We believe: Faith is not a crime. Worship is not a crime. Prayer is not a crime. [Chinese] This quote highlighted by CDT Chinese this week is drawn from a statement by the Zion (锡安 Xī’ān) Church following the arrest of dozens of its members last weekend. The full statement, translated by David Cowhig, continues: […]| China Digital Times (CDT)
State media hailed the mass travel over this month’s "Super Golden Week" holiday as a sign of profound economic vigor. Xinhua, for example, reported that the "travel boom […] demonstrated the country’s vibrant consumption and sustained economic momentum, highlighting the vitality of the Chinese economy." Global Times celebrated "China’s Golden Week travel enthusiasm fueled by […]| China Digital Times (CDT)
CDT presents a new monthly series of censored content that has been added to our “404 Deleted Content Archive.” Each month, we will publish a summary of content blocked or deleted (often yielding the message “404: content not found”) from Chinese platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Xiaohongshu (RedNote), Bilibili, Zhihu, Douban, and others. Although […]| China Digital Times (CDT)
Amid a new two-month “Clear and Bright” campaign by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) to clean up internet content that “maliciously incites” polarization, pessimism, anxiety, and other negative sentiments, a number of extremely popular online influencers have been hit with multi-platform content bans. Although the reasons for the bans are not entirely clear, there […]| China Digital Times (CDT)
The death of Jerome Cohen last week at the age of 95 prompted a wave of tributes to the legendary professor of Chinese law. Outside legal circles, Cohen may have been best known for his involvement in the escape from China of legal activist Chen Guangcheng, and he was frequently and energetically outspoken in support […]| China Digital Times (CDT)
In the run-up to the Global Women’s Summit slated for October in Beijing, which will mark the 30th anniversary of that city’s influential 1995 U.N. World Conference on Women, some WeChat accounts focused on feminism and women’s empowerment have been blocked or had their content deleted. Earlier this month, feminist blogger Jiang Chan (姜婵, Jiāng […]| China Digital Times (CDT)
This is the full transcript, lightly edited for grammar and clarity, of an interview with Jessica Batke, ChinaFile’s senior editor for investigations, and Laura Edelson, assistant professor of computer science at Northeastern University, on their report “The Locknet: How China Controls Its Internet and Why It Matters.” An abridged version of the interview, with an […]| China Digital Times (CDT)
The critically acclaimed U.S.-Australian body-horror movie “Together” launched in China on September 19. Some viewers noted, alongside cuts to sex scenes, a less familiar and overt form of alteration: one male character in a scene originally depicting a same-sex wedding was digitally replaced with a woman. [Updated on September 25, 2025: The film’s global distributor […]| China Digital Times (CDT)
On Tuesday, Xi Jinping presided over a major military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and China’s “War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.” The carefully choreographed 90-minute spectacle showcased autonomous military hardware, nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, and a finale featuring the release of 80,000 doves and balloons. Joining Xi in […]| China Digital Times (CDT)
Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa met Chairman Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang for a summit marking 50 years of diplomatic ties between the E.U. and China. The affair demonstrated just how tense their relationship has become, battered by trade imbalances, export controls on critical […]| China Digital Times (CDT)
Wednesday is the tenth anniversary of the 709 (July 9) or "Black Friday" crackdown, a coordinated detention of more than 300 rights lawyers and activists in 2015 that was a key moment in the authoritarian shift in the early Xi Jinping era. At The Guardian, Amy Hawkins marked the occasion by talking to some of […]| China Digital Times (CDT)
