Usually when we hear stories of having to endure a 70-minute wait to get through a security checkpoint, and, upon arriving, being asked to take off your pants for further "screening," we think of the TSA and American airports. After all, if the TSA is going to leak pictures your junk on the internet, they might as well fondle it first, right? more ›

The following text, found in the 1,500 manifesto of Anders Breivik Behring, the 32-year-old right-wing extremist who masterminded the twin terrorist attacks in Norway recently, has been circulating on the Chinese interwebs lately. In it, Breivik talks about his time in China which led him to the conclusion that unlike the people in Islamic countries who are "directly hostile to Europeans", the Chinese are "usually just after your money". He also mentions his stepmother, who he claims was the Norwegian Vice Consul in Shanghai:

Africa, China and the Islamic world more ›

With the whole bomb scare in Jiading district recently, you can't blame us for being a little nervous. Luckily, a bomb threat on Line 2 in downtown turned out to be false. Unfortunately, a couple of elderly were knocked down and bruised by the ensuing stampede. Also: "The crowds poured from the train onto the platform, leaving bags, cell phones and other belongings scattered on the carriage floors. One passenger told the Shanghai Daily reporter that he saw someone carrying a bomb-like object sitting in the last carriage and he openly admitted that it was a bomb, which sent others fleeing for safety. That man left the scene after getting off the train. Police are questioning witnesses in order to track down the man." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

Shanghai Daily reports that simultaneous blasts rocked a district government building and a local prosecutors building in Fuzhou City, Jiangxi Province this morning. Other sources say the explosions took place at 9:18am and 9:29am, both car bombs, and that there was a third blast at the Food and Drug Administration building at 9:45am. Rumors are flying on Weibo, the most prominent of which claims the man behind the bombings is a disgruntled farmer. We'll keep you updated with developments as more information comes to light. Update: Shanghai Daily is now reporting the third blast, targeting two buildings. The farmer is said to have been venting his anger at a recent court ruling. It has been confirmed that at least four people were seriously injured. Update 2: It's now being reported that two were killed and six injured. more ›

A US stealth helicopter crash-landed in Pakistan during the commando raid on Osama bin Laden's compound, and there are now concerns that Pakistan may share the wreckage with its close ally, China, which may then be able to reverse engineer the technology that went into the stealth chopper. CNN's Brian Todd reports:
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In case you haven't heard, US president Barack Obama has announced that the world's number 1 terrorist Osama bin Laden has been captured and killed by US Navy Seals and his body thrown out at sea. Our friends at Next Media Animation have come up with this hilarious re-enactment of bin Laden's final moments. more ›

Right at the edges of China's jagged borders sits Kashgar, once a strategically located crossroads between the east and the west, it's now set to return to its former glory. It appears that Chinese officials have spotted Kashgar as a new economic hub, opening up trade between the east and west, which makes Shenzhen look very 2006. more ›

• Like the citizens of Shenzhen where the incident occured, we're not quite sure what to think about the so-called "pigeon bomb" that occured last week, killing one unlucky bird and causing zero harm to humans. We understand that terrorism is still a hot topic, what with the recent bombings in Russia, but we're not sold on the idea of a Jihad pigeon. We're going with "spontaneous pigeon combustion" on this one.[China Geeks]
• Speaking of terrorism, do y'all remember how the UK recently released that old Libyan dude who bombed a Pan Am 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988 because he was decimated by cancer and didn't want to "die in jail"? If you also remember Hu Jia and his Olympics-disrupting hijinks from a couple years ago, you'll be interested to know his wife is using the same tactics to petition for his release. Though his sentence is only three-and-a-half years and it's questionable to some that he even committed a crime, Mrs. Hu insists her husband is suffering from a "grave illness" and wants him out, stat. [The Guardian]

• If you're like us, the fact that your Bank of China card has says "UnionPay" rather than, say, "Visa" or "Mastercard" is probably irksome at best. Good luck purchasing anything from a non-Chinese merchant! As it turns out, the World Trade Organization is kind of annoyed with the lack of Visa, Mastercard and AMEX representation, too - but for a different reason than you are. [Business Week]
• If we weren't, you know, a site about China (and related news), we might not even have realized Google had made its long-anticipated exit last week, tangibly-speaking. Indeed, it seems as if a lot of the "what will China do without Google?" hysteria has been coming from outside of China. Fear not: a blogger from Beijing has changed that. Seriously though, are we crazy or has Google leaving totally not changed anything? Sure, you now get a blank page instead of a "server not found" when you search for 'Tiananmen,' but come on. [The New Yorker]
• Is China's "organically-grown" food really organic? That's like asking whether or not out GDP really grew 8.9% in 2009 - only the CCP knows. What does appear to be fairly certain, however, is that forced labor has been used to harvest apparently organic goods, on at least a few occasions. Get your Google on, Whole Foods! [The Energy Collective]

