While others have been wondering what the Chinese FDA's been up to, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) has been busy at work — conducting vigilant checks on food imported from overseas to ensure food quality for China's 1.3 billion people. They've just announced that soy sauce and wasabi imported from three Japanese producers have been found to be tainted with toluene and ethyl acetate. So, relax guys! China is not the only one with food safety problems. Developed nations such as Japan regularly poison their own people too. more ›

Since Hong Kong's recent melamine findings in China-produced SELECT eggs, melamine has been found in several other Chinese egg brands. Many questions are now being raised in the Chinese media as to just what's the China FDA's been up to. We overheard on the radio the other day someone asking why food safety problems have always first been identified outside mainland China, and why the Chinese food authority always seems to be caught 'sleeping'. more ›

The world's biggest children's entertainment company now also wants to play a part in educating your children too — and to be more specific, to teach them how to speak proper English. When we found an ad in the taxi we were in yesterday drawing our attention to DisneyEnglish.com, we thought this was some fake school that had ripped off Disney's name, but when we got home to check it we realised that not only was this a genuine Disney English school, this was the world's very first Disney English school. And it's right here in Shanghai, located on Maoming Lu. For some strange reason, we think this is going to be a huge success in the Chinese market. What do you think?
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Reuters informs us:

CHINESE researchers who spent 3,000 hours observing the public in Beijing say their behaviour shot to a new high of 82.68 on the 'civilization index' this year following a campaign to improve habits for the Olympics, the Beijing Morning Post reported on Tuesday. more ›

At midnight on Monday, our friend was returning from a friend's house at 88 Huichuan Lu in Chang Ning district when a red taxi pulled out from a driveway, hit a man and drove away. He heard the sound and saw the man on the ground with a pool of blood from his head and his body twisted in an awkward position. The taxi drove off and Clark was the sole witness on the street except for a Brazilian woman, who also saw it happen. They assumed the man was dead, but called Guanxi and tried to get through to a hospital. From our friend:

Last night (Monday) I was returning from a friend's home around midnight. When I stepped outside, I heard a noise and it disturbed me. As I got closer to the road, I saw a red taxi speed away and a man's body on the ground. There was a Brazilian lady outside and she and I both stood still staring at him. I ran over to him, asking him if he was ok.. but he did not move and I saw the blood. The Brazilian lady asked if I knew number to hospital and I didn't. more ›

• Even your eggs aren't safe now, people. After Hong Kong found Select's "extra-large fresh brown eggs" to contain close to twice the legal limit of melamine, Walmart has pulled all eggs from the brand off the shelves of all its China stores. Select (咯咯哒 or "Gegeda" in Chinese) is a big brand and is one of those "China Famous Brands" (中国驰名商标). Refer to the packaging of the affected eggs in the video, and if you have them at home, dump them.
• A 37 year old woman from the Zhejiang province has come to Shanghai to seek medical treatment for her incontrollable shaking after spending RMB100,000 on medical care in Hangzhou, but even the best doctors at Huashan Hospital are baffled by her condition.
• An Anhui man has been sentenced to death for the cruel murder of the ex-husband of his lover. After suffocating his victim with a plastic bag, he dismembered him with a kitchen knife and then boiled and steamed all his body parts before dumping them in a creek in Pudong.

Recent actions by the Alibaba Group and Taobao to protect their market share may not be enough given the multi-front strategy taken by search engine juggernaut Baidu. With their profits up by 91% in the last quarter, Baidu seems to be using their financial success to attack other Chinese online markets. more ›

Photo from fateless_gypsy more ›

Plans are in motion for the much anticipated launch of an Android device for China between February and March 2009, but unlike the US launch of the T-Mobile G1 handset, China Mobile has decided not to work with Taiwanese PDA manufacturer HTC and has instead opted for working with Lenovo Mobile to release it's first Google powered phone. more ›

As we mentioned earlier, a temporary permission allowing guide dogs in public places has now run out of time. For the seven people in China who have seeing eye dogs, it's back to pre-Paralympic times. However, we've noticed that bakery chain Café 85 C has understood the use of these dogs. Smoking, outside food and photography are not allowed at the chain and neither are pets, unless they are guide dogs. more ›

In a new dispatch on how the American brand has been dented by the ongoing financial crisis, AFP says Chinese accounting firm Lehman Brown which has long been threatened with lawsuits from a "certain Wall Street investment bank" is now "suddenly open to a name change":

