The Trump White House has said lots about fake news these past three years. Now it’s going after fake products — counterfeit goods, usually from China — that pretend to be high-priced originals. I started investigating these knockoff goods nearly… Read More ›

Crime
Hesitant hitmen jailed over botched assassination in China
A group of hitmen have been jailed after repeatedly trying to subcontract a job to each other in Guangxi, China. Businessman Tan Youhui hired a hitman to “take out” his competitor for $282,000 (£218,000), a court heard. But the hitman… Read More ›
Escaped prisoner found living in cave in China after 17 years on the run
This guy went from inmate to hermit. An escaped prisoner who had been on the run from police in China for 17 years was finally tracked down by authorities — living in a tiny cave in the mountains, according to… Read More ›
China uses ‘death threat diplomacy’ against expats to force other countries to submit
The cases are piling up. Canadian Robert Schellenberg faces execution on drug charges after an unusually abrupt, accelerated and public retrial this week in a Chinese court. Two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, are being held by China for… Read More ›
Parallels between the Ming dynasty and Xi Jinping’s “anti-corruption campaign”
Of all the civilisations of premodern times, none appeared more advanced, none felt more superior, than that of China. Its considerable population, 100-130 million compared with Europe’s 50-55 million in the fifteenth century; it’s remarkable culture; it’s exceedingly fertile and… Read More ›
China clears convicted killer 21 years after his execution
A Chinese man has had his conviction for rape and murder overturned, 21 years after he was executed. Nie Shubin was killed by firing squad in 1995 at the age of 20 after being found guilty of killing a woman… Read More ›
Chinese spy posing as interpreter tried to board carriage carrying Queen Elizabeth II
A Chinese ‘spy’ tried to get into the Queen’s carriage with her during last year’s state visit. Lucy D’Orsi, who was in charge of security for President Xi Jinping’s visit in October, was filmed by the Monarch’s official cameraman saying:… Read More ›
China already violating U.S. cyberagreement
Chinese hacking attempts on American corporate intellectual property have occurred with regularity over the past three weeks, suggesting that China almost immediately began violating its newly minted cyberagreement with the United States, according to a newly published analysis by a… Read More ›
US says China cyber attacks are ‘unacceptable’ and US will win online confrontation
US President Barack Obama has said that alleged Chinese cyber attacks are “not acceptable”, ahead of a visit from Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Several hacks on US institutions have been blamed on China, including one involving millions of government staff…. Read More ›
China to grant rare prisoner amnesties for war anniversary
China plans to grant prisoner amnesties to mark this year’s commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, only the eighth time this has happened since the Communists took power in 1949, state news agency Xinhua… Read More ›
Former Chinese president Jiang Zemin placed ‘under control’ by having his movements restricted in power struggle with current president Xi Jinping
According to a source in Beijing close to China’s top leadership, Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping has made his first significant move against the former Party boss, and his chief rival, Jiang Zemin. The source said that Jiang and… Read More ›
Charged with graft in China, some fugitives are finding luxury in U.S.
Even before his name appeared on the “most wanted” list, holes had emerged in the immigrant success story of Wei Chen. His business partner sued him last year, alleging that nearly $50 million was missing from their development project in… Read More ›
China’s dilemma: How to discipline 90 million people
China’s extensive crackdown on government corruption, which has already ensnared hundreds of thousands of officials in the People’s Republic, is now spilling over the country’s borders. The State Department recently confirmed that China’s legal authorities had provided a list of… Read More ›
Mexican drug cartels have infiltrated Hong Kong
The brutal narcotics turf wars that consumed Mexico for the past decade have left more than 100,000 people dead or missing. Bodies are frequently dismembered. Victims are often hanged from bridges. Decapitation is common. Behind the violence and barbarity are… Read More ›
South China now favoured way out of country for IS recruits
China’s southern seaboard has replaced the mountainous and tightly guarded western frontier as the preferred route for Islamic extremists to slip recruits out of the country, according to a leading expert on terrorism. Rohan Gunaratna, the head of the International… Read More ›
China aims at long term elimination of corruption by legislation
The recent development of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption storm is the investigation of fourteen People’s Liberation Army (PLA) generals including Major General Guo Zhenggang, the son of Guo Boxiong, who retired as vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC) in… Read More ›
Corrupt officials planning to assassinate China’s president
