Back in March, after negotiations fell flat with the government on censorship, Google "pulled out" of China, redirecting people who entered Google.cn to its sister site in Hong Kong. Now, since that's run afoul of Chinese laws, Google.cn is back up! Kind of. more ›

• A recent prostitution bust in Henan has gotten netizens into a fury... against the police, who were videotaped interrogating a naked woman in an incredibly rough fashion. [CNNGo]
• We can't get enough of stories about the Chongqing corruption trials, so we're glad we get to hear two of our favorite China journalists, Paul French and Malcolm Moore, discuss "China's Chicago." [Ethical Corp]
• So how are Chinese propaganda departments dealing with new media rules that don't allow them to really "stop" people from being interviewed? By wining and dining reporters and other "soft" forms of intimidation. [Telegraph]

So we get that Google's really keen to gobble a little more market share from its rivals in China, and one of the most ingenious ways they've figured to do so is their free mp3 download service. We applaud that. What we don't applaud is their ads promoting the service, which seems to have taken the DIY ethic of viral videos to mean "crappy flash creations evoking the earlier parts of this millennium." Add that to Chinese history tales and you get G.cn's newest ad rush: more ›

After the launch of Google China's free music service we couldn't resist taking it for a test drive - especially since all the pundits have been saying this was too little too late for Google as Baidu has been offering free (albeit illegal) MP3 downloads for ages. more ›