China Digital Times (CDT) » The Great Divide

On March 16, China’s National Bureau of Statistics announced that the Chinese economy was off to a good start in 2024, with reported 5.3% year-on-year GDP growth in the first quarter of the yea...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/quote-of-the-day-official-disposable-income-figures-derided-as-todays-daily-dose-of-humor/

A recent WeChat post from oft-controversial entrepreneur, publicity hound, and philanthropist Chen Guangbiao urging the Chinese government to keep its hands off people’s pocketbooks has attract...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/quote-of-the-day-stop-obsessing-about-ordinary-peoples-pocket-change-they-know-better-than-you-where-that-money-ought-to-be-spent/

Even before the lifting of China’s long-standing “zero-COVID” policy in early December of last year, there were signs of a surge in Omicron cases nationwide. Since then, China has experienc...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2023/02/translation-my-hometown-survived-the-pandemic/

After conducting nucleic acid testing on its 26 million residents this week, Shanghai remains under lockdown. The metropolis has reported over 120,000 cases of COVID-19 thus far, most of them asy...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2022/04/viral-videos-on-food-shortages-and-quarantine-conditions-during-shanghai-lockdown/

Evergrande offices across China have been beset by protesting retail investors and homeowners concerned that the real estate giant is on the verge of bankruptcy. The company is facing a liquidity...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2021/09/evergrande-protestors-become-target-of-stability-maintenance/

Anyone who has boarded an airplane in the last 20 years knows what stands between arrival at the terminal and waiting at the gate: shoes off, laptops out, water bottles emptied …. In China, sim...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2021/07/translation-the-curse-of-the-security-check/

This spring, while nationalist fervor to “support Xinjiang cotton” swelled online, voices in China calling to “support Xinjiang people“—fellow Chinese citizens targeted by China’s “...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2021/06/translation-two-families-shattered-by-a-patriotic-youth/

In early December, President Xi Jinping declared that China had eliminated absolute poverty. His announcement was the culmination of a years-long campaign that sought to raise the annual income o...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2021/01/chinese-countryside-better-off-than-ever-before-while-some-reforms-stagnate/

During a January 20 press conference, China’s National Health Commission stated that all hoping to return to countryside homes for next month’s Spring Festival must first get tested for COVID...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2021/01/new-spring-festival-travel-rules-target-coronavirus-outbreak-hit-migrant-workers/

A Pinduoduo employee’s suicide, the second work-related death at the company in as many weeks, and an Ele.me courier’s self-immolation have set the Chinese internet ablaze with discussion on ...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2021/01/self-immolation-and-suicide-among-chinese-tech-giants-employees/

The following essay was written by Huang Deng, an educated 46-year-old woman who married into a poor rural family. A PhD and currently the Deputy Director of Finance and Media at Guangdong Univer...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2020/12/translation-the-countryside-through-a-daughter-in-laws-eyes/

Several recent reports have exposed the extreme hardships imposed on Chinese delivery drivers by unforgiving algorithms, merciless delivery companies, and expectant consumers. At NPR this week, E...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2020/12/underpaid-and-squeezed-by-algorithms-delivery-drivers-strike/

On Monday, November 23 in Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou province, local officials quietly announced an extraordinary accomplishment: the end of extreme poverty in China. At The Wall Street Jour...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2020/12/china-declares-victory-over-extreme-poverty-but-inequality-rises/

China has declared it will eliminate absolute poverty—defined as making under 4,000 yuan ($600) annually—by the end of this year. Towards that goal, China is enacting a new policy with a fami...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2020/11/workers-sent-back-to-countryside-in-poverty-alleviation-drive/

CDT has recently acquired and verified a collection of propaganda directives issued by central Party authorities to state media at the beginning of this year. These directives were issued on an a...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2020/10/minitrue-diary-january-20-2020-hospital-attack-financial-companys-social-media-banishment-mercedes-in-forbidden-city-coronavirus/