Over the past years, we have shared knowledge and ideas with hundreds of thousands of Chinese readers. [...] We know from the bottom of our hearts that every click from every user was filled with desire for freedom of knowledge and diverse cultures."

— Part of a farewell message posted to WeChat by Z-Library, a vast online free database of pirated and uncensored books and articles, popular with Chinese readers. Z-Library's WeChat account was deleted soon after the message was posted.

 

CDT Highlights

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Quote of the Day: “People Are Working ‘996’ Schedules for 12 Days Straight, in Exchange for a Five-Day Holiday Celebrating the Advent of an ‘Eight-Hour’ Workday”

Today’s CDT Quote of the Day is a response to the recent tide of online public discussion about the new “adjusted leave” (调休, tiáoxiū) holiday schedule that has lengthened certain Chinese public holidays, while at the same time requiring many workers to toil on Saturdays or Sundays before and after each holiday to “make up for” the additional time off. “People are working ‘996’ schedules for 12 days straight, in exchange for a five-day holiday celebrating the advent of an ‘eight-hour’ workday.” — Weibo user 一梦太古 (yī mèng tàigǔ), noting that many workers have had to juggle “996” schedules...

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New Laws and Guidelines From E.U. and ILO Target Forced Labor With Eye on Xinjiang

The European Parliament voted this week in favor of regulations to ban the sale, import, and export of goods made using forced labor. While the ban does not explicitly target any single country, it is widely seen as responding to numerous reports of forced labor in China, particularly in Xinjiang, where the U.N. has concluded that the Uyghur population may be subject to crimes against humanity and enslavement. The E.U.’s ban follows related measures by the International Labour Organization (ILO) to strengthen its protections against forced labor as a result of similar concerns about supply...

Quote of the Day: Hikvision and Dahua Claim to “Support the Ten Principles of the U.N. Global Compact on Human Rights, Labour, Environment, and Anti-Corruption”

Two Chinese manufacturers of video surveillance equipment—state-owned Hikvision and publicly traded company Dahua Technology—have joined the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) in an attempt to burnish their reputations, which have been  severely undermined by evidence that the companies have contributed to human rights abuses of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Both companies have been subject to restrictions by the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Canada for facilitating the oppression of Uyghurs by providing “highly invasive” surveillance equipment to the Chinese Party-state, underpinning their complicity...

Quote of the Day: “People Are Working ‘996’ Schedules for 12 Days Straight, in Exchange for a Five-Day Holiday Celebrating the Advent of an ‘Eight-Hour’ Workday”

Today’s CDT Quote of the Day is a response to the recent tide of online public discussion about the new “adjusted leave” (调休, tiáoxiū) holiday schedule that has lengthened certain Chinese public holidays, while at the same time requiring many workers to toil on Saturdays or Sundays before and after each holiday to “make up for” the additional time off. “People are working ‘996’ schedules for 12 days straight, in exchange for a five-day holiday celebrating the advent of an ‘eight-hour’ workday.” — Weibo user 一梦太古 (yī mèng tàigǔ), noting that many workers have had to juggle “996” schedules...

Lawyers Celebrate Justice Ministry Corruption Scandals With Black Humor

The latest corruption investigation into a senior Ministry of Justice official has inspired schadenfreude among lawyers in China. The investigation into Liu Zhiqiang, a former Vice-Minister of Justice, follows closely after another launched against Tang Yijun, the former head of the ministry. In 2017, long-time Justice Minister Wu Aiying was expelled from the Party for graft. In 2022, Fu Zhenghua, who headed the Ministry of Justice between 2018 and 2020, also fell in a corruption investigation—and was later accused of being part of a “political clique” opposed to Xi Jinping. At The South...

Quote of the Day: “We Have Never Experienced Such Blatant Efforts to Evade Scrutiny of Court Proceedings in Any Country.”

