Chinese Censorship Abroad

Chinese censorship abroad refers to extraterritorial censorship by the government of the People's Republic of China (Chinese Communist Party; CCP), i.e. censorship that is conducted beyond China's own borders. The censorship can be applied to both Chinese expatriates and foreign groups. Censored topics include the political status of Taiwan, human rights in Tibet, Xinjiang internment camps, the Uyghur genocide, the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, the COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China, the PRC government's COVID-19 pandemic response, the persecution of Falun Gong, and more general issues related to human rights and democracy in China.

Self-censorship is undertaken by foreign companies wishing to do business in China, a growing phenomenon given the country's market size and enormous consumer base. Companies seeking to avoid offending the Chinese regime and Chinese customers have engaged in self-censorship, as well as disciplining of staff that have offended the regime. When pressured by the Chinese regime, some companies have apologized or made statements in support of the regime's policies.

The PRC government pays 50 Cent Party operatives and encourages "Little Pink" nationalist netizens to combat any perceived dissent against its position on Chinese issues, including opposing any foreign expressions of support for protesters or perceived separatist movements, with the country's "Patriotic Education campaign" since the 1990s emphasising the dangers of foreign influence and the country's " century of humiliation" by outside powers.

Censorship of overseas services is also undertaken by companies based in China, such as WeChat and TikTok. Chinese citizens living abroad as well as family residing in China have also been subject to threats to their employment, education, pension, and business opportunities if they engage in expression critical of the Chinese government or its policies. With limited pushback by foreign governments and organisations, these issues have led to growing concern about self-censorship, compelled speech and a chilling effect on free speech in other countries.

Censored topics

Traditionally foreign companies wishing to do business in China needed to avoid references to " The Three Ts and Two Cs": Tibet, Taiwan, the Tiananmen Square massacre, cults such as Falun Gong, and criticism of the Chinese Communist Party. This included related topics such as the Dalai Lama who the Chinese government considers a subversive Tibetan "splittist" and opposes any expressions of support from foreign governments or organisations.

In the early 21st century, companies faced potential backlash on a broader range of issues relating to China, such as failing to include Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan as part of China on their websites in violation of the One China Policy. Further sensitive topics include: comments about CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping's weight, including comparisons to rotund children's character Winnie the Pooh; the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, disregard of the Chinese government's Nine-Dash Line in the South China Sea dispute; the government's genocide of Muslim Uyghurs and use of Xinjiang internment camps; expressions of support for the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, and the government's censorship of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Academia

There is growing concern that the Chinese government is trying to silence its critics abroad, particularly in academic settings. Historically censorship in China was contained within the country's borders, but following the ascension of Xi Jinping to General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012, the focus has expanded to silencing dissent and criticism abroad, particularly in academia.

There have been a number of incidents of Chinese students studying abroad in Western universities seeking to censor academics or students who espouse views inconsistent with the official Chinese Communist Party position. This includes intimidation and violence against Auckland University and University of Queensland protesters demonstrating in support of Hong Kong and Uyghurs, challenging lecturers whose course materials do not follow the One China Policy by listing Hong Kong and Taiwan as separate countries, and tearing down Lennon Walls in support of the Hong Kong democracy movement.

In 2019 the PRC Consul-General in Brisbane, Xu Jie, faced legal proceedings by Drew Pavlou, a student who had organised a demonstration in support of the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. Pavlou alleged that Jie incited death threats by accusing him of "anti-Chinese separatism". The court dismissed the suit on the basis of diplomatic immunity. Pavlou was later suspended for two years by the university over allegations of discriminatory bullying and harassment of university staff and students, which he claimed was intended to silence his criticism of the university's close links to the PRC and reliance on Chinese student tuition fees.

Academics in British universities teaching on Chinese topics were also warned by the Chinese government to support the Chinese Communist Party or be refused entry to the country. Professors who disregarded the warnings to speak more positively about the CCP have had their visas cancelled which prevents them from doing fieldwork in China.

