Weibo Trending Topics · Full chronicle and history

On November 3, China Fund News published an article citing external factors such as the decline in the South Korean stock market, the drop in U.S. tech stocks, and the U.S. midterm elections to explain the A-share correction. The related topic entered the top ten trending list on Weibo, drawing mocking comments from netizens.

On November 2, 'Baitou Baiwei', the same-sex partner of ancient-style singer Wu En, posted that the funeral home procedures had been completed and the cremation time scheduled. They added that they had not expected their own name to be the one left on Wu En's death certificate. The related topic reached number 2 on the Weibo trending list. Same-sex couples cannot register for marriage in mainland China.

On October 31, the topic of "sexual consent determination" in the case of Bu, a female master's degree holder who was "taken in," reached the Weibo trending list, peaking at No. 13. Bu suffers from schizophrenia and lacks the capacity for sexual self-defense. She cohabited with Zhang Moujun for over a decade without a marriage certificate. Zhang Moujun was not prosecuted, while two villagers were publicly prosecuted.

According to Shanghai News Workshop, the Minhang District Representative Office of the Shanghai Charity Foundation received a property worth 6.5 million yuan bequeathed by an elderly person for educational aid. The person in charge stated that selling the property would require an estimated 4.5 to 4.6 million yuan in taxes, so they have decided not to sell it for now and will instead use rental income to support charity. On October 31, the topic topped the Weibo trending list.

Yu Yang, a host at Hangzhou Traffic 91.8 who has been helping ride-hailing drivers with rights defense (weiwen) for over a decade, personally took the test of renting a car to drive. On his second day, he drove for 12 hours, completed 9 orders, and generated 139 yuan in revenue. After deducting expenses for car rental, charging, and meals, he lost 15.73 yuan. On the first day, after deducting new driver bonuses and tips, he also lost 14.8 yuan. The related topic trended on Weibo on October 31.

On October 30, Cang Bai, the male partner of gay singer Wu En, posted to announce Wu En's passing, and the news topped the Weibo trending list. Wu En had been battling stomach cancer for nearly seven years, and the two had taken turns undergoing chemotherapy and caring for each other.

On October 29, the Weibo topic "Mbappé-endorsed drink sees zero sales in a single day" reached number two on the trending list. Guangdong Radio and Television reported that a merchant in Guangzhou claimed the drink had zero sales for the day, while netizens in the comments section posted photos to refute the claim, stating they were still purchasing it.

On October 21, a Global Times editorial titled "The World Is in Chaos While China Lives in Peace" climbed onto Weibo's trending list after being reposted by accounts such as Beijing Daily. Some netizens pointed out that only four of the 400 comments in the relevant Weibo comment section were displayed, while another netizen said "Domestic chaos is what you cannot see," and the search suggestions for their post showed "Are negative news stories being blocked."

On October 21, BMW launched a voluntary redundancy scheme in Germany, with compensation for some employees reaching about 4.87 million yuan. A large number of employees logged into the internal system to check their compensation amounts, causing the system to become congested, and the related topic trended on Weibo's hot search.

On October 19, the Weibo topic “Why young people don’t pay social insurance” trended on the hot search list. Netizens generally attributed it to low incomes, and called for the implementation of an eight-hour workday, no fewer than eight rest days per month, strict punishment for wage arrears, and compensation guarantees for layoffs.

On October 18, "A work schedule more vicious than alternate long-and-short weeks and one-day weekends has appeared" topped Weibo's trending searches. Circulating chat records show that the so-called "improved alternate long-and-short week" means working seven days one week and six days the next, with only one day off in two weeks; a netizen in Shenyang also claimed that a "mini week" means one week with a single day off and the following week with no days off.

On October 11, "How much social insurance do you actually have to pay to get a 10,000-yuan pension" ranked first on Weibo's hot search. Previously, a blogger cited Shanghai as an example, claiming that ordinary people would have to pay contributions at a relatively high base for 30 to 40 years before their pension could exceed 10,000 yuan, and said the shortcut was to get a job inside the system. Netizens sarcastically commented on "deemed contributions" — "they have the final say."

On October 11, the topic “Employers in Arrears on Social Insurance May Be Fined Up to Three Times the Amount” topped Weibo’s trending searches, sparking heated discussion among netizens.

On October 11, “smoothing out pension benefits” trended on Weibo, reaching a high of No. 15. Under the topic, one blogger suggested that retirees receiving more than 10,000 yuan per month, whose contributions before 2014 were deemed as paid, have their benefits cut by 5% per year for five consecutive years, and that those receiving more than 5,000 yuan have their increases frozen for five years; another blogger called for raising rural pensions to at least 500 yuan, saying rural elderly cannot wait any longer.

On October 8, Dongchedi released a test video claiming that during a continuous emergency braking test from 100km/h to 0, the brake pedal brackets of three Zunjie V800 units priced between 766,000 and 1,016,000 yuan broke in succession, with none lasting more than 4 hard stops, contrasting with the official website's promotion of "multiple redundancy, steady as Mount Tai." There is online dispute over the force readings in the test, and the cause of the breakage remains to be verified.

On October 8, People’s Daily published an article about Qilian County opening student dormitories to house tourists, arguing that it is difficult to conclude from the available information alone that the local authorities bullied students for the sake of tourists, while acknowledging that further explanation is still needed regarding the protection of students’ rights. The related topic trended on Weibo, with netizens asking whether county guesthouses and government dormitories are also used to receive tourists.

Facing the fact that more than 23.3% of fresh graduates did not get an interview opportunity and a severe employment situation, Chinese netizens pushed the topic "a large group of people can't find jobs and this must be resolved" onto Weibo's trending list during the long holiday.

