Jende Huang writes on Sino-NK about the illicit trade in crystal meth between North Korea and China. Curiously, China doesn't seem to be too keen in reprimanding the DPRK for the production and export of meth, or bingdu (冰毒) in Chinese. more ›

A 38-year-old South African woman by the name of Janice Bronwyn Linden (pictured right) has been executed more than three years after she was arrested for being found with 3kg of methamphetamine upon her arrival in the Guangzhou airport. Her death sentence was carried out by lethal injection (and witnessed by her own family members) just days after a Filipino was executed for a similar crime, sparking protests in the city of Manila. more ›

A few links to start off your day. more ›

We told you on Sunday how a Russian woman was sentenced to death in Zhuhai for heroin smuggling. A 35-year-old Filipino man is set to join her in the gallows for the same crime -- he was found carrying 1.495 kg of heroin in September 2008 at the Guilin International Airport, and his execution is set for December 8. more ›

According to the Russian Embassy in Beijing, a Russian woman has been sentenced to death in China for drug smuggling, with her execution delayed for a period of two years. more ›

Ah, historically significant feats of architecture! Yes, you're fine as you are, but perhaps China does it a little better. The new office building of the state-run Sixth Pharmaceutical (哈药六厂), a subsidiary of Harbin Pharmaceutical Group, is another testament to the peerless imitation skills of Chinese architects, who've shanzhai'd a Versailles-style palace laden with pools, gyms, and billiard rooms, all tinted in what we can only assume is imitation gold. The building is causing an online outrage against the unnecessary expenditure and extravagance of a government funded company. It seems that Versailles has a special je ne sais quoi for China's nouveau riche, as air-conditioner tycoon Zhang Yue also recreated Versailles on his private estate in 2007. So, rather true to form, it looks like Sixth Pharmaceutical copied someone else's copying move. Vive l'imitation de l'opulente objets français! more ›

With only three days left till the opening ceremony of the 14th bi-annual World Aquatic Championships in Shanghai, the event is already being tainted with controversy. more ›

As China supposedly has the world's highest antibiotics abuse rate and thus is breeding superbugs that are becoming antibiotic-resistant, a new regulation of antibiotics, drafted by the Ministry of Health, could be coming into effect as soon as Friday. An exact introduction date has not yet been confirmed, but when implemented, city-level hospitals will be allowed to offer no more than 50 types of antibiotics, while district-level hospitals will only be permitted 35. Until now, those numbers have been much higher, according to an investigation by the Shanghai Morning Post. They found that local hospitals have been offering more than 100 types of antibiotics and city-level hospitals around 60 types. As an official with the Shanghai Health Bureau told the Shanghai Daily, 50 types of antibiotics are enough for clinical requirements, as they can kill almost all known bacteria.
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It seems China's drug problems are increasing. Lately, there have been quite a few incidents involving drugs. Only this month we reported about Shanghai's synthetic drug users getting younger, a meth scandal involving North Korea and Yanji, and Shanghais drug cases generally being on the rise. more ›

Apparently young people like to party. According to China Global Times “Synthetic drug users in Shanghai are getting younger, according to arrest statistics from the Shanghai Municipal Anti-drug Office, the Shanghai-based Jiefang Daily reported Sunday. The average age of the 291 synthetic drug users arrested in Shanghai this year was 29.8 years old, lower than previous years, though the office did not provide past data, the report said. Synthetic drug users accounted for 90 percent of the 321 new drug users arrested. About half of those using synthetic drugs, such as methamphetamine and ecstasy, were under the age of 25, according to the report. The drop in the age of synthetic drug users shows that synthetic drugs are easier to get than other more traditional drugs, said Ma Zhebin, director of the Shanghai No.5 Isolation Drug Rehabilitation Center.” [Global Times] more ›

"SHANGHAI police confiscated more drugs in the first four months of this year compared to the same period last year, though the number of drug cases stayed the same, local authorities said this morning. Last month, city police busted a major drug trafficking ring and detained more than 20 suspects who planned to set up an underground factory. A total of 41.6 kilograms of drugs was seized. From January to April, 809 drug cases were reported and 157.41 kilograms of drugs confiscated, 33 percent more than that seized in the same period last year, said the Shanghai Anti-Drug Office. Wang Jun, director of the office, revealed that 17 of the 809 cases were big ones, each involving more than 1 kilogram of drugs." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