American universities have engaged in self-censorship on Chinese issues, including North Carolina State University cancelling a visit by the Dalai Lama in 2009 and University of Maryland Chinese student Yang Shuping apologising after harsh reaction to her commencement speech praising the "fresh air" of democracy and freedom in the United States. In November 2019, Columbia University cancelled a panel on human rights in China titled "Panopticism with Chinese Characteristics: Human rights violations by the Chinese Communist Party and how they affect the world." Panel organizers criticized the university for allegedly compromising academic freedom by acquiescing to undue influence and threats of disturbances.

In March 2021 British Uyghur expert Joanne Smith Finley was sanctioned by China after she referred to the situation in Xinjiang as a genocide in comments given to the Associated Press.

In July 2021 more than 100 winners of the Nobel Prize published an open statement rebuking the Chinese government for pressuring the National Academy of Sciences to rescind a speaking invitation they had extended to Taiwanese Nobel Chemistry Prize winner Yuan Lee.

Confucius Institutes

Concerns have been raised about the activities of Chinese government-funded Confucius Institutes in western universities, which are subject to rules set by Beijing-based Hanban that prevent the discussion of sensitive topics including Tibet, Tiananmen Square and Taiwan. Institute learning materials also omit instances of humanitarian catastrophes under the Chinese Communist Party such as the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. ''Foreign Policy'' has likened Confucius Institutes to the "anaconda in the chandelier"; by their mere presence, they impact what staff and students feel safe discussing which leads to self-censorship. American critics include FBI director Christopher Wray and politicians Seth Moulton, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.

Human Rights Watch considers the Confucius Institutes to be extensions of the Chinese government that prioritise political loyalty in their hiring decisions.

Concerns arose following the 2014 Braga incident, in which materials for the Hanban-sponsored European Association for Chinese Studies 2014 conference in Braga were stolen and censored on the orders of Xu Lin, Director-General of Hanban and Chief Executive of the Confucius Institute Headquarters. Lin ordered the removal of references to Taiwanese academic institutions on the basis that they were "contrary to Chinese regulations", which the ''Wall Street Journal'' described as a "bullying approach to academic freedom". The incident led to a number of universities banning Confucius Institutes from their campuses, including Stockholm University, Copenhagen Business School, Stuttgart Media University, the University of Hohenheim, the University of Lyon, the University of Chicago, Pennsylvania University, the University of Michigan and McMaster University. Public schools in Toronto and New South Wales have also ceased their involvement in the program.

In 2019 media reports emerged that four of the University of Queensland's courses relating to China had been funded by the local Confucius Institute, with the university's senate ending such deals in May 2019. The university's vice-chancellor, Peter Høj, had previously been a senior consultant to Hanban.

Several Confucius Institute contracts included clauses requiring the host university to follow Confucius Institute Headquarters' edicts on "teaching quality", raising concerns about foreign influence and academic freedom. In 2020 the University of Melbourne and University of Queensland renegotiated their contracts to safeguard teaching autonomy in light of new Federal government laws requiring transparency on foreign influence.

Chinese Students and Scholars Association

The Chinese Students and Scholars Association has branches in various overseas university campuses. Many, though not all, of the associations are partly funded by, and report back to, the local Chinese Embassy. One of the aims of the Association is to "love the motherland". There is a history of branches pressuring their host university to cancel talks relating to Tibet, the Chinese democracy movement, Uyghurs and the Hong Kong protests.

The McMaster University branch in Canada had its club status revoked in 2019 after coordinating its opposition to a speech by Uyghur activist Rukiye Turdush with the local Chinese consulate, including sending back footage, in violation of student union rules. The Adelaide University branch was deregistered for failing to follow democratic procedures.

Airlines

In 2018, the Civil Aviation Administration of China sent letters to 44 international airlines demanding that they cease referring to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau as separate countries on their websites, or risk being classified as "severely untrustworthy" and subject to sanctions. Despite being criticised by the United States government as "Orwellian nonsense", all airlines complied. In 2020, Taiwan News reported that Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had convinced 22 airlines to undo the change.

