The extent to which Han Chinese refuse to see the repression of minorities in China sometimes leaves me despairing. But I have also seen a growing number of young Han Chinese discovering these injustices—and responding with intense compassion for the suffering of minorities.

I can’t recommend this episode enough for understanding the CCP machinery of repression. This Han police officer sees himself as a victim of the system, which is true, but is unwilling to recognize that he was also a perpetrator. That’s disappointing, but not surprising.

不明白播客@bumingbai.net · 6d ago

张亚博在新疆当了9年警察，参与中国政府对维吾尔人的大规模监控、拘禁和强制同化政策。他反复说，自己只是在执行命令，是国家机器上的“小螺丝钉”。他甚至认为，自己也是体制的受害者。受到体制的伤害，能否免除一个人协助体制加害他人的责任？ 这期播客探讨了关于责任、罪责和救赎，欢迎点击收听、收看： youtu.be/_aAAAT3kYP4

When I asked DeepSeek and ChatGPT in English, “Is the right to development a human right?” DeepSeek cited more Chinese official sources in its response. And while ChatGPT noted that “governments cannot invoke development to override other rights,” DeepSeek omitted that crucial point.

The Global Danger of China’s State-Controlled AI Models

The spread of Chinese AI models with built-in censorship mechanisms could quietly shape the global information environment for the worse.

worldpoliticsreview.com

My new piece in @wpr.bsky.social argues that the spread of Chinese AI models is not just about censorship of obviously sensitive topics such as Tiananmen and Xinjiang, but also about the subtler ways these models may shape how we understand the world. www.worldpoliticsreview.com/china-ai-mod...

Chinese AI models don’t just censor sensitive topics, they subtly reshape how people understand events like Taiwan and the war in Ukraine, Yaqiu Wang (@yaqiu.bsky.social) writes. As these models spread worldwide, that could quietly reshape the global information environment.

The Global Danger of China’s State-Controlled AI Models

The spread of Chinese AI models with built-in censorship mechanisms could quietly shape the global information environment for the worse.

worldpoliticsreview.com

I don't know why the American left is so confident that a new order would emerge from the collapse of the current international order - which they seem happy to see. It may produce no order at all, only disorder from which we all suffer.

The CCP wants people in China to trust its disinformation while warning them not to trust random online clickbait. But dear CCP: your own fake news which no one believes has created a vacuum for everyone else’s fake news to thrive.

Stephen McDonell@stephenmcdonell.bsky.social · last wk.

"Fabricators are using disaster news to try to gain followers, knowing more sensational/exaggerated content will garner more likes/views. They're deliberately fabricating information to grab attention," Huang Zhihua, Zhejiang Police Department. CLICK LINK www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Kimi K3’s success could carry the CCP’s information control beyond China 👇

Exaggerations of CCP’s malign behavior only undermine legitimate criticism of the CCP, so such distortions must be called out every time. This time, they come from -- you guessed it -- Orange Head.

Fergus Ryan@fergus.bsky.social · 2w ago

“But it’s very important to distinguish influence operations, which target opinions, from interference, which targets the machinery of voting,” Ryan said. “I’ve seen nothing around President Trump’s claims that bridges the gap between holding data about voters and actually manipulating votes.”

Sigh. Trump's lawlessness certainly contributed to this, but I hope people around the world realize that a superpower committing atrocities towards its minorities and menacing its neighbors will not be "friendly" towards your country if it gets its way. www.bbc.com/news/article...

More people around the world now favour China over the US, Pew study suggests

There is more confidence in Xi Jinping than Donald Trump, the US think tank's survey indicates.

bbc.com

A summer solicitation from me👇

Of course, China does impressive things — I feel that acutely every time I’m stuck on another delayed Amtrak train. But the real question is whether you want to live in a country where people can be randomly and brutally abused for the sake of those impressive achievements.

Of course, China seeks hegemony, as rising powers do. The real issue is that it is doing so as a neo-totalitarian state with zero regard for individual rights. www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpre...

Yes, China does seek hegemony

The Lowy Institute is an independent international policy think tank based in Sydney, Australia.

lowyinstitute.org

America has inspired me, and America has disappointed me. But through it all, I carry an enduring gratitude — for the freedom this country gave me, and for the promise still worth believing in. Happy 250th birthday, America!

Great to see some media coverage of China that isn't about imminent tech breakthroughs, economic doom or warfare, but about a country where actual people live and engage in a lot of cultural activities. www.npr.org/2026/06/27/n... (kudos to @emilyzfeng.bsky.social)

In China, the Dongbei region's cultural renaissance is a nationwide phenomenon

In China, the northeast Dongbei region looms large. Once a gritty, industrial hub, now this rust belt area is the source of music, literature, comedy and culture that have gained wide popularity.

npr.org

Justice is served. The Guo Wengui saga opened my eyes to how desperately many people want the CCP to fall -- so much so that they were willing to place their trust, and their money, in a complete con. www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...

Guo Wengui, China Critic and Tycoon, Sentenced to 30 Years for Fraud

After conviction in a U.S. court, the Trump administration faces calls to pardon or deport the Beijing gadfly who built a devoted following.

wsj.com

Relieved to hear that Dong Guangping is safely in Canada. Everyone who writes some version of “I went to China for two weeks and was amazed” should read Dong’s story to understand just how sickening the CCP’s punishment of its critics can be. apnews.com/article/chin...