The spectacular arrest of famed Hong Kong actor Max Mok (莫少聪), 50, by Beijing police for allegedly taking drugs has been widely reported in the media. As this video shows, the actor, best known for his role in the 1990s drama series Once Upon a Time in China by director Tsui Hark, was busted at home in Beijing together with two of his friends, including his manager. Commenters have been horrified at the way Mok has been humiliated on public television for the relatively minor crime of smoking pot, and many have wondered if this wasn't the handiwork of someone else in the industry who reported on him to the police. In the video, a tired-looking Mok insists, "I really didn't do it... Even if you give it to me for free, I don't want any of it." But later when shown the results of his drug test, Mok concedes that he took two hits, but only because there were lots of friends around who kept pushing it to him, and he found it hard to reject them. Mok's buddies also tested positive for ketamine, but their faces were blurred out in the news report. Moral of the story? If you ever get busted for smoking pot some day, then you only really need to start worrying if you're as famous as Max Mok.
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Early this morning at around 1am, police raided Q Bar, a new gay bar on the Bund, and detained at least 50 patrons of the bar. 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 ›

Our most recent visit to the Windows Too bar in the Jing'an district revealed these hilarious posters. It looks like our favorite purveyor of dirt cheap drinks and equally cheap food has turned to The Simpsons to warn people off illegal behavior. And so: to illustrate the ban on gambling, there's Bart, Lisa and lil' Maggie in an intense game of poker; to show how prostitution isn't allowed, there's Homer grabbing a redhead's tit and offering her some Maojamins; and to warn against doing drugs, there's a Krusty the Clown-ish officer pulling... is that a pill out of Bart's butt? Marge would not approve. more ›

If Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas isn't checked off your list of classic must-see movies, Vienna Café will help you sort this out on Thursday! Johnny Depp styled to the point of impossibility of recognition, an immensely decadent ride through Las Vegas casinos and hotel rooms, one of the most vivid depictions of a psychedelic drug rush and in the same time a crucial part of journalistic history. Legendary reporter Hunter S. Thompson made the journey that became a book that became a movie... more ›

Ever notice the tendency for medical clinics and hospitals to over-prescribe medications here in Shanghai (even for things like simple colds and sore throats)? This bottle of pills is for the inflammation, take three times a day. Take one of these twice day, it'll help reduce the pain. Oh, those ones? We're not quite sure, but trust us, you need 'em. Turns out the practice isn't just dangerous for your wallet, it's also breeding strains of bugs that are becoming antibiotic-resistant. Uh oh. more ›

Wang Jian, a sprinter from Fujian province who was on the national team for the Olympics, was banned for life after testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. The ban comes shortly after Wang winning gold in the women's 100 meters at last week's National Games. Sadly, Wang is the third athlete banned in the course of the National Games. Though the sprinter denies ever having used drugs willingly, it's no surprise that drug use would rear its ugly head with competition to make the national team fiercer than ever. Photo from inSing more ›

Poppers, the "video head cleaner" that gay men use when they want to get their head cleaned, are now doing brisk business on Taobao, available in 10ml vials under various street names, like Rush, Jungle Juice, Locker Room and so on. These alkyl nitrites (including isobutyl nitrite, butyl nitrite, and amyl nitrite), when inhaled, have the effect of relaxing muscles throughout the body, in particular the sphincter muscles of the anus and the vagina, and have been popular among urban homosexual men and some women since the 70s as a recreational drug during sex and as a club drug. more ›

• Why China might turn on North Korea [CSMonitor] "China has long seen its national interests served by the status quo on the Korean Peninsula. According to a cold-war perspective about strategic balance and a post-cold-war emphasis on internal development, Beijing prioritized maintaining a buffer state and preventing North Korea's problems from spilling over China's border. While Beijing retains these priorities, the chances of it getting tough with Pyongyang are low. However, the China of today is not the China that came to Pyongyang's aid during the Korean War - its national identity has evolved over decades of rapid development and international integration. The ideas of communist solidarity and laying low to focus on modernization are becoming obsolete."
• Beijing Always Wins [NYTimes] "THE riots in the Xinjiang region, the home of China’s Muslim Uighur minority, will affirm to many analysts outside the country that social unrest is a direct threat to the continued rule of the Communist Party. If officials don’t take a long, hard look at how to avoid such uprisings, this argument will run, the government could eventually fall. If only Chinese officials saw things that way."
• Shenzhen Mayor Under Investigation [eChinacities] "Xu Zongheng(许宗衡), 54, was removed from his post as mayor of Shenzhen and is under investigation into allegations of corruption and graft that have stretched to include a former Olympic gymnast and several actresses. Xu became mayor of Shenzhen in 2005, advocating changes in the city’s bureaucracy. Many view Xu as partially responsible for the subsequent collapse of Shenzhen’s real estate market. The allegations revolve around bribes received for awarding government posts and bids."

