Spoilsports Proview have won their trademark lawsuit against Apple, and this week they began pulling iPads off Chinese retailer shelves in Hebei province. Even more damning for Apple operations, however, is word that Proview also seeks to halt import and export of the device. Step carefully, Proview. Apple fans in China are a very large, sometimes hysterical, and often emotionally unstable bunch who usually look up the addresses of the people they hate. more ›

China has taken over the United States as Brazil's largest trading partner, but not everyone in the South American country is happy. Brazilian fishing companies are feeling the heat from cheap Chinese imports and some of them have gone under. more ›

China's top quality watchdog has done it again, protecting us from substandard food products that foreign mercenaries are trying to put in our mouths. Mineral water from Evian and Volvic have been named among 420 imported food and cosmetic items that failed quality inspection tests on entry into China: more ›

The municipal leaders in the Fujian city of Xiamen have begun releasing some of their frozen pork reserves (yes, you heard that right) for general sale on August 15th to combat the huge rise in pork prices across China this year, which have averaged over 35 percent. Though the new (and quite literal) stimulus of government pork is being sold at 15 percent below market value, there's a catch: only 5 retailers in Xiamen will be licensed to sell the pork, and each buyer will only be allowed to buy 5kg worth of pork each purchase. Oh, and if you're buying more than 2kg at a time, then you'll need to show some ID. That move to start importing more pork into China can't come fast enough. more ›

The Shanghai Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau says that since 2005, 20% of foreign imported clothes have failed quality inspections. From Shanghai Daily: "Since January this year, the bureau has examined all imported clothing - 11,575 batches of clothes worth US$228 million. A batch can contain anything from several items through to thousands. Among these, the bureau found 178 batches of substandard clothes, which were returned or destroyed. Yesterday, the bureau burned around 10,000 pieces of inferior clothing, including 99.94 kilograms of children's clothes. The bureau declined to name the brands but disclosed that they are mainly high-grade clothes from South Korea, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, Morocco, India, and Bangladesh. Major problems discovered with the substandard clothes included the use of dangerous and other illegal dyes, excessive formaldehyde, misleading fiber content and high pH index that could cause skin allergies." This kind of report is nothing new, and always smacks of that desperate "Hey guys! Hey, look, we're not the only ones!" feeling. In China, probably the last quality control issue we need to worry about is the Ph balance of our jeans. more ›

The latest projection from the World Bank's Beijing office has some bad news: China's GDP growth may slow down to 7.5% in 2009, the lowest in 19 years. Given China's position as the world's manufacturing powerhouse and weakness in the global economy, net export growth is set to slow down from 11% this year to 3.5% next year. With overall imports substantially outpacing exports, this would be the "first time in many years that net external trade has made a negative contribution to growth". [Reuters] more ›