It’s the people online hyping up war and acting all heroic that I find most disgusting. In war, there are no heroes. Everyone’s a villain, because you have no choice but to kill."

— From an interview between investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker Chao Jing and "Macaron," a Chinese mercenary fighting on the Russian side in Ukraine. Macaron criticized the naive, bellicose online comments of Chinese nationalists who had not experienced war.

 

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Translation: Chai Jing Interviews a Chinese Mercenary Fighting for Russia in Ukraine (Part Two)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected a U.S. peace plan that would freeze territory along the current front lines of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, stipulate that Ukraine could never join NATO, and require Ukraine to recognise Russia’s annexation of Crimea—the latter, a position that Ukraine and many European nations are resolutely opposed to. In response, a planned meeting in London between top diplomats from the U.S., Ukraine, France, Germany, and the U.K. was postponed, and discussions to end the war were downgraded. Given these developments, the diplomatic wrangling and the...

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Reports Describe Expanding Digital Repression in Tibet

Recent reports detail ways in which the Chinese government has instrumentalized digital connectivity to enhance its repression of Tibetans on the plateau and in the diaspora. On Wednesday, Turquoise Roof and Tibet Watch published a report titled “A Long Shadow: The expansion and export of China’s digital repression model in Tibet,” which examined procurement documents from a digital forensics firm integral to the securitization of Tibetans’ digital networks. From the report’s executive summary: Recent procurement documents reveal that Meiya Pico, a Chinese state-owned digital forensics firm,...

Reports Describe Expanding Digital Repression in Tibet

Recent reports detail ways in which the Chinese government has instrumentalized digital connectivity to enhance its repression of Tibetans on the plateau and in the diaspora. On Wednesday, Turquoise Roof and Tibet Watch published a report titled “A Long Shadow: The expansion and export of China’s digital repression model in Tibet,” which examined procurement documents from a digital forensics firm integral to the securitization of Tibetans’ digital networks. From the report’s executive summary: Recent procurement documents reveal that Meiya Pico, a Chinese state-owned digital forensics firm,...

Translation: Chai Jing Interviews a Chinese Mercenary Fighting for Russia in Ukraine (Part Two)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected a U.S. peace plan that would freeze territory along the current front lines of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, stipulate that Ukraine could never join NATO, and require Ukraine to recognise Russia’s annexation of Crimea—the latter, a position that Ukraine and many European nations are resolutely opposed to. In response, a planned meeting in London between top diplomats from the U.S., Ukraine, France, Germany, and the U.K. was postponed, and discussions to end the war were downgraded. Given these developments, the diplomatic wrangling and the...

Translation: Chai Jing Interviews a Chinese Mercenary Fighting for Russia in Ukraine (Part Two)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected a U.S. peace plan that would freeze territory along the current front lines of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, stipulate that Ukraine could never join NATO, and require Ukraine to recognise Russia’s annexation of Crimea—the latter, a position that Ukraine and many European nations are resolutely opposed to. In response, a planned meeting in London between top diplomats from the U.S., Ukraine, France, Germany, and the U.K. was postponed, and discussions to end the war were downgraded. Given these developments, the diplomatic wrangling and the...

Hong Kong Democratic Party to Disband; Amnesty International Hong Kong Office Opens Abroad

The latest political development in Hong Kong underscores the extent to which authorities have cleansed the city of democracy. On Sunday, the Democratic Party, Hong Kong’s last remaining opposition party, decided that it will soon disband under pressure from officials. Its members voted to begin the process, although the final motion to officially disband the party will be taken at another general meeting later in the year. James Pomfret and Jessie Pang from Reuters described the cause and significance of the party’s disbandment: Five senior members of the Democratic Party had earlier told...

Minitrue Plus Five: March 10, 2020 – Tibet Independence, COVID Rent Relief, Whistleblower, Epidemic Transmission and Treatments

In late 2020, CDT acquired and verified a collection of propaganda directives issued by central Party authorities to state media at the beginning of that year. These directives were issued on an almost daily basis in early 2020 through the early weeks of what would become the COVID-19 pandemic, and shed light on the propaganda machinery’s efforts to grapple with the outbreak. They were originally published between September and December, 2020 as the Minitrue Diary series, after the censorship and propaganda organs’ Orwellian online nickname 真理部 Zhēnlǐ bù, or "Ministry of...

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...

Embodied A.I. Deployment in China Races Ahead

On Saturday, Beijing hosted the world’s first half-marathon in which humans competed alongside humanoid robots. Among the 21 robots to compete, six completed the race, and the winning robot required several battery changes to reach the finish line in two hours and 40 minutes, well behind the winner of the men’s race who finished in one hour and two minutes. Nonetheless, the groundbreaking event received glowing reports in Chinese media, and as Amy Hawkins reported for The Guardian, it is emblematic of China’s strides in the widespread deployment of robots and “embodied AI”: It is not just...

