Last week, Chinese media reported that trees along the street in the city of Hefei, Anhui province, had been dressed up in red to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party.

In this cartoon, the online Chinese artist “aberrant hot pepper” explores the political dimensions of rising social unrest and violence in China, arguing in the simplest way that the solution is giving power to the people.

On the afternoon of May 19, Fang Bingxing (方滨兴), the president of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and the man who is often credited as having engineered China’s national internet controls, the so-called Great Firewall, was pummeled with eggs and shoes.

Ever since China’s local urban administrative and law enforcement bureaus were set up in 2001 with the goal of improving city governance as urban areas faced rapid growth, the units have been criticized for their seemingly unrestricted brutality.

In what for many Chinese is a worrying turn back to the painful pre-reform era of Communist Party rule, the propaganda department of the municipality of Chongqing is now mobilizing residents to sing the “red songs” of the Maoist days.

In December 2010, Chinese media reported that a sweatshop in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region had enslaved and abused 12 mentally disabled workers. The case, covered by People’s Daily Online here, exposed a nationwide practice of trading mentally disabled individuals into factories and workshops. In mid December, Zeng Lingquan, the owner of a shelter for […]

On the night of October 16, a sedan struck two female students in the dormitory area of Hebei University, killing one and seriously injuring the other, Chinese media reported. The driver, identified as Li Qiming (李启铭) (also known as Li Yifan/李一帆), the son of an influential local police official in Baoding City, reportedly did not […]

As CMP fellow Hu Yong (胡泳) explains, China’s blogosphere and microblogs “exploded” with conversation after dissident Liu Xiaobo (刘晓波) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on October 8, 2010. Under strict press controls, however, there have been few other voices of protest inside China against the imprisonment of Liu Xiaobo. The drawings of artist Kuang […]

In late September 2010, Guangzhou’s Southern Metropolis Daily published a report on a Beijing security firm, Beijing Anyuanding Security Technology Services Company Limited, whose principal business is intercepting and holding rights petitioners in the capital on behalf of local governments. The news quickly sparked anger across China, exposing the evils of the national policy of […]

As news comes that veteran journalist and CMP fellow Chang Ping (长平) has been prevented by authorities from writing for Southern Weekend and Southern Metropolis Daily, artist Kuang Biao (邝飚) depicts the writer’s predicament. Kuang writes: “When I heard the news a few days back, I drew this picture in a complete fury! I’ve said […]