In a rare instance of a legal challenge to restrictions on LGBTQ+ rights, two Tsinghua University studentsfiled a lawsuitlast week against the Chinese Ministry of Education for refusing to consider their appeal againstdisciplinary actionimposed after the studentsdistributed10 small rainbow pride flags on the Tsinghua campus in May of 2022, in advance of Pride Month.
The students, who only identified themselves as Huang and Li, said that while their disciplinary action has technically expired due to school regulations, they were committed to pursuing the lawsuit because “it’s still a fact that [they] were penalized for flying rainbow flags.”
[…] The students appealed the disciplinary action, first directly with the university, and then with the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, which upheld the university’s punishment in October.
The students finally appealed to the Ministry of Education which informed the two students in early February that they would not intervene because the issue was outside the scope of their administrative duties. [Source]
Huang [one of the plaintiffs in the suit] said they might consider appealing again if the court did not rule in their favour. “We feel a bit pessimistic about getting a win in the ruling … [but] the lawsuit still has its significance in raising public awareness,” she said.
[…] Yanzi Peng from LGBT Rights Advocacy China said it was impressive that the students were consistently trying to defend their rights through legal means. The university’s penalty reflected a “politicised” misunderstanding and handling, Peng said.
[…] Liang Ge, a researcher in gender, sexuality and popular culture at King’s College London, said an institutional and structural inequality of power between the college administration and the students made them “extremely vulnerable and disadvantaged”.
“The university’s strict control over the expression of the LGBTQ+ community tries to make the queer invisible, marginalised and dispossessed,” Ge said, adding that homophobia and transphobia could be found in almost all mainland university administrative systems.[Source]
Information about the case and the various legal appeals has been subject to strict censorship online. Arecent postabout the lawsuit against the Ministry of Education—which first appeared on the WeChat account 烈火战车洗车行 (Liehuo Zhanche Xichehang, “Chariots of Fire Car Wash”)—wasdeleteddespite trying to evade censorship by replacing “Tsinghua University” with “Hogwarts University,” and “Ministry of Education” with “Ministry of Magic.”
The Tsinghua students’ lawsuit comes at a time ofshrinking spacefor China’s LGBTQ+ communities, both online and off. LGBTQ+ groups have had their social media accountsshuttered, university students have beenharassedand punished for expressing pride or solidarity, and there has been an uptick in censorship of LGBTQ+ content in film and television, including retroactive cuts to long-popular streaming staples such asFriends.
A news article lauding the police work behind the arrest of a 64-year-old construction worker in Shanghai’s Pudong district instead drew attention to the financial insecurity experienced by China’s elderly workers. The construction worker, identified only as Mr. Fan, was arrested for using a false identification card to appear seven years younger in an effortto duck manual workers’ legal retirement age of 60. His arrest inspired online outrage at the cruelty of a society that neither provides social security to elderly workers nor permits them to support themselves through work. The anger was compounded by the timing of Fan’s arrest, which occurred amidst a push by the Chinese state to encourage elderly people to return to work. Last week, Workers’ Daily—the official paper of the state-controlled All China Federation of Trade Unions—ran a pieceencouraging “young elders” to find work so that China might realize its “silver dividend,” a play on the voguish concept of China’s “demographic dividend” thatstate-affiliated experts maintaincontinues to drive economic growth. “All the ‘huminerals’ have been used up, huh,” one Weibo commenter said in response to the Worker’s Daily piece.CDT collected Weibo reactions to the 64-year-old construction worker’s arrest, all of which expressed anger at the country’s treatment of elderly laborers:
Torexiaosile：“The government will care for you when you’re old” is the biggest Ponzi scheme.
木___木啊：They can’t get hired on construction sites, and they don’t have an ounce of security. This society casts the elderly away, giving them no route forward.
我走过那一隅：Why would he be willing to break the law by faking documents to work on a construction site? Is it because resting at home was too comfortable? Maybe he just likes hard labor?
多弗朗信哥丶: XXXX is good, XX will care for you when you’re old. [A coded reference to an‘80’s-era One-Child Policy sloganthat said, “Having only one child is good, the government will care for you when you’re old.”]
