A senior Hainan official has vowed to kickstart tourism to the disputed Xisha Islands in the west of South China Sea this year, according to the Xinhua News Agency. more ›

The already testy South China Sea waters just got a little choppier. The US has proposed expanding its military presence in Southeast Asia with the pretty apparent (though undisclosed) goal of contesting China's clampdown in the region. The protocol calls for strengthening US alliances with Southeast Asian nations, and increasing its military operations in the area without establishing permanent bases in the region so as to avoid another Okinawa debacle. more ›

A government building in Huai'an, Jiangxi Province has been spotted with a torn national flag resembling the Vietnamese flag in front of its building. more ›

In the wake of China's saber-rattling in the South China Sea and the fact that the last few Vietnam-China naval run-ins heavily favored the latter, Vietnam has adopted a new strategy to secure disputed sea territory: send buddhist monks to reclaim derelict shrines on the Spratly Islands. more ›

Chinese general Luo Yan has proposed that Beijing tighten its military control in the South China Sea by increasing the presence of the National Coast Guard in the region. Luo claims that clamping down militarily in the area will foster the growth of Chinese fishing and oil operations. more ›

A Chinese marine vessel was blocked from entering Vietnamese waters in October, and by the looks of it, the conflict between the two former Brothers in Socialism won't resolve itself anytime soon. more ›

A new report from the Economic Policy Institute calculates that America has lost 2.8 million jobs to China in the past decade, with 70 percent coming from manufacturing. 24/7 Wall St. has listed the top ten states that have lost the most jobs due to the shifting rules of global commerce since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. more ›

An unidentified Chinese warship demanded that the Indian amphibious assault vessel INS Airavat identify itself and explain what it was doing in the South China Sea, after the ship left Vietnamese waters in late July. An Indian official has defended his country's right to transit through the international waters of the South China Sea, stating that questioning the right of passage by any other nation is "unacceptable." While the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry has confirmed that the INS Airavat docked in Vietnam from July 19th to the 22nd, they claim to have no knowledge of the incident. Though the incident is the first ever reported confrontation between the two navies in the South China Sea, it's merely the latest case of Chinese vessels harassing foreign ships this year. Reports surfaced in May of a Chinese fishing boat cutting the cables of a Vietnamese survey ship, leading to a series of protests that continued well into August. If we were one of the fenqing, we'd be all like, "Guess India and Vietnam didn't get that memo about the waters being called the South China Sea, and not the Eastern Vietnamese Sea (or Far Eastern Satellite Indian Ocean)?" more ›

Meanwhile, has anyone else started noticing that maps of China now include islands in the South Island Sea? "Vietnamese police detained scores of people taking part in an anti-China rally in Hanoi on Sunday in defiance of a government order to end a string of demonstrations that has stretched three months and put authorities on edge. One witness said plainclothes police forced around 40 demonstrators onto two public buses and drove them away within minutes of the start of the demonstration. A blogger who has chronicled the demonstrations and has contacts among the regular protesters said at least one bus left with 19 people aboard. It was the 11th anti-China rally in an unprecedented series of public protests that have taken place nearly every Sunday since early June against what Vietnamese see as China's violations of their country's sovereignty in the South China Sea." [Reuters] more ›

Via NoCommentTV: "Vietnamese protesters marched through the streets of Hanoi for a fourth straight week on Sunday, calling for China to stop entering Vietnamese waters in the South China Sea as tensions between the neighbours continue to flare." more ›

Sigh, we've been down this road before. Both the Philippines and Vietnam are severely unhappy over China's maritime claims in the South China Sea including sovereignty over the Spratly Islands. In fact, the Philippines is so fumed, it just announced that it's not even going to call it the South China Sea anymore. From now on, President Benigno Aquino explained, it's going to be known as the West Philippine Sea. (Erm, right. Good luck with convincing Google Maps to change over to that one). The name switch in all likelihood was due to a Chinese ship reportedly harassing a Philippines oil exploration vessel which the Philippines didn't take so kindly to or...a Chinese ship which was only clearly exercising its sovereign rights in Chinese-owned waters, depending on which story you prefer. more ›

Well, well, you learn something new everyday. Apparently, the Vietnamese calendar has "borrowed" only 10 of the 12 Chinese zodiac signs -- replacing the rabbit with the cat and the ox with the buffalo. more ›

Since we're probably going to be spending more time than we ever thought we would in that Channel One mall (thanks to that Soma indie Chinese summer series... oh, and the realization that there is an H&M that close to where we live), we figured we might as well check out the food court we've been hearing all about. Specifically, its pho place, since Vietnamese is big now and we're still on the lookout for decent pho fare. more ›

Xinhua reports:

More than 1.17 million people have been affected in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region by floods triggered by continuous heavy rain that started on Saturday. more ›

"Coca-Cola Co plans to seek approval under China's antitrust law for its $2.5 billion bid for top domestic juice maker Huiyuan, the final obstacle to what would be the largest foreign takeover of a local firm." more ›

