Politics

posts on political issues relevant to Greater China

AI straight-washes gay couple in ‘Together’

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Source: China Digital Times (9/23/25)
Netizen Voices: AI Straight-washes Gay Couple in Imported Horror Movie “Together” [Updated: Film Withdrawn]
By Samuel Wade

The critically acclaimed U.S.-Australian body-horror movie “Together” launched in China on September 19. Some viewers noted, alongside cuts to sex scenes, a less familiar and overt form of alteration: one male character in a scene originally depicting a same-sex wedding was digitally replaced with a woman. [Updated on September 25, 2025: The film’s global distributor has blamed its local distributor for the changes, saying “Neon does not approve of Hishow’s unauthorized edit of the film and have demanded they cease distributing this altered version.”] The exact circumstances surrounding the change are unclear, but the following comments, compiled by CDT Chinese editors, illustrate the resulting storm of indignant criticism on film-focused corners of platforms like Douban, Zhihu, and Xiaohongshu (RedNote). Several refer to the Chinese government’s longstanding stance toward homosexuality of 不支持不反对 bù zhīchí bù fǎnduì, or “neither supporting nor opposing.” That purported balance has increasingly tilted toward opposition in recent years, with LGBTQ+ content and organizations facing mounting suppression. Other comments express fear that the face-swapping heralds a new wave of more technologically advanced and less readily identifiable censorship.

rockiron99: The mainland Chinese version of “Together” uses AI technology to “face swap” a same-sex couple from the original film into a straight couple. If they just deleted scenes, we could work it out by watching BluRay or streaming versions, and even scene alterations like cropping, dimming, or photoshopping in skirts could be fairly readily identified. But the evolution of alteration methods like this AI face-swapping is terrifying … in the future, we won’t even be able to tell if we’re watching the original film or not.

Superbia: We’ve reached the point where it’s not a matter of cuts, but of falsification and misrepresentation.

有劳犬子费心了： This is nauseating because it not only interferes with the integrity of the plot, it disrespects the sexual orientation of the actors. Congrats to those Chinese with thin skins for pioneering this new mode of film import. Next time, they might as well straight-swap “Call Me by Your Name” for hetero screenings. Continue reading AI straight-washes gay couple in ‘Together’ →

Comparing genocides

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NEW PUBLICATION
Comparing genocides: Forced assimilation in Nazi Europe and East Turkestan (Xinjiang), China
Forced assimilation as a neglected yet crucial instrument of genocide, past and present.
By Magnus Fiskesjö

–My new article at SINOPSIS (Prague) issued on 26 Sept. 2025, comparing Xi Jinping’s ongoing forced assimilation (Sinicization) as genocide against the Uyghurs and others today, with Hitler’s interrupted plans for forced assimilation (Germanization) of the Czechs and of the rest of Occupied Europe, as an instrument of the Nazi genocides.

How to silence dissent

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Source: NYT (9/22/25)
How to Silence Dissent, Bit by Bit Until Fear Takes Over
阅读简体中文版| 閱讀繁體中文版 | Leer en español
In China, journalism and public debate were opening up, and then a leader took over and used a series of steps to dictate speech.
By Li Yuan

Credit…Dongyan Xu

In early March, I asked a lawyer, a naturalized citizen living in Texas, whether he shared the unease among Chinese immigrants that American politics under President Trump was beginning to echo the China we left behind: fawning officials, intimidation of the press and business leaders currying favor with leadership.

He shrugged. As long as late-night talk show hosts can still make fun of the president, he said, American democracy is safe.

For those of us who grew up under strict censorship, late-night comedy always felt like an emblem of American freedom. The idea that millions of Americans could go to bed each night having watched their presidents mocked felt almost magical, something unimaginable where we came from.

That’s why ABC’s suspension of the Jimmy Kimmel show after pressure from the Trump administration, amid the president’s public threats toward critical journalists, felt so jarring. To many Chinese who have endured the relentless erosion of speech by the country’s top leader, Xi Jinping, it felt ominous. Free speech rarely vanishes in a single blow. It erodes until silence feels normal.

“Coming from a dictatorship, people like me are sharply attuned to these things,” said Zhang Wenmin, a former investigative journalist in China better known for her pen name Jiang Xue. “We can sense how freedoms are chipped away little by little.”

