https://www.scmp.com/rss/273637/feed Patrick Boehler has published on China and Southeast Asia in four languages for publications in the US, Europe and Asia. After stints with Austria's ministries of defence and foreign affairs in Vienna and Beijing, he began his reporting career in Kuala Lumpur with the Malaysian online news portal Malaysiakini and, later, The Irrawaddy Magazine, a Myanmar exile publication in Thailand. He holds a doctorate in political science and has taught journalism at the University of Hong Kong. Follow him... en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com When the allied powers ran out of men, they turned to China for help. From 1916 until the end of World War I in 1918, up to half a million Chinese people worked for British, French, and Russian forces on the front lines of a war they had no stake in fighting. They dug trenches, repaired tanks, assembled artillery shells, and transported munitions. They cooked, cleaned, and buried the dead. They were part of the largest and longest-serving non-European labor force in World War I, and their story... https://www.scmp.com/identity/forgotten-chinese-laborers-world-war-i/article/3000250?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/identity/forgotten-chinese-laborers-world-war-i/article/3000250?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 19 Nov 2018 14:06:03 +0000 The audacious theft of a HK$36 million diamond necklace from a high-end Tsim Sha Shui shopping centre last week is just one of a series of similar crimes carried out across the region in which children serve as shoplifters, it has emerged. Near-identical heists have taken place in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Macau in recent months and, according to a security expert, all were attributable to a mainland Chinese gang that pulled off a string of heists across Europe in the last few years. In Hong... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1693617/audacious-jewel-heist-linked-thefts-abroad?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1693617/audacious-jewel-heist-linked-thefts-abroad?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Jan 2015 14:30:00 +0000 On the last day of her holiday in the Maldives, Zang Kun and five fellow travellers from China splurge on imported tofu at the newly opened Beijing Restaurant near the white-sand beach on the island of Hulhumale. Zang travelled to the remote Indian Ocean destination in search of a quiet place to rest, far from China's hectic tourist spots. "I couldn't stand the idea of going to Sanya or Beidaihe , it's too crowded and expensive," she said. "The cost of vacationing in China is going up. There is... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1688260/chinese-tourists-increasingly-be-beside-seaside-exotic-island-nation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1688260/chinese-tourists-increasingly-be-beside-seaside-exotic-island-nation?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Jan 2015 05:00:30 +0000 Paul Phua Wei-seng, the former Macau junket operator facing illegal bookmaking charges in Las Vegas, is assisting the Malaysian government in matters of national security and is not a member of Hong Kong’s 14k triad society, a Malaysian cabinet minister has told US authorities. “Mr Phua is neither a member nor is he associated with the ‘14k Triad’, Malaysia’s Minister of Home Affairs Ahmad Zahid Hamidi wrote in a letter to Mark Giuliano, deputy director of the US Federal Bureau of... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1670674/accused-gambling-kingpin-paul-phua-not-triad-member-says-malaysia-cabinet?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1670674/accused-gambling-kingpin-paul-phua-not-triad-member-says-malaysia-cabinet?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 30 Dec 2014 04:30:30 +0000 Groups of men blocked roads in Nicaragua to protest against a Chinese-financed interoceanic canal's ground-breaking ceremony last night. "Viva Nicaragua!" they were shouting in videos shared by activists, expressing their fears about land seizures and pollution caused by the infrastructure project led by a Hong Kong-based firm. Protesters said they had so far only blocked vehicles carrying employees of the HKND Group, the company holding the concession to build and operate the canal. Chinese... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1667710/angry-over-land-seizures-and-pollution-nicaraguans-block-roads-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1667710/angry-over-land-seizures-and-pollution-nicaraguans-block-roads-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Dec 2014 04:15:30 +0000 As Beijing's crackdown on corruption continues, top figures in Macau's casino junket sector are coming under scrutiny ahead of a visit to the city later this week by President Xi Jinping. After a week in which the starkest warnings yet were delivered by senior mainland figures that Macau must move away from its over-reliance on gaming revenues, it has emerged that Hong Kong police have frozen the assets of key casino junket operator Cheung Chi-tai. Junkets are the businesses that provide VIP... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1661838/heat-macau-junket-operators-ahead-visit-xi-jinping?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1661838/heat-macau-junket-operators-ahead-visit-xi-jinping?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Dec 2014 18:45:30 +0000 The founder of a Beijing public relations company which allegedly orchestrated some of China’s biggest internet scandals has been sentenced to four years in prison for “operating an illegal business”. Yang Xiuyu, 41, had “hyped” scandals that have dominated Chinese public debate in recent years and profited from the celebrity of the starlets he created in his social media campaigns, a court in the capital said. Among those online stars is Guo Meimei, 23, who caused an outcry in 2011 by flaunting... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1642952/guo-meimeis-spin-doctor-yang-xiuyu-jailed-four-years-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1642952/guo-meimeis-spin-doctor-yang-xiuyu-jailed-four-years-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 18 Nov 2014 07:45:15 +0000 Police in Guangdong have incinerated a staggering 400 tonnes of crystal meth ingredients, almost a year after a massive police raid in southern China shut down a major production hub for the drug. It took 15 trucks several days to ferry the cargo comprising crystal meth and its precursors - weighing the equivalent of 10 private jets - from police depots to pits in Lufeng city, Guangdong, the Southern Metropolis Daily said on Monday. Local police could not be reached on Monday. On Sunday, the 400... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1642161/chinese-police-destroy-400-tonnes-crystal-meth-precursors?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1642161/chinese-police-destroy-400-tonnes-crystal-meth-precursors?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 17 Nov 2014 09:12:12 +0000 Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi plans to visit China next month, senior members of her political party said. "We asked for some of her time … but she said she might be going to China and needed some free time in December," Han Thar Myint, of the National League for Democracy's Central Executive Committee, told the South China Morning Post. Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama announced he would meet Suu Kyi in Yangon on November 14, during a six-day trip that also includes stops in... