Tag: Censorship

At a China Covid Protest, a Mix of Giddy Elation and Anxiety

Chin@Strategy

BEIJING — The crowd was hard to make out at first, a dark mass huddled along the Beijing riverbank after sunset. They stood quietly, almost nervously, dozens of people bundled in thick coats beside yellowed willow trees. At their center was a small altar, strewn with candles and flowers, for the 10 people who died in a fire in western China last week. Two hours later, that crowd had swelled into the hundreds, a mass of people marching and chanting for freedom, rule of law, an end to the three…

China censors maskless crowd footage in World Cup broadcasts

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Chinese state television has censored World Cup games to remove shots of maskless crowds after the sight of joyous fans celebrating in packed stadiums stoked anger back home, where hundreds of millions remain under strict pandemic restrictions. A well-attended opening ceremony in Qatar – with no social distancing – led to users of Chinese social media platforms complaining that it contrasted with the severe isolation they felt under President Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy. Chinese netizens said it was “weird” to see hundreds of thousands of people gathering in a carnival-like…

Memes, Puns and Blank Sheets of Paper: China’s Creative Acts of Protest

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In Shanghai, a vigil grew into a street protest where many held blank sheets of white paper in a symbol of tacit defiance. In Beijing, students at Tsinghua University raised signs showing a math equation devised by the Russian physicist Alexander Friedmann, whose surname in Chinese is a homonym for “free man.” And on China’s suppressed internet, where positive messages abound and negative ones are scrubbed, protesters resorted to irony: They posted walls of text filled with the Chinese characters for “yes,” “good” and “correct” to signal their discontent while…

Deadly Blaze in China Fuels Defiance Against Xi’s Covid Policies

Chin@Strategy

The fire began with a faulty power strip in a bedroom on the 15th floor of an apartment building in China’s far west. Firefighters spent three hours putting it out — too slow to prevent at least 10 deaths — and what might have remained an isolated accident turned into a tragedy and a political headache for local leaders. Many people suspected that a Covid lockdown had hampered rescue efforts or trapped victims inside their homes. Officials denied that happened. Still, many remained unconvinced, flooding social media with angry comments…

A Lonely Protest in Beijing Inspires Young Chinese to Find Their Voice

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“I thought to myself that there are many Chinese who also want freedom and democracy,” she said. “But where are you? Where can I find you? If we meet on the street, how can we recognize each other?” At about 4 the next morning, she went downstairs from her dorm room to print some posters. She was nervous about running into other Chinese students, most of whom she would describe as “little pinks,” or pro-Beijing youths. She wore a mask to avoid cameras, even though she had seldom worn one…

China’s Internet Censors Race to Quell Beijing Protest Chatter

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China’s internet censors are going to great lengths to shut down any discussion of a rare public protest condemning Xi Jinping as a “despotic traitor” and denouncing the country’s Covid-19 policies just days before the start of an all-important Communist Party congress. When a column of smoke appeared on Thursday over the Sitong Bridge overpass in the Haidian district of Beijing, it drew attention to a protester who had hung banners openly bashing China’s top leader by name and criticizing the country’s “zero Covid” policy, including one calling for “freedom…

China’s ‘Absurd’ Covid Propaganda Stirs Rebellion

Chin@Strategy

“We have won the great battle against Covid!” “History will remember those who contributed!” “Extinguish every outbreak!” These are among the many battle-style slogans that Beijing has unleashed to rally support around its top-down, zero-tolerance coronavirus policies. China is now one of the last places on earth trying to eliminate Covid-19, and the Communist Party has relied heavily on propaganda to justify increasingly long lockdowns and burdensome testing requirements that can sometimes lead to three tests a week. The barrage of messages — online and on television, loudspeakers and social…

Can Hong Kong Recover as a Global Metropolis After Pandemic Barriers?

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HONG KONG — Luxury storefronts have been replaced by pop-up shops selling masks. Whole floors of skyscrapers are deserted. Streets once crammed with locals and visitors jostling for space are quiet. This is “Asia’s World City,” Hong Kong’s self-appointed title, after more than two years under some of the world’s toughest pandemic rules. The city now wants to reclaim that cosmopolitan status by taking its biggest step toward living with Covid-19: scrapping a crushing quarantine mandate that at one point required 21 days in a designated hotel and easing restrictions…

Return to Dust, Chinese hit film about rural hardships, disappears from streaming platforms

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A popular Chinese film depicting a love story amid the hardships of life in rural China has been removed from all streaming services just weeks after its release, and discussion of it censored on social media. Return to Dust had been widely praised by audiences for its realistic and moving depiction of rural life in China. For the same reason it had also drawn criticism from nationalistic voices accusing it of portraying China in a negative light. The sudden disappearance of the film, which premiered at the Berlin international film…

China’s Lipstick King reappears, months after Tiananmen ‘tank cake’ row

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China’s leading shopping livestreamer, Li Jiaqi, has returned to online commerce platforms almost four months after his feed was suddenly cut, which viewers suspected was linked to the errant appearance of a tank-shaped cake. Li, also known as the Lipstick King for his ability to move huge amounts of product on his sales channels, briefly appeared on Alibaba Group’s Taobao marketplace on Tuesday evening. The two-hour appearance was unannounced but word quickly spread online about his return. From 7pm to 9pm the audience reportedly grew from about 100,000 to more…