He logs on to the Weibo management page, where many words are flagged. Orange designates sensitive words that require careful examination – words like freedom and democracy, and the three characters that make up Xi Jinping’s name. While such words regularly appear in newspapers or on TV, that does not mean ordinary citizens can use them at will.
torsdag 17. april 2025
Murong Xuecun: Online dissent is a serious crime in China. So why did a Weibo censor help me publish posts critical of the Communist party?
It is 2013. For four full months, Liu Lipeng engages in dereliction of duty. Every hour the system sends him a huge volume of posts, but he hardly ever deletes a single word. After three or four thousand posts accumulate, he lightly clicks his mouse and the whole lot is released. In the jargon of censors, this is a “total pass in one click”, after which all the posts appear on China’s version of X, Sina Weibo, to be read by millions, then reposted and discussed.
He logs on to the Weibo management page, where many words are flagged. Orange designates sensitive words that require careful examination – words like freedom and democracy, and the three characters that make up Xi Jinping’s name. While such words regularly appear in newspapers or on TV, that does not mean ordinary citizens can use them at will.
He logs on to the Weibo management page, where many words are flagged. Orange designates sensitive words that require careful examination – words like freedom and democracy, and the three characters that make up Xi Jinping’s name. While such words regularly appear in newspapers or on TV, that does not mean ordinary citizens can use them at will.
China appoints new trade envoy in face of tariff turmoil
China has unexpectedly appointed a new trade envoy, as officials said the US's practice of "tariff barriers and trade bullying" is having a serious impact on the global economic order. Li Chenggang, a former assistant commerce minister and WTO ambassador, is taking over from veteran trade negotiator Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen.
The shift comes as Beijing refuses to back down in an escalating trade war with Washington triggered by US President Donald Trump's hefty tariffs on Chinese goods. China's already sluggish economy is bracing for the impact on a key source of revenue - exports. Beijing announced on Wednesday its GDP grew by 5.4% between January and March, compared with the same period a year earlier.
The shift comes as Beijing refuses to back down in an escalating trade war with Washington triggered by US President Donald Trump's hefty tariffs on Chinese goods. China's already sluggish economy is bracing for the impact on a key source of revenue - exports. Beijing announced on Wednesday its GDP grew by 5.4% between January and March, compared with the same period a year earlier.
Why China curbing rare earth exports is a blow to the US
As the trade war between China and the US escalates, attention has been focused on the increasingly high levels of tit-for-tat tariffs the two countries are imposing on one another. But slapping reciprocal tariffs on Washington is not the only way Beijing has been able to retaliate. China has now also imposed export controls on a range of critical rare earth minerals and magnets, dealing a major blow to the US. The move has laid bare how reliant America is on these minerals.
This week, Trump ordered the commerce department to come up with ways to boost US production of critical minerals and cut reliance on imports - an attempt by Washington to reclaim this critical industry. But why exactly are rare earths so important and how could they shake up the trade war?
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This week, Trump ordered the commerce department to come up with ways to boost US production of critical minerals and cut reliance on imports - an attempt by Washington to reclaim this critical industry. But why exactly are rare earths so important and how could they shake up the trade war?
Read more
The US–China ‘decoupling’ would be a messy divorce
Even if the writing has been on the wall for years, breaking up is never easy. China and the US don’t often see eye to eye, but for decades, they have broadly agreed that it is better to be trade partners than trade enemies. That alliance is now hanging by a thread. And the real-world collateral damage is already piling up.
The presidents of the world’s two biggest economies don’t appear ready to talk turkey. China indicated Wednesday that it would be open to negotiations only if talks are based on “respect,” and greater “consistency and reciprocity” from the Trump administration, a person familiar with the matter told my CNN colleagues. I, for one, am not holding my breath.
The presidents of the world’s two biggest economies don’t appear ready to talk turkey. China indicated Wednesday that it would be open to negotiations only if talks are based on “respect,” and greater “consistency and reciprocity” from the Trump administration, a person familiar with the matter told my CNN colleagues. I, for one, am not holding my breath.
The global trade war will badly hurt the US and global economies, WTO says
President Donald Trump’s global trade war will hurt economies around the world this year, including the US, according to a new report by the World Trade Organization. The WTO projects global economies will grow more slowly than they would without tariffs — and that will be especially the case in North America, a region dominated by the United States, which will see a greater slowdown than other areas.
A battery of new tariffs imposed by Trump and retaliated against by other nations mean global trade prospects have “deteriorated sharply,” the WTO report read. Total global trade will now shrink 0.2%, the organization expects, compared to a 2.7% growth forecast without tariffs.
The global economy and, by extension, people’s pocketbooks are very much connected to the trade in goods and services between countries. A shrinking economy typically means fewer (and lower-paid) jobs, financial difficulties for ordinary people and hard decisions about spending by companies and governments.
A battery of new tariffs imposed by Trump and retaliated against by other nations mean global trade prospects have “deteriorated sharply,” the WTO report read. Total global trade will now shrink 0.2%, the organization expects, compared to a 2.7% growth forecast without tariffs.
The global economy and, by extension, people’s pocketbooks are very much connected to the trade in goods and services between countries. A shrinking economy typically means fewer (and lower-paid) jobs, financial difficulties for ordinary people and hard decisions about spending by companies and governments.
China posts unexpectedly strong economic growth before tariffs bite
China has posted unexpectedly strong economic growth in the first three months of 2025, before the full force of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs took effect, and sent an upbeat message about how it plans to weather an ongoing trade war with Washington.
Growth in China’s gross domestic product (GDP) hit 5.4% in the first quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday. That was considerably higher than the expectations of more than 50 economists surveyed by Reuters, who had predicted expansion of 5.1%, and continues a recent run of surprisingly strong export-driven growth seen at the end of 2024.
“The national economy had a steady and good start, continuing the upward trend,” Sheng Laiyun, deputy director of the NBS, told a news conference. “However, we must also see that the current external environment is becoming more complex and severe, and the effective domestic demand growth momentum is insufficient.”
Growth in China’s gross domestic product (GDP) hit 5.4% in the first quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday. That was considerably higher than the expectations of more than 50 economists surveyed by Reuters, who had predicted expansion of 5.1%, and continues a recent run of surprisingly strong export-driven growth seen at the end of 2024.
“The national economy had a steady and good start, continuing the upward trend,” Sheng Laiyun, deputy director of the NBS, told a news conference. “However, we must also see that the current external environment is becoming more complex and severe, and the effective domestic demand growth momentum is insufficient.”
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