An incident on Wednesday, in which a representative for Reporters Without Borders (RSF) was denied permission to enter Hong Kong to observe the national security trial of political and media figure Jimmy Lai, is yet another illustration of the precipitous decline of media freedom in that territory. Another RSF employee was allowed to enter. The episode comes on the heels of national security legislation related to Article 23, which threatens to further curtail civil liberties and press freedoms by criminalizing routine reporting, research, and advocacy work. The legislation was fast-tracked...

Translation: Special One-Month Reconnaissance Operation Against “Overseas Cyber Forces”

A pair of recently surfaced screenshots appear to offer unusual detail about a special month-long operation, held in Beijing and involving over 40 Ministry of Public Security computer specialists from around the country, to combat “overseas cyber forces” in the battle for public opinion. The apparently leaked internal instructions from the Ministry of Public Security are likely to be the result of an email breach. They include the names and locations of many of the computer-specialist officers, as well as the name and contact information of the individual in charge of the operation. At some...

New eBook: China Digital Times Lexicon, 20th Anniversary Edition

On September 12, 2003, John Battelle published the first post on chinadigitaltimes.net: Here’s what a Google Search on “china weblog” yields, I’m looking forward to seeing ours at the top soon! China’s online population at the start of that year was nearly 60 million. Ten years later, it was fast approaching 600 million, and now, after 20, it is well over a billion. This new completely revised and hugely expanded update to our ebook series, formerly known as “the Grass Mud Horse Lexicon,” aims to capture something of the enormous explosion of online speech that accompanied this growth, with...

Quote of the Day: “People Are Working ‘996’ Schedules for 12 Days Straight, in Exchange for a Five-Day Holiday Celebrating the Advent of an ‘Eight-Hour’ Workday”

Today’s CDT Quote of the Day is a response to the recent tide of online public discussion about the new “adjusted leave” (调休, tiáoxiū) holiday schedule that has lengthened certain Chinese public holidays, while at the same time requiring many workers to toil on Saturdays or Sundays before and after each holiday to “make up for” the additional time off. “People are working ‘996’ schedules for 12 days straight, in exchange for a five-day holiday celebrating the advent of an ‘eight-hour’ workday.” — Weibo user 一梦太古 (yī mèng tàigǔ), noting that many workers have had to juggle “996” schedules...

Quote of the Day: “People Are Working ‘996’ Schedules for 12 Days Straight, in Exchange for a Five-Day Holiday Celebrating the Advent of an ‘Eight-Hour’ Workday”

Today’s CDT Quote of the Day is a response to the recent tide of online public discussion about the new “adjusted leave” (调休, tiáoxiū) holiday schedule that has lengthened certain Chinese public holidays, while at the same time requiring many workers to toil on Saturdays or Sundays before and after each holiday to “make up for” the additional time off. “People are working ‘996’ schedules for 12 days straight, in exchange for a five-day holiday celebrating the advent of an ‘eight-hour’ workday.” — Weibo user 一梦太古 (yī mèng tàigǔ), noting that many workers have had to juggle “996” schedules...

Tighter U.S. Immigration Controls On Inbound Chinese Students Stoke Concern

In Peter Hessler’s latest piece for The New Yorker, “How Chinese Students Experience America,” he notes that “COVID, guns, anti-Asian violence, and diplomatic relations have complicated the ambitions of the some three hundred thousand college students who come to the U.S. each year.” One of the first places that some of these hurdles manifest is at the American border, where a growing number of Chinese students and researchers have recently found themselves unexpectedly barred entry to the U.S. on the basis of broad national security concerns. Experts argue that the political inertia behind...

Quote of the Day: “People Are Working ‘996’ Schedules for 12 Days Straight, in Exchange for a Five-Day Holiday Celebrating the Advent of an ‘Eight-Hour’ Workday”

Today’s CDT Quote of the Day is a response to the recent tide of online public discussion about the new “adjusted leave” (调休, tiáoxiū) holiday schedule that has lengthened certain Chinese public holidays, while at the same time requiring many workers to toil on Saturdays or Sundays before and after each holiday to “make up for” the additional time off. “People are working ‘996’ schedules for 12 days straight, in exchange for a five-day holiday celebrating the advent of an ‘eight-hour’ workday.” — Weibo user 一梦太古 (yī mèng tàigǔ), noting that many workers have had to juggle “996” schedules...

