Yesterday around 3pm in Runan County, Henan, a police car veered onto the sidewalk and knocked down a lamppost, killing four and injuring three according to state media. Other sources said the man driving the car was a heavily intoxicated policeman, and that the accident led to six deaths and one injury. more ›

Multiple sources have told Shanghaiist that the police have been going around bars -- of all places! -- asking foreigners if they've got anything to do with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Apparently, the powers that be are worried that intoxicated laowai's might start to Occupy Shanghai? more ›

While most of the party-goers detained in the raid of Q Bar, a new gay bar on the Bund, have already been released, the story has only just begun. more ›

Early this morning at around 1am, police raided Q Bar, a new gay bar on the Bund, and detained at least 50 patrons of the bar. more ›

"POLICE in Shanghai are to trial the use of helicopters to help direct road traffic during rush hours, the latest move by the city to relieve its notorious traffic gridlocks. An EC-135 police helicopter will cruise over the city's major thoroughfares on Monday mornings and Friday afternoons, videotaping road conditions and broadcasting warnings to drivers violating traffic rules, the Shanghai Bureau of Public Security said yesterday. The use of helicopters, which are fast and command views over a wide area, could assist ground controllers to better handle accidents and clear traffic jams." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

Take a quick break from work to watch this brainless but very entertaining video from the Beijing police bureau. Since it's the last day of Chinese New Year, the official Beijing police Sina Weibo account 'Peaceful Beijing' (平安北京) has posted up a short holiday message and this video of their officers getting their groove on to Michael Jackson and the Wonder Girls 'Nobody'. Classic! more ›

Chinese netizens have been outraged lately by the murder of Qian Yunhui, former village leader of Zhaiqiao village, near Yueqing, Wenzhou who has served over five years in prison for protesting over the illegal landgrab in the village. Gruesome images of the bloody remains of Qian under a truck have been floating around on Tianya and Sina Weibo, and some purporting to be eyewitnesses have claimed that Qian was held down by policemen while the truck rolled over him. John Kennedy of Global Voices has done an excellent job translating tweets from a journalist who was present at the press conference held by the local PSB. Police claims that Qian's death was the result of a "typical traffic accident" have left journalists incredulous, opening up more questions than answering them. Read some of the eye-opening statements made by police here. more ›

Liu Shaowu (刘绍武), director of the security management bureau under the Ministry of Public Security, recently emphasised to public security bureaus nationwide the importance of respect as a key touchstone in the crackdown against vice and prostitution. Sex workers, he said, may not be subject to verbal and physical abuse, discrimination and shaming by public parades. He also suggested that the public security bureau would henceforth no longer call prostitutes「卖淫女」(lit. "women who sell vice"), and encourage the use of the term「失足妇女」(lit. "women who have lost their way"). The statement sparked off a flurry of debate in the public, but the ministry's move has received a thumbs up from notable feminist and sexologist Li Yinhe (李银河). Here is our translation of her latest blogpost: more ›

The one on Kangding Road? No? Well, it's too late to make your way there now because police have shut the Xuangong Club down and detained 15 people there for prostitution and sex shows following a police raid that was part of a nationwide crackdown on vice and prostitution in nine cities across China. Shanghai Daily reports some staggering figures: 1,800 venues across the city, mostly hair salons and massage parlors, have been fined or shut down this year for prostitution. Also, approximately 200,000 employees of massage parlors and karaoke bars (that's about 1 percent of Shanghai's population!) have been made to register with the police since 2005, ostensibly for easier supervision by police. more ›

Remember that cabby who died on Nanjing Road after two passengers hit him, then ran away? Apparently those two passengers have been found:

POLICE have found two cab passengers who disappeared after their driver dropped dead on Nanjing West Road during a dispute over the fare yesterday. more ›

AP breaks the news:

Organizers of China first gay pageant say police forced them to cancel the event just one hour before it was to start. more ›

AFP reports:

One person was killed Sunday in a blast near a police post in China's financial hub Shanghai, the state news agency Xinhua reported. more ›

UPDATE 2: Adult entertainment studio Harmony Films wants to offer 'Kappa Girl' a real job more ›

