Read the original article: China Blocks Clubhouse
On Feb. 8, Chinese censors removed Clubhouse, the audio-sharing social app, from its Apple app store and attempted to rid the Chinese internet of references to the app, clamping down on what had been an unusual break in the Great Firewall.
Prior to the ban, ordinary Chinese citizens had been able to share audio on Clubhouse with individuals outside the mainland about sensitive political topics, from repression in Xinjiang to Li Wenliang, a doctor in Wuhan who sounded an early alarm on the coronavirus pandemic and was punished by regulators.
Clubhouse’s rise and fall took just a week: A Jan. 30 appearance by Elon Musk on the platform piqued users’ interest. By the weekend of Feb. 5, Chinese engagement with the platform was spiking. Many thousands of users from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan flooded Clubhouse, filling multiple chatrooms capped at 5,000 participants. Some users from the mainland said they learned pieces of their history and stories of their present that they had never previously encountered; one visitor felt she was “binging free expression.” By Monday, the app was banned.
Clubhouse was not perfect from an equity perspective: Its $47 invitation fee, requirement of a virtual private network (VPN), and exclusivity to iOS devices prohibited many would-be Chinese users from participating. And there are serious concerns that Clubhouse is unable or unwilling to fully protect the identities and data of its users, leaving many Chinese citizens who spoke out in the discussions frightened of retaliation.
But it gave Chinese citizens a fleeting glimpse of free speech online—a right greatly curtailed on China’s mainstream internet—and a chance to communicate across national and cultural lines.
President Biden and President Xi Have Their First Call
President Biden spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping for two hours on Feb. 11, the first call between the two leaders since Biden took office. The Chinese Communist Party-backed Global Times celebrated the duration of the call as a “very positive message[,]” which showed “in-depth communication” between the two leaders. Xinhua published a lengthy readout of the call emphasizing Xi’s message to Biden. Both leaders indicated their willingness to work together on issues of mutual concern, including climate change and fighting the coronavirus.
The White House summary of the call differed considerably in tone from China’s readout. According to the White House, President Biden “underscored his fundamental concerns about Beijing’s coercive and unfair economic practices, crackdown in Hong Kong, human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and increasingly assertive actions in the region, including toward Taiwan.” According to Xinhua, President Xi stressed that situations in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang “are China’s internal affairs and concern China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the U.S. side should respect China’s core interests and act prudently.”
Commentators are concerned that “narrowing differences” on those core issues “is going to be very challenging” but optimistically observed that Xi did not set preconditions for cooperation in areas of mutual interest.
In 2011 and 2012, while Xi was vice president of China and Biden was vice president of the United States, the two men spent more than 24 hours in private meetings and traveled 17,000 miles together. In a recent interview, President Biden said that he believed he has spent more time with Xi than any other world leader and knows the Chinese president “pretty well.”
Chinese Government Promulgates New Antitrust Rules
On Feb. 7, China’s State Administration for Market Regulatio
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Read the original article: China Blocks Clubhouse