Ms. Zhang was repeatedly harassed and threatened for what state security agents called her “negative reporting” on China. She now lives in the United States. Continue reading How to silence dissent →

Zhang Zhan sentenced a second time

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Source: The Guardian (9/22/25)
UN and rights groups condemn reported jailing of Wuhan Covid citizen journalist
Zhang Zhan sentenced to four years for second time on charge often used by China to target government critics
By  Senior China correspondent

Zhang Zhan provoked the ire of the authorities after she travelled to Wuhan in February 2020 to report on the initial response to the Covid-19 outbreak. Photograph: YouTube/AFP/Getty Images

The UN, human rights groups and media freedom watchdogs have condemned reports that Zhang Zhan, a Chinese citizen journalist, was sentenced to jail for the second time last week.

Zhang, 42, is thought to have stood trial in Shanghai on Friday on a charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, a charge often used in China to target critics of the government. Western diplomats were reportedly turned away from observing the trial.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a media freedom NGO, said on Saturday that Zhang had been sentenced to four years in prison.

The sentencing came 16 months after she was released following a four-year sentence on the same charge. Zhang provoked the ire of the authorities after she travelled to Wuhan in February 2020 to report on the initial response to the Covid-19 outbreak. She was one of a number of independent journalists to be detained for broadcasting reports about the severe lockdown at ground zero of the pandemic. Continue reading Zhang Zhan sentenced a second time →

Xi parades firepower

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Source: NYT (9/2/25)
Xi Parades Firepower to Signal That China Won’t Be Bullied Again
阅读简体中文版 | 閱讀繁體中文版
The parade, attended by the leaders of Russia and North Korea, had a defiant message. President Trump fired back, accusing Xi Jinping of ignoring America’s role in World War II.
By David Pierson (David Pierson reported from Beijing, where he was told to be in position at 2:45 a.m. along with other journalists covering the parade.)

China’s flag is raised as a military band plays during a parade.

China’s flag was raised as a military band played during the parade. Credit…Greg Baker/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, presided over a massive military parade in Beijing on Wednesday featuring fighter jets, missiles and goose-stepping troops as he issued a defiant warning to rivals not to challenge his country’s sovereignty.

His message was underscored by the leaders gathered by his side in the viewing gallery, representing states that have challenged or questioned American dominance of the global order. He was flanked by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, along with the leaders of Iran, Pakistan and other mostly authoritarian nations.

Cannons fired 80 times to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II, as soldiers carried a Chinese flag and marched across a red carpet covering part of Tiananmen Square. Crowds watching the parade waved small flags and saluted as the national anthem was played and the flag was raised. Later, pigeons and balloons — said to number 80,000 each — were released into the air.

The parade was the highlight of a weekslong campaign by the ruling Communist Party to stoke nationalism, recast China’s role in World War II and project the party as the nation’s savior against a foreign aggressor, Imperial Japan. The evoking of wartime memories serves to rally domestic Chinese support in the face of economic uncertainty and tensions with the United States, which Mr. Xi has accused of trying to contain and suppress China. Continue reading Xi parades firepower →

Free Zhang Zhan

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Source: China Unofficial Archives (8/28/25)
Free Zhang Zhan: Constructing Public Space for Memory
By Zhu Zhu

[中国民间档案馆 China Unofficial Archives is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber at the above link.]

The cover of Free Zhang Zhan.

Exactly one year ago today, on August 28, 2024, Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan was arrested by Shanghai police at her home in Xianyang, Shaanxi province, on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” She is currently being detained, and her case has not yet gone to trial.

Zhang, now 42, was born in Xianyang, Shaanxi Province. She holds a master’s degree in finance and moved to Shanghai in 2010 as a financial professional, later working as a lawyer. Zhang could have led a comfortable life as a white-collar professional in Shanghai, but her concern for social issues led her to become an active voice on online platforms and to participate in civil rights defense, which resulted in the revocation of her lawyer’s license by the Chinese authorities.

After the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in 2020, she went to the locked-down city of Wuhan alone to conduct independent reporting. She became one of the most prominent Chinese citizen journalists to emerge during the pandemic and immediately faced a series of suppressive actions from the Chinese government. Continue reading Free Zhang Zhan →

Lin Zhao and Me

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Too long to post here in their entirety, find below links to Gu Yan’s two-part memoir about his relationship with Lin Zhao. Fascinating reading.–Kirk Denton

Source: China Unofficial Archives (8/26-27/25)
我与林昭（上篇）： “她走上了夏瑜的道路” （顾雁回忆录选登）
“She Chose a Martyr’s Path”: Lin Zhao and Me (Part 1) (Selected Excerpt from Gu Yan’s Memoirs)

我与林昭（下篇）： “她走上了夏瑜的道路” （顾雁回忆录选登）
“She Chose a Martyr’s Path”: Lin Zhao and Me (Part 2) (Selected Excerpt from Gu Yan’s Memoirs)

Mass protest in Jiangyou

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Source: China Digital Timess (8/22/25)
Sensitive Words: Intense Online Censorship of Video and Hashtags About Mass Protests in Jiangyou, Sichuan Province
By Cindy Carter

Following rare mass protests that broke out in the city of Jiangyou in Sichuan province earlier this month in response to the bullying of a 14-year-old girl, CDT Chinese editors have tracked unusually intense online censorship of related videos, photos, hashtags, articles, comments, and other content.