On October 3, remarks related to Hebe Tien trended on Weibo's hot search, with blogger "Digua Xiong Laoliu" pressing her fans on why they refuse to say "support One China."

A screenshot circulating online shows that the Cigarette Customer Service Department of the Nanming District Bureau of the Guizhou Provincial Tobacco Monopoly Bureau is recruiting 1 customer manager in 2024, requiring majors such as physical education and sports training, with preference given to candidates holding national second-class football athlete qualifications or above. On October 3, the related topic trended on Weibo's hot search, and netizens questioned it as a "radish position" — a job slot pre-arranged for a specific person.

On October 2, when searching for "social security" on Weibo, the page displayed a notice that the topic's content was not shown.

Tech blogger "CC the Phone Buyer" was targeted by rumor-mongers who used AI to synthesize explicit content and spread it in the comments section and private messages for as long as two months. On September 30, he released a video announcing that the police had accepted the case, saying he would pursue the rumor-mongers' legal liability through civil litigation. The topic trended on Weibo's hot search.

Around September 29, Peking University issued the "Implementation Measures for Meeting the Requirement of Living a Tight Life," making clear that meetings must not be held at 21 scenic and tourist areas, and restricting spending on meetings, training, and travel. The related topic trended on Weibo's hot search, prompting netizens to speculate that Peking University had run out of money.

On the evening of September 28, on a flight from Hefei to Dalian, a China Eastern Airlines flight attendant was forced to kneel two or three times after accidentally brushing against a male passenger's elbow, yet she was still not forgiven. After the video was released, it trended on Weibo on the 29th. Multiple media outlets contacted China Eastern Airlines but did not receive a definitive response.

On September 24, Meituan's commission rates reached the top 3 on the Weibo lifestyle trending list. Multiple restaurant merchants posted screenshots of their orders: a 30.8 yuan set meal yielded an estimated income of only 6.24 yuan, a 20.8 yuan rice noodle dish only 5.75 yuan, and a 16 yuan clear soup noodle dish only 3.11 yuan, complaining that their income is too low after platform discounts, commissions, and delivery fees are layered on top of each other.

On September 19, discussions about the compensated off-days system topped Weibo's trending list. Netizens and bloggers criticized the system for shuffling weekend days to piece together long holidays, aiming to boost consumption rather than guarantee rest. They noted that the two-day weekend and paid leave systems have long failed to be implemented, leading to increased fatigue among the public. Weibo's official account also interpreted the system's design as being born out of domestic demand-driven motives, triggering strong dissatisfaction among netizens over policies ignoring public opinion.

Regarding the compensatory leave arrangements for the 2026 Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day, "boycott consumption during compensatory leave" once topped the Weibo trending list, with netizens advocating for no travel and no shopping during the compensatory leave period.

"The extended holiday adjustment is not meant for people to rest, but to boost consumption" surged to the number one spot on Weibo's trending searches. The next day, "holiday adjustment and boycotting consumption" made it to the trending searches before being immediately censored.

On September 18, Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao published a post on social media mentioning the September 18 Incident and the attack on a Japanese schoolboy in Shenzhen, triggering domestic public controversy and trending on Weibo. Subsequently, the media outlet deleted the relevant posts from its official website and social media platforms.

On September 16, 2026, the topic “A Little Threatens Employees” topped the Weibo trending searches.

According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Education compiled by Yicai, among full-time primary and secondary school teachers nationwide, 5,910 hold a doctoral degree and 855,634 hold a master's degree, totaling more than 860,000; on September 14, the topic "Over 860,000 Master's and Doctoral Degree Holders Teaching in Primary and Secondary Schools" trended on Weibo's hot search.

On September 2, 2026, the topic that the labor law does not stipulate mandatory two-day weekends topped the Weibo trending chart with over 40 million reads, sparking widespread public debate over working hours and the difficulties of defending rights regarding overtime pay.

Multiple Weibo accounts claim that Jing Tian's Weibo Index is no longer displayed, her Weibo hot search statistics have disappeared, and Sun Yuchen has been banned at the same time; other accounts say Meituan has removed Jing Tian as its spokesperson.

The topic "Search and rescue dog's paws swollen from the Jilong mudslide" trended on Weibo, after which the discussion focused on the treatment of the dog's paws.

The topic "45-year-old female master's graduate sets up a fruit stall after losing her job" topped Weibo's hot search, sparking widespread discussion and resonance.

On August 21, 2026, media reported that a 60-year-old acupuncturist was sentenced to three years and three months for raping an 18-year-old female nurse. Weibo pushed the story onto the trending list under the headline that the victim had not cried out for help, drawing criticism from netizens of victim-blaming.

A 30-year-old man surnamed Yang fell on hard times financially after losing his job in Shenzhen, nearly fasting for 20 days and developing acute kidney failure; he later suffered damage to his eyesight due to an acute nervous system illness caused by a lack of vitamin B1. The incident sparked widespread discussion.

On August 2, 2026, "Is taking down the Yu Chengdong parody video making a fuss over nothing?" trended on Weibo's hot search. State media published an article defending Huawei's takedown complaint, drawing public backlash and prompting questions about the platform's hegemonic control over speech.

A topic on Weibo hot search, 'Never buy cheap drinks online', has emerged. The reason may be that some drinks, after being soaked by floods, were salvaged by unscrupulous merchants and resold. Videos point out deficiencies in China's system for tracking and destroying goods after disasters.

After the National Bureau of Statistics released stable data showing a decline in the urban unemployment rate from January to May, the topic "I really want to know how many unemployed people there are now" surged to fourth place on Weibo's hot search list, triggering a massive wave of netizen commentary venting about employment difficulties.

On June 11, 2026, the Sina Weibo platform banned and removed an interview video of gaokao students and related search topics concerning raising the statutory age of sexual consent to 18.