CDT presents a monthly series of censored content that has been added to our “404 Deleted Content Archive.” Each month, we publish a summary of content blocked or deleted (often yielding the message “404: content not found”) from Chinese platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, Douyin (TikTok’s counterpart in the Chinese market), Xiaohongshu (RedNote), Bilibili, Zhihu, Douban, and others. Although this content archived by CDT Chinese editors represents only a small fraction of the online content that disappears each day from the Chinese internet, it provides valuable insight into which topics are considered “sensitive” over time by the Party-state, cyberspace authorities, and platform censors. Our fully searchable Chinese-language “404 Deleted Content Archive,” currently contains 2,397 deleted articles, essays, and other pieces of content. The entry for each deleted item includes the author/social media account name, the original publishing platform, the subject matter, the date of deletion, and more information.

Below is Part Two of CDT’s summary of deleted content from January 2026. (Part One included 21 deleted articles; Part Two, 19 articles; and Part Three, 14 articles.) Between January 1-31, CDT Chinese added 55 new articles, mostly from WeChat, to the archive. (One of the articles was voluntarily deleted by the account owner at the request of the person who contributed the article, and thus is not included in this summary.) Topics targeted for deletion in January included:

• Maduro and Venezuela: Chinese reactions to the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife by U.S. forces; Chinese and international media coverage of Venezuela; and what recent events may mean for Sino-Venezuelan relations.

• Hebei’s rural heating crisis: Many elderly and rural residents in Hebei, braving subzero temperatures, were unable afford to pay for heating this winter due to a combination of soaring energy prices, plummeting natural-gas subsidies, and strict bans on the burning of “loose coal” following that region’s “coal-to-gas” conversion that launched in 2017. (This was one of the most censored online topics in January: 16 of CDT’s 55 archived articles last month concerned Hebei’s energy woes.)

• Sharp birthrate decline: China’s annual birthrate fell below eight million in 2025, a record low, fueling online discussion about demographics, pro-natalist government policies, and the “period police.”

• Jia Guolong and Luo Yonghao spat: An acrimonious public dispute between influencer Luo Yonghao and Xibei restaurant chain founder Jia Guolong culminated in both of their Weibo accounts being suspended.

• Gender double standards and misogyny: There were several posts on sexism and double standards in society, and public outcry over a controversial decision not to prosecute a rape case in Heshun county, Shanxi province, because the man involved was “motivated by the desire to start a family” with a mentally ill woman.

• Online influencer “Lao A”: After rising to fame for coining the phrase “kill line” to describe poverty and homelessness in the U.S., Lao A continued to generate controversy over his misogynistic statements about Chinese women who live or study abroad.

• Complaints about naked art: Reports of complaints about a nude statue of Yang Guifei emerging from her bath resulted in a flood of memes and outrageous fashion suggestions about how to clothe her nudity.

• The future of Iran: A blogger pondered the possibility of regime change in Iran as diplomatic pressure mounts.

• Generational differences: An article asked which generation had it worse—the “Post-80s,” “Post-90s,” or “Post-00s”?

(Note that the dates in the summary below refer to when an article was published on the CDT website, not when it was deleted from Chinese social-media platforms.)

22. “The Revolution’s Final Chapter Approaches: Why Iran Has No Way Out,” by Vali Nasr, excerpted by WeChat account 稻草和飞花 (Dàocǎo hé fēihuā, “Rice straw and drifting petals”)
January 12

A Chinese translation of “Why This Time is Different for Iran,” with a link to the original article published on January 9 at Project Syndicate by Vali Nasr, professor of Middle East Studies and International Affairs at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. Nasr argues that a combination of internal and external pressures will make it challenging for Iran to avoid direct conflict with the U.S. and Israel while also attempting to address a severe economic downturn and domestic demands for reform.

23. “Why Does No One Speak Truth to Power?” by Huang Zhijie, WeChat account Youyou Luming
January 12

The author explains why he deleted a reader-contributed article about the judicial-staffing quota system at the request of the contributor, a judge who balked under the pressure of speaking out to such a large audience, and says that he absolutely understands the contributor’s decision. Using that episode as a springboard, Huang poses the question: Why don’t people within institutions speak truth to power? Because it is generally a thankless task that comes with considerable personal and professional risk, he writes, so “savvy” individuals within an organization learn to be vague, silent, and conformist. The article then traces this dynamic through history, from Socrates to Ming Dynasty “honest official” Hai Rui to the suppression of the Hundred Flowers Movement. He also contrasts the truth-telling, plain-speaking Mohists with the rhetorically polished Confucians, and argues that Chinese civilization made a tragic choice when it elevated the latter. The article closes with the argument that protecting free speech through institutional and constitutional guarantees (rather than relying on individual moral courage) is what distinguishes a truly modern society from one trapped in the ancient cycle of rewarding flattery and punishing honesty.

