Among the list of food safety scandals that have plagued China in recent years—toxic infant formula, pesticide-tainted vegetables, exploding watermelons, “lean meat powder” and pork reconstituted as beef—few are quite as stomach churning as the nauseatingly-named “gutter oil.” It involves, as the name implies, the resale of used …
Four years after China’s last major slave labor scandal, a group of disabled men has been freed from a brick kiln in the central province of Henan after an investigation by an undercover television reporter. Some of the men had been forced to work for years without pay, enduring beatings and poor food and living conditions, the …
Allegations that state-controlled Chinese arms manufacturers offered weapons to the Gaddafi regime as recently as July will likely harm efforts by Beijing to develop ties with a new government in Libya. Documents describing the proposed sales were found by a Graeme Smith, a reporter with the Toronto-based Globe and Mail, in a trash pile …
Even as Apple has made impressive gains in the China market—its stores here are often packed and occasionally even faked by retailers hoping to cash in on the company’s recognition—domestic environmental groups are questioning whether Apple is being a good corporate citizen in the country. A new report by a group of Chinese NGOs …
After months of tension over their rival claims in the South China Sea, the Philippines and China are trying to smooth over some of their differences this week, and the chief salve appears to be money. Philippine President Benigno Aquino III arrived in Beijing Tuesday for his first visit to China since taking office last year. He …
Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao called Tuesday to congratulate Yoshihiko Noda, Japan’s newly elected prime minister, telling him that strong ties between Japan and China were good for both the two countries and the rest of the world. Apparently left unsaid were concerns in China and other Asian nations about Noda’s thoughts on …
When Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping welcomed his American counterpart Joe Biden to Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on his first visit to China in a decade, their remarks were distinctly parallel and overwhelmingly positive. “It is the joint desire of the people of China and the United States and elsewhere in the world to stay …
After the heavy-handed reaction this spring to the calls to being Jasmine Revolution-style demonstrations to China, it’s easy to think that the authorities’ only response to popular protest is to crack down. But as events in northeast China this weekend indicate, the government can be remarkably receptive to demonstrations, especially …
Chinese dissident and artist Ai Weiwei spent his 81 days of detention in a 12′ by 24′ room, watched at all times by two military police who were never more than few feet away from him and was required to ask permission before moving, even to scratch his ear. While the artist, who is accused of evading taxes, did not suffer physical …
Ai Weiwei, the Chinese contemporary artist who was detained for nearly three months earlier this year, has begun to speak out once again on Twitter. And after a period of silence following his June release, he has given his first lengthy interview, to the English-language edition of the Communist Party’s Global Times tabloid. Ai’s …
As state-run Chinese media outlets continue to blast the U.S. government for the profligacy that led to last week’s credit downgrade, Chinese citizens have begun to weigh in as well. Online, many comments reflect the line of the state press, that the U.S. penchant for irresponsible borrowing and spending led the world’s sole …
Official Chinese media have lashed out at American debt following rating agency Standard & Poor’s decision to downgrade the U.S. credit rating. “The U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone,” Xinhua, the …
Chinese authorities have arrested 2,000 suspects and closed 4,900 businesses in the latest crackdown on food safety violations. Government investigators have inspected nearly 6 million food and additive producers since concerns about the use of harmful ingredients spiked this spring, the Food Safety Commission of China’s State …
