On Tuesday evening, hundreds of residents in the southwestern municipality of Chongqing took to the streets to protest what they saw as official inaction in the face of the torture and killing of pet dogs by a local man. Videos circulating online — removed inside China but still available on X and YouTube — showed police beating and arresting demonstrators outside the residential compound where the perpetrator reportedly lives. For the local government, the tensions were surely an unwelcome distraction from the city’s marquee event this week — a major international media and AI forum hosted by the state-run China Media Group (CMG).

Kicking off today, the fifth Global Media Innovation Forum, co-hosted by CMG and the Chongqing municipal government, has reportedly brought close to 300 media leaders, policymakers, and tech innovators from around the world. The forum bills itself as a premier international platform for exchange on media transformation. According to promotional coverage from the government-run iChongqing, it is also a vehicle for enhancing China’s “international communication capabilities.”

Meanwhile, the animal rights protests — rare in China, according to Taiwan’s United Daily News (UDN) — have met with heavy censorship online. The outlet reported that a man surnamed Li allegedly adopted pets through social media under false pretenses before abusing them. Police detained Li on June 8, but on charges of property damage rather than animal cruelty, which is not currently defined in Chinese laws. Earlier this year, an ordinance on animal rights protection was drafted in Fujian province’s Sanming city, but was quietly pulled without explanation before its public comment period closed, UDN reported.