CHINA-BASED accountants Lehman Brown refused to budge when lawyers acting for a certain Wall Street investment bank sent threatening letters demanding they change their name. more ›

ChinaSmack translates a post found on Tianya (now deleted) on a violent fight between Japanese and Chinese students at the Shanghai International Studies University that's said to have taken place on Monday:

At present, the police, including the special police present, have already dispatched 10 police vehicles to maintain order, and the gathered crowd has just dispersed. more ›

• Take note, all you kinky bastards out there. Novelty chocolate body spreads manufactured in Zhongshan, Guangdong and sold in sex shops across Britain have been found to contain melamine. In New Zealand, chocolate body pens and spreads have also been taken off the shelves. Edible toys from your local sex store are not a good idea. Make a trip to the organic food store instead.
• In Korea, melamine has been found in processed egg products from China such as duck’s yolk powder, egg power, albumen power and yolk liquid. Authorities have ordered the immediate destruction of 23.2 tons currently held by importers.
• 2 more made-in-China biscuit products manufactured under the Korean brand Lotte have been found to contain melamine in the Philippines.

Hot on the heels of the widely-discussed closure of the Hong Kong-listed Dongguan-based toy manufacturer Smart Union comes the news that yet another toy factory — this time a much smaller one — has gone bankrupt. Once again, the local government has come to the rescue, picking up the tab for lost wages that the now jobless employees are demanding to prevent their anger from boiling over. Do we see a pattern for the future? more ›

For those of you that haven't seen it yet, here's a video of Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Vice Chairman Zhang Mingqing (張銘清) getting roughed up by a group of Taiwanese protestors led by Tainan City Councilor Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) while Zhang was on a visit to the city's Confucius Temple. The second-highest ranking negotiator on Taiwanese issues and dean of Xiamen University's Journalism School was pushed to the ground while protestors shouted "Taiwan does not belong to China!" Zhang has since cut short his trip and returned to Beijing, presumably for a health check. more ›

"Guns N' Roses released a new single today as a preview to the album ``Chinese Democracy,'' ending a 15-year wait for fans of the U.S. rock band. The title track is available for streaming on Internet sites such as www.q1043.com. The work is being advertised by www.bestbuycom for release on Nov. 25 through Interscope Records. " more ›

China is the country most feared by Americans as a potential military threat, according to a recent survey by the Financial Times. While China and the United States both appear to at least be interested in engaging each other to secure peace in the Asia-Pacific region, they are also sizing each other up for the possibility of some kind of military confrontation in the future. Shortly after this high level military exchange was conducted in Hawaii, China announced it would suspend all such future exchanges as a way of protesting the supply of military weapons to Taiwan by the U.S. more ›

Where does one draw the line between valid Western criticism of China and unabashed China-bashing? Here are some interesting views overheard at last week's Battle for China conference in London. more ›

Photo from fateless_gypsy more ›

Even as news of the sudden closure of the Hong Kong-listed Dongguan-based toy manufacturer Smart Union, a key supplier to Mattel and Disney, continue to hog international headlines, framed against the backdrop of the ongoing financial crisis that has spread from the United States to the rest of the world, Xinhua says it has the "whole truth" on those closures, and makes the case that many other toy factories had been closing since the start of the year and the most recent closures have little to do with economic troubles in the U.S.:

While there are reports that in the first seven months of the year, more than 3,600 toy makers already went out of business in China thanks to factors such as rising wages and material costs. more ›

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It's not just the United States that has a gun problem. China too is now fighting a tough battle against illegal guns and explosives. While Chinese citizens are prohibited from owning guns, gunfights and gun murders are increasingly being heard of. Guns are now fashionable in paintings and on television, and legal shooting clubs allow you to fire away at targets for a fee. Recent reports are now suggesting that some of the illegals guns originating from China are now making their way overseas to places like Mexico. more ›

A 12 year old boy was admitted to a Chengdu hospital with head injuries and a severed penis earlier this year. His stepfather found him lying down weakly on a couch at home watching television. When Xiaotian's stepdad saw his head injuries, he sensed something was amiss. The boy took a while to divulge the full extent of his injuries, but it took some prodding before he revealed that it was his biological father that was the culprit. By the time the boy was admitted to hospital, he had already been without medical treatment for a couple of days. Doctors found the his head heavily scabbed and his genital area heavily infected. more ›