The protests were sparked by a July 22 incident of verbal and physical abuse against a girl by three other teenaged girls in an abandoned building. Footage of the abuse taken by bystanders spread online, and although the incident was reported to city police the same evening, it was not until August 2 that police finally brought the girls in for questioning. Two days later, the police issued a statement announcing that two of the bullies had been sent to correctional school and that another, along with some of the bystanders, had been given formal reprimands. The slap-on-the-wrist punishment for such a serious assault—along with the fact that the girl, whose mother is deaf and whose father is a migrant worker, had been frequently bullied beforehand—provoked public outrage.

Hundreds of local residents gathered in front of Jiangyou City Hall to support the family and protest officials’ callous handling of the case. Protest videos shared online showed the crowd arguing with local officials, singing the national anthem, shouting slogans such as “No to bullying” and “Give us back democracy.” As the crowds grew, a large number of police were dispatched to “maintain order.” The police used batons and pepper spray on the protesters, many of whom were arrested and carted away in red trucks usually used to transport pigs. Videos shared online showed people bloodied, beaten, and being removed from the protest site. Suppression continued until the following morning, and military trucks equipped with cell-phone signal jammers appeared on the scene. (For additional Chinese-language video content, see below for CDT Chinese’s CDTV compilation about the protests, and “The Jiangyou Incident,” a YouTube documentary from @YesterdayBigcat.) Continue reading Mass protest in Jiangyou →

Hong Kong forum on Xinjiang relays Chinese state propaganda

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The independent Hong Kong-focused magazine《棱角 The Points》published an interesting article on Aug. 20, 2025, about an invitation-only Hong Kong academics gathering to promote the Chinese Party line on the Xinjiang atrocities.

Here I offer some preliminary comments and also a link to the article in the original Chinese, plus a lightly edited machine translation, below.

It is interesting yet somewhat predictable. Some of the people involved are recognizable as longtime, well-known propagandists and denialists. It is also no surprise that it was invitation-only, not public. These scholars seem to be using their universities’ name recognition not to further discussion, but to further Chinese state propaganda.

The lead poster names include Nury Vittachi, a rather vicious propagandist, whose actions as a journalist and writer are well summarized. Barry Sautman, too: this is a scholar who once wrote decently on Tibet, but then in recent years has turned into a pro-PRC parrot, also well described here. –I did not know the name of the Xinjiang university Chinese scholar Lin Fangfei 林芳菲 but it is no surprise that they mobilize people like that, to join the chorus and parrot the party line on Xinjiang — in her case to deny the amply documented forced labor. One more participant featured on the poster, listed with a cryptic title on Hongkong matters, is anonymous.

What is something of a surprise to me is the Canadian scholar William Schabas, based at Middlesex in Britain. He is a longtime genocide scholar, who has long been regarded by many as respectable, with general books on international law. He is a recipient of the Order of Canada, elected member of academies, and so on. It seems he moved to England after leaving Leiden U, where he taught for years. Something strange happened with Schabas that has not been fully explained and isn’t mentioned by The Points: In 2019, he surprised the world by taking on the task of defending the Burmese military junta at the ICJ in the Hague against accusations that they are committing genocide against the Rohingya, brought by the Gambia on behalf of a long list of Muslim countries. That was a big shocker. At the time, he was asked by a journalist why he would do that, and he gave no explanation other than chuckling and saying that ‘everyone deserves representation’ (so, even blood-soaked generals) — as if he were not a decent scholar but simply a lawyer for hire by whatever criminal can pay him. In my view, given how he is now parroting Chinese state propaganda on Xinjiang, it could well be that he helped the Burmese military junta simply because Western nations (and the Islamic world) were pretty unified against that junta’s atrocities against the Muslim Rohingya. Continue reading Hong Kong forum on Xinjiang relays Chinese state propaganda →

Dongji Rescue

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Source: BBC News (8/21/25)
‘He owed his life to those Chinese fisherman’: Dongji Rescue and the true story of a forgotten act of WW2 heroism
A new film dramatises the rescue during WW2 of hundreds of British POWs from the Lisbon Maru, a Japanese cargo liner. The story has not been widely recounted – until now.
By Emma Jones

Trinity Cine Asia Still from Dongji Rescue (Credit: Trinity Cine Asia)

On 1 October 1942, a Japanese cargo liner, the Lisbon Maru, was being used to transport 1,816 British prisoners of war (POWs) to captivity in Japan. It was torpedoed off the coast of China by a US submarine, unaware that Allied prisoners were on board. According to survivors, the Japanese troops battened down the hatches of the hold before they evacuated the ship and left the British prisoners inside.

