Over the last few days, since the start of the first so-called "Jasmine Revolution" protests, we've been actively tracking the Net Nanny's behaviour. Search results for a whole bunch of newly-sensitive words have become filtered, including the Chinese names of US Ambassador Jon Huntsman and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Two days before the second nationwide "stroll" was to start, we broke the news that "Wangfujing" had also become a sensitive word. more ›

The Guardian went on a Zheng He kick yesterday, with not one but two articles relating to the famous eunuch general. First, a discussion of Zheng He's voyages and their relation to modern maritime attitudes - China has recently been citing his voyages as an "envoy of friendship and peace," and urged that countries consider anything modern China does to be in the same vein. By doing so, they may be - surprise - really reinterpreting history. Meanwhile, Chinese archeologistsare now in Kenya to search for the remains of a Zheng He-led armada that may have sunk there 600 years ago. more ›

Chinese volunteers have organised a charity event and donated over 100 tonnes of rice to Sarah Obama, the relatively poor step-grandmother of US President Barack Obama who "only recently got electricity in her metal-roofed shack" in Kenya. The rice was for her 82 adopted orphans aged between four and 18 most of whose parents have died from AIDS, as well as other impoverished, starving Kenyans. Said Julius Ole Sunkuli, Kenya's ambassador to China, "She will be very happy to see the support from China after she returns from Obama's inauguration." more ›