This story is part of an ongoing series on how China is reshaping our world.
The broad strokes of censorship in China are common knowledge. Everyone understands that, online, Chinese people can’t speak freely. That Hollywood films released in China may be altered for the local audience. That political activism is essentially not allowed.
But over the past week or two, the world began to wake up to the fact that China’s censorship machine is now a global phenomenon. What academics, commentators, filmmakers, musicians, celebrities, and even institutions say outside of China is increasingly modified by the gravitational pull of the Chinese government and Chinese consumers.