In a 5000-character communique published on Feb. 23 on Weibo, China Central Television (CCTV) news met unrelenting waves of online condemnation for its response to reports of a mother of eight shackled in a hut in the Feng County of Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province. Despite the statement’s censure of local officials in Feng County, it echoed previous reports made by the Xuzhou city government de facto, leaving unresolved the fundamental contradictions raised by members of the public. In the week preceding the start of the 2022 Winter Olympics, a video showing an apparent victim of human trafficking chained up in a hut went viral on the Chinese internet. After days of inaction from the regime and a series of loophole-filled official statements, now-censored demands for accountability flooded the newsfeed of Chinese netizens. As of Feb. 22, the topic had been viewed more than 4.8 billion times on Weibo. Five Notices …