Wokai (我开), a non-profit microfinance organization in China, is winding down their operations according to their website. The innovative grassroots company helped numerous rural Chinese workers receive loans and will be sorely missed. more ›

Banned pesticides have been detected in Lipton, the world's best-selling tea brand as well as other Chinese domestic brands, claims Greenpeace. more ›

On April 17th, former Chinese President and death-defying octogenarian Jiang Zemin was seen scuffling into a Beijing office. On his heels for this rare face-to-face meeting was, strangely enough, slicked-back CEO cutout and Starbucks head-honcho Howard Schultz. more ›

The so-called National Organisation for Marriage (NOM), an anti-gay activist group based in the United States, has declared war on Starbucks for supporting a gay marriage bill in its home state of Washington. When support for its "Dump Starbucks" campaign proved to be all too disappointing, the group decided to expand the boycott to countries that it thought would support its anti-gay message -- namely Muslim countries such as Indonesia, Turkey and those in the Middle East, and China. more ›

China's People's Daily news portal has launched a $83.6 million (527 million yuan) initial public offering in Shanghai, and will announce their final pricing on April 20th. The Chinese government controlled company have the intention of upgrading their technology, delivering news on mobile platforms and strengthening its editorial team. more ›

Another stellar piece of reporting by Evan Osnos of The New Yorker. This week, he looks at the growth of gambling in Macau and tells us why Las Vegas is moving there: more ›

Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has arrested Thomas and Raymond Kwok, the heads of Hong Kong's largest real-estate firm, Sun Hung Kai Properties, for suspected bribery. However, as of yet, official charges have not yet been placed on the two billionaire brothers more ›

Three Chinese cities -- Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing -- have come in among the world's top ten cities for global high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), according to the results of a sentiment survey conducted among Citi Private Bank's wealth advisors and Knight Frank's luxury property specialists. more ›

Wow. Looks like Apple CEO Tim Cook is here to do some serious networking on his first trip to China. On Tuesday, Cook met with Li Keqiang, the man widely believed to be the next Prime Minister of China after Wen Jiabao finishes his term. more ›

Starting this August, Singapore Airlines' long-haul budget subsidiary Scoot (now also known by its Mandarin name Ku Hang 酷航 which literally means "Cool Airlines") will launch four nonstop flights a week between Singapore and Tianjin, and by the end of 2012, the low-cost airline will run trips to and from a total of five Chinese cities. more ›

Apple CEO Tim Cook recently visited Beijing's flagship store and met with officials to reportedly discuss expansion in China, Apple's second largest consumer base and the globe's biggest mobile market. more ›

International budget airlines continue to pry open the Chinese market ever so slowly. Qantas has joined hands with Shanghai-based China Eastern to set up the first budget airline in Hong Kong. more ›

All you need to know about China's car industry in one infographic. (via US-China Today) more ›

Half of all the world's skyscrapers currently under construction are in China. And like New York in the run-up to the Wall Street crash of 1929, or Dubai before the 2008 financial collapse, analysts point to the link between building for pride and an impending economic fall. [Al Jazeera] more ›

The wildly popular US podcast This American Life has retracted the story by monolinguist Mike Daisey in which he details abuses by the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen which manufactures Apple products based on interviews with employees he claims to have met. To listen to the mp3 of "Retraction", This American Life's episode dealing with Daisey's deception, click here. more ›

"Hong Kong journalists have asked me how I see the prime minister's remarks that real estate prices have not gone down to reasonable levels. I said SOHO is not your average developer. It is involved mainly in the development of office buidlings. When the premier said that real estate prices were not in line with incomes, he was referring to residential property prices. We have always thought that housing prices were too high vis-a-vis rental returns and household incomes. This is what we've said, and we've also acted in line with this belief. In the last few years, we have not bought any land for residential use." more ›

"State-owned enterprises should take the starring role, like Kobe does for the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA. By using only substitutes rather than using Kobe, the Lakers would not be able to win the game; by relying only on private enterprises, China simply cannot be competitive in the global marketplace." more ›

Well, slug us with a sideways shovel six ways from Sunday! Youku and Tudou have just announced that they will be merging into a single company today, in an agreement that would see the two companies engage in a 100 percent stock-for-stock transaction. The marriage between the two online video giants results in a new (and unimaginatively titled) entity called Youku Tudou Inc. The move means netizens in China now have a single web destination that combines a huge cache of content, licensed, unlicensed, amateur and otherwise. more ›

Former Goldman Sachs partner Peter Kiernan, author of Becoming China's Bitch: And Nine More Catastrophes We Must Avoid Right Now, on CNN sharing his concerns about China replacing the U.S. as the world's top economy. more ›

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The Cambodian Government has come under fire for allowing a Chinese company to demolish hundreds of square kilometres of forest in a national park, to build a city-sized casino. [Australian Network News] more ›

The government manufacturing Steve Jobs: this idea itself is unscientific. How could Steve Jobs be manufactured? The government cannot manufacture him. He was created by the market environment. In working in science and technology, the government must not spoil things by being too enthusiastic. I advocate following the “mushroom theory”: the government creates an environment, and with the right air, moisture levels, and humidity, mushrooms will grow by themselves. The government doesn’t need to go plant mushrooms, or choose specific mushrooms, just create an environment, an ecology. more ›

Zong Qinghou, China’s second-richest man, talks about the economy and the government's economic policy. Zong, the 66-year-old self-made billionaire who is chairman of Hangzhou Wahaha Group Co., is a member of China’s legislature. He also discusses Europe's sovereign debt crisis and his company's legal disputes with Danone SA. He spoke on March 3 in Beijing with Bloomberg Television's Stephen Engle. (Source: Bloomberg) more ›

Guizhentang, the Fujian-based medicine company criticized for its inhumane bear bile extraction practices, yesterday opened their bear farm to members of the Chinese media. With Guizhentang applying for a public listing for the second time, the company is facing criticism and boycotts from animal rights activists and foundations, including the Animals Asia Foundation. more ›

For the first time in the country's brief history, South Sudan has expelled a foreign national from their country. Liu Yingcai, the Chinese head of Petrodar, was given 72 hours to leave the country following an investigation into neighboring Sudan's alleged theft of $815 million dollars worth of oil. more ›

The United States has always been infamous for its gas-guzzling behemoths of luxury cars - the Cadillac Escalade, the Denali, and any one of the Hummer monstrosities. But whereas the US has begun downsizing with smaller models of former luxury SUV's and various hybrids, China's super-rich demand a new breed of monster-sized motors. more ›

China Telecom, the smallest of China’s three mobile carriers, has signed a deal with Apple Inc that will allow it to start selling iPhones beginning March 9. more ›

"Xi's move to allow 30 Hollywood films into China is good for the following reasons: 1. The more Hollywood films are here, the greater the creative space for Chinese filmmakers. Because there can only be one standard for all. Whatever content they can create, we can do the same. 2. The government will have to fight piracy more proactively, or else Hollywood would be breathing down their necks. We share the benefits. Now we have the backing of Hollywood too. Let's see if you pirates still have the guts! 3. Ultimately, it's great news for the viewers. It's the survival of the fittest. There's nothing to worry about. " more ›

Beijing has announced plans to refashion Fujian province's Pingtan Island into a "Little Taiwan" by inviting Taiwanese citizens to join the island's leadership, in addition to permitting the circulation of Taiwan's currency. more ›