Here's a fine short essay by the New Yorker's Evan Osnos on the detention (or disappearance, if you prefer, since the police haven't admitted they've got him) of Xu Zhiyong. It's the kind of event that normally calls out for…

Joff Wild of IAM Magazine has another great blog: 'Major breakthrough for Chinese companies in the patenting stakes' , read here. Mr Wild observes that according to SIPO's statistics the first half of 2009 show that Chinese domestic companies filed mor…

Customs officers have arrested a Malaysian man and an African man for trafficking 1.6kg of heroin worth $1.4 million.

More than 1,000 people protested for a second day in central China on Thursday over pollution from a chemical plant that they say has sickened locals and poisoned surrounding farmlands, residents said.
Residents of the town of Zhentou in Hunan province demonstrated outside local government headquarters and a police station, demanding greater compensation for pollution from [...]

Cherkizovsky Market, Russia's biggest market was closed down after discovery of more than 6,000 containers of counterfeit and pirated goods from China worth US$ 2 billion. The market was described by Russia Today (RT) as a "country within a country". …

Chinalaw list member Glenn Tiffert write…

China's Ministry of Culture has published a notice on its official website, stating that it will start to investigate gang-themed illegal online games in China.
The Ministry of Culture pointed out in the notice that gang-themed illegal online games seriously threaten and distort the social laws and ethics of China, and these themes will bring bad [...]