On Tuesday, dissident-artist Ai Weiwei (艾未未) who was freed not too long ago from an 81-day detention, was slapped with a RMB15 million fine for tax evasion, a princely sum he has been given 15 days to cough up. The very next day, his mother Ai Ying (高瑛) and brother Ai Dan (艾丹) announced that they were mortgaging the former residence of his father, the poet Ai Qing (艾青). Following calls on Twitter by Shanghai human rights lawyer Li Tiantian (李天天) and feminist scholar Ai Xiaoming (艾晓明, no relation) to send money, his supporters also swung into action, setting up Alipay and Paypal accounts to collect donations. more ›

Taobao has relented slightly in the ongoing e-fued between the massive online retailer and its small sellers, by agreeing to postpone their plans to increase their service fees by nine months and by offering financing of up to 180 million RMB to select shops. more ›

Thousands of small Taobao vendors are engaging in e-activism over a dramatic increase in annual service charges for sellers on the popular online market. more ›

Hey Sina Weibo users, you can now follow Alibaba Group CEO Jack Ma! Alibaba is the internet giant behind eCommerce platform Taobao. Ma's inaugural post, tagged "Zen and the art of environmental conservation", has received over 2000 comments. Follow him and us! Not sure how to set up a Sina Weibo account? Lucky for you, the folks over at World of Chinese just wrote you a idiot'snon-Chinese-speaker's guide! And if that's not enough, Digicha's guide has lots of pictures. more ›

Let us begin by saying that the world would truly be a boring place if the law and its enforcement were the same everywhere. If we couldn't gamble in Macau, buy massive assault rifles in the United States, and hoard any remaining cash in Anguilla, would this not be a drab and dreary planet? more ›

• Meet this 6-year-old, who has 15 fingers and 16 toes, enough to outnumber the current world record of 25. He lives in Harbin. [People's Daily]
• The Rio Tinto trial for Stern Hu and three other Rio Tinto employees has ended, though a verdict on the charges of accepting bribes and stealing commercial secrets won't be announced for a while yet. [New York Times]
• So yeah, Google wasn't able to make it in China. But will any of these touted Chinese internet giants - Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba - really be able to make it out? [New York Times]

• Grameen China & Alibaba’s True Ambition [CNReviews] "Grameen Trust of Bangladesh and Alibaba Group just announced the launch of the Grameen China initiative, that will be run by the Grameen Trust, with an initial charitable gift of $5 million from Alibaba Group. The New York Times highlighted this gift as a sign of a shift by Chinese corporations toward charitable giving… While altruism may be a motivating factor, Alibaba also stands to gain unique insights into serving the very poor by partnering with the Grameen Trust. I believe that this announcement represents an important strategic thrust-not just corporate philanthropy-that belies Alibaba’s intention to be the dominant B2B trading platform serving small and medium sized businesses (SMB/SMEs) globally."
• Can China's Economic Recovery Last? [Newsweek] "In response to the economic crisis, China deployed massive fiscal boosts, aggressive expansions of credit, foreign-exchange interventions, and tax rebates for the export sector. The short-term results have been impressive. The Asian Development Bank projects China's GDP to grow by 8.2 percent in 2009 and 8.9 percent in 2010—up significantly from forecasts made earlier in the year. The result: job creation. As The New York Times pointed out last week, the image of workers streaming back into Chinese factories stands in sharp contrast to the United States, where the unemployment rate continues to march toward double digits. During this week's G20 summit in Pittsburgh, China will have more weight to throw around on everything from climate change to macroeconomic imbalances. How should we interpret China's swift recovery from the financial crisis and what it means for the future? Here the consensus breaks down into different camps."
• "The Chinese people have stood up": The famous Mao slogan, that he never even used [SCMP] "The slogan is a manifesto of the "Chinese dream", which aims to bring back the power and prosperity that the country had historically enjoyed. The propaganda machine has created many slogans in the past six decades, but this is one of the few that struck, and remain in, the hearts of ordinary people… Yet there is one problem. Mao did not say it in Tiananmen Square. He did not say it on October 1, 1949, either. And some historians say that - like "Let them eat cake", which Marie Antoinette never said, and "Play it again, Sam", which Humphrey Bogart never said - Mao never said the quote attributed to him."