Fan’s plight is but one salient example of the vulnerability of China’s elderly. Earlier in February,retirees in Wuhan and Dalian took to the streetsto protest reforms to local public health insurance systems. One elderly Wuhan protestor, speaking anonymously to prevent retaliation from the police,told The New York Timeshe felt resentment at being asked to shoulder cuts to his medical insurance: “The socialist country today was created by us, the older generation.” The proposed reforms are in part necessitated by the fiscal crunch incurred by China’s expensive and now-abandoned zero-COVID policy.Local governments spent billions of dollarson PCR testing and the construction of centralized quarantine facilities which now stand vacant. The crunch extends beyond China’s social security systems.Bus operators across the country are cutting down on routes and even suspending services. Lanzhou, the provincial capital of Gansu, announced that it was unable to pay drivers’ salaries and that they should in the meantime take out specialized personal loans which the government would repay later. Even China’s well-funded security forces seem to be feeling the pinch. A screenshot circulating online, the veracity of which has been confirmed by Chinese state media outlets, revealed that Guangxi’s Public Security Bureau has not paid its nearly $70,000 electricity bill. One netizen, borrowing Mao’s term for the Party’s security forces, commented, “Even the ‘knife handle’ is short on cash?”
At times, parsing propaganda for deeper meaning is difficult. At others, the (unintentional) message is hidden in plain sight. In October 2018, one bus passenger in Guizhou’s Nayong County realized that a roadside billboard quoting Xi Jinping said, “With me in charge, failure is guaranteed,” when the characters are read from right to left, as is common on banners.
The billboard that birthed a million memes.
The billboard was quotingaspeechXi had given to cadres in Hainan in April of that year, reminding them that “Today’s efforts will bear fruit after I’m gone,” which is how it reads from left to right. The phrase is often paired with another line to form a couplet touting the value of hard work in attaining revolutionary goals. The quote is a paraphrase of May Fourth Movement leader Hu Shih’s instruction to Peking University graduates in 1932. (Hu,anearly Chinese Marxist-Leninst, was an opponent of the Chinese Communist Party and in the 1950s becamethe subject, in absentia,ofacriticism campaignaimed at discreditinghiswritings.)
Today, both Xi’s quote and its misreading have become sensitive words subject to censorship. A recent test-search for “Today’s efforts will bear fruit after I’m gone” on the popular question-and-answer website Zhihureturned no results. The second line of the couplet returned dozens of results, an indication that censors are aware that the first line is ripe for misinterpretation. It has now become a standard example of “low-level red, high-level black” messaging that appears to parrot the Party line, but upon closer examination actually subverts it.
This is not the first time a quote from Xi Jinping has drawn censure on the Chinese internet. In 2021, ardent online nationalists commonly known as “little pinks”unwittinglylabeled Xi Jinping a “race traitor”after a Weibo page dedicated to coverage of a Japanese boy band quoted Xi on the anniversary of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre. Many Chinese people’s real feelings towards Xi remain a mystery, due to heavy censorship and the threat of arrest. Late last year, The Wall Street Journal’s Liza Lin reported onthe difficulty of finding an honest online opinion about Xi in mainland China:
On Baidu Inc.’s popular online discussion forum Tieba, there are more than 184,000 posts about Mr. Biden. Meanwhile, a search for Mr. Xi’s name returns the message, “Sorry, according to related laws and government regulations, the following results cannot be shown.”
The only content related to Mr. Xi shown on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok run by TikTok’s parent ByteDance Ltd., is that generated by state media or party entities. For all the app’s freewheeling videos, it is near-impossible to find ones of ordinary Chinese expressing opinions about their leader.
[…] One Zhihu post on a speech by Mr. Xi to a branch of the People’s Liberation Army in which he called for “the motherland to be unified”—a reference to taking control of Taiwan—appeared to have attracted almost 220 comments. None of them could be viewed; a message displayed said the comments section was closed.
