In the latest escalation of handbags between Norway and China, a highly placed Norwegian diplomatic source has told a national newspaper that Norway could shut Beijing out of the Arctic Council. more ›

It strikes us as quite the surprise when the weibo account of The Global Times, an official Chinese propaganda organ recently affectionately called "China's Fox News" by Foreign Policy's Christina Larsen, recently posted a weib declaring "So Norway is the most awesome country in the world after all!!!" (原来挪威才是全球最牛的国家!!!) more ›

It's that time of the year again -- Norway's Nobel Committee has met to decide who should be the winner of its peace prize this year. Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland says the choice has "not been particularly difficult" this time round while pundits are placing their bets on representatives of the Arab Spring revolution which swept across the Middle East earlier this year. Among the top contenders are Google executive Wael Ghonim from Egypt, and Tunisian blogger Lina Ben Mhenni. Jagland also took the opportunity to defend the decision to award last year's prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, even though that immediately led to frozen Sino-Norwegian ties and possibly made life more difficult for Liu:

"The reactions (from China) were as expected. They were not more extreme than what we expected," he said. more ›

Deaf celebrity Song Xiaobo (宋晓波), who shot to fame as the runner-up of the 2006 My Hero (加油好男儿) talent competition, has complained that Sina Weibo is filtering search results for his name. He said:

A lot of people aren't able to add me up. Why is it that when people search for my name here, they get the message that search results have been blocked in accordance with the relevant rules and regulations? If searching for just "Xiaobo", only Wu Xiaobo's (a writer) account is shown, not mine. Why is this so? This has been a major obstacle to the people who want to follow me and made it very difficult for me to use Sina Weibo.

Critics are not welcome in China, it seems. German publication Der Spiegel reports that sinology expert Tilman Spengler has been refused a passport by Chinese authorities because he is "not a friend of the Chinese people". He was to have accompanied German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on a trip to Beijing where an art exhibition "Kunst der Aufklärung" (Art of the Enlightenment) opens today. more ›

Teng Biao (滕彪), professor of law at China University of Politics and Law, gives the Wall Street Journal a fascinating first-hand account of what happened to him when he tried to visit the mother of another human rights lawyer, Fan Yafeng, who has recently been put under house arrest. Teng is one of the original signatories of Charter 08 -- the manifesto for which Liu Xiaobo is sitting in jail today. As someone within the establishment who is no doubt a great annoyance to the establishment, Teng tells the story like only he can. It's certainly not a question of if, but when the powers-that-be will lean on his employers to remove him from his position. more ›

It's just ONE DAY until Liu Xiaobo (or at least his picture) receives the peace prize and rhetoric about it has been roughly the same, but maybe turned up a notch. Earlier, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu called everyone opposing their decision to oppose the prize "clowns," noting that "All policies in China are for the interests of the majority of the Chinese people. We will not change ... because of the interference of some clowns who are anti-China." And today, an equally furious op-ed was published in the Global Times. more ›

While Chinese officials have said they have the support of the "vast majority" and that 100s of countries are refusing to recognize the legitimacy of Liu Xiaobo's peace prize, here's the actual list of those who've officially said they won't be going. There are 18 in total: Russia, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Serbia, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Venezuela, the Philippines, Egypt, Sudan, Ukraine, Cuba and Morocco. That'll learn 'em. more ›

The poll for TIME's Person of the Year award is now up and running and... what do we see? Both Hu Jintao and Liu Xiaobo are on it! So which corner are you in - The Nobel Peace Prize winning dissident with visions of democracy or the leader of one of the new old superpower on the block? Or you can skip the controversy and vote for any of their other silly options: Glenn Beck, Lady Gaga or "The Unemployed American." Ugh, does anyone take this seriously anymore? Does TIME even take this seriously anymore? more ›

As most of you will know, this week a devastating fire broke out in Jing’An district. We’ve had some pretty in-depth and detailed coverage of the story, and our latest post is a video that you will not find in any form of Chinese media. For more Shanghaiist coverage of the fire click here. more ›

Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Liu Xiaobo, may have triggered a war between authorities in China and the Nobel committee. For the first time in history, the award may not be handed out this year, as neither the laureate nor a close family member has the ability to collect the prize due to government constraints. Liu is now serving an 11-year sentence for subversion. more ›

@AlexSTaggart "Cameron's sidestep of LXB in China shall forever be known as 'the Beijing duck'." more ›

The selection of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo for this year's Noble Peace Prize has led to increasing strains on China-Norway diplomatic relations in the weeks following the award's announcement. Regardless of Norway's insistence on the independent nature of the Nobel committee, China's string of rebuffs have been dramatic. But there is hope still, and it comes fresh from the fjords of Norway. Turns out where diplomacy fails, 8,734 pieces of sushi does the trick. more ›

Shenzhen: the bright star of market liberalization and home to Foxconn controversies and Obama's half-brother is now being touted as the next... political reform breeding ground? On the heels of Premier Wen Jiabao’s political reform comments made during an August trip to the city, it is at the heart of an experiment that gives more responsibility and greater freedoms to independent social and civic organizations... aka NGO’s. more ›

According to a survey from the Global Times, six out of 10 Chinese people polled about Liu Xiaobo's recent Nobel Peace Prize win thought that Norway needed to apologize for giving it to him. In the same article, Global Times said that 75% of the people polled didn't actually know who Liu Xiaobo was. Mathematically, doesn't that mean that it's possible everyone whose feelings are now hurt by Norway were actually more hurt by the phrasing of the poll question? more ›

