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Social media companies rely on user agreements as one means to manage content produced by users. While much has been written on user agreements and community standards of U.S.-based social media, surprisingly little is known about Chinese user agreements and their implications. We compare terms of services as well as privacy policies of WeChat and Weibo between 2014 and 2019 using their U.S. counterparts WhatsApp and Twitter as a benchmark. We find that Chinese user agreements reveal a territorial-based understanding of content management differentiating between PRC and non-PRC users based on language, IP address and country of citizenship. Second, Chinese social media companies are surprisingly transparent about what content can be published, which has implications for self-censorship among users. Third, changes in PRC user agreements reflect Xi Jinping’s tightening control of the Internet. Finally, U.S.-based platforms have moved towards content management that differs by region, thus becoming more similar to the Chinese approach over time.
Researchers specialising on China face severe challenges in carrying out original research. Five junior scholars wonder if the good times for research on China belong to the past. Foreign researchers have not been able to enter China for research purposes since the outbreak of the pandemic. This is especially limiting for those at a PhD or postdoc level whose projects have tight timeframes. In addition, research on China has to contend with an increasingly difficult political environment sensitive to work on politically-charged topics. Regardless of these challenges, Alice Trinkle, Felix Garten, Johannes Petry, Bo Yang and Yating Zhang believe that China research and expertise is needed now more than ever, especially from a new cohort of younger scholars. Drawing on their own experience, they highlight approaches that enable innovative research and methods of collecting primary data.