24. “An Open Letter to the Supreme Court, Supreme Procuratorate, and Ministry of Public Security: Exactly Who Is Fueling ‘Societal Antagonism?’” by Dai Man, from WeChat account Yet Another Deep-Sea Fishing Expedition
January 12

An open letter by Dai Man, the wife of Wu Shaowei, a Beijing businessman who ran a training company helping students pass a national safety engineering exam and was sentenced to twelve years for fraud, following a 2023 cross-provincial arrest by police in Shanghai’s Baoshan district. Dai Man argues that the case is a textbook example of "deep-sea fishing," a widely criticized method of “for-profit policing” practiced across provincial borders. Alleging serious procedural violations, Dai challenges the authorities’ claim that such prosecutions serve "social stability," and argues that manufacturing unjust convictions is precisely what turns law-abiding citizens into adversaries of the state. The letter closes with a direct appeal to China’s Supreme Court, Supreme People’s Procuratorate, and Ministry of Public Security to revisit the case, and a vow that Dai will pursue every legal avenue available, regardless of personal risk. (This WeChat account has published numerous articles and letters—many of which have been censored—from the families of the Hengwan defendants, alleging similar procedural violations.)

25. “The Spring-Festival Gala Performer Driven to Lunacy by the Need to ‘Educate’ Her Audience," by Buck-toothed Zhao, WeChat account Fatty Zhao, Scholar of Song Dynasty History
January 12

This article by Buck-toothed Zhao, the online alias of a historian who often applies a historical approach to writing about current events, skewers an actress known for playing rural women in CCTV Spring Festival Gala comedic sketches for her condescending answer during a recent livestream, after a viewer asked her where an old farmer like him could find work. Apparently motivated by the need to “educate” her viewers in the same way that the annual televised Gala has been schooling viewers for years, she proceeded to lecture the man that he ought to stay in his village and “grow your corn or beans or whatever, since you can earn 100,000 to 200,000 per year, more than you’d make working in the city.” She went on: “Besides, it’s not like anyone’s poor anymore. If you’re poor, it just means you’re lazy.” Zhao disputes these wildly optimistic income projections, and suggests that the actress ought to spend a year in his mountainous Sichuan hometown trying to plant and harvest rice and sweet potatoes without the aid of oxen or mechanized tools, and then see if she thinks hard work alone is enough to make a farmer rich. Zhao goes on to say that playing a farmer in a few skits doesn’t make an actor a farmer, much less an expert on complex issues such as rural poverty and unemployment, and that such performers would be better off if they just shut up.

26. “Shocking Bureaucratic Malfeasance by Certain Government Departments in Inner Mongolia,” by Citizen Yu Ping, WeChat account 鱼眼观察 (Yúyǎn guānchá, “A fish-eye view”)
January 12

This article about a complicated case of wage arrears in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia, involves 12 migrant workers who are still attempting to collect 682,000 yuan (nearly $100,000 U.S.) in wages for exterior wall-insulation work they completed on a residential construction project back in 2019. Author Yu Ping describes a cascade of failures: the contractors illegally paid the workers in commercial paper (short-term promissory notes) from Chinese property developer Evergrande rather than in cash, that paper became worthless when Evergrande collapsed, the contractors then blamed each other, and a state-owned enterprise that took over the project after Evergrande’s implosion refused to accept any responsibility for the wage arrears, despite having made verbal promises to help. Local government departments in Ulanqab initially assured the workers their claims would be resolved, convened mediation sessions, and obtained written commitments from the companies involved, but none of those commitments were honored, and the departments subsequently reverted to stalling, buck-passing, and procedural runarounds. The workers are still waiting to be paid, despite the fact that last July, Inner Mongolia became the first locality in China to guarantee the payment of wages to migrant workers.

27. “Good News, Retirees Can Get Prenatal Checkups Reimbursed! Collecting Pension and Maternity Benefits Simultaneously Is No Longer Just a Dream,” by Xu Peng, WeChat account History Rhymes
January 13

This short, semi-satirical piece from Xu Peng comments on a new Beijing medical insurance policy that extends prenatal checkup reimbursements to retired women: a group who are, by definition, past the legal female retirement age of 50 and largely post-menopausal. Xu notes that while the policy technically benefits anyone who can become pregnant through assisted reproductive technology (he mentions a 59-year-old woman in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu province, who recently gave birth), it is essentially a meaningless policy that will have a negligible impact on China’s low birthrate. Xu wryly observes that retired people might actually be better candidates for childbearing than the young—they have more free time and financial resources, and are more likely to hold traditional pro-natalist values, whereas the younger generation faces crushing housing and childcare costs that deter them from starting families. More realistically, Xu acknowledges, the real solution lies in creating conditions that help ease the financial and other burdens of young families raising children.