The Twitter-like Weibo platform allows searches for Mr. Xi’s name only by users in China, who must register with a Chinese cellphone number linked to their identity card and log in to see search results. Again, results are almost all articles or videos in some way linked to state media or government agencies. [Source]
There have beenrenewed callsfor thereleaseof journalist and feminist activistHuang Xueqinand labor-rights activist Wang Jianbing, who have now spentover 500 days in detentionwithout trial. Since beingdetainedin September 2021 on charges of “inciting subversion of state power,” the two have been held in Guangzhou without access to family or lawyers.
Advocates and human rights groups have said the pair should never have been arrested. This week they said information had been brought to them that raised concerns about Huang’s health in particular. They said they were told she has lost a lot of weight, stopped menstruating, and is suffering from untreated long-term conditions and deficiencies.
[…] The advocates also accused authorities of “trying to exert mental pressure and physical torture” of Huang, through repeatedly waking her at night for interrogation and depriving her of sleep.
“These circumstances are only the tip of the iceberg of what we can learn about Huang Xueqin’s detention situation,” the advocates said. “Due to the inability to learn more about Xueqin’s current appointment of official lawyers, it is difficult for us to obtain information on her physical and mental health and the progress of the case.” [Source]
#China🇨🇳: Concerns have been raised for journalist and women’s rights activist Sophia Huang Xueqin, who is said to have been experiencing severe health issues during her pre-trial detention since September 2021. @IFJGlobalhttps://t.co/1bjEDHwj4X
Very worrying news about #MeToo activist Sophia Huang Xueqin h/t @heldavidson: "Advocates for a Chinese journalist and activist who has been held in detention without trial for almost 18 months have said she needs urgent medical attention." https://t.co/1EBXJ1czOt
Distressing news out of #China where the #MeToo journalist Huang Xueqin is being subjected to both physical and mental torture. She wasn't calling for regime change, just better treatment for women. She should be released immediately https://t.co/k01MX1K23o
I'm very concerned to hear reports of Huang Xueqin's failing health & urge the Chinese authorities to immediately release her on medical parole. She was 1 of 5 detained HRDs whose treatment I wrote to the govt about in Dec: https://t.co/ZCKiXCK5NF@heldavidson@ChinaMissionGvahttps://t.co/skO6rUEv4n
— Mary Lawlor UN Special Rapporteur HRDs (@MaryLawlorhrds) February 17, 2023
By mistreating, and presumably torturing Huang Xueqin, detained prominent journalist respected for contribution to #MeToo movement, [the] Chinese regime is evidently trying to set an example and silence all remaining independent voices in the country. Beijing must immediately release Huang, alongside all 114 journalists and press freedom defenders detained in China. [Source]
During the dialogue, the EU repeatedly addressed the issue of crackdown on human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists in China, in particular in Xinjiang, the Tibetan areas and Inner Mongolia and Hong Kong. The EU urged China to investigate and stop violations of human rights and international law, expressing concern for cases of unlawful detention, enforced disappearance, torture and ill-treatment. The EU raised several individual cases and called upon China to immediately release those who are detained in disregard for due process requirements:
[…] Individuals deprived of their liberty for their exercise of the freedom of expression, including Fang Bin, Guo Quan, Huang Qi, Huang Xueqin, Wang Jianbing, Wang Zang, Zhang Zhan, and Yang Maodong,
Individuals deprived of their liberty for their exercise of the freedom of peaceful assembly or demonstration, such as Peng Lifa, Qin Yongming and Xu Qin as well persons arrested during the November 2022 protests, including Cao Zhixin, Kamile Wayit, Zhai Dengrui, Xin Shang, Li Siqi, Li Yuanjing and Hou Jinyi. [Source]
The list of persecuted defenders is endless, but let’s look at a few representative examples.
TakeHuang Xueqin, a former journalist and prominent feminist. While Beijing tries to convince the international community that it cares about women’s rights, it has held thisleaderof China’s #MeToo movement in incommunicado detention since September 2021.
Huang was detained with her friend, labor rights advocateWang Jianbing. While China – nominally a socialist state – insists to the world that it cares about labor rights, Wang and Huang are facing the charge of “inciting subversion of state power.”