Film and music industry

Hollywood producers generally seek to comply with the Chinese government's censorship requirements in a bid to access the country's restricted and lucrative cinema market, with the second-largest box office in the world as of 2019. Western productions also engage in self-censorship on topics and themes that may trigger censorship and backlash in Mainland China in order to access its lucrative domestic market, and to appease their financial investors. A memo issued by China's Ministry of Radio, Film and Television, sent to Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America and addressed to Chinese film offices, banned cooperation with the Hollywood studios that produced ''Red Corner'' ( MGM/United Artists), ''Kundun'' (Disney) and ''Seven Years In Tibet'' ( Columbia TriStar), as films that "viciously attack China hurt Chinese people's feelings... Although . . . all kinds of efforts have been made, those three American companies are still pushing out above films... In order to protect Chinese national overall interests, it has been decided that all business cooperation with these three companies to be ceased temporarily without exception."

Testifying before the United States Senate Committee on Finance, Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness on "censorship as a non-tariff barrier" in 2020, Richard Gere, chairman of the board of directors for the International Campaign for Tibet, stated that economic interest compel studios to avoid social and political issues Hollywood once addressed, "Imagine Marty Scorsese's ''Kundun'', about the life of the Dalai Lama, or my own film ''Red Corner'', which is highly critical of the Chinese legal system. Imagine them being made today. It wouldn't happen."

Red Corner, a 1997 American film, was censored in the People's Republic of China due to its unflattering portrayal of China's judicial system. Lead actor Richard Gere was vocal about how the film is "... a different angle of dealing with Tibet" and a political statement about China's oppression of Tibet, even though Tibet is never mentioned in the film. Chinese officials visited MGM, the film's studio and distributor, to ask why the studio was releasing the movie during the U.S. visit of CCP General Secretary Jiang Zemin. Gere claims his political activism regarding Tibet and his friendship with the Dalai Lama has disrupted his film career and effects the financing, production and distribution of films he is connected with.

Chinese influence now causes studios to prioritize sympathetic portrayals of Chinese characters in movies, such as changing the villains in ''Red Dawn'' from Chinese to North Korean and making Chinese scientists the saviors of civilisation in the disaster film ''2012''. Similarly, the 2019 DreamWorks animated film '' Abominable'' included the PRC's nine-dash line in a map of the South China Sea shown during the movie, which resulted in the film being banned in Vietnam, Malaysia and The Philippines as it disputes the PRC's claim. In 2016, Marvel Entertainment attracted criticism for its decision to cast Tilda Swinton as the "Ancient One" in the film adaptation ''Doctor Strange'', using a white woman to play a traditionally Tibetan character. The film's co-writer, C. Robert Cargill, stated in an interview that this was done to avoid angering China:

Another instance of China censorship influence on Hollywood productions was when '' Mission: Impossible III'' deleted scenes shot in Shanghai, which featured "laundry drying on clotheslines from apartment buildings", that the Chinese censors requested be cut because they believed it presented a backward view of the country to the rest of the world. According to interviews conducted by human rights group Pen America, LGBT content was removed from ''Bohemian Rhapsody'', ''Star Trek: Beyond'', '' Alien: Covenant'' and ''Cloud Atlas'', to avoid antagonizing Chinese censors. In 2021, Chinese social media coverage of director Chloé Zhao's Oscar win was censored, as old social media posts of Zhao were considered to be critical of China. The release of Zhao's ''Nomadland'' and ''Eternals'', previously thought to be confirmed, were not approved for theatrical release in China.

