China: Bloggers “Forced to Drink Tea” with Police

Tea-drinking culture has a very long tradition in China. However, since around 2007, Chinese netizens have started using the term "tea talk" or "forced to drink tea" (被喝茶) to describe interrogations by the internal security police. Online opinion leaders, people who write about or host online platforms for political dissent, and signatories of online petitions are all frequently "forced to drink tea" with police and asked to give up sensitive information about their political activities. This post includes tips from online opinion leader Wu Gan on how to approach a tea talk with police.