| Formation | 2003; 22 years ago (2003) |
|---|---|
| Founder | Xiao Qiang |
| Type | 501(c)3 organization |
| 45-5274376 | |
| Headquarters | Berkeley, California |
Official language | English,Chinese |
| Website | chinadigitaltimes |
China Digital Times (CDT;Chinese:中国数字时代) is a California-based501(c)(3) organization that runs a bilingual news website coveringChina.[1] The site focuses on news items which are blocked, deleted or suppressed by China'sstate censors.[2][3]
The website was started byXiao Qiang ofUniversity of California, Berkeley'sGraduate School of Journalism in fall 2003. Xiao has asserted that Chinese internet users are using digital tools to create new autonomous forms of political expression and dissent, "changing the rules of the game between state and society".[4]
According toFreedom House, researchers atChina Digital Times have reportedly identified over 800 filtered terms, including "Cultural Revolution" and "propaganda department".[5] The types of words, phrases and web addresses censored by the government include names of Chinese high-level leadership; protest and dissident movements; politically sensitive events, places and people; and foreign websites and organizations blocked at network level, along with pornography and other content.[6]
For many years, the site has leaked propaganda from theState Council Information Office, which oversees news websites in China.[7]
The site also publishes theGrass-Mud Horse Lexicon, a wiki-based directory of Chinese Internet language.[8] The project is named after theGrass Mud Horse (cǎo ní mǎ (simplified Chinese:草泥马;traditional Chinese:草泥馬)), a pun on the phrasecào nǐ mā (肏你媽), literally, "fuck your mother", and which is one of theBaidu 10 Mythical Creatures.[9] The publication has also covered the backlash against increased censorship from China's independent media, and employees of state media.[10]
In 2009, it published a set of documents leaked by aBaidu employee which revealed events, people and places that were deemed politically sensitive.[6]
In 2013,China Digital Times published an English-language e-book,Decoding the Chinese Internet: A Glossary of Political Slang, which contains Chinese Internet language that criticizes the government.[11][12]
Sophie Beach is the Executive Editor of its English site, and her writing about China has appeared in publications including theLos Angeles Times, theAsian Wall Street Journal, theSouth China Morning Post andThe Nation magazine.[13] The Translations Editor is Anne Henochowicz, an alumna of the Penn Kemble Democracy Forum Fellowship at theNational Endowment for Democracy. She has written for other publications includingForeign Policy,The China Beat, and theCairo Review of Global Affairs.[14]
China Digital Times provides content about China forThe World Post, a partnership betweenThe Huffington Post and theBerggruen Institute.[15] TheChina Digital Times website is run by students of the university, with help from contributors from around the world.China Digital Times has historically been a recipient of funding from theNational Endowment for Democracy,[16] though funding was frozen in 2025 afterElon Musk'sDepartment of Government Efficiency cut funding to the NED.[17]
A popular section on theChina Digital Times site is 'Minitrue', which is short for 'Ministry of Truth'. The sections covers official government directives to media organizations, requiring them to censor or tone down postings on sensitive matters.[18] In 2014,China Digital Times published an article which states that China's censors demanded that article about a crackdown on terrorism be “prominently displayed” on the homepages of online news sites.[19]
China Digital Times, a nonprofit that fights censorship, archives work that has been or is in danger of being blocked.