On May 17th, the United States Department of State sent out a policy directive to American universities sponsoring Confucius Institutes. It states that Chinese academics teaching grade-school levels at institutions without the proper accreditation are violating the terms of their visas and must leave the country at the end of the current term. more ›

A video (with a perfect tinkly soundtrack) featuring an inconspicuous traveler crossing the border into Shenzhen from Hong Kong proves China's drug of choice for cross-border muling in 2012 is still the iPhone. more ›

Shanghai's dishonest internet users may be punished with restrictions on certain business activities in real life, a senior official announced on Wednesday. more ›

From the few Chinese infomercials we've seen, we can tell pretty much immediately that we'd never buy anything off the television in China (except for that breast enhancing bra, maybe?). Apparently we're not the only ones who don't like bad commercials that try to sell things to us: dissatisfaction with infomercial shopping is on the rise around China. Last year, 4,226 people in Shanghai called the police over bad deals, which marks an astronomical 30x increase in four years. And it's getting more pronounced: authorities received over 3,000 complaints in the first quarter of this year. more ›

Today's video of the day is about pyramid schemes: of course, pyramid schemes are creepy all around the world, but in China they've got a je ne sais quoi that makes them creepy in a Waco sort of way. Scarier is the fact that an estimated ten million people are involved in get-rich-quick schemes around the country: judging from the poor conditions and confinement of the "members", we think it would be more advantageous if the pyramid scheme just switched to treating internet addiction. Or better yet, a pyramid scheme treatment camp that was itself a pyramid scheme. more ›

Looks like the life of that satellite dish you have covertly installed on your patio may be coming to a premature end if the Shanghai government has its way. more ›