President Xi Jinping of China and his top graft-buster Wang Qishan may be targeted by assassination attempts from corrupt officials who have been allegedly buying high-powered sniper rifles from the United States, reports Boxun News, a US-based citizen journalism outlet… Read More ›
China’s protectionism intensifies in defiance of WTO rules: world’s leading technology brands dropped from approved state purchase lists
China has dropped some of the world’s leading technology brands from its approved state purchase lists, while approving thousands more locally made products, in what some say is a response to revelations of widespread Western cybersurveillance. Others put the shift… Read More ›
China executes businessman Liu Han, linked to former security tsar
Chinese authorities on Monday executed a former mining tycoon connected to the eldest son of retired domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang, himself the focus of a high-profile corruption investigation, state media reported. The High People’s Court in the central province… Read More ›
Why America won’t help China with its ‘corruption crackdown’
China has solicited the help of foreign governments in tracking down and seizing the assets of corrupt Chinese officials, but the extent to which each country can help may be limited by their respective laws. In July 2013, China began… Read More ›
Chinese media fakes editorial by famed western journalist to glorify China
A New Yorker journalist famed for his reporting from China wrote that the state-run newspaper China Daily faked an editorial under his byline after interviewing him. Peter Hessler said on Facebook on Tuesday that he didn’t write the piece posted… Read More ›
How China is ripping off iconic designs and flogging them for a fraction of the price
British brands such as Jaguar Range Rover and Mulberry are copied. Cheaper versions of the luxury products are sold en masse in China. Complex patent laws make it near impossible for companies to take action. At first glance, it looks… Read More ›
Philippines convicts Chinese poachers despite Beijing’s warnings
A Philippine court on Monday found nine Chinese fishermen guilty of poaching and environmental crimes for fishing in disputed waters, in a case that has strained relations with China. The nine, arrested in May, were fined $100,000 each for poaching… Read More ›
China claims corrupt officials have nowhere in the world to flee
China’s official government news agency Xinhua claims China has arrested 288 fugitives suspected of committing economic crimes as part of an aggressive anti-corruption effort aimed at individuals who have fled abroad, the official government news agency Xinhua said. The campaign,… Read More ›
China: Little officials, giant corruption
In its report “China anti-graft watchdog finds gold, cash in official’s home” on Friday, Reuters says that according to Chinese state media, China’s anti-graft watchdog has discovered 37 kg (82 lbs) of gold, documents for 68 houses and 120 million… Read More ›
Can China eliminate inveterate corruption after so many centuries?
Zhao Kuangying (927-976), the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty (960-1279) , ordered all the succeeding emperors to promise by oath to respect intellectuals. As a result, Song emperors themselves received good education and were fond of intellectuals. However, they… Read More ›
Australia set to help China seize assets of corrupt Chinese officials
Australian police have agreed to assist China in the extradition and seizure of assets of corrupt Chinese officials who have fled with hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit funds, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported on Monday. The joint… Read More ›
Illegal fisherman from China shot dead while threatening South Korean Coast Guard
The captain of a Chinese fishing boat was killed on Friday when the South Korean Coast Guard fired shots as officers tried to impound a vessel they said was illegally fishing in South Korean waters. A coast guard official said… Read More ›
China: Rich man walks free after killing a pretty girl in a joke
According to Guangdong popular daily Xinkuaibao, a rich owner of two property companies, He Feng, 35, is fond of playing jokes on people. Judging by the report, he is certainly rich enough to enjoy such pranks. Perhaps due to his… Read More ›
Inside Xi Jinping’s purge of China’s oil mandarins
Oil executive Jiang Jiemin rose to power in Communist China in time-honored fashion: by hitching his star to a mighty mentor. In Jiang’s case, that patron was another oil man, Zhou Yongkang, who went on to become the chief of… Read More ›
China’s paranoia: SWAT given ‘shoot on sight’ orders; commuters frisked as Beijing heightens anti-terror measures
Beijing subjected rush-hour passengers to an extra layer of security checks and gave orders allowing SWAT teams to shoot terrorists on sight, as it ramped up policing after a string of attacks on the mainland. This morning, hundreds of passengers… Read More ›
China: Billionaire Liu Han sentenced to death for organised crime
Hubei’s Xianning City Intermediate People’s Court gave the death penalty to Sichuan tycoons Liu Han and Liu Wei and three of their accomplices for organised crimes. Liu was the leader of a mafia-style organisation, of which 36 members have been… Read More ›
Blasts kill dozens at market in China’s restive Xinjiang region
A series of explosions tore through an open-air market in the capital of the volatile western Chinese region of Xinjiang on Thursday, killing dozens of people and wounding many more, state media reported. China’s Ministry of Public Security said the… Read More ›