With China's tech industry becoming increasingly sophisticated and profitable, it comes as no surprise that the powers that be have pulled out all the stops to jump start the industry. This weekend, the city of Hangzhou hosted a forum for small and medium businesses, featuring heavyweight speakers such as former U.S. president Bill Clinton and executives from Lenovo and Alibaba, two of China's most successful IT companies. But who stole the day? None other than Basketball legend cum technology expert Kobe Bryant. The Lakers star gave businessmen tips on how to succeed using his inspirational "basketball stories are just like life" gospel. Best of all, the crowd gave a roaring ovation when he gave Jack Ma, the CEO of Alibaba, an oversized pair of sneakers. We guess nothing says "reach farther, jump higher" better than a fresh pair of Nikes. Photo: Daylife more ›

Organ trafficking stirs concern [Global Times] "The number of organ transplants from deceased donors in China is only 130 since the first case in 2003, one of the country's leading transplant experts said at a seminar yesterday. About 11,000 transplant operations are performed each year in China, including both living- and all deceased-donor transplantations, including executed prisoners, making the country the second-largest in the world to the US in total number. But that number it is far from enough to meet demand, Chen Zhonghua, the Chinese Medical Association's deputy director for transplanting, said…" more ›

• China's Alibaba Adds Social Networking to E-commerce [PC World] "China's Alibaba Group has started mixing social-networking functions into its leading e-commerce platforms, a move it hopes will convince users to spend more time and money on Alibaba Web sites. Alibaba is crafting social-networking platforms specifically to complement two of its core operations. The beta version of a Web site with Facebook-style applications and a Twitter-style feed is being grafted onto Taobao.com."
• China, the world's factory--a photo tour [CNET Asia Blogs: The Tech Dynasty] "These images are from WethicA, a company that audits factories with an eye toward child labor, workers rights, health & safety, and wages. From the WethicA newsletter: "We are posting real untouched photos of factory working conditions from about one year ago. We have decided this summer to show you an important part of the job we do during audits by telling you why these pictures have been taken. Actually, an audit is much more investigative than ticking boxes off a questionaire. One has to walk in with an open mind ready to question everything in these situations and not only ask a list of predefined questions.""
• China's turning children against me: Kadeer [ABC News] "The children of exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer have gone on Chinese television criticising their mother. Two of Ms Kadeer's children and her brother were at first reported as having written letters blaming their mother for orchestrating recent violence in far western China. Now the two children, along with another son, have recorded interviews with Chinese television for a special program."

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 ›

• Last week Baidu announced after two years of searching the appointment of Li Yinan as the new Chief Technology Officer for China's leading search engine. Just when everything began to fall into place and we were getting ready for a season Googlesque innovation, rumours began to fly that William I. Chang, Baidu's Chief Scientific Officer was planning to resign because he didn't like his new job scope. Not sure though how much of a rumour it is when they have already named his successor.
• To make CEO Robin Li's life even more stressful, Baidu's next big push will be into the e-commerce arena with the launch of youa.com may be thwarted by Alibaba Group's announcement that it will invest another RMB5 billion into its own online Taobao.com to strengthen its 57% market share. Of course Alibaba claims that this had nothing to do with fending off Baidu and we of course believe them.
• In its own corporate reshuffle, Alibaba has for the first time in its five year history appointed a COO. Zhang Yong, former CFO was promoted to fill the void left by Huang Ruo, the former VP and B2C business director who resigned at the end of September.

Photo from theshanghaieye more ›

• Chinese online trading site, Alibaba, plans to expand to Europe. The company behind the site will open a London office, as part of a project called "Road to London", which aims to encourage Chinese companies to invest in the next Olympic host city.
• As we told you earlier, an album called Songs For Tibet, was released on iTunes just three days before the Olympics, causing its online store to be blocked in China. Now however, iTunes Music Store has been reopened, in a new and Songs For Tibet-free version, somehow the censors have managed to block access to this album, without blocking the entire site.
• Baidu's new e-commerce platform will offer 10.000 beta testers free online stores and domain names.