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Zhai Minglei

Zhai Minglei is an award-winning journalist and former reporter for Southern Weekend, a mainland newsweekly regarded internationally for its tough reporting of corruption and social issues. After leaving Southern Weekend, Zhai launched Minjian, a non-profit magazine for China’s NGO community. The magazine was shut down by authorities in 2007. Zhai now publishes his own online […]

Zhai Minglei is an award-winning journalist and former reporter for Southern Weekend, a mainland newsweekly regarded internationally for its tough reporting of corruption and social issues. After leaving Southern Weekend, Zhai launched Minjian, a non-profit magazine for China’s NGO community. The magazine was shut down by authorities in 2007. Zhai now publishes his own online “newspaper,” 1bao.org. In 2001, Zhai’s expose of corruption within Project Hope, one of China’s best-known non-profit programs, was selected as one of the year’s top news reports by Southern Weekend.

David Bandurski

CMP Director

Latest Articles

The Flip Side of Influence

Apr 17, 2024 | Alex Colville

For foreign influencers, China’s massive and potentially lucrative market is a huge draw. But national sensitivities are also a very real pitfall — as one influencer has learned this month.

Who is Seeing the Real America?

Apr 15, 2024 | Initium Media

“Zero-dollar shopping” videos depicting America as a lawless hellscape where woke politics mean criminals now go unpunished have been going viral for years within China and on Chinese-language social media abroad. What lies behind this strange trend?

Golden Opportunities

Apr 9, 2024 | David Bandurski

One of Southeast Asia’s largest media groups announced this month that it would collaborate on content with a Chinese magazine. Is it turning a blind eye to the powerful political motives and interests that lay behind?

Winning Hearts on a Korean Island

Apr 8, 2024 | David Bandurski

A recent series of events on South Korea’s remote Jeju Island offers a glimpse in miniature of China’s vast global media diplomacy campaign to paint the most pleasant picture of Xinjiang, where the country has been accused of serious human rights abuses.

Pleas and Appeals

Mar 22, 2024 | Alex Colville

After it went viral in China this month, video footage of a woman wailing before the altar of Bao Qingtian, an 11th-century official who has become a popular symbol of justice, drove a debate online about the difficulties of seeking recourse for official wrongs.

When the ByteDance CEO Groveled

Mar 20, 2024 | David Bandurski

With a US Senate debate on TikTok and its national security implications on the horizon, some media have asked what signs there are that the app’s parent company, ByteDance, is under the thumb of China’s leadership. An abject politically-laden apology six years ago by the company’s CEO cuts right through the questions.

The Ugly Politics of Media Obstruction

Mar 14, 2024 | David Bandurski

The harassment of state media reporters during a live report from the scene of a deadly explosion yesterday has angered some as an unacceptable act of interference. A closer look reveals a more disquieting truth — that such acts of obstruction are not an exception but the very nature of media policy in China.

Mo Yan Against the Martyrs

Mar 11, 2024 | Alex Colville

A spat about the red credentials of one of China’s most celebrated writers has been blown out of proportion on the Chinese internet, thanks to harsher nationalist laws and an increasingly rabid cancel culture.

Talking at Cross-Straits

Mar 8, 2024 | Alex Colville

Media reports in recent days have focussed concern over China’s plans for Taiwan, drawing on apparent changes in the political language used by senior PRC officials. But a more cool-headed look at the history of Taiwan talk suggests these changes are more of the same obscurity.

New Frontiers in Foreign Propaganda

Mar 5, 2024 | Dalia Parete

The latest collaboration between the Discovery Channel and state-run media in China has been accused of whitewashing genocide in Xinjiang. Why is this American network so keen to “tell China’s story well?”

The Local Game of Global Propaganda

Feb 29, 2024 | David Bandurski

A new regional media network for South Asia and Southeast Asia created by the government’s China Daily and the provincial propaganda apparatus in Yunnan offers another glimpse into how Xi Jinping is seeking to remake the CCP’s global communication.

When Science Fiction Meets Political Fact

Feb 22, 2024 | Alex Colville

A win for China in the Best Novella category at the 2023 Hugo Awards for science fiction has been lauded by state media amid global controversy over authors being shut out of the Chengdu-hosted event. But many Chinese readers have panned the winning work — and some suspect that its victory is politically too convenient.

Human Rights Heist at the United Nations

Feb 16, 2024 | David Bandurski

During its recent Universal Periodic Review China emphasized that it had its own path for human rights, rejecting “the West’s” focus on political rights. David Bandurski and Dalia Parete look at how related state narratives have emerged from the heart of the UN.

What Does the Party Stand to Gain from AI?

Jan 30, 2024 | Alex Colville

With the help of AI, CCP propaganda is becoming more targeted, accessible, and quickly made than ever before. We found one state-backed AI website and took it for a test drive.

Telling China’s Story in Stockholm

Jan 27, 2024 | David Bandurski

Angered by what he saw as biased coverage in the Western media in 2008, a Chinese resident in Sweden launched a newspaper and website for the Chinese diaspora in Nordic countries. The outlet is now a megaphone for the external propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party.

Furious Misreadings

Jan 25, 2024 | Alex Colville

How China’s latest pique over the ills of “Western media,” stemming from a cover illustration in The Economist magazine, entirely misses the point.

One Election, Two Reactions

Jan 23, 2024 | Dalia Parete

While China insists Taiwan is an internal affair, domestic media reactions to Taiwan’s elections have been muted. The bulk of state media coverage has instead been directed outwards at foreign readers. How do we account for this dichotomy?

Quake Comments Bring Suspension for TV Host

Jan 11, 2024 | Alex Colville

Remarks last week by Xiao Chenghao were just the latest in a pattern of schadenfreude that rears its ugly head in China whenever natural disaster strikes Japan. The disciplining of the Hainan Satellite TV host shows the tension between the official drive for a positive global image and the anti-Japanese sentiment often stoked for the leadership’…

What Does It Mean to Understand China?

Jan 4, 2024 | Dalia Parete

Originally meant as a platform for dialogue, the “Understanding China” international conference has become a mere stage for China’s ruling party. It stands as yet another example of how the notion of dialogue has become twisted by China’s media statecraft in the Xi era — and how cities and provinces are now being roped into the business of exter…

As Italy Exits BRI, Radio Silence

Dec 13, 2023 | Dalia Parete

When the Meloni government announced in July that Italy intended to exit Xi Jinping’s signature trade and infrastructure program, Chinese state media made their voices heard. But Italy’s formal step to withdraw last week has met with uncharacteristic quiet.

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