As the Lisbon Maru sank, the British mounted an escape, only to be fired at by the Japanese troops. Help arrived in the form of Chinese fishermen from the islands nearby, who rescued 384 men from the sea. These true events were the inspiration for first a documentary by Chinese film-maker Fang Li, The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru, released in China in 2024, and now a lavish Chinese blockbuster, Dongji Rescue.

The voice of Jack Hughieson from the Royal Navy describes, in an interview for the Imperial War Museum in London, how he heard doomed men still trapped inside the hold of the Lisbon Maru singing the wartime marching song, It’s A Long Way to Tipperary. “I can still hear it to this day,” he says. “Between the yells, the cries for help, was the singing. You could hear from the water… the cries of men going to meet their maker.” Continue reading Dongji Rescue →

Soft resistance

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Source: NYT (8/20/25)
Hong Kong Officials Harden Their Stance on ‘Soft Resistance’
With pro-democracy movements long squashed, the government is targeting any hint of subtler expressions of discontent. Even establishment figures say it may be too much.
By Joy Dong, Reporting from Hong Kong

A room crowded with people and stalls selling books.

An independent book fair in Hong Kong last month. A pro-Beijing newspaper said the fair was “full of soft-resistance intentions.”Credit…Peter Parks/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Hong Kong authorities have a new favorite buzzword: “soft resistance.”

The phrase, which is used to describe anything seen as covertly subversive or insidiously defiant against the government, is showing up in news reports, speeches by top officials, and warnings from government departments. Officials and propaganda organs have warned of the threat of possible “soft resistance” in a book fair, music lyrics, a U.S. holiday celebration and environmental groups.

The term and its widespread official use reflect the political climate of a city that has been transformed since Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020, after quashing mass pro-democracy demonstrations in 2019.

Protests disappeared, and the political opposition was largely dismantled by the yearslong crackdown that followed. Now, with such “hard resistance” held at bay, the authorities appear to be targeting what they see as the next threat: subtler, inconspicuous expressions of discontent.

Officials have warned that Hong Kong continues to be threatened by foreign forces, led by the United States, that seek to destabilize Hong Kong in order to block China’s rise. To the authorities, “soft resistance” is nothing short of a national security threat, and at least a dozen senior officials have used the term in recent weeks. Warning signs include messaging that is deemed to be critical of the government or sympathetic to the opposition or to protesters, whom the authorities have described as rioters or terrorists. Continue reading Soft resistance →

Ai Weiwei visits Ukrainian front lines

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Source: The Art Newspaper (8/18/25)
‘Their resolve is incredibly strong’: Ai Weiwei visits soldiers on Ukrainian front lines
As Ukraine’s president prepared for a high-stakes visit to Washington, DC, the Chinese artist and activist visited Eastern Ukraine
By Sophia Kishkovsky

Ai Weiwei with Ukrainian troops Photo courtesy Ai Weiwei, via Instagram

Ai Weiwei with Ukrainian troopsPhoto courtesy Ai Weiwei, via Instagram.

Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist and activist, has travelled to the front lines of Ukraine’s war against Russia’s full-scale invasion just weeks before unveiling a new commission in Kyiv. In eastern Ukraine, near Kharkiv, Ai met with Ukrainian fighters and cultural figures as well as Pyotr Verzilov, a member of Pussy Riot who is fighting against Russia for Ukraine.

In a series of photographs and videos posted on Instagram without any commentary over the weekend, Ai documented his meetings with Ukrainian soldiers in forests and trenches, cultural figures and landmark Constructivist architecture in Kharkiv—which is under regular Russian attack—and images of support including the blue and yellow national flag, fields of sunflowers and a puzzle of Reply of the Zaporizhzhian Cossacks (1880-91), a painting by the Ukrainian-born artist Ilya Repin.

