It’s been in the pipeline for weeks. Ever since China’s version of Twitter, Weibo, was used by account holders to pressure a polluting factory to close down in Dalian and to expose dodgy goings on after a fatal train crash this summer in Wenzhou,...
The suspension of one of China’s top editors, Zhao Lingmin, who edited the high-profile magazine, Window on the South, has gripped the Chinese press. Locals are concerned that case indicates media freedoms will be further curbed. Zhao spoke...
China's version of Pop Idol, Super Girl, was on Friday suspended for one year by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT). Li Hao, deputy editor and spokesman of the show's broadcaster, Hunan Satellite TV, was quoted as saying...
Last week, a Google spokesperson announced that Google.cn’s Chinese Internet Content Provider (ICP) licence had been renewed to 2012. When Google stopped censoring search result in 2010 and left mainland China to set up in Hong Kong, Google’s ICP...
The news earlier this week that two popular Beijing newspapers will now come under the capital’s propaganda department has raised concerns that the two hard-hitting dailies will face tighter control. The Beijing News and Beijing Times were...
After two recent incidents where a fury of online public criticism has shown the robust power of microblogging in spreading information, the Chinese government has begun laying the groundwork for tightening control of the internet. This week,...
Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has attacked injustices in China in a candid and scathing article posted on Newsweek magazine's website. He writes of Beijing, Beijing is two cities. One is of power and of money. People don’t care who their...
Of all the contentious cultural material China's censors could crack down on, an inoffensive 1990s boy band ballad seems like an odd option. China's Ministry of Culture this week issued a new blacklist of 100 songs including the innocuous I Want it...
A week ago China’s middle class flexed their civic action muscles by taking to the streets in their thousands (reports say up to 12,000) in the northeastern port city of Dalian to demand the relocation of a chemical plant that was in danger of...
Ai: A bird needs to flutter its wings to see if it can fly After nearly two months of silence, artist Ai Weiwei, one of China’s most prominent human rights activists, is back in the spotlight. Over the past few days he’s been tweeting, and today...