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Portrait of Mao Zedong on Tiananmen Square (photo by Rabs003 via Wikimedia Commons) Chinese dissident Zhang Jilin (张吉林) has been detained by police in the city of Chongqing after publicly saying that President Xi Jinping should be removed from office. According to Taiwan-based Apple Daily , on January 17 Zhang talked about China's current affairs on a WeChat group. His ideas received praise from the group members, and he later told friends that he wanted to give a public speech based on the thoughts he had expressed online. Other dissidents urged him to be careful, but he insisted that he had "the right to free speech." On January 19 Zhang went to Guanyinqiao Square, in the city of Chongqing, and delivered a speech about China 's political situation, calling on Xi Jinping to be removed from office. "I think it's time for Xi Jinping to be removed from office," Zhang told a crowd according to an audio recording. "The Chinese Comm

Tsinghua University, main administrative building (by pfctdayelise via Wikimedia Commons ) German journalism student David Missal has been expelled from China after he filmed a documentary about human rights activists.  The 24-year-old was pursuing a master's programme at the prestigious Tsinghua University, in the Chinese capital Beijing. But on Sunday, August 12, he left the country after Chinese immigration authorities shortened his residence permit and denied him a visa extension.  Missal told Hong Kong Free Press that he had applied for a visa extension two months ago. On August 10 he went to the Entry-Exit Administration and was informed that his visa would not be renewed because he had engaged in activities that were not covered by his student visa. He was told that he had ten days to leave the country. “I asked them what kind of activities did I do… and they said you should know by yourself,” Missal said. He had received a DAAD scholarship for two years.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan) (by Voice of America via Wikimedia Commons ) The Taiwanese Foreign Ministry has deleted from its official account a tweet that mocked China for blocking the release of Christopher Robin , a live-action drama about Winnie the Pooh . According to the Hollywood Reporter,  the Chinese government  has not allowed the Disney film to be screened in the country. The report cited Beijing's crackdown on images of the Winnie the Pooh character as the reason for the ban. On August 8 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan) posted on its official  Twitter  account a tweet mocking China's ban on Winnie the Pooh.  " Taiwan 's #OhBear is dismayed at the ban slapped on his cousin Winnie's latest film by censors in #China. Make no mistake: All bears are created equal in #Taiwan & @DisneyCRobin is screening nationwide," the tweet read.  OhBear  is a masco

A Chinese woman has been allegedly taken to a psychiatric hospital after she splashed ink on a poster of President Xi Jinping. Dong Yaoqiong, a 29-year-old Chinese woman from Hunan Province, hit the headlines on July 4 after she live-streamed herself  splashing ink on a poster of the country's leader in Shanghai. In the video, which she posted on Twitter and soon went viral, she said that she opposed Xi Jinping's despotic one-man rule and the Communist Party's oppressive mind control.  Another tweet sent later that day from her account showed three police officers, two uniformed and one in plainclothes, standing outside her home. Dong subsequently disappeared, and her Twitter account under the handle @feefeefly was deactivated. In the meantime her account has been reactivated, but only the posts prior to the ink-spraying video are visible.  Embed from Getty Images On July 18 authorities in China 's Guangdong Province detained artist and political acti

Sanya, Hainan (by Alex Kwok via Wikimedia Commons) South China's Hainan Province  will set up  special tourist zones where travellers will be able to access popular foreign websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube that are currently blocked in mainland China.  According to state-run news outlet Global Times, this month   the government of Hainan Province has issued a three-year plan to improve the internationalization of the tourist industry. The plan includes the creation of special tourist zones with unrestricted internet access for overseas visitors. This move has been compared to the establishment of special economic zones during Deng Xiaoping's reform and opening up era in the late 1970s and 1980s.  China's internet is heavily censored by the Communist government. Last year Beijing launched a crackdown on the use of VPNs, which for decades have allowed users to bypass restrictions imposed by the authorities.  The island-province