Quote of the Day: Official Disposable Income Figures Derided as “Today’s Daily Dose of Humor”

On March 16, China’s National Bureau of Statistics announced that the Chinese economy was off to a good start in 2024, with reported 5.3% year-on-year GDP growth in the first quarter of the year. The better-than-expected data was touted by various Chinese state media outlets online, although many of those news posts had comment filtering enabled, perhaps in anticipation of negative or skeptical reactions from social media users. Two items in particular seemed to strike netizens as overly optimistic: the reported “nationwide average per-capita disposable income” figure of 11,539 yuan...

Human Rights

Latest

Quote of the Day: Hikvision and Dahua Claim to “Support the Ten Principles of the U.N. Global Compact on Human Rights, Labour, Environment, and Anti-Corruption”

Two Chinese manufacturers of video surveillance equipment—state-owned Hikvision and publicly traded company Dahua Technology—have joined the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) in an attempt to burnish their reputations, which have been  severely undermined by evidence that the companies have contributed to human rights abuses of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Both companies have been subject to restrictions by the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Canada for facilitating the oppression of Uyghurs by providing “highly invasive” surveillance equipment to the Chinese Party-state, underpinning their complicity...

Politics

Latest

Nationalists “Pinkfished” Into Calling Mao Zedong a Traitor

One of the subtler ways Chinese internet users voice their displeasure with the status quo is through “pinkfishing” (粉红钓鱼, fěnhóng diàoyú), tricking nationalist “little pinks” into criticizing Party leaders—generally by quoting those leaders without attribution. A classic example from 2021 saw online nationalists berate a Weibo user as a “race traitor,” “Japanese devil,” and general lunatic for writing, “We should not despise a nation because a small cadre of militarists in their midst instigated an invasion …” while quoting a People’s Daily post memorializing the Nanjing Massacre. The call...

Society

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Netizen Voices: “Fixed Matches, Rigged Races … What’s Going on with Chinese Sport?”

Beijing’s half-marathon is under investigation after three runners from Kenya and Ethiopia appeared to allow a Chinese runner to win. The odd ending of the race saw Willy Mnangat and Robert Keter of Kenya and Dejene Hailu of Ethiopia wave Hu Jie of China past them in the final stretch as they noticeably slowed down. Videos of the finish went viral both in China and abroad. The Beijing International Running Festival, the events organizer, and the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau have both opened investigations  into the incident. On X, formerly Twitter, @whyyoutouzhele shared video of the...

China & the World

Latest

Chinese Support for Russia’s War in Ukraine Deepens Friction With U.S., E.U.

Over 26 months have passed since Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine. The current stalemate has given way to gradual advances by Russia, as political support for arming Ukraine waned in Western capitals, at least until a breakthrough U.S. funding bill last week. To counteract this inertia, Western leaders have increased pressure on one of Russia’s main backers: China. A growing number of officials have publicly called out Chinese support for Russia’s war machine and threatened punishment as deterrence. However, it is unclear whether Chinese actors will ultimately change course. The E.U. has...

Law

Latest

Quote of the Day: “People Are Working ‘996’ Schedules for 12 Days Straight, in Exchange for a Five-Day Holiday Celebrating the Advent of an ‘Eight-Hour’ Workday”

Today’s CDT Quote of the Day is a response to the recent tide of online public discussion about the new “adjusted leave” (调休, tiáoxiū) holiday schedule that has lengthened certain Chinese public holidays, while at the same time requiring many workers to toil on Saturdays or Sundays before and after each holiday to “make up for” the additional time off. “People are working ‘996’ schedules for 12 days straight, in exchange for a five-day holiday celebrating the advent of an ‘eight-hour’ workday.” — Weibo user 一梦太古 (yī mèng tàigǔ), noting that many workers have had to juggle “996” schedules...

