Since August, the CCP's political-legal system has been carrying out a nationwide, year-long “Special Campaign to Deepen the Fight Against Organized Crime and Local Bullies,” listing online activities such as “public-opinion extortion” and “malicious compensation claims” as key targets, and requiring internet platforms to cooperate with enforcement. Interviewees say the CCP is using the anti-gang campaign as a pretext to silence dissent, bringing online public opinion within its scope of suppression -- meaning ordinary posts and consumer complaints could now be branded as “gang-related” or “criminal.”
Expanding Online Censorship Under the Guise of Fighting Organized Crime
On August 2, CCTV's website -- a CCP mouthpiece -- published a Q&A with an official from the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, listing targets for crackdown that include organized online activities such as extortion through explicit video chats, illegal lending, illegal debt collection, public-opinion extortion, malicious compensation claims, forced consumption, staged labor disputes, and sexual extortion, while claiming that organized crime is shifting from offline to online, and from “hard violence” to “soft violence.”
Mr. Jiang, a rights activist from Wuxi, told our reporter: “Xi Jinping conducts anti-corruption arrests within the CCP -- every day there's news of another 'tiger' being caught, making headlines. At the same time, they're carrying out this 'anti-gang, anti-evil' campaign against ordinary citizens -- it's nothing more than an effort to sweep away critical voices in public opinion. What they really want is to control public sentiment and stop ordinary people from speaking out. This treats online speech itself as a source of instability to be suppressed.”
Mr. Wang, a rights activist from Wuhan, told our reporter: “A few days ago, the People's Daily ran a full-page spread on this so-called anti-gang campaign, targeting 'village bullies' and 'market bullies' -- but never once mentioning the CCP's own 'Party bullying.' The authorities themselves are the real bullies. What they call 'anti-gang' is really nothing more than suppressing ordinary citizens who voice opposing views. This anti-gang campaign is just a means of robbing private businesses.”
The Political-Legal System Uses the Anti-Gang Campaign to Expand Its Own Power
In February 2023, the CCP's Ministry of Public Security held a meeting to advance a special campaign against online organized crime, listing malicious compensation claims, negative public-opinion extortion, and disruption by “internet water armies” as key targets. In 2024, the CCP's Supreme People's Procuratorate work report again called for cracking down on crimes such as “internet water armies” spreading rumors to drive traffic and engaging in public-opinion extortion.
Mr. Zhou, an online writer from Hubei, said: “A few years ago, the CCP already folded what it called 'negative public opinion' into its anti-gang campaign, and now it's expanding the crackdown further through this nationwide special campaign. The CCP is trying to lump online criticism and consumer rights-defense together into the same bag as gang-related crime -- and in the end, this is all about expanding the political-legal system's control over society and public opinion.”
The CCP's previous nationwide special campaign against organized crime and local bullies began in 2018. The CCP's political-legal departments had already listed public-opinion extortion, malicious compensation claims, and “internet water armies” as targets for rectification back then. This time, the same kinds of activities have again been folded into the special crackdown on “online gangs” and “soft violence.” Cases are identified and handled by the CCP's own political-legal organs, and the targets of enforcement are likewise defined entirely by the authorities themselves.