Norwegians look out, China is beginning to show just how distraught it was after the Nobel peace prize was awarded to jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo. A meeting between Fisheries Minister Lisbeth Berg-Hansen and Chinese food control authorities was recently cancelled, in addition to a touring Norwegian musical starring Eurovision 2009 winner Alexander Rybak. more ›

Shortly after returning home from a visit to the jail cell of her husband, Liu Xia was detained in a de facto house arrest. The wife of Nobel Peace Prize winner and political reform advocate Liu Xiaobo, made the trip to his northeast prison to visit him under police supervision. While she was not the first to inform him (we have the prison guards to thank for that) she did email The Times with a statement from Liu in which he dedicates the award to the victims of the 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing. more ›

The Communist Party is amping up the pressure on Norway to bar human rights campaigner, Liu Xiaobo, from receiving the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. A Chinese official who met with the Director of the Nobel Institute, Geir Lundestad, put forth this stern warning, "[Such a decision] would pull the wrong strings in relations between Norway and China, it would be seen as an unfriendly act," more ›

Christian NGO ChinaAid has announced that Chai Ling (柴玲), one of the student leaders of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, has embraced Christianity. Her new goals in life? To bring "God's love and freedom to the Chinese people" and to fight the One Child Policy:

"I stumbled on this idea that if only I could become a very successful entrepreneur, like Bill Gates, I could make lots money and set up a giant foundation, then I could once for all overcome and free China," Chai Ling said. Despite her fruitful actions, she began to lose hope, feeling too weak to accomplish her goal of bringing freedom to China. more ›

AP reported today that Beijing Film Academy professor Cui Weiping was due to fly to Philadelphia, but was told by her bosses on Sunday to cancel the trip. The official line was that she had classes to teach and her planned conference panel at the Association for Asian Studies in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was not related to her academic discipline. more ›

• This is the last weekend you can catch Avatar before it's replaced by Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland in the city's 3D theaters (though it seems like it'll still be on the one IMAX screen in the city until March 26). [CNNGo]
• David Laris is a busy bee these days - which means we're in for a treat. Fans of Fat Olive, look forward to another one. Fans of his more casual Slice, get ready for Pie Hole. Lovers of his fancy outpost Laris, he's now taken over the kitchen at URBN. Oh yeah, and he's opening up a golf coursethemed clubhouse too. Woah. [SmartShanghai]
• Oops, it looks like protesting Liu Xiaobo's sentencing has gotten one person sentenced himself: Mao Hengfeng, a Shanghai resident, has been ordered to serve one and a half years of "re-education through labor" for shouting slogans about human rights outside a courthouse. [New York Times]

There are a record 237 candidates in the running for this year's Nobel Peace Prize, amongst them: the internet (god, that's lame). Even more interesting than the inclusion of an inanimate intangible thing though, at least for us China news hounds, is the amount of Chinese dissidents on the list. more ›

On Monday, outspoken Chinese poet Liao Yiwu had barely boarded his flight from Chengdu to Cologne when he was ordered to get off. Liao was planning to attend a literary festival in the German city, but was instead detained and questioned for three hours and then sent home, where he remains under house arrest. The writer himself claims this is the thirteenth time he has been stopped from leaving China. more ›

"China brooks no interference in its internal judicial affairs... China has no dissidents." more ›

One of the three students who captured global attention in the Tiananmen incident of 1989 by kneeling on the steps of the Great Hall of the People in a plea for CCP leaders to acknowledge student calls for political reforms, has been jailed in China -- but not for "inciting subversion of state power" or any such similar crime, but for fraud. more ›

• If China actually reevaluated the poverty line from when it was established decades ago, the number of people here defined as "poor" would triple... at least. [China Daily]
• Think you're scared of the "Made in China" label? Actually, Chinese consumers are even more scared. [Forbes]
• And you know what some U.S.-based political risk consulting group is scared of? Worsening ties with China and America thanks to trade tensions. [BusinessWeek]

This weekend, Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was charged with ‘inciting subversion’. Today, facing a barrage of criticism over its handling of the case, the PRC responded with a gentle reminder for the West to not interfere. more ›

• The WSJ pours cold water over Warren Buffet's darling, BYD, pointing out that their oft-regaled batteries are produced using 15-year-old methods: cheap manual labor that scraps 15 to 30% of its produced batteries because they fail to meet quality standards. [WSJ]
• The controversy surrounding the suicide of a young woman at Shanghai Maritime University has underscored the alleged lack of sensitivity to the problems of out-of-town students in Shanghai's many colleges. [China Daily]
• A guard at one of those black jails in Beijing, the ones used to keep protesters from reaching Zhongnanhai, was sentenced to eight years in prison for raping a young female detainee. [Associated Press]

• We've seen a lot of hotties selling cars - but never have they been male, until now. In Guangzhou. [WSJ]
• Charles Darwin is popular in China! Though he never set foot in the country, his theory has deeply influenced China's social and natural sciences, political thoughts and life philosophy. [Beijing Review]
• Everyone wants the Chinese to buy more, but despite fistfuls of initiatives to boost consumer spending... nothing. Why? [New Yorker]