What did China search for in 2012? It wasn’t the hotly disputed Diaoyu Islands or the widely-watched London Olympics. On Baidu.com, China’s homegrown search engine commanding about 83 percent of the Chinese search market, the most popular searches focus on stories discovered and spread by Internet denizens themselves. Chinese web users were not only passive [...]
This article also appeared in The Atlantic, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. What a year it has been on the Chinese Internet. In Chinese politics, 2012 brought a long-anticipated leadership transition at the highest levels, but incoming president Xi Jinping hasn’t dominated the headlines all by himself. A post on Weibo, China’s Twitter, by [...]
A recent viral tweet on China’s Internet starts this way: “He didn’t try to flee to the U.S. consulate, and he didn’t try to abscond to the U.S. with 200 million RMB. He’s not some big official with hundreds of apartments and countless mistresses. He’s just a little village official waiting for justice.” This man, [...]
Coded language on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, is ascending new heights. After a hasty conclusion to the trial of Wang Lijun, the erstwhile police chief of the megacity of Chongqing, China’s official news service Xinhua released its version of the events leading to Wang’s–and his boss Bo Xilai’s–stunning downfall. The money line involves Bo Xilai [...]
If it’s true, it may be the greatest case of blanket censorship in history. Netizens in China reported yesterday that most Japanese domains had been blocked outright. One netizen tweeted on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter: “Craziness. China has now blocked most domain names in Japan, with the key blocked term being ‘.co.jp.’ This is the [...]
If it’s true, it may be the greatest case of blanket censorship in history. Netizens in China reported yesterday that most Japanese domains had been blocked outright. One netizen tweeted on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter: “Craziness. China has now blocked most domain names in Japan, with the key blocked term being ‘.co.jp.’ This is the [...]
Ah, memories. Chen Guangcheng’s daring escape from house arrest in Shandong province to U.S. protection in Beijing is by no means the first instance of a dissident crashing a foreign diplomatic outpost for protection. In fact, it’s been happening in China, and elsewhere, for over one hundred years. In 1898, two reformists pursued by the [...]
Is the treatment of Bo Xilai–China’s former contender for high office, now in detention as he and his wife are investigated respectively for corruption and murder–a victory for the rule of law? Or selective enforcement? Netizens are making their opinions clear: It’s the latter. On April 19, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported (in both [...]
On a high-speed train in the Orient, a murder has taken place under cover of night. On April 11, the public awoke to find that the political career of Bo Xilai, China’s “only celebrity politician,” had finally died. The news did not come as a surprise; Bo’s career suffered a brutal stabbing a month ago and [...]
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