Despite Beijing's pledge that Hong Kong's system would remain unchanged after 1997 , the institutions of Hong Kong are little by little aligning themselves with the national ideology of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).  According to local reports ,  the theatrical troupe  The Nonsensemakers  (糊塗戲班) was invited by  Hong Kong's Leisure and Cultural Services Department  to take part in an event in late March . However, the department asked that the name of the alma mater of one of the troupe's members, National Taipei University of the Arts, had to be changed and the word "National" had to be removed.  In a statement  published on their Facebook page, The Nonsensemakers explained: The Nonsensemakers were invited by the Leisure and Cultural Department to perform the piece " Three Novels: The Third Lie " from 18 to 20 March at the Tsuen Wan Town Hall . Because the Department was the organiser of the event, it was its responsibility to print

Tong Zhenyuan (credit: Wikipedia ) On 18 March Tong Zhenyuan (童振源), professor at National Zhengzhi University , visiting professor at Berkeley University and ex vice committee chairperson of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council , was invited by the Chinese website The Paper  (澎湃新闻网) to answer netizens' questions . However, about one hour after the beginning of the question-and-answer session, the broadcast was interrupted and taken down because Tong had used "sensitive words" which belong to the forbidden vocabulary of the People's Republic of China (PRC).  The Paper has a section called "Ask Questions" ( 問吧 ). Tong Zhenyuan had been invited to answer netizens' questions regarding the future of Cross-Strait relations and the possibility of peaceful reunification . Some netizens asked why young Taiwanese people endorse independence and why Taiwan does not recognise China.   Tong received over 200 questions and replied to 50 of

On March 19 Mark Zuckerberg , Founder and CEO of Facebook, was received in Beijing by Liu Yunshan (刘云山), member of the Politburo Standing Committee and of the Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) . According to Chinese media reports , Liu Yunshan said that the internet is a new common home for mankind and that shaping the future of the cyberspace community is a common responsibility of the international community (互联网是人类共同的新家园，构建网络空间命运共同体是国际社会的共同责任). "Chairman Xi Jinping 's 'Four Principles' and 'Five Propositions' regarding the administration of the World Wide Web have received widespread approval", Liu was quoted as saying.  He added that over the past twenty years China's internet has grown following "the path of development and governance with Chinese characteristics" (中国特色的发展治理之路).  Liu praised Facebook's advanced technology and management model and expressed his hope that the US company "might stre

Xi Jinping does not miss a chance to show who is in charge. From the army to the internet , from the arts to the economy , the Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party is eager impose on every sector of society his vision of the new China. And this vision is based on a simple principle: the "people" must follow the leadership of the Party, and the Party must follow his leadership. On February 19 Xi Jinping paid a high-profile visit to CNTV , China 's state television channel. He visited the control room and the broadcasting studio, took photos with journalists and was connected with the headquarters of CNTV in Washington DC. According to state-owned newspaper People's Daily , "90% of the staff [of CNTV] were present during the visit, Xi Jinping sent his greetings to the entire crew and wished them all the best". The obsequious faces of the TV staff show clearly why more and more young Chinese journalists are giving up on their profession

The Chinese internet company NetEase  has been accused by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) of "illegally republishing news and information, spreading pornography, rumour-mongering and other issues". According to a law against online rumours which was adopted in September 2013, internet users who spread "false information" will be charged with defamation if the posts carrying the alleged rumours are visited by at least 5,000 people or are shared more than 500 times. The Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate declared in a judicial interpretation that an internet user found guilty of spreading online rumours faces up to three years in jail. Rumour-mongering is considered a "serious breach" of Criminal Law. The CAC has not provided details about NetEase's alleged misbehaviour. The internet company is headquartered in Guangdong, one of the first provinces that benefited from China's "opening u

Wang Long, a 26-year-old Chinese activist, was arrested in Shenzhen because he posted pictures of Hong  Kong's Occupy Central on Chinese media. He was detained for " picking quarrels and provoking trouble ”. At least 3 people have been so far detained on the mainland because they posted photos of the protests in Hong Kong. Wang Long had already hit the headlines earlier this month when he sued China Unicom , a state-owned telecom provider, for denying access to Google websites and services. After the Occupy Central campaign was launched by Benny Tai on September 28, thousands of people have joined the demonstrations. The images of the protests have been shared by millions of people all over the world, but not in mainland China, where censorship has been at work to prevent the Chinese people from seeing what is really happening in Hong Kong.