Information Revolution

Latest

WeChat “Bug” Turns Out To Be Obscure Insult for Xi Jinping

A group of students under the impression they had discovered a WeChat “bug” that hides the phrase “200 jin of dumplings” (roughly 220 pounds) had in fact stumbled upon an obscure insult for Xi Jinping that triggers automatic censorship.  In the course of daily conversation, the students found that messages preceded by the term “200 jin of dumplings” (200斤饺子) were not received by their counterparts. Juvenile hilarity ensued. They sent each other curses and confessions: “200 jin of dumplings, you’re a stupid c***,” “200 jin of dumplings, you’re an idiot,” “200 jin of dumplings, piggy,” and...

Culture & the Arts

Latest

Pirate E-Book Site Under Pressure in China, Endangering Access To Banned Books

Z-Library, an online database with tens of millions of pirated and uncensored books and articles available for free download, is closing its Chinese WeChat account. In a statement posted to WeChat, Z-Library claimed that Chinese legal authorities had “attacked” its volunteer staff and intimated that they had refused to comply with censorship demands. The statement also seemed to encourage Chinese users to download virtual private networks (VPNs) (or other “scientific” means) in order to access the website despite “internet surveillance-and-control” policies:  In our informatized,...

The Great Divide

Latest

Quote of the Day: Official Disposable Income Figures Derided as “Today’s Daily Dose of Humor”

On March 16, China’s National Bureau of Statistics announced that the Chinese economy was off to a good start in 2024, with reported 5.3% year-on-year GDP growth in the first quarter of the year. The better-than-expected data was touted by various Chinese state media outlets online, although many of those news posts had comment filtering enabled, perhaps in anticipation of negative or skeptical reactions from social media users. Two items in particular seemed to strike netizens as overly optimistic: the reported “nationwide average per-capita disposable income” figure of 11,539 yuan...

Sci-Tech

Latest

Tighter U.S. Immigration Controls On Inbound Chinese Students Stoke Concern

In Peter Hessler’s latest piece for The New Yorker, “How Chinese Students Experience America,” he notes that “COVID, guns, anti-Asian violence, and diplomatic relations have complicated the ambitions of the some three hundred thousand college students who come to the U.S. each year.” One of the first places that some of these hurdles manifest is at the American border, where a growing number of Chinese students and researchers have recently found themselves unexpectedly barred entry to the U.S. on the basis of broad national security concerns. Experts argue that the political inertia behind...

Environment

Latest

African Union Bans Donkey-Hide Trade in Response to Unsustainable Chinese Demand 

At a recent summit in Ethiopia, the African Union (AU) decided to approve a 15-year continent-wide ban on the slaughter of donkeys for their hides. Donkey hides are a key component of the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) ingredient known as ejiao (“donkey-hide gelatin”), whose demand in China has boomed over the past decade and decimated donkey populations in Africa. The Donkey Sanctuary, one of the world’s largest equine charity organizations, celebrated the announcement and described its significance This historic decision taken by the African Union recognises, at the highest level of...

Hong Kong

Latest

Quote of the Day: “We Have Never Experienced Such Blatant Efforts to Evade Scrutiny of Court Proceedings in Any Country.”

An incident on Wednesday, in which a representative for Reporters Without Borders (RSF) was denied permission to enter Hong Kong to observe the national security trial of political and media figure Jimmy Lai, is yet another illustration of the precipitous decline of media freedom in that territory. Another RSF employee was allowed to enter. The episode comes on the heels of national security legislation related to Article 23, which threatens to further curtail civil liberties and press freedoms by criminalizing routine reporting, research, and advocacy work. The legislation was fast-tracked...

Taiwan

Latest

Whirlwind Weeks of Diplomacy In Beijing Center On Ukraine, Green Tech, Taiwan

Over a whirlwind two weeks of diplomacy in Beijing, China has sought to strengthen its ties to both the United States and Russia—a difficult balancing act. Xi Jinping took a phone call with U.S. President Joe Biden last week which was followed with a four-day trip through China by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. The day after Yellen’s departure, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with Xi Jinping in Beijing in preparation for “upcoming contacts at the highest level,” a sign that Russian leader Vladimir Putin may be planning a Beijing trip this calendar year. Soon after, China’s...

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