Sina recently launched a new microblogging platform only to have it immediately shut down. The platform, called Weibo Expose, allows users to submit news tips and pictures corresponding to their physical location. More telling, it also features the Holy Grail of Chinese Internet functions: the anonymous submission. more ›

It turns out the Chinese government isn't the only one feeling insecure about online criticism, with a number of public relations firms regularly charging private companies to remove negative comments from websites such as Weibo, QQ and Tudou. For as little as 1,000RMB you too can censor the population and avoid being disgraced nationwide for violating consumer rights! more ›

Sina Weibo, China's most popular equivalent of Twitter, has become the battlefield between North and South Korea. more ›

Ever wondered what exactly the Chinese government is censoring? Well, thanks to a study by Carnegie Mellon University, we now have a better idea of the words and phrases The Great Firewall forbids us from using is heroically protecting our impressionable minds from. more ›

The Weibo accounts hosted by Sina, Sohu, NetEase and Tencent will require real name and ID number registration from all users by March 16th, with unregistered users to be denied posting and forwarding capabilities. The announcement was made at the Beijing Weibo Development Management Regulations Seminar held today in Beijing. more ›

On Monday, Yueyue's mother appeared on Sina Weibo under a verified profile to counter rumours in the Chinese media reports that the little girl had succumbed to her injuries from the horrendous double hit-and-run that has since captured nationwide attention. more ›

Nope, not Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida, but the other brother -- Neil Bush. Name not ringing a bell? He was the one who claimed back in 2003 that random women came to his hotel room in Hong Kong in the middle of the night and were NOT prostitutes and he did NOT pay them. more ›

Will you join us to slay the mighty Sina Weibeast, O Microsoft of Redmond? "Renren, a Chinese social networking website, will integrate its services with MSN, Microsoft's Internet portal, the companies announced on Wednesday. Reuters reported that netizens will be able to share login access, status updates and instant massaging on both platforms, according to their agreement. The collaboration between the two former competitors reflects a trend of alliances in social networking services, combating pressure from front-runners such as Chinese micro-blogging site Sina Weibo and instant messenger provider QQ, industry analysts said. China is the world's largest Internet market with around 480 million users, and half of them use social networking websites." [China Daily] more ›

From TechWeb via TheNextWeb Asia comes the news that Sina's going to launch an English-language version of Weibo in less than three months to compete head-on with Twitter. We hate to be a party-pooper but we really don't see this working out -- why would anybody out there in the free world want a heavily censored microblogging platform? On the bright side, those of you looking for a way out of your English-language teaching jobs can now look forward to being part of Sina Weibo's English-language moderation team. more ›

Clear, informative, and to the point, Digicha's 20-page guide to Sina Weibo is super useful for those of you still coming to terms with your Chinese microblogging account. more ›

According to Ai Weiwei's Twitter feed, Sina's Art and Finance section recently put up a vote for Most Powerful Contemporary Artists of the Year. By far the most high-profile artist in the country, Ai Weiwei unsurprisingly sprung to the top of the list (as seen above, where Ai Weiwei is second from the left on the bottom row.) The voting option was quickly taken down by Sina and Ai Weiwei removed from the list, seen in its present form here. Voting was then allowed on a selection of art studios instead. Ai Weiwei's Three Shadows gallery, despite being listed almost last, again quickly rose to the top. Observers then watched as another studio suspiciously jumped a thousand votes up while Three Shadows dropped a few hundred right before voting ended (compare screen grabs here and here.) Scandalous, to say the least. Here's a summary from his English Twitter feed: more ›

On February 2, a four-year-old boy was kidnapped in Fujian province. The next day, a post appeared on a anti-trafficking weibo (micro-blogging) account describing the child and asking for help: more ›

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg continues his first trip to China hobnobbing with the who's who of China's tech scene. Earlier today, he was received by top executives at the Sina headquarters. According to Sina.com spokeswoman Liu Qi, Zuckerberg "exchanged his views on China's Internet market and wanted to understand Sina's Weibo (microblog), the hottest Internet product in the country." Sina's star has been rising rapidly over the last year with the launch of its own microblogging platform, Weibo, which added 50 million users in its first 12 months and is well on its way to break the 100 million mark in 2011. more ›