Or take the case ofZhang Zhan, a citizen journalist who reported on the early outbreak of COVID-19 from Wuhan. She gave the international community access to information about the dire implications of COVID-19 while the government engaged in strict censorship. Zhang urged the Chinese government to protect health rights, but she is serving a four-year prison sentence with life-threatening health conditions. She was sentenced in 2020 on the charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” Zhang isbelieved to be just41 kilograms (90 pounds) in prison. [Source]
(1) Conduct thorough physical examinations of Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing, and provide necessary medical treatment and support for any physiological or psychological problems that they may be suffering from.
(2) Guarantee Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing’s rights to retain legal counsel and to communicate freely; resume permission for the two to receive external remittances and to use these remittances as they see fit for their living expenses [while in detention].
(3) Release Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing without charge. Their case, which has been delayed for more than 500 days without trial, is an example of baseless political persecution, and violates procedural justice and constitutional protections. The authorities must immediately release them. [Chinese]
There are also a number of young people who participated in the November 2022 “Blank Paper” protests who are either being held in detention or whose whereabouts are unknown. None of them are seasoned activists, and it is not clear exactly how many are still being held pending charges.A recent essay in China Change (by a Chinese journalist writing under the pen name Su Nian)pieces together what is known of the detained protesters, describes some of the places they congregated, and includes interviews with a number of their friends:
Among the protesters arrested for the blank paper protest at Liangmaqiao [in Beijing] are at least several musicians, bar owners, and DJs of whose circumstances we know very little. One of them is Lin Jun (林昀), a musician and boyfriend of Yang Liu. The number could be much higher, reaching over 100 across the country per anestimateby Chinese Human Rights Defenders, but we wouldn’t know who they are if their family members and friends are not speaking up, and have not signed up independent lawyers for them.
[…] “Of the arrested young women, many hold feminist beliefs, but their concerns are not limited to feminism,” said Ah Tian [a Ph.D. student in anthropology and a friend of four of the female protesters]. “They are Good Samaritans who would take action to counter injustices.” [Source]
On February 15, just weeks before the opening of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC)legislative sessionin Beijing, thousands of Chinese retirees in the cities ofWuhan and Dalianheld large demonstrations against proposed reforms to the public health insurance system. These followed an initial demonstration on February 8 in Wuhan, which was largely peaceful: demonstrators shouted slogans, sang “The Internationale,” and promised that they would return a week later if Wuhan authorities did not address their concerns about the reforms, which many retired workers fear will result in steep cuts to their medical benefits.
Video footage that circulated online indicated that large crowds gathered around Zhongshan Park in Wuhan, as the police tried to divide them by imposing barricades. When police officers tried to push the crowds back, older men and women refused to back off and shouted in officers’ faces. Some sang songs like “The Internationale,” an anthem employed by both the ruling Communist Party and by protesters, who have used it to suggest that the party has strayed from its ideological roots.
In Wuhan, seven witnesses to the protest and two other residents described what they called a large demonstration during the day. One witness said he had seen police officers roughly detain protesters and lead them away.
On Thursday, a couple hundred seniors gathered in groups at the same park at midday, angrily discussing their unhappiness with the health insurance policy changes. Security was tight, with plainclothes officers milling around, filming people as they talked. Nearly 100 uniformed officers stood behind crowd control barriers. [Source]
The Washington Post’s Christian Shepherddescribed the protest scenes in Dalian and Wuhan, where authorities suspended metro service to one station in an attempt to deter residents from joining the demonstrations:
As promised, [the protesters] filled central Zhongshan park and nearby streets Wednesday, with a second group gathering a couple of blocks away by the Wuhan Union Hospital.
This time, the authorities reacted more forcefully. In an apparent attempt to curb attendance, the city’s metro cars did not stop at the nearest station. Video showed shoving matches as police tried to contain the protests. Some tried to climb barriers to escape the melee but were pulled back by uniformed officers.
[…] At the same time as the standoff escalated in Wuhan, another demonstration was beginning in Dalian, a city of 7 million on China’s northeast coast, where hundreds of elderly wrapped up in puffy winter jackets descended on People’s Square to protest the same changes.[Source]
To retirees, it looks like local governments are dipping into citizens’ personal health savings accounts to cover budget shortfalls.