We know that this sounds like an April fool, but China could be facing a rice shortage. No, seriously. We told you a few days ago about KFC upping their prices; now the cost of the other staple in Shanghaiist's diet, rice, could be facing a hike due to fears over supply. For the moment, the government has frozen the price of rice — as well as that of other goods such as cooking oil — in an effort to curb food costs following their 23% leap in February, but has not ruled out price rises in the near future. They have also announced that farmers will receive increased prices for both rice and wheat as China attempts to avoid the rice production problems currently engulfing some other Asian states. more ›

Shame on the French. Yes, it needs to be said. They left a legacy in Shanghai of some crumbling old buildings—now home to rusty bicycles, stray cats and hanging laundry—but for all their years masquerading and womanizing, they neglected to pass on the basic skills of making baguettes, crepes, pastries and cakes. more ›

It’s cold, it’s wet. It’s the perfect time to catch up with the overseas movie scene. Coincidentally, it’s Oscar season and a whole slew of ‘good’ films are just appearing in the shops here. A widely heralded good year for quality films (2007) has come face to face with the WGA writer’s strike, now into its third month in Hollywood. The Golden Globes were reduced to an hour long press conference announcing the winners. If the strike over future royalty rates on downloaded films isn’t resolved soon then the Oscars are next. The big stars are already resigned to making the most of the British Baftas. more ›

We've been somewhat faithful readers of Foreign Policy for awhile and noticed that they had a couple of articles that either mention or focus on China in their recent issue. Jeff Chang has written an article called It's a Hip-Hop World where he talks about how globalized hip hop has become, and, in this context, mentions Shanghai. More worrisome than a bunch of seventeen-year-olds in baggy pants is information we found in the article on... more ›

Hong Kong Triad T-Shirt Gets Fashion Label in Hot Water [Asiaone.com] The arrest of 18 employees of a Hong Kong lifestyle and retail chain over a controversial new line of T-shirts '14K' bearing the name of a well-known triad gang spurred an apology from the store's founder.Pakistan - Besieged Musharraf plays for time [Asia Times] Having opened a can of worms by declaring a state of emergency, Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf is now in... more ›

A few weeks ago, we introduced a coffee service that delivers Yunnan coffee to your door. Now, Shanghai coffee lovers can get their beans from Vietnam sent to them as well, courtesy of HaoHaoCoffee. We asked founder Matthew Newhook a handful of questions about Vietnamese coffee and his service, and he was kind enough to respond: more ›

One of Shanghai's greatest vocalists will be moving away for good, we are sorry to say. Arlene has been here about as long as your correspondent, over 4 years, and we've worked together a lot. She's a great singer and she'll do well wherever she ends up (first she's going to Dubai to play with jazz pianist Billy Marcus, who used to play in Shanghai at the Portman jazz bar, and then she's moving to Vietnam!). Next Monday, she will be celebrating her time here with a final performance at the JZ Club, and she hopes you all can join her for this festive occasion! It promises to be a lot of fun, as she will also be releasing her first CD that night, which she recorded in Shanghai earlier this year. more ›

World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Monday praised Vietnam as a "tremendous success story" in fighting poverty but said institutional reforms were needed as it seeks middle-income country status. more ›

Despite squandering a two-goal lead, China battled hard to put themselves within touching distance of a place in the second round of the Asian Cup after drawing 2-2 with regional footballing powerhouse Iran last night. more ›

Kaesong, North Korea: The managers of this capitalist enclave in communist North Korea are appealing for the world's support, saying their experiment in free markets can pave the way for regional peace. Kaesong supporters are aiming for the city to emulate Shenzhen, the special economic zone bordering Hong Kong, which kick-started China's economic boom, and say this will narrow the huge economic gap between North and South Korea with the help of foreign support. more ›

Image of Yang Huiyan, now China's richest person, from China Daily. more ›

From The Search Engine Journal we discovered that Baidu won an intellectual copyright infringement case against some major music companies. From Interfax: more ›

Last night, we got a look at the latest entry in Shanghai's sports bar scene -- The Oval -- and while it is still a work in progress (they will be in "soft opening" mode for the next few weeks) the place definitely shows a lot of promise. It's a new (the wood floor still shines) and huge (800 square meters and two levels) space on Dingxi Lu, near Yan'an Xi Lu, about a 15 kuai cab ride from the Plaza 66 part of town. The Oval has 16 flat-screen TVs and a big projection screen, viewable from the balcony and the main floor, is said to be on the way. There's a TV in the men's bathroom, too -- but what we like best are the private booths with flat screens and couches. You can reserve these areas if you are, say, a poor blogger who can't afford your own flat-screen TV and invite friends over to watch, say, the baseball playoffs after you get back from your honeymoon in Thailand. more ›

When a local high school backed out of a trip to our friendly local sex museum, Shanghaiist got all over it. But, we like to think ourselves as -- dare we say it -- “Fair and Balanced”. When there is progress made, we’d tell you about it, too. more ›

• While we're just happy to have any kind of electricity, Shanghai residents can now ask for "clean power."
• China Digital Times blocked?
• Construction on the Shanghai-Beijing high-speed train line may begin this year.