Three men were handed jail sentences for up to a decade in a secret trial last year for "inciting subversion of state power" through their criticisms of former president Jiang Zemin. The details of the trial have only now emerged through a Hong Kong-based rights organisation, writes Will Clem of the South China Morning Post: more ›

In an appearance that has created more excitement on Sina Weibo than any other UFO sighting this year, former president Jiang Zemin (江泽民) attended the 100th anniversary celebrations of the Xinhai Revolution at the Great Hall of the People today. News of Jiang's first public appearance since rumours of his death surfaced in July quickly trended on Sina Weibo before censors stepped in to remove the subject from the day's trending topics. more ›

With the 62nd anniversary of the People's Republic now behind us, another very important date is coming up. October 10 marks the 100th anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution in 1911 which ended in the overthrow of the Qing Empire and the abdication of Emperor Puyi. On the other side of the Taiwan Straits, "Double Ten Day" is commemorated as National Day of the Republic of China, and this year, massive celebrations are expected. more ›

So, as it turns out, former president Jiang Zemin (江泽民) is not dead, and he's just resting at home busy sending wreaths to other dead men. But just in case anyone's missing the old man, here's a Jiang Zemin impersonator to whip up some nostalgia for the great originator of the Three Represents. He gets a respectable 7 out of 10 from us. more ›

Are you still not convinced that former president Jiang Zemin (江泽民), is alive? Here's proof that our good old friend is alive and kicking. more ›

At home, that's where! According to the latest news from the South China Morning Post, "Jiang Zemin was resting at home last week when news media - reporting amid intense speculation over his health - said the former president had died, sources who have been briefed about Jiang's health said yesterday." Aiyoh. So many reputable sources out there we don't know which one to believe any more. Let's just hope old Jiang will be good enough to make an appearance on television soon. more ›

Is Jiang Zemin dead or is he not? To be very frank, we don't really care. But here's more NMA goodness about China's crackdown on all those rumours: more ›

This is definitely a story to make your skin crawl and stomach turn. In an effort to encourage blood donations in the early 90s, Chinese “bloodhead” companies told peasants in Henan Province that they could donate blood plasma for money—meanwhile, the donors would also get blood plasma made available to them in return for their donations, in addition to monetary compensation. The catch? The blood they would receive would not necessarily be their own, but from a general pool of other donors’ blood, and there would be no background check for HIV. The result was the biggest public health debacle in China, massive government cover-ups along with the jailing of whistleblowers, and entire villages contracting HIV/AIDS. About 55,000 people were said to have been infected, but estimates go as high as 200,000. more ›

Xinhua News Agency has refuted earlier reports by Hong Kong broadcaster ATV and other foreign news outlets that former paramount leader Jiang Zemin (江泽民) has died. more ›

Internet censors have pulled the plug off the state-owned Shandong provincial news portal SDnews.com.cn (山东新闻网) after a screengrab of a banner commemorating the death of former president Jiang Zemin (江泽民) began circulating on Sina Weibo, China's number one microblogging platform. It is unclear if the banner was published live on the homepage of the news portal, or if the screengrab was taken from a tribute mini-site that had been prepared for the event. more ›

Rumors were flying on weibo last night that Jiang Zemin, the former Chinese president, has passed away. It looks like the rumor originated on dissident website Boxun and were reported by Epoch Times, a newspaper funded by a certain unpopular religious group in China. So I think we'll hold off on drafting our tributes just yet. Which reminds us, you should read what ESNW has to say about the ballooning weibo rumor mill. more ›

Long-time Shanghaiist readers will know that we don't usually put up homoerotica here, but what's a blogger to do when he wants news about Kim Jong Il and none of it's available anywhere? more ›

Yesterday's copy of the Wall Street Journal has a very interesting observation: that few of China's top political and business leaders these days have white hair:

It is possible that could have something to do with genes, but something else is involved, too. For aging men of influence here, the dye job appears to have become as commonplace as the Mao suit once was. more ›

It was too much to watch something like this, kept me vomiting for a long time more ›

So, like we told you, the word "democracy" (民主) was mentioned 60 times in President Hu's report to the 17th Party Congress. The China Media Project fills us in on other top buzzwords. “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” (中国特色社会主义) was mentioned 52 times, “scientific development” (科学发展) was a distant second at 38 times, “opening and reform” (改革开放) was mentioned 34 times, just edging out “harmony” (和谐) at 33. “Deng Xiaoping Theory” (邓小平理论) made 10 appearances and former President Jiang Zemin's pet phrase “Three Represents” (三个代表) racked up 9 appearances. See how the occurence of these phrases have risen/fallen over the past Party Congresses (totally useless information that you can try to use to impress your date with). more ›

... and the rumor-mill is running in overdrive. Recent reports suggest that Shanghai Party Chief Xi Jinping's (习近平) recent entry into the race - apparently at senior leader Zeng Qinghong's (曾庆红) insistence - has shaken things up; forcing Hu Jintao to make some last-minute maneuvering. more ›

Shanghai is back in Beijing's good books. Or so an article published by the People's Daily two weeks ago indicates, claims the Associated Press. The article, titled "Glad to hear the new good tidings from Shanghai", lavished praise on Shanghai for it's recent successes. "A golden breeze refreshes Shanghai; one important, auspicious event after another" gushed the lead article. It is a sign, claims AP, that the fallout from last year's pension scandal has started to settle. As AP points out:

...such propaganda is a cue that top communist leaders have come to a consensus that the scandal was confined to a few "bad elements" and that China's biggest and richest city has Beijing's support.