[…] At large demonstrations this week, protesters argued that transferring funds from their accounts would be tantamount to theft of private property.
“This is our money, earned through blood and sweat,” one retiree from the central city of Wuhan said in a recorded phone call with the provincial medical insurance authorities, that has beenwidely shared online. “I complain because I believe in our government and our Communist Party to find a path forward to solve this.” [Source]
The Wuhan city government said last year that the changes would “effectively” ease people’s healthcare burdens.
But the protesters argue that the new outpatient insurance comes with a high deductible and low coverage, meaning it will cost them more to see a doctor.
“This is robbery,” said a protester in Wuhan. “The government wants to use my money to subsidise others without my permission.”
[…] Dozens of cities have also issued statements in recent days stressing the reforms’ benefits. [Source]
Reports of the protests in Wuhan and Dalian have beenheavily censoredonline. A China Digital Times analysis found that many related hashtags had been banned on Weibo, and attempts to search for them yielded error messages such as “Based on relevant laws, regulations, and policies, this topic cannot be displayed” or “Sorry, no relevant results were found.” The banned hashtags include #Wuhan Medical Insurance (#武汉医保),#Wuhan Zhongshan Park (#武汉中山公园),#Wuhan Medical Insurance Reform (#武汉医保改革), #Wuhan Medical Insurance Reform Major Adjustment (#武汉医保改革重大调整), and #Is There a Compensation Plan for Shrinking Balances in Medical Insurance Personal Accounts? (#医保个人账户缩水能不能有补偿方案).
This strict censorship has not prevented netizens from expressing support for the recent protests, which have been led primarily by senior citizens and retirees Some have even dubbed them the “White Hair Movement” (白发运动, Baifa Yundong), in a nod to the term “White Paper Movement” (白纸运动, Baizhi Yundong), which referred to the blank white sheets of paper held up by protesters during last autumn’snationwide demonstrationsagainstdraconian COVID controls and political repression.
trailblazer_L：#Wuhan Zhongshan Park,#10 Questions About the Chemical Pollution Incident in Ohio, #10 Questions About the Mass Shooting Incident in the U.S., #10 Questions About the Hypocrisy of American Democracy, but when I look for news from China … silence.
韩若冰与小天使：When I searched for Wuhan’s Zhongshan Park or information about medical system reform, I found that many Weibo articles have been deleted, or blocked, or suppressed by the powers above. It’s difficult, really difficult. And yet those grannies and grandpas are so brave, much braver than me …
爬啊爬啊过山河：#Medical Insurance Coverage (#医保报权) Today, many grandfathers and grandmothers gathered in Wuhan’s Zhongshan Park. In standing up for their rights, they defended the rights of everyone. What’s this nonsense about medical insurance reform? It’s just that the government has no money, so they’re trying to put the squeeze on ordinary citizens, but they’re trying to dress it up as “reform” so we humble chives don’t get too angry.
断了的弦—-：The grandmas and grandpas were as good as their word. They said they’d converge on Wuhan’s Zhongshan Park on the 15th, and they did. Awesome.[Chinese]
司马3忌：”Why do we still encounter such great resistance [to proposed insurance reforms]?” This is disguised as some deep philosophical question, but the writer already knows the answer. Reforms that affect people’s livelihoods usually involve sacrificing the interests of those at the bottom rungs of society, and that’s why resistance is inevitable.
种豆得瓜谢不谦：This medical insurance reform must be directly motivated by the need to pay for the last few years of mass nucleic acid testing, right?
HJY就是666：Medical insurance subsidies have shrunk, the retirement age has been raised, but there’s still plenty of cash to support the Belt and Road Initiative. Instead of showing off your muscles, how about first improving people’s livelihoods? [Chinese]
首尔先生：An inhumane country that has obliterated women’s human rights.
该努力了你呢：The bequest of an honorary professorship to a president who has stripped women of their right to an education is an embarrassment to Peking University.
果果爹V：Birds of a feather flock together. The same applies to humans.
