Visual Report

Mule Logistics

Horseback transportation of goods used to dominate ancient China’s agricultural society. Today horse-drawn carts remain in use in remote mountain regions.

Editorial

Anti-Monopoly Investigations Should be Conducted Openly and Independently

State-owned enterprises have established dominance and enjoyed excessive profits in various industries, often at the cost of public interest.

Commentary

Do We Really Need to Fingerprint 1.3bn People?

The new biometric ID card scheme needs serious consideration before we impose it on an unprepared nation

Society

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Taking Sides

Rioting in the Zhejiang township of Zhili has unnerved the local government, awakening Chinese administrators to the risks of using taxation to drive small-scale businesses out of the marketplace

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Psych Revaluation

A Chongqing man whose employers had declared insane has won a 13-year court battle to have the decision overturned. What consequences will this landmark case have?

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Catwalk Diplomacy

With China’s 2011 Miss Universe contestant Luo Zilin wooing Manhattan before placing fourth in the pageant, is China experimenting with a new soft power secret weapon – the beauty queen?

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Peasants Need Not Apply

China’s residence registration system restricts the ability of rural-born Chinese children to secure a place at college, regardless of academic achievement

Economy

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Safe as Houses?

A year and a half into the government’s housing market regulation scheme, property prices have at last begun to decline, but tensions remain high

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Despite having a virtual monopoly on China’s oversupplied domestic market, attempts by the country’s wind energy companies to compete internationally have brought their lack of maturity into sharp focus

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Can You Afford to be an Angry Bird?

The developer of the popular mobile game recently claimed that Chinese piracy has helped his business, but domestic industry hopefuls aren’t so sure

Environment

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The River Wild

From its source in Tibet, the Yarlung Tsangpo River meanders 2,900 kilometers and passes through India and Bangladesh. With devastating annual floods and potentially hazardous hydroelectricity projects in the pipeline, there is an urgent need for improved cross-border co-operation

Essay

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Keeping Beijing’s Spirits Up

A walk through the unlit, labyrinthine hutong at night can easily evoke unsettling thoughts of things that go bump in the night.

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Everything is Dangerous

The extent to which these ayi hover over the children entrusted to them makes me wonder, are they more concerned with the child’s safety, or with simply appearing concerned?

News Brief

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e-Cartels

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PepsiCo Joins The Master

Netizen Watch

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Top Blogger Profile: Luo Yonghao

Politics

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A Hundred Flowers More

China’s authorities are attempting to kick-start a cultural renaissance, but culture itself has never been the problem

Special Report

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Brutal Bazaar

Is e-commerce portal Taobao, China’s eBay equivalent, capitalizing on a lack of e-business regulation in China?

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From Stall to Mall

Taobao’s shift towards a business-to-consumer model has come at a cost to small-scale sellers, who are learning some harsh lessons about the cutthroat world of business

Sports

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Hoopes Away From Home

Higher pay and better competition has recently attracted Taiwanese basketball players across the straits to compete in the mainland CBA

Culture

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Masterful Mock-ups

Counterfeiting, driven by booms in speculation and investment, has now become endemic in China’s nascent art market

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Move Toward Mainstream

Internet shorts, dubbed “micro-movies,” are growing in popularity, but how long can this fringe genre escape official censorship?

History

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The New Year That Wasn’t

As the Cultural Revolution raged across the country in early 1967, the Chinese Spring Festival holiday was cancelled, cutting through very roots of the nation’s culture and traditional values. NewsChina looks at how the most important date in the Chinese calendar became a day like any other

Outside In

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Beauty Means Business

Despite its tourist-trap window dressing there’s always something new to discover in the tortuous alleyways of Pingyao, Shanxi

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King of Burgers

I had almost abandoned my quest to find a “real” hamburger after a series of crushing disappointments.

Media Focus

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Trust Crisis

Cultural Listings

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Bold Double Album

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A Modern Love Story

China By Numbers

What They Say

“Hospitals, especially at the most basic level, administer vitamins, hormones, antibiotics and saline no matter what patients are suffering from.”

Xiao Yonghong, a professor of pharmacology with the Ministry of Health, slams the overuse of antibiotics in the treatment of minor ailments.
“In the 1950-60s, the philosophy that ‘socialism must not back up’ meant that this car was not installed with side mirrors.”

Caption explains the lack of certain features on Mao Zedong’s official car, which was exhibited at the 2011 International Auto Expo in Macao.
“I don’t acknowledge Tsinghua University any more. It has become a plutocrat. It’s just a shame it still attracts the cream of China’s students.”

Former director of the Institute of American Studies with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Zi Zhongjun speaks out during a book launch.
“Gongpu [public servant] would be better translated as VIP.”

TV presenter Song Yingjie on the conduct of China’s public servants.
“A train crash is described as a ‘side clash.’ A boiler explosion is described as ‘community disassembly.’ How can I write science fiction when the world around me seems like science fiction?”

Sci-fi writer Han Song satirizes the language employed in government accident reports.