You might have heard that the "restrictions" on media and communications in Xinjiang are slowly but surely being "restored." Well, it seems like that's a bit too optimistic: First, the ban on SMS services was lifted, but according to Far West China, you can only send twenty messages a day. In addition, you can also make international calls as of today, and access to the internet is slowly being unblocked: as of now, there's a grand total of four websites you can access, and it seems even those are fairly censored. more ›

Ah, the innocence and beauty of young love: our cold, rational hearts are always warmed a bit when we see couples walking around in the throes of their first fling. Relationships are a curious time for new lovers: trying to feel each other out, learning to love and be loved, and of course, actually learning how to make love. more ›

We love pirates. Eyepatches, peg legs, swashbuckling- you name it, we love it. We even have a soft spot for the Somali pirates, because somewhere deep inside of us, we know that they're keeping the dream alive. Of course, these days it's pretty hard to be a pirate, and it's not as glamorous a lifestyle as it once was. Times have gotten hard: valuable cargo now has military escorts, or avoid the Gulf of Aden altogether. Heck, even Dolphins are getting in the way of your business. more ›

Months after Twitter was blocked and Chinese Twitter clones Fanfou, Digu, and Zuosa (apparently Zuosa is still alive) were felled by the mighty hand of the CCP censorship army, Internet portal Sina has started its own "microblogging service." more ›

• China's founding legend may not be true [USA TODAY] "China's founding dynasty may just be a myth, say archaeologists. In a news report in the current Science, writer Andrew Lawler surveys a decade's worth of discoveries suggesting ancient China sprang from distinct regions, rather than possessing a single national culture some 4,300 years ago. "How China became China is no mere academic topic; it goes to the very heart of how the world’s most populous and economically vibrant nation sees itself and its role in the world," Lawler writes."
• Beijing puts giant media marriage on the rocks [Reuters] "China's leading Internet portal, Sina Corp is likely to call off its planned $1.4 billion purchase of Focus Media's core assets if the government fails to bless the marriage by a September deadline. Since Sina unveiled the deal in December — the largest in China's opaque media sector — China's commerce ministry has repeatedly put off reviewing the deal, asking for additional documents, frustrating both Nasdaq-listed companies."
• China: U.S. and Chinese Generals Clash [NYT] "A meeting on Thursday in Beijing between a Chinese military leader and a visiting American army general turned rancorous as the Chinese leader gave a sharp lecture on the failure of the United States to respect China’s interests, according to a witness at the meeting and a report by Xinhua, the state news agency. The argument took place when Gen. Ge Zhenfeng, deputy chief of the general staff of the People’s Liberation Army, met with Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the chief of staff of the United States Army. "

• Bruce Lee's siblings authorize Chinese biopics [AP] "Bruce Lee's older sister and younger brother have authorized a Chinese company to make a series of biographical films about the late kung fu icon, saying they want to produce a historically accurate account of their brother's life. Phoebe Lee and Robert Lee appeared at a signing ceremony with J.A. Media in Beijing on Monday, 36 years to the day after Bruce Lee died in Hong Kong at age 32 from swelling of the brain."
• Chinese News Sites Go Down After Reports on Gov't Scandal [IDG News Service] "Two of China's most popular technology news Web sites went offline Tuesday after carrying news reports that linked the son of China's president to a corrupt African deal. The technology news sections disappeared for several hours from major Chinese portals Sina.com.cn and NetEase.com early Tuesday afternoon, when they started redirecting viewers to general news pages. Both tech sections had carried reports on a state-owned company accused of bribing Namibian officials in the last day, but those reports were missing when the Web pages reappeared."
• A Verdict in China Faces Court of Public Opinion [WSJ] "A local court Monday meted out a three-year prison sentence for Hu Bin, the 20-year-old Hangzhou college student whose reckless driving and reported lack of remorse incited outrage on Chinese Internet portals back in early May. Prosecutors elected to charge Mr. Hu with vehicular manslaughter... rather than “endangering public security,” a much more serious crime punishable by death. The three-year sentence was met by general cynicism (in Chinese) on one of China’s main Internet portals, with many anonymous postings claiming that justice had been bought rather than served."

Sina.com had a survey up about the recent Christie's auction, in which two bronze animal heads looted from the Summer Palace in the 1719th century fetched 15.7 million euros. The survey results, translated into English, were thus: more ›