神挖坑 ：As fish seek fish and shrimp gravitate toward shrimp, so do S.O.B.s find common company.
ZGsbZD：The most laughable moment in Peking University’s hundred-year-history. // 李清晨：Not necessarily—there’s some stiff competition.
AG隔世修罗：Regression is lovely. [In the original Chinese, a punon the honorific bestowedon first responders during the 2020 Wuhan COVID outbreak.]
蓉城又十年 ：The ____ of Peking University. How to best fill in the blank?
蜜柑星的哨戒班：All animals banished from the civilized world, unite!
舍尔纳Official：Wait, what’s this? Aren’t you always going on about “feudal superstition”? Have you defeated capitalism yet? [Chinese]
“The two sides … called on the Afghan rulers to form an inclusive government in which all ethnic groups and political groups actually participate, and cancel all discriminatory measures against women, ethnic minorities and other religions,” the statement said, adding that the U.S. and its NATO allies “should be responsible for the current situation in Afghanistan.”
[…] The call for women’s rights is notable coming from Iran’s hardline Shiite Muslim regime, which has been challenged by months of protests sparked by the death of a young woman in police custody for allegedly violating clothing requirements.
[…] In a meeting earlier with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Raisi expressed support for China’s crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong and claim to self-ruling democratic Taiwan. [Source]
The statement may have been little more than diplomatic trolling aimed at the United States. Chinese state media outlets were generally laudatory of the Taliban after the latter re-established political control of the country in 2021. Prominent nationalist commentator Hu Xijin was dubbed “Taliban in spirit” by sarcastic netizens after helauded China’s “friendship” with the Taliban. The Chinese government has offered the Talibanaid and economic development programs, but has yet to bestow diplomatic recognition. Recent reports indicate thatmajor Chinese investments in Afghanistan have been shelveddue to security risks.
Xi expressed support for Raisi’s government in language Beijing uses to criticize Washington’s domination of global affairs. China and Iran portray themselves, alongside Moscow, as counterweights to American power.
“China supports Iran in safeguarding national sovereignty” and “resisting unilateralism and bullying,” Xi said in a statement carried by Chinese state TV on its website. […] Xi said Beijing “opposes external forces interfering in Iran’s internal affairs and undermining Iran’s security and stability,” according to the government statement. It said Xi promised to “work together on issues involving each other’s core interests,” but gave no details.
Raisi’s government didn’t immediately release details of the meeting, but the president called the two governments “friends in difficult situations” in a commentary published Monday by the ruling Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily. [Source]
A shaky video ofchengguan,street-level urban management enforcers, ripping down decorative Spring Festival couplets in Jiangsu’s Pei County went viral this past week. The controversy metastasized after the freelance journalist who compiled—but did not personally shoot—the footage revealed that“unidentified” menwith Jiangsu accents visited his Shandong home in the middle of the night in an apparent attempt to intimidate him into deleting the clip. The decorations were originally destroyed as part of a clean-up campaign aimed at polishing the county seat’s credentials as a “civilized city,” a coveted national designation, ahead of an inspection by higher authorities.Pei County issued a statementsaying the destruction of the couplets was “disrespectful towards traditional folk customs” and announced that those involved had been punished, but did not acknowledge the cross-provincial intimidation attempt. Online discussion of the controversy focused on the dangers journalists continue to face and the seeming impunity enjoyed bychengguan, who enforce a vision of “civilization” that is sometimes at odds with popular tradition. The WeChat account @剑客写字的地方 published an essay onthe significance of local authorities’ refusal to acknowledge the midnight visits to the reporter’s home:
I must ask: Why did [Pei County’s] statement not mention the cross-provincial visit that was a direct result of an action they acknowledged was wrong? Is a “wrong compounded by a wrong” not wrong?
We all know why. The cross-provincial visit is a far more severe mistake than ripping down Spring Festival couplets.
What is civilization? A street without a speck of dust is not therefore “civilized.” The same applies to muffling the voices of the people. As the saying goes, “Eliminating the person who points out a problem solves it.” This phrase is all too true when applied to Mr. Jia [the reporter threatened by the unidentified men].