28. “It’s a Shame That Tsinghua University Abandoned Its Independent Spirit,” by Xiang Dongliang, WeChat account Basic Common Sense
January 13

Blogger Xiang Dongliang laments the renaming of a WeChat public account associated with a Tsinghua University academic journal: the account once known as “Independent Spirit” has been replaced with the bland institutional title "Tsinghua University Journal of Philosophy and Social Sciences." Xiang traces the name’s origins to a 1929 memorial inscription written by renowned Tsinghua scholar Chen Yinke in tribute to the late Sinologist Wang Guowei. Chen wrote that Wang’s "independent spirit and freedom of thought will endure for eternity,” and the phrase became synonymous with Tsinghua’s intellectual identity and reputation. Noting that it is only the WeChat account name and not the journal title that has changed, Xiang expresses the hope that even though the name "Independent Spirit" has been abandoned, the spirit itself might endure among Tsinghua’s scholars.

29. “Why It’s Important to Remember Nie Weiping and That Era,” by Peng Yuanwen, WeChat account 盘点六条 (Pándiǎn liùtiáo, “Six-point Overview”)
January 15

Investigative journalist Peng Yuanwen commemorates the legacy of legendary Chinese Go player Nie Weiping, who died on January 14, 2026 at the age of 73. Peng argues that Nie’s significance extends far beyond the game of Go: Nie’s stunning victories at China-Japan Super Go tournaments in the mid-1980s not only made him a national hero and reinvigorated nationwide interest in the game, they also bolstered Chinese national confidence during the early years of Reform and Opening. Unlike the obituaries that appeared in Chinese state-media, Peng’s tribute to Nie also highlights his open-mindedness, his willingness to learn from non-Chinese experts, and the essential role of Japanese Go Master Hideyuki Fujisawa, who began bringing groups of Go experts to China in the 1980s to help tutor China’s emerging talent. Peng mentions that nearly all of the Chinese Go players who later shone in international tournaments were Fujisawa’s proteges. Peng closes his article with an implicit but pointed contrast between that era of openness and humility and the increasingly insular and nationalistic tendencies in present-day China: “We should adapt and adopt that which is most advanced and embrace it wholeheartedly; nothing is ‘unsuitable’ for us. We should learn from and respect our opponents rather than belittling them. We should be free and open-minded, not complacent and arrogant. We should carry on traditions that are worthy, and discard those that are dross.”

30. “Jia Guolong Decides If He’s Going to Crash and Burn, He’ll Take Luo Down With Him,” WeChat account Beast Office
January 15

This is the first of four archived articles this month about the escalating social-media spat between celebrity entrepreneur and former English teacher Luo Yonghao and Xibei restaurant-chain founder Jia Guolong: the pair’s mutual mudslinging culminated in both of their Weibo accounts being suspended on January 17. The author recounts Jia’s threats and counterattacks in response to allegations, first made by Luo in September, that Xibei’s food was overpriced, unpalatable, and relied on pre-prepared ingredients. Instead of ignoring Luo or responding with humor, Jia angrily accused Luo of slander, derided him as an "online gangster," and threatened to sue. This reaction, followed by other revelations about Xibei’s culinary shortcuts, triggered a boycott and massive revenue losses that hastened the closure of 102 Xibei outlets and the layoff of 4,000 employees. The article frames Jia as a tragic and out-of-touch figure who betrayed some of his early ideals and got sidetracked by his own overwhelming ambition.

31. “Jia Guolong Doesn’t Deserve Sympathy,” by Nande Jun, WeChat account Nande Jun
January 16

This article argues that the Xibei founder is undeserving of sympathy because, even as his company hemorrhages money and prepares to close 102 stores, his online screeds reveal a man more concerned with vindication than with the livelihoods of his tens of thousands of employees. The author posits that Jia fails to understand the modern Chinese internet: in an era when social-media users reward self-deprecating humor and emotional relatability, Jia’s attempts to occupy the moral high ground and demand formal apologies make him look thin skinned and out of touch, and every word he utters only deepens the public-relations hole he has dug for himself and his company.

