Apple's labour practices have been under the spotlight a lot this year since a monologue by Mike Daisey published by the podcast This American Life gained widespread interest and led to international protests against the manufacturer of the iPhone and iPad. The monologue was eventually retracted after This American Life found Daisey to have fabricated numerous details in his report, thanks to the investigative work of Rob Schmitz, China correspondent of Marketplace. more ›

• China's Alibaba Adds Social Networking to E-commerce [PC World] "China's Alibaba Group has started mixing social-networking functions into its leading e-commerce platforms, a move it hopes will convince users to spend more time and money on Alibaba Web sites. Alibaba is crafting social-networking platforms specifically to complement two of its core operations. The beta version of a Web site with Facebook-style applications and a Twitter-style feed is being grafted onto Taobao.com."
• China, the world's factory--a photo tour [CNET Asia Blogs: The Tech Dynasty] "These images are from WethicA, a company that audits factories with an eye toward child labor, workers rights, health & safety, and wages. From the WethicA newsletter: "We are posting real untouched photos of factory working conditions from about one year ago. We have decided this summer to show you an important part of the job we do during audits by telling you why these pictures have been taken. Actually, an audit is much more investigative than ticking boxes off a questionaire. One has to walk in with an open mind ready to question everything in these situations and not only ask a list of predefined questions.""
• China's turning children against me: Kadeer [ABC News] "The children of exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer have gone on Chinese television criticising their mother. Two of Ms Kadeer's children and her brother were at first reported as having written letters blaming their mother for orchestrating recent violence in far western China. Now the two children, along with another son, have recorded interviews with Chinese television for a special program."