The worst has come to pass. China has legalized secret detentions despite the seemingly-promising proposal of an amendment to outlaw them, and vehement protest from netizens. The new legislature, entitled "Article 73," will allow authorities to kidnap any parties suspected of "national security threats" and "terrorism" and detain them for up to six months at undisclosed locations, without any obligation to inform family members of their whereabouts. more ›

A district court has rejected an appeal by a Middle Eastern expatriate who tried to seek insurance compensation after a hit-and-run accident, according to Shanghai Daily. more ›

A number of former football referees and officials, including a FIFA World Cup referee, were convicted of corruption charges in Northeast China yesterday. Nine defendants were given sentences of up to seven years in prison, and other cases are still pending. more ›

More than half of the 27 journalists imprisoned in China are ethnic Tibetan or Uyghur, says the Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) in a report posted on its website. more ›

Xinhua today trumpets a series of changes to the national code of conduct for prison inmates made by the Ministry of Justice in order to "show respect for the human rights of prison inmates". Among the changes: an end to the practise of forcing inmates to squat with both hands behind their heads, a lift on the ban on dyed hair (particularly among female inmates) and the use of execution by lethal injection to replace the firing squad (we'll still kill you but in a more humane fashion). more ›

A 2,000rmb (US $307) fine and 1 month in jail is the punishment for drunken driving one Shanghai expat discovered yesterday. Prosecutors handed down the verdict stemming from a minor accident on May 7th in which the expat rear ended another vehicle that was stopped at a red light. Though the foreigner's BAC measured 1.9mg/ml, far above the legal limit of 0.8mg/ml, he pleaded guilty and there were no injuries so the punishment was not severe. The case is the first of its type in Shanghai. more ›

A food blogger in Taiwan was sentenced to 30 days in jail, given two years probation and fined 200,000NT (approximately 44,800RMB) for writing a negative review of a restaurant in the city of Taichung--man and we thought our speech was limited over on the mainland. more ›

The Spring Festival is all about spending time with your family and if new years aren't about turning over a new leaf, then we don't know what is. Over the holiday, a jail in Jialing, Sichuan found a meaningful way to do both and allowed over 150 of its inmates to invite their relatives for a foot-washing ceremony. The traditional Confucian ceremony acted as an apology for the shame they brought to their families. more ›

Christian Post via Compass Direct News, reports that Alimjan Yimit, an ethnic Uyghur pastor of a house church who was sentenced last year to 15 years prison for "leaking state secrets", has been allowed to see his family for the first time in over two years:

Authorities in Xinjiang Province recently moved Uyghur Christian Alimjan Yimit from a prison in Kashgar to a prison in the provincial capital Urumqi and allowed the first visit from family members since his arrest in January 2008, sources told Compass. more ›

Usually when we wax on the topic of Chinese jails, we invariably chat about beatings, places to detain dissidents and "innocent" games of cat & mouse turning into something more sinister. We don't usually think of basketball courts, East-West fusion architecture or greenery. more ›

By Richard Yu more ›