32. “Luo Yonghao Continues Stoking Anti-Intellectual Sentiment,” WeChat account 奥派老古 (Ào pài lǎo gǔ, “Old Gu, of the Austrian School”)
January 16

Writing about the “Luo Yonghao vs. Jia Guolong pre-prepared food spat,” the author of this piece paints Luo as a scientifically illiterate influencer who stirs up anti-intellectual public sentiment and consistently refuses to retract his factual errors. To support this, the author cites Luo’s past mispronouncements about broadband speed, and his more recent confusion about the safety and quality of frozen broccoli used in the Xibei restaurant chain’s meals. Hostility to pre-prepared food, writes the author, is rooted in ignorance: even Michelin-starred restaurants use sous-vide techniques and rely heavily on prepackaged ingredients, which may be used in 60-70% of restaurants in countries such as the U.S. and Japan. The article offers a deep dive into the economics of cold-chain logistics, liquid nitrogen flash-freezing, industrial kitchen infrastructure, and the importance of maintaining flavor consistency and food safety, and concludes that the industrialization of the restaurant industry is as historically inevitable as the industrialization of textiles. Luo Yonghao is no consumer champion, writes the author, but a populist purveyor of misinformation that does a disservice to Chinese consumers and businesses alike.

33. “Yang Guifei in a Jacket: This Isn’t Just Morons Making Mischief, It’s a Sign We’ve Regressed,” by Zhang Chuanlin, WeChat account Will Tomorrow Really Be Better?
January 16

Responding to news that a nude statue of Yang Guifei (a legendary beauty and favorite consort of Tang Dynasty Emperor Xuanzong) may soon be clothed after members of the public complained about her nudity, Zhang Chuanlin argues that the real problem is not the complaints themselves, but the authorities’ mindless "rectification" of works of art regardless of aesthetics or common sense. The article is illustrated with some amusing user-generated memes of classical statues clothed in colorful garb, and a genuine photo of a donkey at the Hukou Waterfall Scenic Area in Shanxi wearing a covering over its private parts (a measure undertaken after a member of the public complained). Such capitulation to extreme conservatism, Zhang warns, creates a chilling effect, pressures artists to self-censor, and makes a mockery of art and civilization. True civilization, writes Zhang, lies not in covering up statues and animals, but in cultivating a society capable of understanding beauty, tolerating diversity, and respecting artistic expression.

One of many memes suggesting possible “outfits” for the nude Yang Guifei statue in Xi’an, Shaanxi province.

34. “The Blue Sky That Was Represented, and the Freezing Winter That Wasn’t,” by Brother Lu (Louis), WeChat account Brother Lu
January 17

In this, the last of 16 articles about the Hebei heating crisis archived by CDT in January, WeChat blogger Brother Lu argues that while the underlying goals of Hebei’s "coal-to-gas" conversion were sound, the policy roll-out was flawed. Rural residents were enticed with subsidies to switch to natural-gas home-heating systems without being honestly informed of the long-term costs, and now face winter heating bills that can exceed 15,000 yuan (nearly $2,200 U.S.), an impossible sum for elderly residents living on pensions of less than 200 yuan ($29) a month. Lu criticizes local officials who bolstered their careers with improved "blue-sky day" metrics during their tenures, while leaving unsustainable financial burdens that surfaced only after they had moved on. “Truly responsible governance shouldn’t force ordinary people to choose between freezing temperatures and choking smog,” writes Lu, “nor should it reflexively place the heaviest burden on the most vulnerable groups in our society.”

35. “Peak Totalitarianism: A Nation Yoked to One Party, One Party Yoked to One Man,” by Shu Sheng, WeChat account Shu Sheng
January 17

This long essay offers a theoretical analysis of totalitarianism, arguing that its defining structure is a mutually reinforcing "trinity" of a single party, a single ideology, and a single leader that creates a system of total control. Drawing on writers and theorists including Hannah Arendt, George Orwell, Alexis de Tocqueville, Karl Jaspers, Milan Kundera, and Anna Akhmatova, Shu Sheng traces how totalitarian regimes monopolize thought by elevating ideology to unchallengeable truth, concentrate power by making the party an instrument of the leader’s will, and atomize individuals by destroying independent social institutions that might serve as buffers against state power. The piece uses historical examples from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy to illustrate how such systems generate personality cults and an atmosphere of pervasive fear, reducing individuals to tools of the state and corroding human relationships. Shu concludes that totalitarianism’s fatal flaw is its mechanistic misunderstanding of human society: genuine civilization and harmony arise not from enforced uniformity, but from diversity, dialogue, and the protection of individual freedoms.