Translation: Chai Jing Interviews a Chinese Mercenary Fighting for Russia in Ukraine (Part Two)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected a U.S. peace plan that would freeze territory along the current front lines of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, stipulate that Ukraine could never join NATO, and require Ukraine to recognise Russia’s annexation of Crimea—the latter, a position that Ukraine and many European nations are resolutely opposed to. In response, a planned meeting in London between top diplomats from the U.S., Ukraine, France, Germany, and the U.K. was postponed, and discussions to end the war were downgraded. Given these developments, the diplomatic wrangling and the...

Embodied A.I. Deployment in China Races Ahead

On Saturday, Beijing hosted the world’s first half-marathon in which humans competed alongside humanoid robots. Among the 21 robots to compete, six completed the race, and the winning robot required several battery changes to reach the finish line in two hours and 40 minutes, well behind the winner of the men’s race who finished in one hour and two minutes. Nonetheless, the groundbreaking event received glowing reports in Chinese media, and as Amy Hawkins reported for The Guardian, it is emblematic of China’s strides in the widespread deployment of robots and “embodied AI”: It is not just...

Reports Describe Expanding Digital Repression in Tibet

Recent reports detail ways in which the Chinese government has instrumentalized digital connectivity to enhance its repression of Tibetans on the plateau and in the diaspora. On Wednesday, Turquoise Roof and Tibet Watch published a report titled “A Long Shadow: The expansion and export of China’s digital repression model in Tibet,” which examined procurement documents from a digital forensics firm integral to the securitization of Tibetans’ digital networks. From the report’s executive summary: Recent procurement documents reveal that Meiya Pico, a Chinese state-owned digital forensics firm,...

Minitrue Plus Five: January 20, 2020 – Hospital Attack, Financial Company’s Social Media Banishment, Mercedes in Forbidden City, Coronavirus

In late 2020, CDT acquired and verified a collection of propaganda directives issued by central Party authorities to state media at the beginning of that year. These directives were issued on an almost daily basis in early 2020 through the early weeks of what would become the COVID-19 pandemic, and shed light on the propaganda machinery’s efforts to grapple with the outbreak. They were originally published between September and December, 2020 as the Minitrue Diary series, after the censorship and propaganda organs’ Orwellian online nickname 真理部 Zhēnlǐ bù, or "Ministry of...

Human Rights

Latest

Reports Describe Expanding Digital Repression in Tibet

Recent reports detail ways in which the Chinese government has instrumentalized digital connectivity to enhance its repression of Tibetans on the plateau and in the diaspora. On Wednesday, Turquoise Roof and Tibet Watch published a report titled “A Long Shadow: The expansion and export of China’s digital repression model in Tibet,” which examined procurement documents from a digital forensics firm integral to the securitization of Tibetans’ digital networks. From the report’s executive summary: Recent procurement documents reveal that Meiya Pico, a Chinese state-owned digital forensics firm,...

Politics

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Translation: “Why is Everyone Talking About China ‘Seizing’ Australia?”

Following China’s unannounced naval exercises off the coast of Australia late last month, there has been a noticeable increase in Chinese social media content promoting the invasion (or “nabbing/seizing”) of Australia. There has also been pushback: many Chinese bloggers and commenters have expressed alarm about the rise of such bellicose online sentiment, and the extent to which it is being allowed to proliferate online, particularly in comparison to platform censorship of some more level-headed commentary on Sino-Australian relations. Last month’s Chinese live-fire naval drills, while...

Society

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Quote of the Day: “Food Is Unsafe, Students’ Lives Are Unsafe, Our Data Is Unsafe, but MoFA Says China Is One of the ‘Safest’ Countries in the World!”

This year, the theme of World Consumer Rights Day on March 15 was “a just transition to sustainable lifestyles.” As it has every year since 1991, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV marked the occasion with a televised “315 Gala” exposing some of the most notable consumer rights scandals from the past year. The 2025 edition highlighted supply chain issues in some consumer products being sold online, including seafood suppliers that use illegal additives to increase the weight of prepackaged frozen shrimp, and factories that sell diapers and sanitary pads made from recycled waste. (Last year,...

China & the World

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Chinese Company’s Acid Spill Pollutes Zambian River, Threatening Millions of Local Residents

An acidic waste spill by a Chinese company in Zambia has created a massive environmental crisis that threatens a river on which millions of Zambians rely. The incident occurred last month at a facility owned by Sino-Metals Leach Zambia, a firm majority-owned by the Chinese state-run China Nonferrous Metals Industry Group. In addition to straining Zambia-China relations, the incident underscores Zambia’s economic vulnerability, since its copper extraction industry is dependent on Chinese and Western corporations with poor environmental track records. Richard Kille and Jacob Zimba at the...

