China blogging conference cancelled

Organisers of an annual blogging conference, CNBloggercon, to be held last weekend in Shanghai were told to cancel the event because it was too “sensitive.” Convener and citizen journalist, Zhou Shuguang, told Agence France-Presse that the venue informed them one day before the conference was due to start that the Shanghai government had warned them not […]

Chinese activist sentenced to year in labour camp for Twitter joke

Wangyi09’s twitter feed stops abruptly at 7:45AM on October 28. According to human rights groups, the Chinese rights activist, whose real name is Cheng Jianping, was detained later that day for a satirical tweet she had posted on October 17 which mocked anti-Japanese protesters by urging them to destroy the Japanese pavilion at the Shanghai […]

The man who dares not say the L Word

David Cameron has extolled the virtues of human rights and democracy during his trade mission to Beijing but why won’t he raise the case of imprisoned writer Liu Xiaobo? Dinah Goodman reports David Cameron’s first stop on his first visit to Beijing as Prime Minister was Tesco. As he was surveying the shelves of soy […]

China releases dissident artist Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei, China’s best-known dissident artist, is called God Ai by his supporters. Ai helped design the Bird’s Nest stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics and more recently his Sunflower Seeds installation created a splash at the Tate Modern; but Ai continues to be a thorn in the side of the Chinese state. His blogs […]

Liu Xiaobo win prompts Chinese media blackout

One of China‘s best-known dissidents Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday night. Liu is currently serving an 11 year prison sentence for “inciting subversion of state power” after the former litarture professor circulated Charter 08, a petition calling for greater freedom in China. He has been in and out of prison since […]

In China’s murky censorship machine detention is rarely legal

Last month, Xie Chaoping, author of The Great Migration, was detained for 30 days on the trumped up charge of operating an illegal business. The Great Migration is about the repairing of the Sanmen dam in Weinan, Shaanxi Province and the residents who were forced to move off their land. “Xie thinks he’s being persecuted […]

Yu Jie chooses to publish and be damned

“No one living in China is more daring than the maverick writer Yu Jie,” journalist and historian Jonathan Mirsky wrote more than five years ago. It’s even more apt today.The 36-year-old Chinese dissident and writer is about to risk his freedom by publishing an explosive new title outing China’s cuddly premier, Wen Jiabao, as an […]

Olympic challenge

As the Games begin in Beijing, Index publishes a roundup of arrests, detentions and surveillance since January –– a reminder that China has yet to meet its Olympic challenge of harmony and openness.

Countdown to Beijing, part 4

Continuing our series of articles from Index on Censorship’s ‘Made In China’ issue, Internet pioneer Isaac Mao explains why freedom of thought is what China needs most. Read here (pdf)

Countdown to Beijing, part 3

Continuing our series of articles from Index on Censorship‘s ‘Made In China’ issue, Rebecca MacKinnon discusses how online pioneers are changing Chinese culture Read article here (pdf)

Arrests in China

Huang Qi was arrested on 10 July for ‘illegal possession of state secrets’. He posted articles criticising the way relief was organised after the 12 May earthquake in Sichuan. ‘Few citizens trust the government because of the corruptions scandals that already occurred during similar disasters in the past’ he wrote on his website 64Tianwang. He […]

Countdown to Beijing part 2

In the run up to the Olympics, Indexoncensorship.org is publishing a selection of pieces from the current issue of the magazine:Made in China. Yan Lianke, China’s leading, satirical novelist, writes exclusively for Index about the impact of censorship. Read article here