When this is all over, perhaps Mr. Jia will no longer dare to be inquisitive. Perhaps all those who paid attention to this incident will, when similar situations arise in the future, choose to shut their mouths and play it safe. As to what this bodes for our future, the answer should be obvious to all. [Chinese]
Jia’s case is not unique: it calls to mind last October’s “cross-provincial tea drinking experience” of a freelance journalist who criticized Zhejiang police. In this case, Jia’s sister tipped him off that men were looking to arrest him, so he was able to escape his hometown before the “unidentified” men found him. Ina widely shared articlefrom Shandong outlet Xinhuanghe, an anonymous source with knowledge of the matter said: “The three ‘outsiders’ have already left [Shandong]. They were simply aiming to calm down the situation by helping him delete the post. They had no malicious intent.” The incident is a salient reminder that despite platforms’advanced censorship algorithmsandarmies of censors, much censorship remains decidedly old school: late night visits from members of the security forces who demand authors delete offending posts.
Significant outrage was also directed at the behavior of the Jiangsuchengguan.Chengguanacross China have made something of a habit of destroying Spring Festival decorations.Reporting by state-news outlet Global Timesfound that a number of cities across the country publicly announced mass campaigns to rip down couplets left hanging after the end of New Year festivities—this, despite repeated warnings against their destruction at the hands ofchengguanfrom the central government.A 2021 opinion pieceon the practice, published to the authoritative state-run Xinhua News website, remindedchengguan: “When all is said and done, protecting a city’s ‘look’ is an important part of urban management—but so is keeping in mind popular sentiment. If popular sentiment is not taken into account, andchengguancontinue to do things like rip Spring Festival couplets down as they please, they will be tearing apart the public’s faith as well.” Attempts bychengguanto destroy Spring Festival couplets stem from a desire to enforce a vision of “civilization” that is often at odds with long-standing traditions. In July 2022, The Economist wrote aboutthe “civilized city” label that Party officials sometimes pursue to the detriment of efforts to address pressing social issues:
The Communist Party has been trying to make cities more civilized since the 1980s, when officials began to worry that market reforms and economic growth might cause moral and social decay. For years undercover inspectors have thus graded cities on dozens of measures. For one to be deemed civilized, streets must be spotless and traffic orderly. Residents should exercise, donate blood and support “acts of justice”.
Perhaps the top requirement is that a city do nothing to embarrass the party. It is therefore not exceedingly hard to make the cut; around 280 cities, districts and towns are currently considered civilized. Still, the label is worth a great deal to local officials. Many think it helps attract investment and tourists. More important, at least for officials, is that those who run cities that win the designation stand a better chance of being promoted.
[…] The party does not like it when officials waste time and resources. But the civilized label is creating bad incentives. In one city red banners were strung across buildings telling citizens to improve their “quality”. Officials in another sent a “commando team” of workers to “promote civilisation by picking up cigarette butts”. Signs above public urinals often urge users to stand closer to avoid a mess: “One small step forward is a big step for civilization!” [Source]
The entire incident underscores the political sensitivity of China’s weeks-long Lunar New Year holiday and the ruling Communist Party’s sometimes uneasy relationship with traditional culture, despiteXi’s embrace of syncretism.A censorship directiveposted by the Central Cyberspace Administration of China published on the eve of the holiday stressed the need to “cultivate a positive, spiritually healthy atmosphere for online public opinion during Spring Festival.” Despite censors’ best efforts, the Party’s attempts to co-opt the holiday into a pageant of state power has sometimes been met with disbelief, anger, and derision online. A “video call from Xi Jinping,” really a spliced clip of his New Year speech presented in the style of the WeChat user interface, was widely panned. One netizen commented: “Just watched the video. What stylish packaging. They didn’t even pretend to have someone on the line with him. The point being that our only role is to listen.” A city in Xinjiang thatmodified a traditional holiday trivia game into a propaganda exercisereceived similar online feedback. Most controversial of all is the government’s use of the annual Spring Festival Gala variety show topropagate a regressive imageof the ideal Chinese family that some critics hold seeks to turn women into exploitable “huminerals.”