Last Friday, the Xuhui District PSB was reported to have received a "threatening message" claiming there was a bomb in the Ikea store located on the corner of Caoxi Lu and Sanhui Lu. Acting on the news, a team of about 50 policemen was dispatched to the store to evacuate everyone. Patrons were only told there was a "mechanical problem" and within half an hour, the store was empty. Police then combed through the store with the help of the special service unit of the fire department and ascertained that there was no bomb in the store. The case remains under investigation. more ›

A group of 38 petitioners from Shanghai yesterday made their way to Hong Kong to submit their application forms for the establishment of a "Chinese Petitioners Alliance" to the Hong Kong Police Headquarters. RFA adds that outside the police headquarters, the petitioners unfurled banners protesting forced evictions by the Shanghai government and accusing the PSB in Shanghai and Beijing of lawlessness. Petitioners said that they were doing this because Hong Kong had greater relative freedom than the mainland, greater respect for the rule of law and greater media freedom. Some of them, who shall remain unnamed here, told the media that prior to this trip to Hong Kong, they were repeatedly harrassed by their local police and area councils and warned that they might be detained on their return to Shanghai and sent in for 're-education'. More news and videos available here (in Chinese and behind the GFW) for those of you that are interested. more ›

This story caused us to hyperventilate after we realised that it happened right here in what is supposed to be China's most liberal city. Professor Yang Shiqun (杨师群) of Shanghai's East China University of Political Science and Law (which by the way is supposed to be a pretty good uni) was reported by two of his female students to the public security bureau and the municipal education committee for his alleged anti-government and counter-revolutionary ideas. Steve Cotner of The Foreign Expert translates a blogpost written by the professor (which seems to have been removed by Sohu in the meanwhile — read his other less subversive views here) telling his side of the story:

Students Accused Me of Being “Counterrevolutionary” more ›

Warning: Video contains some disturbing images. more ›

Cara Anna of AP writes that the increasingly sensitive trial of Yang Jia, the "cop-killer", which was postponed till after the Olympics, is likely to end in a death sentence for the man. However, many among the Chinese public are sympathetic to the man after Xinhua's report of Yang's earlier rejected claim for psychological damage and Southern Weekend's long, sympathetic front-page story which asked what could have made a young, quiet man who liked travelling want to take so many lives. In a telephone interview with AP, Yan Lieshan, editor of the highly respected Guangzhou-based paper, said:

"That's the so-called 'open, fair trial... I think people get what's going on. Let's see how this thing gets a happy ending."

called for Yang's appointed lawyer, Xie Youming, to drop the case because he's a legal adviser for Shanghai's Zhabei district, which oversees the police station where the attack occurred. An application by two Beijing-based lawyers to represent Yang at his father's request was rejected. more ›

Photo from shanghaistreets more ›

Via Speak4China which is rapidly becoming one of our favourite blogs: Shortly after Chinese netizens launched a "human flesh search engine" and elicited a tearful response from a group of three Sichuan students for their earthquake interview prank, the online lynch mobs have quickly found a new target in a Liaoning girl by the name of Gao Qianhui (高千惠). But this time we think that she kinda deserved it. First let's check out her crime, which is this 5 minute video you see on the right. Gao was basically annoyed with the 3 day period of national mourning during which she could not watch her favourite television programme nor play any games online and decided to record the video, in which she said some pretty nasty things about the victims of the Sichuan quake. Here are several rough translations of a few snippets:

"I turn on the TV and what do I see? Dead bodies, injured people, corpses, rotten bodies, all the crazy acts you guys are putting up. It's not that I want to watch these things. I have no choice. Look, now the entire internet is black-and-white and without colour. Do you think we're all colourblind like you? Have your eyes been hit by so much rubble you can't see any colour now? more ›

Sorry this bears no relation to the Sichuan earthquake, but has any of you seen this in your hood yet? We don't have any time to translate this right now (maybe one of you can help), but apparently they're looking for the suspect in the explosion of Bus 942 in Yangpu District which happened earlier this month. The (dead) suspect is said to be around 40 years of age, 1.64m tall, and sports about 9 (shoddily-made) fake teeth. And the police are offering a reward of RMB50,000 for anyone who can give them any solid details about this man. [h/t to reader Tom Pellman] more ›

Spot any interesting ad in your neighbourhood? Snap a picture and send it to us at info AT shanghaiist DOT com! more ›