CDT 2025 Year-End Roundup: Most Notable Censored Articles and Essays (Part 2) Legal scholar Lao Dongyan: "Those who attempt to cling to their principles and avoid being dragged down into the muck are vilified."

As the great Suketu Mehta wrote in the accompanying essay, "By 1643, only nineteen years after the first Walloon settlers founded New Amsterdam, 18 languages were already being spoken in the city—among a population of a mere 500." To hell with fictions of a homogenous past, linguistic & otherwise.

In celebration of Mamdani's first day in office, the map from our 2016 NYC atlas celebrating Queens as the most linguistically diverse place on earth. (800 languages spoken in NYC, according to NY's Endangered Language Institute, which collaborated with us on this map.

CDT 2025 Year-End Roundup: Quotes of the Year (Part Two) "These 'Quotes of the Day' use absurdity to skewer the highbrow and dark humor to fight the propaganda slogans du jour, chronicling a year that was strange, but true.”

I *highly* recommend the Jeremy Brown book on Tiananmen mentioned here. He pays a lot of attention to how things might have happened differently—this general’s decision is a good example—and in terms of protest crackdowns, illegal military orders etc, these are not issues of narrowing relevance.

CDT's “404 Deleted Content Archive” Summary for November 2025, Part Two "Targeted topics included: the catastrophic highrise fire at Hong Kong’s Wang Fuk Court, and Sanae Takaichi’s controversial comments on Taiwan."

CDT 2025 Year-End Roundup: Quotes of the Year (Part One) "While 'Quotes of the Day' may just seem like playful banter, they’re actually a form of linguistic guerrilla warfare from a population under intense pressure."

your regular PSA that California grows most of the produce that humans actually eat, not the Midwest www.cdfa.ca.gov/statistics/

When we remember the names of Bondi Beach - victims, survivors, perpetrators - let’s remember, too, this hero: Ahmed al-Ahmed. A Muslim Australian fruit shop owner of Syrian descent, al-Ahmed risked his life & took 2 bullets to save Jewish strangers. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

This is a textbook case of political asylum.

It’s been two weeks since ICE took Yuanxin Zheng from his father. He is six years old. He’s still not home. This has to end.

The level of pumpkin carving to which I aspire (By the artist Michael Cherney) 「忽肚痛不可堪，不知是冷熱所致，欲服大黃湯，冷熱俱有益。如何為計，非臨床。」

You will be visited by three spirits

The hepatitis B vaccine had been recommended for all newborns since 1991. From 1990-2019, acute hepatitis B infections reported among children and teens fell 99 percent. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/w...

For the last decade, the pervasive spread of bullshit & manipulation of online platforms have been widely recognized societal concerns. Now non US citizens studying those subjects can be labeled “censors” & denied visas or deported from the US. Censorship, indeed. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

Our new ASPI report 'The Party’s AI' is out now. It shows how China’s LLMs, vision models and “AI+” governance architecture are hard-coding censorship and control into the future of AI. www.aspi.org.au/repo...

I was similarly surprised by this historical marker in tiny Warren, RI but glad to see this history publicly noted and recorded.

hey guys i made a seasonal meme

It’s almost Back Home Baller season for those of us who celebrate youtu.be/ZmWH1F-caM8?...

I will never forget having to edit Jamal’s final, posthumous piece for the Washington Post, after he was murdered. He was calling for free expression in the Arab world. You can read it here : www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/glo...

Mahmood Mamdani on Zohran, Uganda and forced expulsion: ‘Who is part of the nation and who is not?’

#Taiwan #translation "I was compelled by the idea of translation as a test of my allegiances. But this metaphor is far from how I actually experience the process. Unlike a test, there is no right answer or a way to “pass” in translation, which is an art of compromise". lithub.com/between-chin...

Y’all wanna hear a wild story? Charlie is right — this medley Prince made 30 years ago, blending many of his greatest hits & fan favorites into an extended mashup, is one of the most fun “only Prince could do this” things he made in the 90s. BUT: he told us he was gonna do it. In an AOL chat room…

“Longer tables, not higher walls.”—Chef José Andrés

A nice obituary for Alice, who was going to be recognized as one of The Post 50. I hate that we now have to live without this phenomenal woman. #GiftLink wapo.st/49WOdx1

CDT’s “404 Deleted Content Archive” Summary for October 2025, Part One "Topics targeted include: sentencing of officials over a detainee's death; environmental issues; Nobel Prizes; the deadly crash of a Xiaomi electric vehicle; the re-sentencing of citizen journalist Zhang Zhan …"

These tomato pickers earn 86 cents per 25 lb bucket. On an average day a worker fills around 170 buckets --or more than 4000 pounds of tomatoes picked by hand. The fruit is picked green so it ripens red by the time it reaches your store. #WeFeedYou

Translations: Mourning the Decline of Investigative Reporting on China's National Journalists' Day "Based on our daily monitoring, there are now only 36 domestic news organizations that still conduct investigative reporting (that is, reporting that supervises official power)."

"Each act of remembrance, each shared fragment of reality, becomes part of a collective memory that no censorship can destroy. It is through memory that a people reclaim their humanity."

From CDT Founder and Editor-in-Chief Xiao Qiang's acceptance speech: "At CDT, our mission is to speak truth to power—not with hatred, but with clarity and courage—and to preserve collective memory as history."

NED – China Digital Times: 2025 Democracy Award Honoree www.ned.org/china-digita...

We are now less than $100 from our goal thanks to so many generous donors. Help us get there before the year ends!

This came up in a work context earlier today, and I take it for granted this information is out there, but apparently not everywhere: I don’t work at Freedom House anymore. I was laid off at the end of May along with most other staff at the organization (over 80%) due to the US foreign aid cuts.

“At CDT, our mission is to speak truth to power—not with hatred, but with clarity and courage—and to preserve memory as history...Freedom begins with truth. And truth, when held in collective memory, becomes the seed of a freer future.” - Xiao Qiang @chinadigitaltimes.net

youtu.be/dZ5msDv_X4o?... It’s time 4 a new direction!

Beijing Banner Protester: "Establish a New China That is Free, Humane, and Governed by Rule of Law" "CDT Chinese editors noted censorship of the following combinations: 'Sanlitun + lift ban on political parties', 'Sanlitun + protest', 'Sanlitun + warrior', 'Sitong Bridge + Sanlitun' …"

“If everything’s positive energy, there’s no energy at all.“

Following the tragic death of Middlebury student and trans athlete Lia Smith, social media was flooded with unverified claims about what led to her passing. www.transvitae.com/s... #transgender #trans #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA

Spittles

Thank god he didn't mention his "cousin brother."

Netizen Voices: “Stop Complaining, Hu Xijin. You Played a Part in This.” "Hu asking why everyone's so quiet is like the head palace eunuch asking a junior eunuch, 'Hey, how come your equipment is only good for taking a leak?'" chinadigitaltimes.net/2025/10/neti...

Well worth ten minutes of your time. A remarkable speech for an American political candidate www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLD7...

Jedediah Smith Redwoods, October 19, 2025. Sunlight spills through trees older than empires. The air smells like time remembering itself. Nothing digital survives here. Only roots, silence, and the slow patience of forever.

CDT’s “404 Deleted Content Archive” Summary for September 2025 "CDT's new monthly series of censored content that has been added to our [free, open, and searchable] '404 Deleted Content Archive.'"

Speaking of favorite covers, I somehow just became aware of this album's existence and haven't been able to stop listening to it since: pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...

Fascinating thread. I learned about Angel Island from a student who wrote her final project on the poems, not in school, where I should have. If your school missed it, too, you could start here.