Although Tibet was previously a cause célèbre in Hollywood, featuring in films including ''Kundun'' and ''Seven Years in Tibet'', in the 21st century this is no longer the case. Actor and high-profile Tibet supporter Richard Gere stated that he was no longer welcome to participate in mainstream Hollywood films after criticizing the PRC government in 1993, acting in a 1997 film critical of the PRC's legal system (''Red Corner''), and calling for a boycott of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Brad Pitt was banned from China between 1997 and 2014 after starring in the film ''Seven Years in Tibet''. Lady Gaga was banned in China a second time since she met with the Dalai Lama in 2016 at the 84th Annual US Conference of Mayors in Indianapolis where she joined with the Dalai Lama to talk about the power of kindness and how to make the world a more compassionate place. An order was issued for state-controlled media to condemn this meeting by the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party. Gaga was added to a list of hostile foreign forces, and Chinese websites and media organizations were ordered to stop distributing her songs. In China her appearance was cut from the Friends: The Reunion special in 2021, and her image was blacked out in reporting on the 2019 Oscars in China. In March 2022, China's major online streaming services such as iQiyi, Tencent Video and Youku removed most of Keanu Reeves' filmography after he made a virtual appearance at a benefit concert for Tibet House, a nonprofit linked to the Dalai Lama.

During the promotional tour of Justin Lin's '' F9'' in 2021, John Cena referred to Taiwan as "a country". He was subsequently forced to issue an apology on social media due to China's insistence that it considers Taiwan a part of China.

Video games

Censorship affects global releases of Chinese games, or non-Chinese games that are available for Chinese players. This affects content available to players outside China. For example, the chat in the international, English-language Chinese game ''Genshin Impact'' censors not only swear words but also words such as Taiwan, Tibet, Hong, Kong, Falun Gong, Stalin, Hitler and Putin. A study of about 200 Chinese games found out that over 180,000 words have been subject to blacklisting. Due to the sensitive nature of this topic, many companies, including many outside China like Riot Games, Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, GOG and Krafton, tend to avoid commenting on this issue, preferring silence to the risk of offending either the Chinese authorities or their critics.

International organizations

China strongly opposes the participation of Taiwan in international organisations as a violation of the One China Principle, and Taiwan may only participate in international bodies as "Chinese Taipei" or "Taiwan, China".

Chinese Taipei was initially agreed under the Nagoya Resolution as the name to be used for the Taiwanese team at the Olympic Games from the 1980s. Under PRC pressure, Taiwan is referred to by other international organisations under different names, such as "Taiwan Province of China" by the International Monetary Fund and "Taiwan District" by the World Bank. The PRC government has also pressured international beauty pageants including Miss World, Miss Universe and Miss Earth to only allow Taiwanese contestants competing under the designation "Miss Chinese Taipei" rather than "Miss Taiwan".

In January 2020, as the coronavirus epidemic expanded beyond China's borders and international commentators criticized Taiwan's exclusion from various United Nations agencies, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) blocked numerous Twitter accounts – including ones belonging to Capitol Hill staffers and D.C.-based analysts – after facing online criticism for excluding Taiwan from membership. Both ICAO and their Twitter account were run by Chinese nationals.

On 23 September 2020, Wikimedia's application for the status as an official observer at the World Intellectual Property Organization was rejected by Chinese government because China's representative claimed that they had "spotted a large amount of content and disinformation in violation of heOne China principle" on webpages affiliated with Wikimedia, and Wikimedia's Taiwan branch has been "carrying out political activities... which could undermine the state's sovereignty and territorial integrity".

Journalism

The PRC limits press freedom, with Xi Jinping telling state media outlets in 2016 that the Chinese Communist Party expects their "absolute loyalty". In Hong Kong, inconvenient journalists face censorship by stealth through targeted violence, arrests, withdrawal of official advertising and/or dismissal. Foreign journalists also face censorship given the ease with which their articles can be translated and shared across the country.

Foreign journalists have reported rising official interference with their work, with a 2016 Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China survey finding 98% considered reporting conditions failed to meet international standards. Interference includes withholding a visa to work in the country, harassment and violence by secret police and requiring press conference questions to be submitted for pre-screening. Journalists also reported that local sources who speak to them face harassment, intimidation or detention by government officials, leading to a decreased willingness to cooperate with journalists. Foreign journalists also face hacking of their email accounts by the PRC to discover their sources.

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