In a scene that's bound to make some netizens very very angry, Shanghai gets smashed to bits by terrorists for the introductory scene of third person shooter game Army of Two: the 40th Day. The plot of the game is as follows: more ›

• China says seven "terror cells" found in Kashgar [Reuters] "China uncovered seven "terror cells" in the western frontier city of Kashgar in the first four months of 2009, the China Daily said on Wednesday, citing the city's party secretary."
• Chinese groups protest Dalai honor [China Daily]"Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said yesterday that Beijing remains opposed to "foreign political figures having official exchanges with the Dalai Lama". Qin said "any irresponsible moves taken by whatever country on this issue will constitute gross intervention in China's internal affairs and will certainly seriously damage China's relations with the relevant countries"."

We pass this billboard (almost) every day, between Shanghaiist headquarters and the gym. For a long time it featured Barack Obama on the cover of the Chinese version of Men's Health. Recently a Twitter user named Shaquille O'Neal has taken the president elect's place. It's an ad for Li Ning basketball shoes, Shaq's brand of choice for a couple years now. (You might remember the real Li Ning from such Olympic opening ceremonies as Beijing 2008.) more ›

Last month, we reported that Chinese-made grenades were found to have been used by the terrorists that launched the deadly spate of attacks in Mumbai. This time, Israel is saying that whereas previously Palestinian terrorists used predominantly home-made rockets, now they're using more sophisticated rockets, some made in China. Said Brigadier-General Avraham Ben-David of the Israeli Defence Forces to YNetNews:

The army official said the rocket that struck the school in Beersheba was manufactured in China, is heavier than the Qassam and can "potentially cause much greater damage." He said the rocket contains metal pallets that can spread out across a radius of up to 100 meters (about 328 feet) from the point of impact.

The New York Times reports:

Police officials say that a man who died Christmas Eve after trying to plant a bomb at a coffee shop in the southwestern city of Kunming was also responsible for a pair of bus bombings there in July that killed two people and wounded 14, state news media reported Sunday. more ›

Scary news just in from our friends at GoKunming:

This morning at 10:30 the bustle of Wenhua Xiang's cafes and restaurants was violently interrupted by an explosion at Salvador's Coffee House. 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 ›

Photo from fateless_gypsy more ›

Chinese-made grenades have been found to be used by the terrorists that launched the deadly spate of attacks in Mumbai that has now been dubbed by the media as India's 9/11. more ›

The Chinese Consulate-General in Mumbai is located less than 100 metres away from the Oberoi Hotel, one of the luxury hotels that were bombed by terrorists yesterday, but no casualties have been reported as yet. In what appeared to be a highly coordinated effort supposedly by a little-known Islamic group called the Deccan Mujahideen, teams of heavily-armed gunmen unleashed at least seven attacks across the city, including the landmark Taj Hotel, a popular tourist attraction and a train station, killing at least 100 people and injuring another 200. In an interview with the Legal Evening Post 《法制晚报》, Vice Consul Wang Zhenhua (王振华) has said the consulate-general was "very fortunate" to emerge from the blasts relatively unscathed. Wang was sleeping in the consulate when he heard a huge blast that rattled the building that housed the consulate. Since then the consulate-general has been working nonstop — making and receiving calls related to the safety of Chinese nationals and organisations, liaising with hotels and police departments, and beefing up security at the consulate-general. On hearing that the Oberoi Hotel had been attacked and hostages held there, Wang's top concern was for the general manager and employees of Sinopec's Hong Kong subsidiary which had its office located in the hotel. Fortunately they are all safe and no reports of Chinese casualties or hostages have been made yet. more ›

NTDTV speaks to Natan Galkovitch, one of 100 victims of terror in Israel who are now suing the Bank of China for not preventing money that was transferred to the Hamas, and Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, an attorney for the plaintiffs. Among the claims of the suit:

...beginning in July 2003, the Bank of China executed dozens of wire transfers for the terrorist groups totaling several million dollars. Many of the transfers were initiated in the Middle East, sent to branches in the U.S. then to an account at a bank branch in Guanzhou, China, the suit said. more ›