Chinese dissident who fled to South Korea by dinghy arrives in Canada

A Chinese political dissident who fled to South Korea last month in a dinghy has arrived in Canada. His friend announced the news on social media on Saturday.

apnews.com

Yaqiu Wang’s key point: China’s muted AI debate is not consent but control. #Tibet and #Xinjiang show why that matters: AI strengthens #surveillance & #censorship, while “green” western data centres turn coerced frontier regions into infrastructure for China’s AI future:

Yaqiu Wang 王亚秋@yaqiu.bsky.social · last mo.

In @lawfaremedia.org, I argue Chinese AI companies do not operate as independent actors in the way their American counterparts do, and the absence of visible anti-AI resistance among the Chinese public hardly reflects genuine public consensus. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...

The CCP's relentless suppression of alternative narratives of what constitute "China" only reveals how insecure it is about its own propaganda of a unified and unchanging China. www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/who-...

Who Is China?

Beijing’s self-inflicted identity crisis.

foreignaffairs.com

In any future AI negotiations between the United States and China, Washington should enter the talks with a clear-eyed understanding of Chinese state control and an understanding that they are operating within vastly different AI governance ecosystems, writes @yaqiu.bsky.social.

The Missing Resistance in China’s AI Debate

As Washington negotiates AI guardrails with Beijing, it must understand why the AI debate in China is so quiet: control, not consent.

lawfaremedia.org

I have no idea how this happened, but I know what will happen next: authorities will censor online discussions of the crash and harass some of those who make critical comments. There will be no independent investigation and no public trust in whatever account the govt offers.

Financial Times@financialtimes.com · last mo.

Breaking news: A small propeller aircraft crashed into Beijing’s tallest building on Friday, sending debris tumbling to the ground in the Chinese capital’s business district. ft.trib.al/n2pRqHr

In @lawfaremedia.org, I argue Chinese AI companies do not operate as independent actors in the way their American counterparts do, and the absence of visible anti-AI resistance among the Chinese public hardly reflects genuine public consensus. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...

The Missing Resistance in China’s AI Debate

As Washington negotiates AI guardrails with Beijing, it must understand why the AI debate in China is so quiet: control, not consent.

lawfaremedia.org

Every time I read about China’s labor market woes and how hard people work for so little money, I feel doubly saddened by how little space they have to speak up about their hardships -- due to censorship and surveillance. www.thewirechina.com/2026/06/07/b...

Balancing AI Pains and Gains - The Wire China

Rapid adoption of artificial intelligence could deal another blow to China’s weak jobs market. The Chinese Communist Party is determined to lessen the impact, but at what cost to its larger ambitions ...

thewirechina.com

Kudos to @bethanyallen.bsky.social for the public service. Serious researchers on "China influence" and "China human rights" should speak out against this kind of slop to protect the integrity of the space. Work like this makes all of us look bad to outsiders.

Bethany Allen 貝書穎@bethanyallen.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I increasingly find that my primary role in the "China influence" space these days is to debunk a lot of very, very poor quality "China influence" research reports that have been coming out.

Good to see OpenAI continuing to expose of the CCP's use of OpenAI to attack OpenAI and American AI technologies writ large. Even the CCP's own goons lack confidence in the CCP. openai.com/index/prc-li...

PRC-linked influence operations are targeting AI debates in the US

A new report from OpenAI details PRC-linked influence operations using AI to target U.S. tech debates, data center narratives, tariffs, and false claims about ChatGPT.

openai.com

Some useful background on the Eileen Wang case. It's often the case that the people doing the CCP’s bidding in the U.S. are not true believers of the CCP. They are just acting out of personal interest. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/09/u...

A Mayor, Her Boyfriend and China’s Mysterious Propaganda Machine

nytimes.com

The question is how we organize ourselves to defend what we all still want in the face of new and enormous challenges. I urged my friend to see this not as a moment to retreat, but as a historical opening for new ideas—and one she should be part of.

Yaqiu Wang 王亚秋@yaqiu.bsky.social · 2mo ago

A younger friend asked me whether “human rights and democracy” are like Kodak in the early days of digital cameras. I said no: people stopped wanting Kodak when something better came along. But human beings will always want to live in dignity and freedom. I don’t question that.

A younger friend asked me whether “human rights and democracy” are like Kodak in the early days of digital cameras. I said no: people stopped wanting Kodak when something better came along. But human beings will always want to live in dignity and freedom. I don’t question that.

Great piece on the state of dissent in China today: heavily repressed, atomized, but never extinguished. Even under the CCP’s suffocating control, there are still sparks of courage, creativity, inspiration, and hope. www.lemonde.fr/en/internati...

Alone in Beijing: How Chinese dissidents challenge the regime

'Resisting a repressive regime' (2/3). Starting in 2020, China's zero-Covid policy and strict lockdowns triggered widespread protests, fueling a political awakening among young people. As the authorit...

lemonde.fr

Great piece on the grim reality facing Chinese journalists working in Western media today. CCP censorship, combined with declining Western interest in human-centered stories, means we are increasingly flying blind when it comes to understanding China. read.mangmang.run/p/ta?r=4bhy7...

碰壁的自由：TA们在外媒做中国新闻

外媒给他带来的破灭感不像中国政府的审查那样：“那种‘铁拳’般的物理攻击其实比较明显，但是外媒里的这些糟心事，像一种‘法术或化学攻击’。它在你身边，却摸不着，也不能用非常简单的‘极权’‘威权’去解释和批判。”

read.mangmang.run