Chinese search engine Baidu just can't seem to stay out of the news. Pacific Epoch thinks that Baidu is finally living up to the formerly tongue-in-cheek moniker of "Google of China," while fool.com likens the growth of the company to a "runaway freight train." Certainly, there are plenty of reasons behind its phenomenal growth: for one, it copies most of the neat functions and applications that Google has—including a rumored instant messaging application. Called "Baidu......

In a report just released an hour ago, Reuters tells us that Shanghai housing rights activist, Chen Xiaoming, who was one of seven Chinese activists awarded the 2006 Housing Rights Defender Award by the Geneva-based Centre for Housing Rights and Evictions, "has died hours after he was released on medical parole". From the Reuters report: Shanghai authorities had repeatedly rejected applications by Chen Xiaoming's family to release him on parole for treatment for a chronic......

Many free to have more than one child Less than 40 percent of the population is restricted by the family planning policy to having one child, a senior official with the National Population and Family Planning Commission said yesterday. While popularly referred to as the "one child policy", the rule actually restricts just 35.9 percent of the population to having one child, Yu Xuejun, a spokesman with the commission, said in a Webcast on......

Today is one of those days where count our blessings that we are not rich and powerful and have never once (OK, once) been called a "tycoon." If those words describe you (and you are Chinese and corrupt and/or friendly with the corrupt) then you may not be free to breath in Shanghai's fresh sea air much longer. Just ask Zhou Zhengyi (also known as Chau Ching-ngai), who in 2002 was called China's 11th richest......

To supplement our meagre incomes, some Shanghaiist contributors have resorted to peddling strange things over the Internet, everything from pearl necklaces and mahjong bracelets to men's underwear. Given our pathetic (read: almost non-existent) budgets, we decided to take our first tentative steps into the deep dark world of e-commerce and internet advertising with Google Adwords, a product that has pleasantly surprised and amazed us. Not long ago, a sales executive from Baidu called us up......

Colonel Sanders has found his conscience: after being threatened by lawsuits in the US, Kentucky Fried Chicken announced that come April of next year, all of its restaurants in the US will cease using oils containing the harmful trans-fats that have been linked to heart disease. Earlier this year, McDonald's ran into some trouble when it was discovered that there was one third more trans-fats in their fries than previously thought. This was the result......

Shanghaiist mentioned China's first blogger versus blogger lawsuit several weeks ago, and since then, the case has been pending and we haven't heard much about it until just now. To refresh your memory, Shen Yang accused blogger Qin Chen (real name Zhang Ming) of libelous, defamatory remarks about him on his blog. Zhang Ming is a recent university graduate and said that Shen Yang started it, and that people who've been trolling the blogosphere enough......