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...
Shokhrukh Saipov, the Osh-based editor and publisher of news website Uz Press, was last week attacked by unidentified individuals. Saipov had been attending a media seminar in Osh, and was found unconscious with his nose and several teeth broken on...
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...
State media in China and Iran have both offered their two cents in response to the riots that have swept the UK over the past three days. A commentator at Communist Party mouthpiece, People's Daily, opined that this sort of chaos is precisely the...
Beijing district police last month enforced regulations requiring café owners and other businesses to install web monitoring software. The software costs businesses around 20,000RMB (2,000 GBP), and provides public security officials the identities...
The aftermath of the collision of two high-speed trains near the Chinese city of Wenzhou on 23 July has demonstrated that the limits of free expression in China are being tested more than ever before. Government officials keen to stifle public...