When bad things happen in the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese Communist Party often tries to suppress the news.
In two recent installments of Lei’s Real Talk, Lei discusses some of the bad things going on in China that nobody is supposed to know about (April 16, 2026 and April 19, 2026):
Closing hospitals in droves. Over 1,300 private hospitals closed in 2025, a trend continuing in 2026 and attributed to “weakening local government finances.” One example is Leping Tianhu Hospital in Jiangxi Province. “Once a high-performing secondary-A general hospital with a planned investment of $32.8 million (230 million RMB), its total shutdown highlights a lethal combination of regulatory crackdowns, insurance fraud, and the tightening grip of payment reforms.”
Clinging to deposits. It’s not good when your bank won’t let you have your money. “As thousands of bank branches close across China, customers are finding it increasingly harder to access their own money, raising deeper concerns about financial control, trust, and who truly holds power over personal wealth.” One critically ill woman died after her bank refused to let relatives make a withdrawal on her behalf; proofs of authorization didn’t matter. So they finally hauled her to the bank. “We carried her here… After more than two hours, the money still wasn’t withdrawn. Now she’s gone. She’s gone.”
Stiffing workers. Unrest over unpaid back wages, a feature of stories about tariff-related economic troubles in China in 2025, is still happening—in Shandong, Guangzhou, Cangzhou, Shanghai, Xi’an, Puyang. “Beijing’s largest state-owned construction firm paused work for about 30,000 employees as the building boom faded. Meanwhile, protests at sites tied to China Construction Seventh Engineering Division and other units included sit-ins and blockades.”
Lashing out at innocents. On March 29, 2026, “A man driving a front-end loader plowed directly into a local market, running over vendors and crowds throughout the area; reports suggest the incident resulted in 13 fatalities” (Google Translation of a Chinese-language Yahoo story). Last year, the Christian Science Monitor reported “an unusual spate of mass-casualty attacks against innocent bystanders…including stabbings and car-ramming rampages…. The heightened repression and social control that Mr. Xi has imposed on Chinese society have limited institutional channels for resolving conflicts, experts say. That may have prompted citizens with grievances to protest or lash out violently.”
Demanding an end to the CCP. Lei: “A large graffiti targeting Xi Jinping appeared on a wall [in Beijing]…. An elderly man who is a petitioner climbed the exterior of a twenty-story building and shouted repeatedly ‘Down with the Communist Party of China!’… In January, a young man who was publicly swearing at the CCP and wanted the regime to end was taken away by police.”
One person recently submitted a complaint to a local government office “urging Xi Jinping to step down and urging government officials to oppose the Communist Party and end the regime…. The complaint was formally accepted by Shenzhen Public Security Bureau on March 24. And on April 3, the Bureau even issued an official response saying, ‘We’ve received your complaint…. Thank you for supporting our civilian complaint work and have a nice day.’…
“People are losing fear. They’re no longer just complaining. They’re no longer just enduring. They’re pushing back.”
Tightening control
What can the party-state do to convince everyone that everything is fine? One big idea is to plug holes in the censorship dikes.
Foreign news outlets often tell people in China what is going on in China. News that gets suppressed domestically is often at least partially reported overseas, and some people in China find it there. The government has not perfectly succeeded in stopping people from using virtual private network (VPN) software to bypass the Great Firewall and find out what’s happening.
The censorship won’t be perfect until everybody is gagged and blindfolded. Meantime, “Leaked Document Suggests CCP Shifting From Restricting Content to Controlling Network Infrastructure Itself” (The Epoch Times, April 8, 2026). The document indicates that “the regime is now directing internet service providers to cut off cross-border connections…. [It] outlines a coordinated campaign in which regulators are working through telecom operators to require internet data center companies in China to identify and terminate what the regime deems ‘non-compliant’ overseas access…. The document instructs companies to continuously monitor servers, ports, and network connections, and to detect and handle ‘abnormal traffic.’ ”
Users depend on VPNs to hide their visits to the “wrong” websites. The Party is telling ISPs: “We don’t care if you can’t tell whether someone is using a VPN. Fix it. Don’t let anybody have access to the news and perspectives available only in foreign lands!”
The fix entails “declining stability in tools used to access overseas platforms, with increased disruptions and slower connection speeds…. Some Chinese exporters posted online that they rely on cross-border platforms to communicate with clients and confirm orders. When connections are interrupted, negotiations can stall, delaying transactions or even leading to lost deals.”
Doesn’t sound like the kind of thing that would strengthen an economy or soothe social strife.