Law

Latest

Reports Describe Expanding Digital Repression in Tibet

Recent reports detail ways in which the Chinese government has instrumentalized digital connectivity to enhance its repression of Tibetans on the plateau and in the diaspora. On Wednesday, Turquoise Roof and Tibet Watch published a report titled “A Long Shadow: The expansion and export of China’s digital repression model in Tibet,” which examined procurement documents from a digital forensics firm integral to the securitization of Tibetans’ digital networks. From the report’s executive summary: Recent procurement documents reveal that Meiya Pico, a Chinese state-owned digital forensics firm,...

Information Revolution

Latest

New U.S. Export Controls Aim to Curtail China’s Access to Advanced Semiconductor Technology

Over the past two weeks, the Biden administration has issued a series of regulations intended to halt China’s development of advanced technologies. The measures restrict the export of advanced chips, design software, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment that are crucial to China’s military, AI, and supercomputing initiatives. While the impact of these regulations remains to be seen, this “major watershed” demonstrates a significant U.S. policy shift towards a more aggressive approach to China, and risks accelerating technological and economic decoupling between the two countries across...

Culture & the Arts

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Chinese Indie Filmmaker Hit With Harsh “Cross-Provincial” Fine and Equipment Confiscation

Despite troubling jurisdictional issues, the Urumqi Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau in Xinjiang has imposed a fine of 75,000 yuan (US$10,300) on Yunnan-based artist and independent filmmaker Guo Zhenming (郭珍明) for “illegal filmmaking” activities. The administrative punishment also included the confiscation of Guo’s hard drive, two cameras, and some sound and lighting equipment. The penalties are being criticized by some Chinese netizens and supporters as blatant examples of administrative overreach, “high-seas fishing,” and suppression of artistic freedom. The unusually harsh punishment...

The Great Divide

Latest

Minitrue Plus Five: January 20, 2020 – Hospital Attack, Financial Company’s Social Media Banishment, Mercedes in Forbidden City, Coronavirus

In late 2020, CDT acquired and verified a collection of propaganda directives issued by central Party authorities to state media at the beginning of that year. These directives were issued on an almost daily basis in early 2020 through the early weeks of what would become the COVID-19 pandemic, and shed light on the propaganda machinery’s efforts to grapple with the outbreak. They were originally published between September and December, 2020 as the Minitrue Diary series, after the censorship and propaganda organs’ Orwellian online nickname 真理部 Zhēnlǐ bù, or "Ministry of...

Sci-Tech

Latest

Embodied A.I. Deployment in China Races Ahead

On Saturday, Beijing hosted the world’s first half-marathon in which humans competed alongside humanoid robots. Among the 21 robots to compete, six completed the race, and the winning robot required several battery changes to reach the finish line in two hours and 40 minutes, well behind the winner of the men’s race who finished in one hour and two minutes. Nonetheless, the groundbreaking event received glowing reports in Chinese media, and as Amy Hawkins reported for The Guardian, it is emblematic of China’s strides in the widespread deployment of robots and “embodied AI”: It is not just...

Environment

Latest

Chinese Company’s Acid Spill Pollutes Zambian River, Threatening Millions of Local Residents

An acidic waste spill by a Chinese company in Zambia has created a massive environmental crisis that threatens a river on which millions of Zambians rely. The incident occurred last month at a facility owned by Sino-Metals Leach Zambia, a firm majority-owned by the Chinese state-run China Nonferrous Metals Industry Group. In addition to straining Zambia-China relations, the incident underscores Zambia’s economic vulnerability, since its copper extraction industry is dependent on Chinese and Western corporations with poor environmental track records. Richard Kille and Jacob Zimba at the...

Hong Kong

Latest

Hong Kong Democratic Party to Disband; Amnesty International Hong Kong Office Opens Abroad

The latest political development in Hong Kong underscores the extent to which authorities have cleansed the city of democracy. On Sunday, the Democratic Party, Hong Kong’s last remaining opposition party, decided that it will soon disband under pressure from officials. Its members voted to begin the process, although the final motion to officially disband the party will be taken at another general meeting later in the year. James Pomfret and Jessie Pang from Reuters described the cause and significance of the party’s disbandment: Five senior members of the Democratic Party had earlier told...

Taiwan

Latest

Pope Francis Leaves Behind Legacy of Controversial Rapprochement With China

Global tributes poured in following the death of Pope Francis on Monday, as world leaders and admirers of all faiths mourn a figure of peace in a time of growing conflict. However, as Italy’s Corriere della Sera bitterly noted, Chinese media largely ignored the pope’s death, with most Chinese newspapers relegating that news to short briefs buried behind front pages saturated in Xi Jinping hagiography. Nectar Gan at CNN described how the China’s muted official response to Pope Francis’ death reflects its historically tense relationship with the Vatican: Chinese state-controlled media’s...

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