A very public spat between "science cop" Fang Zhouzi and former Google China chief Kaifu Lee on Sina Weibo has kept Chinese internet users hooked over the last few days. Fang has attacked Lee's credibility, accusing him of lying about himself in interviews that he has given and in his Chinese biography published in 2009. The Chinese media has lapped up the war of words between the two but the spat has received scant attention outside of China. more ›

Former Google China exec and tech giant Kai-Fu Lee sat down recently with Techonomy founder and Forbes contributor David Kirkpatrick to answer questions about everyone's favorite heavily monitored micro-blogging platform -- Weibo. more ›

Former president of Google China, Kaifu Lee, tweets: "Top-class people hire top-class people. Second-class people hire third-class people. So as soon as you see second-class people entering your company, you know it's downhill from there. (The logic behind the two earlier sentences: Only top-class people have the self-confidence to bring in other top-class people, everyone else shies away from doing that.)" more ›

• China says 35 killed in blast at coal mine [latimes.com] "Chinese officials says a blast in a coal mine has killed 35 in central Henan province and left 44 other miners trapped. The State Administration of Work Safety said the predawn explosion today happened at a pit in Pingdingshan city. A statement on the administration's website did not give a cause for the blast. It said 14 miners managed to flee to safety. Ninety-three men were working underground at the time of the blast, it said."
• China enters list of lower-middle-income countries: NBS [China Daily] "China's economic aggregate ranked third in the world as of 2008, pulling it into the list of lower-middle-income countries from low-income ones, according to a Sept 7 report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The report, featuring the nation's 60-year development since 1949 when new China was founded, also said China has gradually become a large manufacturing country as it strengthened industrial infrastructure construction and expanded productivity."
• Taiwan premier quits over typhoon [BBC NEWS] "Taiwan's premier Liu Chao-shiuan has resigned, after the government was heavily criticised for its slow response to last month's typhoon. Mr Liu will be replaced by the ruling party's secretary general, Wu Den-yih. Mr Liu told reporters that someone had to take political responsibility for the fact that at least 600 people had died as a result of Typhoon Morakot."

• China's Top Muckrakers Stop Digging [Foreign Policy] "There are no pyres of magazines burning, no information police combing the newsstands every morning. Magazine censorship in China is banal. Almost all of the control has long been done in-house before publication, by reporters and editors who know just how far they can and cannot go. The closest many private magazines get to an official censor is someone they call "Teacher," sent from their own publishing houses, to patrol content. But these days, it's not just editors who are drawing in the lines. It's the investors — the owners and backers of China's few independent media outlets. And there is no better example than Caijing, China's leading business magazine, for which I used to work as an editor."
• Tanks out in Beijing in 60th anniversary rehearsal [The Associated Press] "Tanks, armored personnel carriers and rocket launchers rolled along a major Beijing boulevard Sunday in practice for a parade next month to mark China's 60th anniversary. The main east-west artery of Beijing was closed for a rehearsal of the elaborate military parade planned for Oct. 1, when the People's Republic of China celebrates six decades since its founding. The parade is intended to highlight accomplishments China has made in its defense sector."
• China Urged to Subsidize 'New Energy' Vehicles [WSJ] "The head of BYD Co., one of China's leading makers of electric vehicles, urged the Chinese government to subsidize private purchases of all-electric battery cars and other "new energy" vehicles, saying their widespread adoption in China depends on it. Speaking at an industry conference Sunday, BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu said a lack of consumer incentives and subsidies has kept BYD from making a plug-in hybrid car available for private buyers. He warned that a continued lack of government assistance might doom all-electric cars and plug-in hybrids in the marketplace because of their currently high cost."

• Regulation on puppy love sparks controversy [China.org.cn] "The first local regulation in China to list puppy love as "misconduct" and suggest parents reprimand and stop it has sparked controversy across the country. Heated discussions on the regulation has spread across media and websites nationwide, after the Regulation for the Protection of Minors of Heilongjiang Province, the first of its kind to tackle puppy love, was revised and adopted by the local legislature last month."
• Drugs Don’t Work for Half of China’s AIDS Patients, Study Says [Bloomberg] "Half of China’s AIDS patients stopped responding to treatment over five years and didn’t have access to the back-up drugs available in developed nations, researchers found. Among 48,785 HIV patients who received free treatment under a government program from 2002 to 2008, the drugs curbed AIDS- related deaths but failed to treat 50 percent of the group over the period, researchers led by Fujie Zhang at China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention found. The results are similar to those for other low- and middle-income countries, they said. "
• Chief of Google in China Leaving [NY Times] "In what is likely to be seen as a blow to Google’s ambitions in China, Kai-Fu Lee, the prominent head of the company’s operations there, is leaving to form a new venture. Google said in a news release early Friday in Beijing that Mr. Lee, who was president of Google Greater China and vice president for engineering, would leave the company in mid-September."