People who made the news this week more ›

Ooooh yeahhh, crab lovers rejoice for it is that time of the year again when Suzhou's Yangcheng Lake (阳澄湖) hairy crabs go on sale! Thank God the algae that bloomed in Lake Tai in Wuxi and Dianchi Lake in Kunming decided to spare the Yangcheng Lake so we can still have crab this year. more ›

Hu in new bid to tighten screws on rival faction, by Chua Chin Hon of the Straits Times:

One has died from an undisclosed illness while another is already behind bars on corruption charges. But there appears to be no let-up in Chinese President Hu Jintao's attempts to put the squeeze on members of the rival Shanghai faction, a group of senior leaders and officials allied with his predecessor Jiang Zemin. more ›

Will this finally be the end of the Shanghai clique? The death of Huang Ju, a former Shanghai mayor and party secretary and now former member of the Standing Committee of the Politboro, spells trouble for Jiang Zemin's already waning influence on the Hu administration. Having ascended to the role of vice premier of the State Council in 2003, Mr Huang had long served as the figurehead for the "Shanghai Clique", a group of politicians joined by their love of all things Shanghai (and Jiang Zemin). Were Raekwon the Chef asked to sum up the situation, he might say something like this: "The Shanghai Clique forms like Voltron and Huang Ju was the head." more ›

Photo by 2dogs taken from the Shanghaiist Contribute page. more ›

From the unreadable without a proxy BBC we find that Lu Jianhua, a scholar with the Chinese academy of social sciences (CASS) has been sentenced to 20 years in jail. more ›

When we posted just a short while ago about Yahoo China's becoming a community portal we didn't really know what this meant ... but now we have a better idea because we were just surfing Mop.com (猫扑), a website which claims to be China's first or number one interactive entertainment portal. In any case, while there we read about how Shanghai's finest plan on creating a system for monitoring migrant populations in Shanghai. Basically, non-Shanghai people (and by this they mostly mean migrant workers) are going to be registered in a new system that will allow them to know how many people are living in an apartment, even how many people are living in each room. (He meant this figuratively, right?) more ›

OK, so it's a bit difficult to type like Elmer Fudd, but you can always find inspiration by trying Google in Elmer Fudd language. more ›

On Saturday night, Shanghaiist was strolling along Changle Road (a long street), when we noticed a number of policemen in vehicles moving in both directions with their lights ablaze. Not that there is anything abnormal about that, but a motorcycled policeman did seem to take special interest in us, stopping for a moment to turn his head for a clear look. Perhaps it was because we had a large rucksack in tow or because he thought us strapping he-men. Whatever the reason, it reminded us that currently, somewhere lodged in a historic Shanghai hotel, 100 investigators from the Central Discipline Inspection Commission (CDIC) are stationed for the ongoing graft investigation that has claimed Shanghai Municipality Mayor, Chen Liangyu, among other elite Shanghai politicos. The last time a sitting Politburo member was purged China was in 1995 with the removal Chen Xitong, the Beijing party chief and a significant rival of Jiang Zemin. more ›

Word on the street is Thailand had a little political shakedown this past week: Something about a Prime Minister being ousted and tanks rolling in the capital city. Kids these days … Not one to be out done, and perhaps to reclaim the spotlight, Shanghai (well, actually the order came from Beijing) stirred up a political tumult of its own, sans armored vehicles and AK-47s, but equally as CNN-worthy. more ›

Shanghaiist keeps following these stories on rabies that keep popping up around the country. Slaughters are happening in places like Nanjing, and now stories about dog bites and rabies cases in Shanghai and Beijing. Our paranoid mind can't help but wonder if the state media is planting seeds of warning. more ›

Shanghaiist is no law expert, but we just learned that there are no extradition agreements between China and Hong Kong. Back in 2003, the property tycoon (and then richest man in Shanghai at $320 million USD) Zhou Zhengyi was arrested in Shanghai for falsely reporting the holdings of his company as well as manipulating stock prices, and got slammed with a three year sentence. Here's basically what happened: more ›

"Ideology by numerology", that seems to be the prevailing wisdom guiding the giant party machine in Beijing. After "One China" and "Three Represents", we now have “Eight dos and don'ts”, courtesy of Chinese President Hu Jintao. It is the centerpiece to his “Socialist concept of honor and disgrace”. Sure, it might not sound like a zinger, but eight is greater than three and way bigger than one. What it lacks in pizzazz, it more than makes up for in quantity. We know you're at the edges of your seats, so without further ado, here is the full list: more ›