08.27.15
Chinese Media Jumps on Tragic Virginia Shooting
On the morning of August 26, a reporter and a cameraman for a local Virginia television station were fatally shot during a live television...
Sinica Podcast
06.23.15
The Brother Orange Saga
from Sinica PodcastThe story started when a Buzzfeed editor lost his iPhone in an East Village bar in February of last year and blossomed into the Sino-American romance of the century, and probably the most up-lifting and altogether unlikely China story that we can...
China’s Annual Dog-Eating Festival Prompts Social Media Firestorm
At a solstice festival in China 10,000 canines are said to be beaten, killed and cooked for human consumption.
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...
Media
03.20.15
China Has Its Own Anti-Vaxxers—Blame the Internet
While health officials in the United States and parts of Europe wrestle with a growing anti-vaccination, or “anti-vaxxer” movement, China is dealing with a less organized but similarly serious fear of immunizations. Social media reveals traces of...
Books
03.05.15
Has the American Media Misjudged China
Thirty-five years after China's opening to the world, some of the key assumptions that have guided coverage are being tested by the presidency of Xi Jinping. This book is must reading for anyone involved in U.S.-Chinese relations or for anyone who is just plain curious about how the assumptions that have guided American media coverage of China are now being challenged by the presidency of Xi Jinping. He has a very different vision of his country's future than the one often presented in some media accounts. —William J. Holstein {chop}
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...
Drawing the News: Wo Shi Chali (Je Suis Charlie)
Chinese cartoonists and netizens have responded quickly to the slaying of cartoonists and editors at the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo yesterday. Masked gunmen entered the offices of the journal and fired automatic weapons at staff in...
Mark Zuckerberg Wants to Make It Clear He's Cool with China
Lu Wei, the Chinese Internet czar who heads a censorship system that keeps many popular American sites—including, of course, Facebook—out of China, was touring American tech companies recently. Chinese media reported that when he arrived at...
China’s Lost Generation Finds Itself in Ukraine
A working class high-school graduate who scored abysmally on China's college entrance exam, Mei now owns his own business, claims title to three-quarters of an acre of land, lives in a split-level house, and is married to an eighteen-year-old who...
Thousands of Local Internet Propaganda Emails Leaked
The archive includes correspondence, photos, directories of “Internet commentators” (网评员), summaries of commentary work, and records of the online activities of specific individuals, among other documents. Over 2,700 emails are included in the...
As Chinese Duo Perform at American Music Awards, Those at Home Are Skeptical
In an indication of how fragile domestic confidence is in the country’s cultural exports, many Chinese commentators were immediately skeptical of the award’s authenticity. By the next morning on Weibo, the phrase “Chopstick Brothers bought an...
In China, Even Creating a Pollution Tracking App Is a Risky Business
It was mid-October 2011, and the air quality in Beijing was quite bad, as you may imagine. It came to my mind that if we could check the air quality on our phones and receive pollution notifications, that would be quite helpful and handy. After...
Ali Baba’s Cave and Pandora’s Box
When Lu Wei — the man who reportedly led the crackdown on the “Big V” Weibo account holders last year — was asked at a press conference why sites like Facebook (which is blocked in China) had been “shut down,” he responded with a homespun...
Media
11.05.14
Tim Cook Coming Out Has Turned China Into a Nation of Fifth-Graders
"Let me be clear," wrote Apple CEO Tim Cook in a Bloomberg Businessweek article published on October 30. "I'm proud to be gay."...
Manual on How to Spot a Spy Circulates in an Increasingly Wary China
“On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” Or an American spy. Or a “hostile foreign force.” So says the “China Folk Counterespionage Manual,” a “how to spot a spy” guide circulating on the Internet.
