Last year in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, a 25-year-old woman was found dead. Her mother suspected that she was mass raped by a gang that had connections with the local police, but officials said she had died from "ectopic pregnancy." Three bloggers spread information online that they felt proved that there had been a criminal act. They were thrown in jail for slander. more ›

Three bloggers from Fujian who spread information online relating to the alleged rape and murder of Yan Xiaoling were found guilty of slander on Friday. AP reported that self-taught legal expert Fan Yanqiong received a two year sentence, whilst two others, You Jingyou and Wu Huaying, will each spend one year in prison. more ›

• Why China Can't Create Brands [Newsweek] "China is famous as the factory to the world, but even its best companies enjoy little if any fame. That paradox has become a vexing problem for China's leaders. The nation is now too rich to continue growing at a double-digit pace by simply putting more peasants to work in factories, and then underselling its Western, Japanese, and South Korean competition. The job of making cheap clothes, toys, and electronics is moving on to even cheaper labor markets, like Vietnam. In a March report, Premier Wen Jiabao called for China to create companies that can innovate and churn out "brand-name export products"—meaning companies with reputations for quality, innovation, and service so strong that customers are willing to pay a premium for their products."
• Kazakh Uighurs hold mass protest [AP] " More than 5,000 ethnic Uighurs rallied in Kazakhstan's largest city on Sunday to protest China's use of deadly force to quash Uighur protests this month. The show of solidarity was the largest in any of the former Soviet republics — home to a half-million Uighurs — since the July 5 violence in Xinjang that authorities say claimed almost 200 lives."
• Caution urged in bids for US Big Three [China Daily] "As the ongoing financial crisis pressures Western automakers to consider selling some of their assets, Chinese vehicle producers are seeing more opportunities to enter the global market through overseas acquisitions. However, unlike the positive responses to purchases such as China's Lenovo acquiring IBM's PC business in 2004, bidding for assets from ailing Big Three automakers has attracted more criticism."