According to the Wall Street Journal, a lawsuit against the Bank of China has been filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming that Bank of China transferred millions of dollars for terrorist groups bent on attacking Israel, ignoring demands by Israeli counterterrorism officials to halt the practice. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of more than 100 victims of terrorism in Israel and alleges that the money was transferred for the militant groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Iran and Syria, and processed through Bank of China's branches in the U.S. and China. "I don't know about the matter," Wang Zhaowen, spokesman for the bank, told Dow Jones Newswires. According to one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, Bank of China now has 20 days to respond to the lawsuit under U.S. legal procedures. more ›

This time security guards were stabbed to death outside of Kashgar in Xinjiang. [Source] more ›

Early this morning in southern Xinjiang's Kuqa County police killed five men who had allegedly thrown homemade bombs at a police station in a drive-by attack. Two police cars were destroyed and two policemen were apparently wounded (initial reports said they had been killed). Less than a week ago, 16 policemen were reportedly killed in another attack in Xinjiang. [Source] more ›

The Turkestan Islamic Party which a fortnight ago claimed to have been responsible for a series of China bombings has just released a new six-minute video entitled “Call to the Global Muslim Ummah” (or brotherhood). With his face covered and a black turban, and armed with a Kalashnikov, the speaker urged Muslims in the Uyghur language to "choose your side". And for those attending the Games, he had this word of advice:

“Do not stay on the same bus, on the same train, on the same plane, in the same buildings, or any place the Chinese are.” [Translation by SITE Intel Group]

Shanghai Daily reports that a morning raid on a border patrol police division in Kashi, Xinjiang Province today left 16 armed policemen dead and another 16 injured. Two men smashed two trucks into the police station at around 8am, got out of their vehicles, stabbed several policemen and then ended the attack by throwing grenades at the police. They have since been arrested. [AFP] [Al-Jazeera] [Bloomberg] more ›

Six years ago, when we first arrived in China, we thought this would be the last place on earth to be hit by Islamic terrorism, but this latest video issued by a certain Turkestan Islamic Party not just changed our minds, it sent a tingle down our spine. In it, a Commander Seyfullah claims credit for the following, according to an AFP report:
• the May 5 Shanghai bus explosion which killed three;
• another Shanghai attack (not sure which one exactly);
• an attack on police in Wenzhou on July 17 using an explosive-laden tractora bombing of a Guangzhou plastic factory on July 17

In an article about official Olympic protest areas, the Wall Street Journal linked to some scanned pages from Olympic Security English, a training manual for Olympic police. We have reproduced those pages for your enjoyment. more ›

Important elements for any anti-terrorism drill — great staging, great scenery and a great location where lots of people can see you. Yesterday's "terrorist" act was effectively countered by the highly efficient security forces in under an hour. more ›

The three consecutive bus explosions in Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, and nearby Minshan that killed three people and injured 14 this morning were "cases of man-made, deliberate sabotage", according to a spokesman from the Yunnan PSB. According to Reuters, the Kunming blasts "came two days after Yunnan police opened fire and killed two rubber farmers in the province's Menglian county in a clash that also saw 41 police officers injured" and so there is the possibility that the explosions were related to the clash. Meanwhile, Mr Li Jiheng, deputy party chief of Yunnan, has been flown in to investigate the clash. More updates to be available by our friends from GoKunming. more ›

A guest at Tomorrow Square on People's Square has alerted us to this document entitled "Safety measures for the tenants of Tomorrow Square for the Olympic period" posted in the building. The document starts off quite innocently like this:

Recently, while the security situation has become of great concern both internationally and domestically, anti-China movements have become increasingly bold, with Tibetan and Uyghur separatist groups openly declaring war, proclaiming that they will use violent measures to achieve their purposes. The United Kingdom and the United States have already issued safety warnings to citizens travelling to China. With the 3.14 Tibet Riots, the 3.7 Southern Airlines terrorist act, the 5.5 bus explosion on line 842 in Shanghai, the 7.1 Zhabei police station attack and the appearance of numerous reactionary slogans everywhere, Tomorrow Square needs to tighten up its safety measures since it is a landmark building on People's Square located next to the Municipal Government building. This is to ensure the safety of the building and all its tenants and to prevent any unforeseen circumstances. It is with this in mind that we have established the following "Safety measures for the tenants of Tomorrow Square for the Olympic period" which will be enforced during the Olympic period (July 16th 2008 to October 31st 2008). These measures will be updated in accordance to any extraordinary event occurence or new safety warnings issued by government authorities.