Malaysia Airlines staff assaulted, held hostage for 10 hrs by angry relatives in China
Tensions between grieving Chinese families in Beijing and Malaysian Airlines staff boiled over this week when airline staff were held inside a hotel for 10 hours by angry family members and a security officer was allegedly assaulted. Malaysian Airlines released… Read More ›
China’s Xi Jinping purging select corrupt officials to put own men in place
Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to use a purge of senior officials suspected of corruption to put his own men and reform-minded bureaucrats into key positions across the Communist Party, the government and the military, sources said. Xi hopes that… Read More ›
China offers no hard evidence that Uighurs committed Kunming “terrorist” attack
Within minutes of the deadly stabbing attack at Kunming Rail Station in southwest China, the Chinese government were blaming Muslim separatists from the country’s northwest province of Xinjiang, but are yet to provide hard evidence for the claim. Police said… Read More ›
Ex-Ming Pao editor Kevin Lau attacked in Hong Kong; recently replaced by pro-China editor
The former chief editor of prominent Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao is in a critical condition after being attacked with a cleaver, officials say. Kevin Lau was attacked in Hong Kong by two men on Wednesday morning, police said. He… Read More ›
Spanish judge issues arrest warrants for China’s former President, Prime Minister
A Spanish judge issued international arrest warrants Monday for China’s former President Jiang Zemin and former Prime Minister Li Peng for alleged genocide against the people of Tibet, Spain’s National Court in Madrid said. The warrants against them and three… Read More ›
How a PLA general built a web of corruption to amass a fortune
More than twenty policemen lined up at the gate of a massive mansion in a village in the central province of Henan at midnight on January 12, 2013, loading heavy crates onto two military trucks. Hours later—loaded with twenty crates… Read More ›
SlutWalk Hong Kong
Originating from Toronto, Canada, the SlutWalk movement has quickly become an awakening with 80 walks all over the world from London to Calcutta to Chicago and, more recently, Hong Kong. The SlutWalk movement was born in April 2011 when a… Read More ›
China: Man stole iPhone, but conscience got the better of him
Not every victim of theft is as lucky as Chinese man Zou Bin. A thief who stole his iPhone apparently felt guilty because he later sent its rightful owner a manually transcribed list of a thousand contacts. It took up… Read More ›
The mess in China’s rule of law
China’s anti-corruption typhoon goes on with the latest casualty being Tian Xueren, former Jilin vice governor. According to Beijing Wanbao (Beijing Evening News), on 85 occasions, Tian took bribes worth 19.19 million yuan ($3 million) but on November 1, he… Read More ›
China’s anti-graft storm begins in earnest
Since Bo Xilai was given the verdict of life imprisonment, China’s mass line campaign has been developing into an anti-corruption campaign. On September 24, Reuters reported that China would audit military officials in a move to fight graft. On September… Read More ›
Chinese police rescue 92 abducted children
BBC says in its report today: Chinese police have rescued 92 abducted children and held 301 suspected members of a huge trafficking network, the authorities say. They say two women were also freed in an operation involving police forces in… Read More ›
Chinese school recruiters scam expat teachers
The following story was supplied to us by one of our readers, and serves as a warning to expats not to trust recruiters when looking for teaching jobs in China. Previously respected expat websites are increasingly and knowingly promoting these… Read More ›
China’s Bo Xilai gets life in jail; conservatives deprived of charismatic leader
Chinese rule-of-law and reformist factions’ power struggle against Bo Xilai and his faction was a vital battle for the establishment and implementation of the rule of law and further economic reform. In a nutshell, the fight concerned the rule of… Read More ›
China’s Bo Xilai tries to save his skin
The trial of Bo Xilai started to turn into an episode of Maury. Revelations about the tangled web of strained and complicated relationships within his family were used as his testimony, particularly when the evidence seemed most piled up against… Read More ›
China: Son of prominent general on trial for rape sparks public outcry
The people of China are tired of party officials and their families thinking they are above the law. The children of party officials are especially criticized and seen as “spoiled” because of their behavior. The feelings of outrage surrounding the… Read More ›
I was framed, says China’s Bo as he mounts feisty defence
Fallen politician Bo Xilai put up a feisty defence on Thursday as he faced China’s most political trial in decades, saying he was framed in one of the bribery charges against him and had admitted to it against his will during… Read More ›
China’s Bo Xilai to stand trial Thursday
The trial of disgraced senior Chinese politician Bo Xilai will start on Thursday, when he will face charges of bribery, corruption and abuse of power in China’s most divisive and dramatic case in decades. The long-awaited trial of Bo, 64,… Read More ›