On the property point, it’s the same principle as the other restrictions. When someone refuses to comply with a court judgment and is placed under high-consumption restrictions (限制高消费), the court can restrict certain forms of luxury spending, which can include purchasing additional real estate or carrying out non-essential renovations until the debt or judgment is fulfilled. The idea is that if someone owes money according to a court ruling, they should not be spending large amounts on luxury consumption before complying. Existing property is not automatically taken just because someone is on the list, although assets can be enforced as part of normal debt collection(just as in every other country).
As for Xu Xiaodong’s accounts being wiped, that situation was tied to the series of lawsuits and disputes he became involved in, along with platform moderation rules. That falls under content moderation and legal disputes on private platforms, not the court enforcement mechanism we were discussing earlier.
The blocked-website lists you see online are a very mixed bag. Some sites are inaccessible because of political or regulatory issues, but many cases come down to compliance requirements, such as rules around data protection, licensing, and the requirement for companies handling Chinese user data to host or manage that data within China’s regulatory framework. When companies choose not to comply with those requirements, their services often simply do not operate in the mainland market.
And that meme about texting someone “Tiananmen 1989” to get them arrested is honestly pretty ugly. It basically jokes about condemning random Chinese people to some vague punishment for the sake of a punchline, which is a pretty dehumanizing way to talk about an entire population. Fortunately it’s also just a meme, sending a phrase like that to someone does not magically cut their internet or get them arrested.
One additional question; what do you mean by political or regulatory issue? You mean that is a grounds for something to be banned?
Also who dictates that certain thing is ban-able from political or regulatory issue and what is the threshold?
I meant that internet content in China is governed by formal laws and regulations, mainly enforced by the Cyberspace Administration of China (国家网信办) and related regulators. Chinese rules such as the 《网络信息内容生态治理规定》 classify online information and require platforms to prohibit illegal content and prevent harmful content, including material that endangers national security, spreads rumors that disrupt social order, promotes extremism or violence, or infringes on others’ rights. Platforms are legally required to monitor and remove such content and regulators can order services restricted or removed if they violate these rules.
Thank you for the reply.
I do find it strange that certain things blocked puzzling. Such as google, youtube, reddit, crunchyroll, hbo. The one I find the most puzzling is reuters, from what I understand are one of the most independent news reporting institute. I don’t claim to know much but from what I read the reason cited is ‘criticism of communist party leaders’. Is it illegal, to criticize leaders in China?
I assume there is more to this right?
Most of the platforms you listed are “banned” largely a result of regulatory and data-governance issues. China requires internet services operating in the mainland market to comply with domestic regulations covering data protection, content management, and licensing, which generally includes managing Chinese user data within the Chinese regulatory framework and cooperating with local oversight. Many large foreign platforms chose not to operate under those requirements, so their services were never integrated into the mainland internet environment.
As for Reuters they aren’t banned per say they simply haven’t obtained the licences required to operate in the mainland (to my knowledge).
That is interesting reason. From what I read, Reuters were just banned and they inquired to the Cyberspace Administration (CAC), they didn’t get any response. If this is to believed to be true then Reuters weren’t notified about needing a license and suddenly blocked and nobody responded when they inquired why were they blocked. And this was in 2015, is there a reason Reuters haven’t managed to obtain such license yet, as according to them 13% of their revenue is from Asia and I assume china was a big part of it.
Also I was unaware news agency needs license to operate in countries. Again apologies if I sound ignorant, but I can’t read chinese and I assume a lot of these information are only covered by chinese news agencies on why were each of those services banned which includes duckduckgo (a search engine) and internet archive (archive.org). I would appreciate if you have any links or sources which cites reason of banns or any news coverage e.g. by licensed chinese news media (I can translate).
On the property point, it’s the same principle as the other restrictions. When someone refuses to comply with a court judgment and is placed under high-consumption restrictions (限制高消费), the court can restrict certain forms of luxury spending, which can include purchasing additional real estate or carrying out non-essential renovations until the debt or judgment is fulfilled. The idea is that if someone owes money according to a court ruling, they should not be spending large amounts on luxury consumption before complying. Existing property is not automatically taken just because someone is on the list, although assets can be enforced as part of normal debt collection(just as in every other country).
As for Xu Xiaodong’s accounts being wiped, that situation was tied to the series of lawsuits and disputes he became involved in, along with platform moderation rules. That falls under content moderation and legal disputes on private platforms, not the court enforcement mechanism we were discussing earlier.
The blocked-website lists you see online are a very mixed bag. Some sites are inaccessible because of political or regulatory issues, but many cases come down to compliance requirements, such as rules around data protection, licensing, and the requirement for companies handling Chinese user data to host or manage that data within China’s regulatory framework. When companies choose not to comply with those requirements, their services often simply do not operate in the mainland market.
And that meme about texting someone “Tiananmen 1989” to get them arrested is honestly pretty ugly. It basically jokes about condemning random Chinese people to some vague punishment for the sake of a punchline, which is a pretty dehumanizing way to talk about an entire population. Fortunately it’s also just a meme, sending a phrase like that to someone does not magically cut their internet or get them arrested.
Thank you for taking time to answer.
One additional question; what do you mean by political or regulatory issue? You mean that is a grounds for something to be banned? Also who dictates that certain thing is ban-able from political or regulatory issue and what is the threshold?
I meant that internet content in China is governed by formal laws and regulations, mainly enforced by the Cyberspace Administration of China (国家网信办) and related regulators. Chinese rules such as the 《网络信息内容生态治理规定》 classify online information and require platforms to prohibit illegal content and prevent harmful content, including material that endangers national security, spreads rumors that disrupt social order, promotes extremism or violence, or infringes on others’ rights. Platforms are legally required to monitor and remove such content and regulators can order services restricted or removed if they violate these rules.
Thank you for the reply. I do find it strange that certain things blocked puzzling. Such as google, youtube, reddit, crunchyroll, hbo. The one I find the most puzzling is reuters, from what I understand are one of the most independent news reporting institute. I don’t claim to know much but from what I read the reason cited is ‘criticism of communist party leaders’. Is it illegal, to criticize leaders in China? I assume there is more to this right?
Most of the platforms you listed are “banned” largely a result of regulatory and data-governance issues. China requires internet services operating in the mainland market to comply with domestic regulations covering data protection, content management, and licensing, which generally includes managing Chinese user data within the Chinese regulatory framework and cooperating with local oversight. Many large foreign platforms chose not to operate under those requirements, so their services were never integrated into the mainland internet environment.
As for Reuters they aren’t banned per say they simply haven’t obtained the licences required to operate in the mainland (to my knowledge).
That is interesting reason. From what I read, Reuters were just banned and they inquired to the Cyberspace Administration (CAC), they didn’t get any response. If this is to believed to be true then Reuters weren’t notified about needing a license and suddenly blocked and nobody responded when they inquired why were they blocked. And this was in 2015, is there a reason Reuters haven’t managed to obtain such license yet, as according to them 13% of their revenue is from Asia and I assume china was a big part of it.
Also I was unaware news agency needs license to operate in countries. Again apologies if I sound ignorant, but I can’t read chinese and I assume a lot of these information are only covered by chinese news agencies on why were each of those services banned which includes duckduckgo (a search engine) and internet archive (archive.org). I would appreciate if you have any links or sources which cites reason of banns or any news coverage e.g. by licensed chinese news media (I can translate).