The Jordan Harbinger Show

The China Show's Laowhy86 reveals how millions of Chinese citizens disguise dissent as puns, memes, and mythical creatures to dodge censors.Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1299What We Discuss with Laowhy86:China's internet operates as a closed ecosystem where apps like WeChat handle everything from payments to communication — and the government monitors all of it. Citizens who default on debts, post the wrong opinion, or even discuss banned topics can lose access to trains, flights, and basic services overnight.Chinese citizens have built an ever-evolving coded language to dodge censorship — from "grass mud horse" (a pun on a profanity) to calling lockdowns "square cabins" and using "talk egg prices" to vent about the economy. What started as playful wordplay has become a high-stakes survival tool as punishments have escalated to years in prison.The government now deploys AI — through campaigns like "Clear and Bright" — to predict and pre-emptively ban future slang before