Amidst disputed reports that three more Tibetan herders set themselves ablaze over the weekend to protest the government's repressive policies (bringing the total number of self immolations over the past year to 19), the Chinese government has vowed to continue it's crackdown on what it has described as a "handful of criminals illegally gathering and smashing and looting." more ›

In the latest series of events stoking the tensions between Hong Kongers and Mainlanders, Cheung Wan Lai, director of hospital groups at the Hospital Authority, revealed that the quota for foreigners giving birth in Hong Kong has been reduced from 10,000 in 2011 to just 3,400 in 2012. more ›

The activist group Free Tibet reported on Monday that a Tibetan man had been killed, and thirty others wounded, after police opened fire on protesters in the Sichuan county of Luhuo (also known as Drango or Draggo to Tibetans). It has now been revealed that the following day a separate protest in neighbouring county Seda (Serthar) resulted in at least one fatality, with as many as five claimed by various Tibetan media organisations. more ›

Roughly 1,000 factory workers left their work stations and blocked a highway this week to protest extreme working conditions at their factory which produces parts for Apple and IBM in Shenzhen. The protest is the latest in a growing series of labor disputes in China, highlighting a need for truly independent trade unions amid worker fears over the future of China's economy. more ›

A new ad promoting Haier's environmental cred pokes fun at the phenomenon of protest in China, with a man wearing a dirty shirt being asked to leave a jacuzzi full of tiny fish (eels are often used in spa treatments, sometimes to disastrous effect). more ›

On Monday in Shenzhen's Longhua district, an aggrieved building contractor decided to protest for his rights (an act known as weiquan/维权) by unfurling banners from a building rooftop, along with stringing two dogs up by their necks. more ›

A group of senior citizens have taken it upon themselves to effect a mini-protest, by barricading Xikang Road near Xinhui Road in the Jing'an Temple district over a newly constructed high-rise that has robbed their homes of access to sunshine.   more ›

At the Kirti Monastery in Northern Sichuan, two teenaged Tibetan monks set themselves on fire on Monday, in what looks to be the second case of self-immolation by Tibetan monks in six weeks, and the third separate incident this year. more ›

Yet another nail-house (钉子户) confrontation involving angry residents and anti-government banners took place recently in Guangzhou, though at least this time it all ended happily. On September 6th, 2011, Yao Runzhen (姚润珍) engaged in a heated negotiation with housing officials, protesting against their eviction and refusing to move, despite the reality of their neighborhood turning into rubble and fine dust. After a successful negotiation involving a satisfactory compensation package however, the couple willingly backs down, while the "Good Life" (好生) demolition company tears down their abode. more ›

On August 18, Zhuang Jinghui, a 77-year-old woman went naked on her knees in order to call Shanghai’s justice system to account for their ineptitude. She wore nothing but a sign in black and white that says, “I want my case to be investigated. Champion the laws. Return the right to sue to me.” Despite repeated clamors for justice from her and her fellow petitioners standing outside the courthouse, no one stood out to answer her needs on the court’s behalf.

Last week, when tropical storm Muifa rolled into town, Dalian residents watched anxiously as high waves breached a tidal wall protecting a new paraxylene (PX) chemical plant located only 20km from the city center. Though no leaks were reported and the plant appeared to be safe, residents voiced their concerns about the proximity of the toxic plant to the city and worried about future environmental disasters with the Dalian oil spill remaining fresh in their minds. Yesterday, those concerns came out in a big way as 10-20,000 residents protested outside of government offices in the aptly named People's Square demanding that the plant be shut down and relocated further away. more ›

Henanese migrant workers staged a self-burial in protest of wages they were owed Tuesday in Zhengzhou, Henan province. more ›

According to reports from Xinhua, a group of "terrorists" attacked a police station in the city of Hotan in Xinjiang province on Monday and killed four people, including a paramilitary officer, a security guard, along with a woman and a teenage girl. Police soon retaliated and a gunfight erupted, killing between 14 to 20 people (China Daily puts the total shot at 14, Sina says 14 dead, while the Global Times says the casualty total was "unidentified"). more ›

The past week has seen an unnerving amount of violence and unrest in China. Here's a roundup of what's happening: more ›

The Han Chinese truck driver responsible for the killing of an ethnic Mongol herdsman in Inner Mongolia that sparked the worst riots in the region in 20 years was sentenced to death yesterday. more ›

Riots and clashes with police occurred in Chaozhou (潮州) in eastern Guangdong province on Monday night, after a migrant worker's son was injured in a knife attack over a wage dispute. 18 people were injured an 9 were detained following a protest that involving hundreds of migrant workers, reportedly from Sichuan province. more ›

Melamine scandal activist Zhao Lianhai (赵连海) has spoken out against the detention of Ai Weiwei and others while in talks with the police this week. Zhou, whose son was made ill by the 2008 melamine scandal and who campaigned rigorously for just compensation for all victims, was sentenced to prison in November of last year for inciting disorder. Released on medical leave in December, he broke his public silence this week to condemn Ai Weiwei's arrest. more ›