36. “Jia and Luo, Both Muted: Has it Really Come To This?” by Song Qingren, WeChat account 剑客写字的地方 (Jiànkè xiězì de dìfang, “Where the Swordsman Writes”)
January 17

This is yet another censored post about the fraught public dispute between Jia Guolong, founder of the popular Chinese restaurant chain Xibei, and his most vocal critic, internet celebrity entrepreneur Luo Yonghao. Song Qingren describes how, soon after Jia threatened legal action and demanded a public apology from Luo for allegedly slandering Xibei, both parties found that their Weibo accounts had been suspended. Song dismisses online rumors that the authorities might step in and openly back Jia Guolong and Xibei, because to do so would fuel even more public distrust about food safety, and Xibei isn’t strategically important enough to warrant that kind of official intervention. The most likely outcome, writes Song, is that authorities will push both sides to de-escalate. He also suggests that while Luo would be wise to stop engaging, Xibei will be the real long-term loser due to the erosion of consumer trust in the brand—a reminder that when brands try to suppress public opinion, they tend to end up losing market share.

37. “Liang Jianzhang Sounded the Alarm About China’s Demographic ‘Tipping Point,’ but Now His Travel Platform Is in the Crosshairs,” WeChat account 认知之外Antevasin (Rènzhī zhīwài Antevasin, “Beyond Cognition Antevasin”)
January 17

This article profiles Liang Jianzhang (James Liang), former CEO and co-founder of the travel website Trip.com (formerly Ctrip), as a paradoxical figure: one of China’s earliest and most persistent voices warning about the demographic crisis, yet the leader of a platform giant now subject to an antitrust probe by Chinese authorities. The author argues that Liang’s demographic warnings, informed by his Stanford economics training, were not based on knee-jerk pessimism but on rigorous structural analysis. Liang correctly identified the issue now facing China and other nations struggling with chronically low birthrates: once fertility falls below a critical threshold, recovery costs rise exponentially. Meanwhile, Trip.com’s business model (built on platform monopoly rents and algorithmic price discrimination against loyal users) makes it a natural target for regulators seeking to redistribute value from platforms back to households during a period of demographic contraction. The piece concludes with a pointed irony: Liang could see the distant demographic crisis clearly, but could not escape the antitrust crackdown now engulfing the platform-economy model that made him wealthy and powerful.

38. “Birthrate Falls to 7.92 Million in 2025, Down Nearly 10 Million From a Decade Ago,” by Yi Luo, WeChat account Yi Luo
January 19

This long article, illustrated with copious charts and graphs, discusses the precipitous decline in the Chinese birthrate. The author discusses demographic trends under several different “fertility scenarios,” and describes their impact on China’s workforce, society, population distribution, and more. The article concludes with a number of policy recommendations, including abolishing limits on the number of children people can have, lowering the legal marriage age to 18 for both men and women, bolstering spending on education and cash subsidies for families with children, and generally promoting a socioeconomic environment amenable to childrearing and families. The author notes that encouraging people to have children is the single most effective long-term consumption stimulus available to the government, because whereas infrastructure investment will yield diminishing returns, each new birth will generate decades of cascading consumer demand.

39. “Jia Guolong Is More Suited To Be a Rural County Party Secretary Than a Corporate Boss,” by Hereditary Researcher, WeChat account 小干体 (Xiǎo gān tǐ)
January 19

This sardonic piece takes Xibei restaurant chain founder Jia Guolong to task for his gleeful reaction to a People’s Daily commentary defending businesses against online criticism. The author notes that Jia, who had previously dismissed the importance of public relations in business, suddenly changed his tune and did some PR of his own, crowing about the state-media piece as a vindication. The author argues that having an official state-media outlet "settle" a public dispute by fiat is not a sign of a healthy media environment. The piece skewers Jia’s fundamental ignorance of what PR actually means, arguing that any consumer-facing business owner who doesn’t understand it is hopelessly out of touch. The piece concludes by suggesting that with Jia’s mindset, he might have been better suited as a rural county party secretary than as CEO of a national restaurant brand.

40. “Statistics Bureau Announces Births in 2025 Fell Below 8 Million! Can the Birthrate Be Stabilized?” by Demographics Are Destiny, WeChat account 今岑何夕 (Jīn cén hé xī)
January 20

The author of this piece argues that a common misconception conflates stabilizing birth rates with stabilizing fertility rates. In fact, the author writes, even holding the fertility rate constant at around 0.96, the number of births will continue to decline because the population of women of childbearing age is steadily shrinking. Only by raising the total fertility rate to the replacement level of 2.14 (higher than the international 2.1 replacement level, due to China’s skewed male-female birth ratio) can the nation hope to stabilize births over the long term. The author concludes that strong pro-natalist policies are urgently needed, and that the longer action is delayed, the higher the eventual policy cost.

Part Three will follow soon.