China Newsbase
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The China News Database was last updated at 01:50PM on November 9, 2023.
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130 articles matching the search query.
Idol worship and fan culture in China, explained
The fan economy drives a big part of China’s entertainment sector. But several recent high-profile cases of toxic fandom have caught the eye of the state’s internet watchdog.
WeChat terminates LGBT+ accounts of Chinese college students in overnight crackdown
One of the few bright spots for civil liberties in China in recent years has been a growing public and official acceptance of the LGBT+ community. But the government now seems determined to put a stop to that.
Hong Kong’s Apple Daily shuts down as police target editors
With its founder in jail, bank accounts frozen, and editorial staff at risk of arrest, the blows fell fast and hard against the territory’s 26-year-old pro-democracy tabloid.
Hong Kong expands film censorship under national security law
Any movie, whether foreign or domestic and even regardless of content, can now be barred from screening in Hong Kong if local censors feel its showing could endanger national security as defined by Beijing.
The ‘Friends’ reunion airs in China — without Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, and BTS
Pop quiz! What do Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, and BTS have in common? If you didn’t immediately answer “They are on the wrong side of the Chinese government, of course,” then perhaps you want to follow China news more diligently.
Following nationalist backlash, Chloé Zhao finds no place in China for her ‘Nomadland’
The first female Asian director to win a Golden Globe award is being feted in the U.S. but censored in her native China.
China bans BBC after CGTN taken off air in Britain
The BBC’s TV news broadcasts have never been available to ordinary Chinese households, but you could watch them via satellite in five-star hotels and luxury apartment complexes. No longer.
China’s COVID-19 response: A year of ‘government secrecy and top-down control’
China’s initial failure to respond quickly to COVID-19 as it emerged in Wuhan was due to a “political logjam,” the New York Times reports. But the AP reveals that political controls have only tightened in the time since, with new research on the origins of COVID-19 monitored and subject to approval by a task force set up by Xi Jinping.
China sentences citizen journalist to four years in prison for challenging COVID-19 response narrative
Zhang Zhan, a freelance video journalist who documented the early days of Wuhan’s lockdown and criticized the government’s response, was convicted of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”
More than just censorship: How China shaped public sentiment in the early days of COVID
The Chinese government hired private companies to “flood social sites with distracting chatter,” among other tactics to tamp down public outrage during the worst parts of the coronavirus epidemic in China.
Cyclopes on My Doorstep
A translation by Sinologist Geremie R. Barmé of a new essay from persecuted law professor Xu Zhangrun, who is the object of an extraordinary hi-tech surveillance campaign.
Our future tech dystopia begins in China
Kai Strittmatter’s recent book, “We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China’s Surveillance State,” examines how the Chinese government is using technology to censor, surveil, and control its population. Does it read like a warning, or merely a glimpse of what awaits us all?
Censoring a pandemic — the banned words of WeChat
China has censored private messages and public posts on WeChat since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. A new report looks at what words have been verboten.
Mike Pompeo proposes American Great Firewall to keep out Chinese technology
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the U.S. to develop a “Clean fortress” around citizens’ data, with unclean technologies defined as those with Chinese origins. This is essentially an American version of China’s Great Firewall, though its implementation is uncertain.
After TikTok, what happens to internet freedom?
The meaning of internet freedom is changing. Under Trump, the U.S. seems set to tell China it was right to distrust foreign-owned social media apps.
Will the U.S. ban TikTok?
Could the collapse of TikTok in the American market come even faster than its meteoric rise? Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and now President Trump have said the U.S. government is “looking at” banning the app because of its Chinese ownership.
Hong Kong police escalate crackdown, claim new powers for internet censorship
From books to online posts, the Hong Kong government is cracking down on any information perceived to threaten national security after a new law was imposed by Beijing. Police are claiming powers to decrypt and censor online messages, and technology companies, including Facebook and Twitter, are refusing to comply.
Beijing detains one of Xi Jinping’s most prominent critics
Tsinghua University law professor Xu Zhangrun, one of the most prominent critics within China of the leadership of Xi Jinping, has been detained in Beijing. Two other critics, Peking University legal scholar Xu Zhiyong and property tycoon Ren Zhiqiang, have been missing for months.
Freedom of expression is dead in Hong Kong
The government of Hong Kong has essentially banned a protest slogan because it carries “secessionist intent,” which is a crime under the new national security law forced on the city by Beijing.
Censorship fears and vampire hours: Chinese international students, Zoom, and remote learning
Three Emory University researchers recently conducted a survey — interviewing more than 20 Chinese international students and instructors — to learn about the unique challenges and concerns of Chinese students studying in the U.S. during COVID-19.