Photo by Jakob Montrasio. more ›

You can almost smell burning rubber wafting through the air. more ›

Warning: Video contains some disturbing images. more ›

"Today Beijing took baby steps in that direction by opening for debate a draft proposal to reform the country’s troubled health care system, reduce the profit motive for public institutions and make health care available to all, according to state news agency Xinhua." more ›

A museum designed to help Chinese people learn about all things African has opened up in Shanghai, says Xinhua:

The Museum for An Experience of African Lifestyle, which is now in open to the public, is Located on Xianggang Road near the Bund. more ›

Shanghai Daily tells us that around 30 members of the Shanghai Matchmaking Trade Association (yes, there is such an organization), have signed an agreement promising to be honest to their customers. If information provided by these agencies turn out to be false, or if their service isn't satisfying, customers will get a refund. The trade association also said they will inspect these companies once a year to make sure they live up to their standards. more ›

On Sept 26, in Tianjin at the World Economic Forum, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson drank a glass of milk (click to see video) in front of the media to show his support for the Chinese dairy industry and said:

The Europeans will continue to expect the highest standards, just as Chinese consumers are demanding the same…. But in the meantime I shall continue drinking my own favorite, er, milk, er, product, er, er, which I enjoy and which does not make me nervous.

Wen said he was very moved when he saw in television European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson drinking a cup of Chinese milk on Friday to show his trust in China-made products. “It's because he not only sees the present, but the future as well,” Wen said.

"Over the past few days, Peter Mandelson has been experiencing some kidney pain," a spokesman said. more ›

Security cameras at an ATM belonging to the Agricultural Bank of China in Zhengzhou, the Henan provincial capital, have captured a crime in action committed by a (not too intelligent) young man in a suit. Upon withdrawing some cash, the man did not take his money immediately, but instead swapped one of the RMB100 notes with a fake one from his pocket and, if we're understanding this correctly, fed it back into the machine and got a new note in exchange for it! The ATM, like many other ATM's across China could not tell real notes from fake notes. Bank employees, on finding the fake note, immediately made a police report, and the young man was nabbed on his next attempt to trick the ATM. The young man told police that he had heard from his friends that ATM's would take in fake notes and give new ones in return and so proceeded to try his luck. The police spokesperson said this guy was guilty of "severely disrupting the banking and financial system of our nation". more ›

"Although senior citizens would be happier if their family visited more often, they are generally satisfied with their lives in the city, a survey by the Shanghai Quality Association revealed on Monday." more ›

Whilst smoking bans in restaurants and bars seem to be spreading throughout the rest of the world, Shanghai is having second thoughts. more ›

Al-Jazeera takes another look at children, this time at the 150,000 homeless children that the government estimates roams the streets of China. Our hearts are drawn to Wang Pan who wandered the streets alone for a year after his mother was put on death row for murdering his father (while he watched), and Guo Jianhua who himself was once an absent father and is today the founder of an orphanage in Shaanxi province. more ›

It no longer matters whether you believe global warming is caused by man, or "just God hugging us closer." Because Chicken Little was right, Shanghai is sinking. more ›

The newly launched Marks and Spencers on Nanjing Xi Lu is off to a rather inauspicious start — barely a few days after Shanghai shoppers went on a rampage at the store, an Indian national has fallen to his death Sunday evening. Xinhua has more:

The accident occurred at around 9:30 p.m. when Shah Harshit, 24,fell from an escalator on the fourth floor of the store in Nanjing West Road, a Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau official said. more ›

Tony Birtley of Al-Jazeera reports that between 70,000 and 200,000 babies, children and women are kidnapped each year around China. Baby boys are sold for as much as US$5,000 to desperate childless couples, and some of the abductees even end up overseas in the hands of foreign adopters. Police have had some success in breaking up child trafficking rings, but most of the anxious parents, like the ones interviewed in this report, can only wait. more ›

Photo from Julien & Gwladys more ›

ChinaSmack points us to this shocking and sad story of 11 year old student Zhang Yaoyin in Hunan Province who had her had smashed against the desk by her teacher numerous times, then hit savagely with a metal bar before going thrown out of the window of the fourth storey classroom to her death. more ›

"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said India and China are working on the details of a framework agreement to help resolve the complicated boundary issue between the two countries." more ›