To commemorate the 170th anniversary of the Humen Opium Destruction, Beijing police yesterday destroyed 393 kg of banned substances seized in China from 2006 through 2008 - and that's only half of the stash that's been collected. more ›

• Secret Meeting Between U.S. and China Broke New Ground on Climate Change [NYT] "Loy said the group was able to delve into the positions of both countries and gain better understandings about the political realities both countries face. Yet as to reaching a global deal in Copenhagen, Loy said, little progress was made."There were things that we learned, but it wasn't a totally radical or surprising conversation. We knew a great deal about China's views before," he said. The discussions were "more informal and occasionally more substantive and frank, but Mr. Xie is a cautious person"."
• Students protest in lead-up to June 4 Tiananmen anniversary [The Australian] "Thousands of students are reported to have protested in the streets of Nanjing, in central eastern China - one of the centres of protests in 1989 - following an incident on Monday night in which government security guards enforcing restrictions on peddlers allegedly attacked classmates who had set up footpath stalls."
• China's top legislator meets with Italian premier [Xinhua] "The Italian leaders expressed the willingness to expand cooperation with China in various fields, saying China's economic growth will hopefully provide new energy for the recovery and rally of world economy. Both sides agreed that the two countries should coordinate their stance on reform of the international financial system and work for an early recovery of global economy from the financial crisis."

• China will start providing two imported HIV drugs, Viread and Kaletra, to patients who have started developing resistance to cheaper, domestic alternatives. This means that nine of 20 drugs to combat AIDS are now available to patients in China.
• The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has condemned China's deportation of a musician from Cape Town, South Africa, who was ordered to leave China within 48 hours when health authorities found she was HIV-positive. Apparently, the woman was not even informed or counselled about her HIV test.
• Health authorities in Henan province claim that significant improvements have been made in controlling HIV/AIDS and that death rates there are "closer to the normal mortality rate and lower than the national average". According to them, Zhumadian, one of the cities hit by illegal blood sales in the 1990s, has seen death rates more than halved to 5 percent in the past six years.

Visitors to the Life Art Center, also known as that place on Maoming Lu with lots of bad art and Southern Barbarian, may have noticed something a little out of the ordinary lately: Shanghai's first head shop (that we know of at least). more ›

Big week in food safety and health-related news. First the melamine eggs and the tainted soy sauce and wasabi, then the cholera outbreak in Hainan, and now this — 10 men have died in Singapore from complications resulting from the consumption of illegal China-made sex enhancement pills. The Straits Times reports:

ILLEGAL sex enhancement pills have killed six more men here in the past five months, bringing the drug's death toll to 10 this year. more ›

A 33-year-old Filipino woman has just been arrested Tuesday for trying to smuggle an undisclosed volume of heroin at Pudong airport. This follows last September when a 25-year-old Filipino man was also arrested in Pudong for sneaking into Shanghai with 1.2 kilos of heroin in his hand-carry luggage (!!!). In both instances, suspects boarded Cebu Pacific flight number 5J678 which flies Manila-Shanghai. more ›

A friend of ours went to the Huashi Pharmacy, at the Portman, to purchase the inhaler she uses due to asthma. She didn't have a prescription, but she never needed one before. As long as she had lived in Shanghai, such meds were always over-the-counter, perhaps because of the excellent air quality found in the city. But on Saturday, the workers at the pharmacy told her she could no longer buy the inhaler she needed to breathe without a prescription. Why? "Because of the Olympics," she was told. A little more digging shows that certain inhalers are considered stimulants by the International Olympic Committee, and thus new regulations were put into effect. Luckily, our friend had health insurance and walked to her doctor's office, got a prescription and her meds — the expenses were all covered, but for uninsured asthmatics, this policy change could be quite a surprise hit to the pocketbook. Just thought we'd warn you: Don't wait until the middle of an asthma attack to get all your paperwork in order. more ›

What's the verdict, readers? more ›

We're not sure if this has anything to do with this earlier story, but Beijing police do seem intent to really CLEAN UP the city in time for the Olympics. In a massive raid on Sanlitun recently, the city's popular nightlife area, Beijing police have arrested 20 people (including eight foreigners) and many young people are said to be shaken. Blogger Beijing Boyce happened to be in the vicinity, and observed:

1) this raid was much more coordinated that the one last October; 2) given the numerous photographers, it was meant to send a very public message; 3) now is not the time to be acting recklessly in Beijing; and 4) it’s a good idea to have your identification papers with you... [read more]

Photo by ranmachen more ›