Despite Ai Weiwei's house arrest last Friday and AFP reports that yesterday's Crab Fest was canceled, I decided it might be worth checking out anyway. Turns out plenty of others felt the same way. Hundreds gathered at Ai Weiwei's soon-to-be-demolished studio in Jiading yesterday to eat crab, jam it out on guitars, admire the architecture, and get some super special party favors. more ›

A tipster has informed us that a group of protesters are clashing with police at the corner of Jiangsu Lu and Wuding Lu in Changning District. Said the tipster, "I just rode my bike past there and there's something serious going down. Someone's lit a fire, a woman was screaming and crying in a microphone and there are people holding big signs - I made out the words "dead child" before I rode away. A cop car was blocking the road so no cars could go through. Right when I biked past, 30 or so cops swarmed the protesters." more ›

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

If there's one thing that gets our blood boiling, it's protest songs. And while we've usually got American folk music in mind, we can appreciate the fineries of the cutesier, punnier Chinese netizen versions too. In our favorite veiled resistance video since the days of the grass mud horse ballads, "My brother's at the bare bottom" has all the workings of a great angry netizen meme: you've got an infectious pop ballad with incomprehensible amounts of T-Pain-esque autotune, clever puns on Google and China's censorial administration, and of course, the harmonizing "river crabs." more ›

Yesterday's protest against a plan to build a garbage burning plant in the city of Panyu has sparked a lot of interest all over the internet. A fair amount of people showed up, and it seems like Sina has given a pretty optimistic writeup of the town hall event that sparked the protest. Mostly, though, this whole affair has piqued our interest in how the internet has integrated itself into the protests. more ›

As a testament to the increasingly daring nature of Chinese citizens, people have come out in mass to voice their vehement dislike of a recent government policy. Considering China's harsh treatment of large scale public protests and the potential ramifications participating could have on individuals, we figure only the most egregious of political moves could bring together so many people in harmonious dissent. So what happened? more ›

There's a lot to protest about in China: ethnic tension in Xinjiang, forced eviction and resettlement, and even gay rights. Now you can add video games to that list as well. more ›

A lot has changed since we last reported on the recent syringe stabbings in Xinjiang. First, remember how we said that only a handful of people had been stabbed? Well, it turns out that the actual number is around 470, according to a recent post from AGI News in Beijing. What's worse, CCTV reported that the needles are now presumed to have been filled with AIDS contaminated blood. As a result, government officials have claimed the attacks were carried out by members of the Uyghur minority, which triggered a spat of protests by Han Chinese for more forceful persecution of Uyghur separatists related to the original protests in July. more ›

In one of the more bizarre police conflict stories of late, over a hundred gay men congregated at People's Park in Guangzhou this week to protest police efforts to keep homosexuals out of the park. The police have used reports of petty crimes such as robbery and stealing to keep homosexuals out of the park, which serves as a meeting place for gay people. Protesters verbally clashed with the police after park guards attempted to force the group to leave the premises, and several protesters and volunteers were detained and questioned before the protest began. more ›

She delighted audiences in Ang Lee's first film, The Wedding Banquet, but despite her Independent Spirit Award-nominated turn as the sassy artist from Shanghai who marries her gay landlord, May Chin (高金素梅) didn't pursue much of an acting career in the years following. more ›

• Protest at China TV tower [The Straits Times] "Demonstrators gathered outside a fire-gutted tower near the new China Central Television (CCTV) headquarters in Beijing on Tuesday, protesting against what they called forced eviction, state press said. About 30 residents accused the state-run television station of trying to get them to move from the area to make way for the massive and nearly completed construction project, Xinhua news agency said. After about an hour, police persuaded the protesters to put away their banners and leave, the report said. "
• China Backs Off Latest Rio Tinto Claims [WSJ] "Chinese officials distanced the government from allegations on a state-backed Web site that employees of mining giant Rio Tinto PLC had used years of "deceit" to obtain state secrets that cost China's steel industry more than $100 billion — spotlighting the murky and often confusing way China handles such secrecy cases. The allegations, published over the weekend, had quickly gained widespread attention, as they appeared to represent the government ratcheting up pressure over the case of four Rio Tinto employees, including an Australian citizen, who were detained last month by the Shanghai State Security Bureau on vague accusations of using bribery to obtain secrets that harmed China's national interests."
• Another suspect dies in Kunming police custody [GoKunming] "A man being held in detention in Kunming died in a hospital on Saturday with no clear cause of death, according to a Xinhua report. According to a police spokesperson speaking to reporters on Sunday, 43-year-old Wang Shukun (王树坤) had been held in the Guandu District Detention Center since July 19 before being checked into a hospital by police on August 6. After undergoing emergency procedures to save his life, Wang died early Saturday, the spokesperson said."