Headlines and Hashtags

Media coverage of academic plagiarism highlights internal tug-of-war over fair game and taboo in news reporting

David Bandurski

CMP Director

Latest Articles

China’s Press Under Xi Jinping Thought

Nov 22, 2023 | David Bandurski

State media coverage of a ceremony yesterday to honor the recipients of China’s most prestigious journalism awards makes clear that the most prized asset in China’s press is control.

A Single Pager on the Biden-Xi Summit

Nov 17, 2023 | David Bandurski

With so much reporting and analysis to consume in the wake of the meeting between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden, we break down China’s response by focusing on the country’s most important front page.

Flowers in Hefei

Nov 10, 2023 | Xue Laidi

In cities and villages across China, young and old gathered in places like Hefei’s Patriot Lane last week to mourn the passing of China’s former premier, Li Keqiang. Who they were mourning mattered less than the idea that he had been a good man.

Desert Power, Discourse Power

Nov 2, 2023 | Ryan Ho Kilpatrick

The latest outpost for China’s nascent International Communication Centers has been unveiled in Lanzhou New Area, a satellite city on the edge of the Gobi that has been dismissed as a ghost town. What does this tell us about China’s external propaganda efforts directed westward to Belt and Road partners?

Sidelined in Death, as in Politics

Nov 1, 2023 | David Bandurski

Since former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang passed away last week, his legacy has been quietly boxed up and filed away. The current leadership under Xi Jinping hopes that the nation can move quickly past his pragmatism and the questions it raises about the present.

China’s Fake Press Problem

Oct 26, 2023 | David Bandurski

Controls on news and information in China, seen as key to protecting the CCP regime, are perhaps the strictest in the world. So how — and why — are entirely spurious media outfits operating right under the nose of the authorities?

The Visual Language of China’s Official Press

Oct 20, 2023 | David Bandurski

Understanding the political messages of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) requires much more than mere summary and translation — and more even than close textual readings. Here’s a walk through the basics, looking at today’s edition of the Party’s flagship newspaper.

Xi Jinping’s Cathedral of Pretense

Oct 13, 2023 | David Bandurski

With the addition of a grandiose new buzzword in China for culture and civilization, it may seem that a towering future is on the horizon. We take a hard look at the foundations of “Xi Jinping Thought on Culture.”

Reading China’s Media Counter-Attack

Oct 5, 2023 | David Bandurski

China responded with fury and indignation to a report alleging that it has invested billions to build a “global information ecosystem” to spread propaganda and disinformation. A media analysis of the country’s response, which paints the US as an “empire of lies,” only substantiates the report’s main thesis.

Gilding the Panda

Sep 20, 2023 | David Bandurski

Attending the Cannes Film Festival and taking home the coveted Palme d’Or is every filmmaker’s dream. Will they someday yearn for the Panda d’Or? Not if the prize is about the politics of civilization.

A Law to Protect China’s Feelings

Sep 14, 2023 | Ryan Ho Kilpatrick

The draft of a new legal amendment criminalizing speech or dress that “hurts the feelings of the Chinese nation” has attracted a wave of criticism online. Against the backdrop of rising nationalist sentiment in China, has Beijing overstepped the mark?

The Chinese People Have Stand-Up

Aug 30, 2023 | Vickie Wang

China’s crackdown on stand-up comedy in May this year was swift and decisive — as was the medium’s rise during the pandemic years. Taiwanese comedian Vickie Wang offers her inside perspective on why the format has struck such a chord with young Chinese audiences.

What Does Xi Jinping Mean By “Forever”?

Aug 30, 2023 | David Bandurski

During a dialogue with African nations last week, Xi Jinping declared that China will “forever be a member of the developing world.” Critics of China’s preferential treatment in the developed world will want to know exactly what he means.

The Battle of Brick Lane

Aug 18, 2023 | CMP Special Contributor

The “core socialist values” suddenly appearing on a wall in London might have sounded familiar to locals. But the line drawn by China’s leadership is clear: “universal values” are Western and “core socialist values” are Chinese — and never the twain shall meet.

Code Pink, Code Red

Aug 16, 2023 | David Bandurski

The China-related agenda of the “Women for Peace” organization might be taken more seriously as a call for respectful dialogue and cooperation if its narratives were not so closely aligned with those of the Chinese party-state.

Red Patriots in Hong Kong

Aug 8, 2023 | CMP Staff

A school that raised eyebrows during the territory’s colonial past for nurturing “red aristocrats” is today being upheld as a model school for patriotic education. A letter to students from Chinese leader Xi Jinping is the latest attempt to drum up enthusiasm for an issue that has long been controversial in the city.

China’s Foreign Minister is Sacked, and Erased

Jul 26, 2023 | David Bandurski

The fate of Qin Gang has been the subject of endless speculation in recent weeks, as he has disappeared from public view. The apparent erasure this week of all official news releases including his name within the ministry’s own website is another bizarre twist.

Jewish Conspiracy Theories Find an Audience in China

Jul 18, 2023 | Jordyn Haime

Anti-Jewish content and conspiracies take up significant real estate among the top results on Chinese media platforms including Douyin, WeChat and Bilibili. Though borrowed from the West, they have taken on a localized identity.

The Telegram

Jul 13, 2023 | Qian Gang

In this wonderful reflection from our 2014 archives, former CMP director and veteran journalist Qian Gang shares his experiences as pro-democracy demonstrations gripped China in the spring of 1989 — and the consequences of his own support for a newspaper editor at the center of events.

Telling the Mekong Story

Jul 11, 2023 | David Bandurski

As China pursues water diplomacy with countries along the Lower Mekong, seeking to strike a benevolent tone and downplay environmental and livelihood impacts that have devastated local communities, it has another big tool in its toolbox — media diplomacy.

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