At least ten people were killed in Kharkiv and in Zaporizhzhia by Russian drone strikes on Sunday night and Monday morning (17-18 August), just hours before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders were scheduled to meet at the White House with US President Donald Trump. Following a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on 15 August, Trump is pressuring for a trilateral meeting with Putin and Zelensky. Continue reading Ai Weiwei visits Ukrainian front lines →

Yu Luoke and ‘On Class Origins’

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Source: China Unofficial Archives (8/19/25)
The Flower of Thought That Blossomed in a Barren Wasteland: Yu Luoke and “On Class Origins”
By Hu Ping

Yu Luoke at home (1967).

[中国民间档案馆 China Unofficial Archives is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber at the above link]

Exactly 59 years ago, in the “Red August” that followed the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, a couplet was everywhere in China: “If a father is a hero, then his son is a true man; if a father is a reactionary, then his son is a bastard.” Yu Luoke, a 24-year-old apprentice in Beijing, wrote a long article titled “On Class Origins” (also known in English as “On Family Background”). It was the most powerful challenge to the Chinese Communist Party’s long-standing policy of discrimination against people–including their children–who belonged to certain classes in society that the party defined as its enemies.

In that darkest of times, Yu raised a powerful voice for equality and human rights, shaking the entire country in a way not seen since the founding of the People’s Republic of China nearly two decades earlier. In January 1968, Yu was arrested and imprisoned. On March 5, 1970, the authorities executed him as a “counter-revolutionary,” at the age of 27.

Yu’s impact was all the more remarkable because he had been into a family belonging to one of the “five black categories” (heiwulei) of defined class enemies: landlords, rich farmers, counter-revolutionaries, rightists, and a catch-all group known as bad elements. One might assume this discrimination would weaken as time passed and the authorities’ power became more secure. However, in the 1960s, discrimination against the children of class enemies actually grew more severe. This was partly because Mao Zedong, in 1962, called on everyone to “never forget class struggle.” Continue reading Yu Luoke and ‘On Class Origins’ →

‘Reverse Runology’

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Source: China Digital Times (8/15/25)
“Reverse Runology?” Some Émigrés Reconsider Their Escape from China
By Arthur Kaufman

The struggle for a better life has long pushed many Chinese citizens to escape difficult conditions at home. In the most recent waves of emigration, tens of thousands of Chinese migrants have made perilous journeys through Central America along the “walking route,” or zǒuxiàn (走线), in an attempt to reach the southern U.S. border. But the political climate at their destination has become increasingly hostile, particularly under the new U.S. administration, which has deterred Chinese tech talent and restricted Chinese student visas (building on restrictive measures under the previous administration). Now, some Chinese migrants are reconsidering their escape routes and looking beyond America—or returning home.

The impetus to emigrate in recent years is encapsulated by the term “run” (润) or “runology” (润学). Recent CDT translations have illustrated how persistent youth unemployment, continual pandemic-era surveillance, and a repressive political environment, among other issues, have contributed to a feeling of malaise and a loss of faith in the Chinese Dream. Last week in the Made in China Journal, Dino Ge Zhang situated “runology” in the context of “Sinopessimism”, describing it among other negative affects and exit strategies for youth disenchanted with contemporary Chinese life. But the author hinted that the practice of runology ultimately may not yield desirable results, particularly for those who have chosen to flee to the U.S.: Continue reading ‘Reverse Runology’ →

You Must Take Part in Revolution

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Source: China Digital Times (7/24/25)
Interview: Badiucao and Melissa Chan on Their Graphic Novel, You Must Take Part in Revolution
By Samuel Wade

You Must Take Part in Revolution is a graphic novel by Badiucao, political cartoonist and former CDT contributor, and Melissa Chan, a journalist who in 2012 became the first reporter to be expelled from China in more than a decade. The book was conceived in the wake of the 2019 Hong Kong protests, and follows the divergent paths of three friends in Hong Kong and Taiwan from their involvement in the protests through to 2035.

CDT: I’m sure anyone reading CDT is familiar with each of you separately. How did the two of you come to join forces?

Melissa Chan: I’d interviewed Badiucao for a piece I wrote for The Atlantic about Chinese creatives in exile in Berlin. And then, during lockdown, I was back at my childhood home and my old bookshelf, re-reading my comic books and graphic novels. One day I just reached out to him and asked if he’d ever considered producing sequential art. It was just a passing thought—I didn’t know it would be the beginning of a five-year journey that would end with 260+ pages of a published graphic novel!

Badiucao: I’d always believed the comic and graphic novel forms had special powers to communicate messages. And I noticed there seemed to be a general gap in terms of content touching on China, human rights, and resistance. So I had the intention to produce something. That’s been on my mind a long time. But you need a good story, too. And then it felt very natural to team up with Melissa who is one of the best journalists to have covered China and who is also a great writer. Continue reading You Must Take Part in Revolution →