In remarks made by Singapore's K Shanmugam on the conclusion of his back-to-back introductory visits as foreign minister to the United States and China, he noted that comments he made on the US-China relationship during his visit to Washington were warmly welcomed in Beijing. more ›

State broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) has officially launched CCTV America in its bid to capture a greater share of the global audience. The new operation, located out of a brand new studio in Washington DC, will be produced by about 100 journalists in 15 bureaus in North and South America, offering viewers four hours of programming daily in three programmes: Biz Asia America, a business news broadcast; The Heat, a talkshow; and Americas Now, a news magazine programme. more ›

'Anti-American warrior' Sima Nan has lost his latest battle... with an escalator. The media figure, famous for his rants against the U.S., was visiting Washington (located in America) and managed to get his head stuck between an airport escalator rail and an approaching section of wall. more ›

You would think that all the news about the horrors of Chinese internet addiction camps would have dissuaded other countries from trying to start up their own. Not so! Apparently, a clinic has recently opened its doors in Washington state, 13 miles away from Microsoft's HQ. The reSTART Internet Addiction Recovery Program costs $14,500 USD and provides a 45-day intensive care program for game, Internet, and texting addicts. Activities include things like meandering along forested trails, learning to participate in home chores, and (allegedly) feeding baby goats. What?! Seems slightly more fun than our methods of beating kids - sometimes to death - and then firing the reporters that dare to write about it happening. more ›

By Rich Yu more ›

• Gothamist found that an explosive set off outside the Times Square army recruiting center may be similar to five past bombings in New York City.
• Seattlest worried when severed right feet and bottles of rat poison started washing up on local beaches.
• Shanghaiist was surprised by Bjork's rooting for Tibetan independence at her concert (see video), and the political fallout has only just begun.
• SFist debated the merits of new bronze plaques that will be placed in locations where San Francisco's homeless have died.
• DCist was obliged to respond to the worst Washington Post Outlook column ever published, in which conservative writer Charlotte Allen tried to make the case that women are dumb.
• LAist found Satan's ice cream truck trolling the streets, and they recorded the music.
• Some crafty Torontoist readers didn't like the dearth of ski hills in downtown Toronto, so they just built one of their own on their deck and (of course) recorded a video of them all taking turns on it.
• Bostonist knows the city's subway and bus system, the MBTA, has problems. So does this 17-year-old who submitted a report and told the MBTA brass how to fix it.
• Phillyist explored the possibility of an Ivy League prostitute, while their commenters debated the most ethical approach to proving or debunking the story.
• Londonist spent a little too much time looking at airbrushed operatic private parts, and enjoyed an enlightening comment from someone who was there. more ›

"China's inflation likely hit a new 11-year high of 8.3 percent last month on the back of rising food prices, state media reported Sunday, triggering speculation of a modest hike in interest rates." more ›

China's premier on Wednesday extolled the prosperity the Communist government has brought to many Chinese, yet he sounded an alarm that inflation could derail the country's rapid emergence. more ›

Xinhua: Spielberg slashed by Chinese, but his movies still admired more ›

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href="http://torontoist.com/2008/02/phototo_snowbal.php">photographing a big, organized snowball fight.

Just three days after Straits Times journalist Ching Cheong regained his freedom, China has released yet another media man — Yu Huafeng (喻华峰), general manager and deputy editor of the Southern Metropolis News《南方都市报》, the Guangzhou-based paper that is one of China's boldest and most critical papers. more ›

Next time, Steve, stay for some Grandma's Mashed Potatoes. Trust us. more ›

This is definitely one of the best pods we've seen on China's sex workers so far. Laura Ling of Current TV, goes around China and finds that the sex trade, while virtually non-existent 25 years ago, is now booming everywhere. She also almost got into trouble with some local mafia (which brought back some nasty flashbacks of our own encounters with them a few years ago), but fortunately she got away with it and her tape! more ›

• Nature News cites an EU report that finds that the real value of a Chinese scientist's wages is the lowest among the 38 countries surveyed. Yes, Chinese scientists make even less than Indian scientists. (h/t to Global Voices )
• CNNIC announces that China now has 72.82 million blogs and 47 million bloggers. That's one quarter of all Chinese netizens.
• The Little Red Blog bets against Baidu and roots for Google in the year 2008.

So in the meanwhile, Youtube remains blocked. Shanghai blogger John Pasden of Sinosplice informs us that Youtube wasn't the only unlucky fella. Revver.com and Dailymotion.com also appear to be hit. And of course Google Video was never accessible in China to begin with, so that's a no-count. more ›

Okay, Shanghaiist has got several hundred blogs on his RSS that he scans through everyday. Some things scream at us, others are quickly forgotten and yet others are hidden in some corner of our brain for (mostly useless) information ready to be used at some future point in time. There are all these bloggers that you've never met personally that you can form an impression of only after a long period of reading their blogs. You're reading them every single day, and sometimes it almost feels as though they're your friend, even though you don't really know them. It's most surreal. more ›

According to Bloomberg News, finance ministers of the G7 nations, currently meeting in Washington are once again expected to issue a strongly worded statement prodding China to do more with an undervalued yuan. The traditionally US championed trade tussle is getting some very vocal support from the Europeans and the Canadians this time around. more ›

Colleague: Haha, I understand. I'm not a very good CCP member, and not a very bad one either, but you probably can't say I'm a member anymore. I have not been paying my party membership fees for three years now, and haven't been keeping up with the meetings, so they probably struck my name off the list. more ›

Photo of Liu Xiang in a Coca Cola ad from spicedfish. more ›

The Indian government on Tuesday invited six aircraft manufacturers including Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. to bid on a contract for 126 combat planes worth up to $10 billion. more ›

This Youku video shows some women offering old men massage hanky-panky, all out in the open in an unnamed city, for as low as RMB5! The world's oldest profession is alive and well in China, and it is everywhere. more ›

Female voice: Bye more ›

Are there any Living Buddhas among the enlightened readership of this blog? You have been informed: With immediate effect, all your reincarnations must receive government approval, and if not, they will be deemed "illegal or invalid" by the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA). more ›

Photo by Anton Berkovich. more ›

Maybe these were the culprits? From Reuters: more ›

Shanghaiist has a fondness for elephants retained since our childhood exposure to Barbar. In mid-May we linked out to a Washington Post report that stated that the world's illegal ivory trade was being facilitated by Chinese-run smuggling rings that have extended their reach into Africa over the last decade. more ›

In 2006, Shanghaiist prayed for a direct flight connecting the United States' east coast to Shanghai. Hell, we even signed a petition to the FAA. But the travel god(s) turned a deaf ear to our pleading, and awarded the precious route to Washington, DC/Beijing. Bummer! But an announcement made yesterday after a two day summit between the senior American and Chinese finance ministers has rekindled our hope. To accommodate surging trade and air traffic between the two nations, the US and China have reached a broad based agreement to open more direct passenger and cargo routes. According to the Houston Business Journal: more ›

We almost choked on our Earl Grey Tea last night when we learned that an alleged child molester, rapist and pornographer had been hiding out in Suzhou. Kenneth J. Freeman, bodybuilder, computer expert and a former Sheriff's deputy from Washington State, fled the US last year when released on bail for three charges of child rape. more ›