Books need a book number to get published and sold in China, although every store would have a little counter of banned or not approved books. But censorship rules have become stricter enforced over the years and when an autobiography of Li Rui, a retired party official, got confiscated at an airport, his daughter decided to take the case to court, writes journalist Ian Johnson in the New York Times.Read More →
The environmental documentary “Under the Dome” by Chai Jing has become more influential, even after Chna´s censors banned it from the internet. Not only because between 100 and 200 million already watched the documentary, says author Zhang Lijia to Bloomberg. The government can no longer brainwash the people.Read More →
Finally the government takes pollution serious, long after its citizens noted the dangers, concludes journalist Ian Johnson in ChinaFile, after a smog documentary was taken off the internet. But censors acted after 100 million Chinese watched the much-praised movie, that sparked off an unprecedented debate.Read More →
State media hailed a deal between Apple and the Chinese government to give access to Apple devices, including the source codes. An unlikely scenario, tells business analyst Ben Cavender to QZ. Read More →
Facebook has suspended the account of the exiled Chinese author Liao Yiwu, writes journalist Ian Johnson in the New York Times. Not or the first time, the censorship of the internet giant hits the wrong person. Liao opposes the move: “I didn’t knuckle under the Communist Party, and I won’t knuckle under Facebook.”Read More →
Remembering the gruesome past of the Cultural Revolution has been a touchy issue, suppressed by the government, even though many at the current leadership have been victims themselves. Journalist Ian Johnson describes how things might be changing in the New York Review of Books.Read More →
Author Shaun Rein has to defend his book The End of Copycat China: The Rise of Creativity, Innovation, and Individualism in Asia, against the blockade of internet companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter in an interview with Richard Heffner. This is how China´s protectionism has helped domestic firms.Read More →
Google services in China have been disrupted for the past ten days and business analyst Shaun Rein explains at Bloomberg TV how foreign and domestic businesses in China face limitations in their global operations. Although in the short run US tech firms suffer most.Read More →
When LinkedIn gained access to the attractive Chinese market, it had to make sure it would adhere to the country´s laws and regulations, including the censorship. Now, at June 4 we know what that means. Business analyst Shaun Rein tells the Wall Street Journal how he was censored.Read More →
Facebook is blocked in China, just like Twitter and Google, but is opening a sales office in China. Chinese companies have to tap into the sales power of Facebook as they go abroad, as their global ambitions grow, explains business analyst Shaun Rein on Bloomberg TV. How do you want to sell in Indonesia or the US if you are not on Facebook?Read More →
In a detailed write-up for the Columbia Journalism Review former foreign correspondent Howard French describes how Bloomberg started to engage in political reporting in China, to compete with the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, but killed a successful journalism project, after China´s power-brokers turned up the heat.Read More →
Twenty years ago the internet in China became available, and no other change has made such an impacts on the Chinese society, says Kaiser Kuo, director international communication at China´s largest search engine Baidu at CNN.Read More →