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1631709/aung-san-suu-kyi-set-make-first-china-visit-next-month?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1631709/aung-san-suu-kyi-set-make-first-china-visit-next-month?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Nov 2014 02:48:26 +0000 Police in the northern Chinese city of Datong have detained at least 10 people after they celebrated the sacking and corruption investigation of the city's top official by lighting fireworks and singing the national anthem. The detained local residents were each locked up for three to 15 days for “disrupting social order” and then released, reported thepaper.cn, a political news portal run by the state-owned Shanghai United Media Group. Zhao Yunxiao, a 53-year-old Datong resident who said he had... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1631155/datong-residents-locked-celebrating-graft-probe-party-official?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1631155/datong-residents-locked-celebrating-graft-probe-party-official?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 03 Nov 2014 08:30:30 +0000 Two years into President Xi Jinping's massive anti-corruption campaign in China, we have collected all the Communist Party's announcements of graft probes since Xi's rise to power. The data show how graft probes have spread across the nation and intensified since early 2014. Explore timelines on investigations in key provinces that are now graft hotspots, and find out how party investigators trace political links and money trails to bring down the “flies” and “tigers.” Click here to access the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1626744/tigers-and-flies-chinese-communist-partys-anti-corruption?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1626744/tigers-and-flies-chinese-communist-partys-anti-corruption?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 03 Nov 2014 00:15:00 +0000 Beijing’s traffic restrictions for the Apec forum next week have brought clear skies to the Chinese capital, but the summit is also expected to widely impact the daily lives of its 12 million residents. Wedding registries and passport application centres throughout the cities remain closed between November 7 and 12, according to notices by the Beijing municipal government. The Beijing Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce said it will also suspend new company registrations during the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1630612/no-new-weddings-start-ups-registered-or-milk-delivered-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1630612/no-new-weddings-start-ups-registered-or-milk-delivered-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 02 Nov 2014 10:30:00 +0000 An alleged breach of procedure by the FBI could jeopardise the prosecution of alleged gambling kingpin Paul Phua Wei-seng in Las Vegas as lawyers filed a motion to suppress testimony he provided during a raid. Phua - called by US federal agents a high-ranking member of Hong Kong's 14K triad society - and his son Darren Phua Wai-kit face two charges of operating an illegal gambling ring in Nevada, after they were arrested for allegedly handling bets on Asian gambling websites during the soccer... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1630195/procedural-errors-may-kill-fbi-gambling-case-involving-asian-kingpin?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1630195/procedural-errors-may-kill-fbi-gambling-case-involving-asian-kingpin?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Nov 2014 22:15:45 +0000 Zoom in and explore Hong Kong's best restaurants, according to the latest Michelin guide released on Thursday.  The latest guide includes five three-star, 14 two-star and 45 one-star restaurants. Click here for our story on this year's awards. https://www.scmp.com/infographics/article/1628203/map-hong-kong-michelin-star-spangled-foodie-heaven?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/infographics/article/1628203/map-hong-kong-michelin-star-spangled-foodie-heaven?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 30 Oct 2014 07:00:45 +0000 SAT examination results are being withheld in China and South Korea amid concerns that some students had illegally obtained test materials, the College Board and Educational Testing Service said. The exam is a prerequisite to enrol in most US universities and taken by thousands of students in China every year. The US-based College Board prepares the tests for domestic exams and ETS oversees them internationally. “College Board and ETS received specific and credible information which resulted in... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1628130/sat-scores-delayed-china-south-korea-amid-fraud-allegations?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1628130/sat-scores-delayed-china-south-korea-amid-fraud-allegations?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 30 Oct 2014 04:00:29 +0000 Large-scale gated communities dominate the landscape of Chinese cities, sprawling into suburbs and around commercial centres. They often bring together tens of thousands of people of similar levels of wealth and education, who live in anonymity in near identical apartments. In his new book The Government Next Door, Luigi Tomba, a senior fellow Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University in Canberra, examines how such gated compounds have been used by China’s... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1623778/qa-segregation-chinas-privatised-cities?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1623778/qa-segregation-chinas-privatised-cities?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Oct 2014 04:00:15 +0000 Chinese internet watchdogs are looking into ways to regulate the country’s booming market in smartphone applications in an effort to rein in privacy leaks and malware, according to a report in the Beijing News on Monday. Senior officials from the State Internet Information Office, an agency under the State Council charged with regulating the internet, met with local regulators in Beijing over the weekend to discuss further rules for mobile apps, Chinese media reported. The meeting also touched... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1625807/china-consider-regulating-smartphone-applications-report?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1625807/china-consider-regulating-smartphone-applications-report?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 Oct 2014 08:30:15 +0000 Apple has posted a new security warning for users of its iCloud online storage service amid reports of a concerted effort to steal passwords and other data from people who use the popular service in China. “We’re aware of intermittent organised network attacks using insecure certificates to obtain user information, and we take this very seriously,” the computer-maker said in a post on Tuesday on its support website. The post said Apple’s own servers have not been compromised. Apple’s post did... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1622000/apple-issues-china-icloud-security-warning?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1622000/apple-issues-china-icloud-security-warning?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Oct 2014 03:04:42 +0000 Chinese authorities appear to have expanded a large internet eavesdropping campaign this month to Apple services, targeting private users’ passwords, emails, photos and contacts, a censorship watchdog has said. iCloud accounts in China were targeted in a so-called “man-in-the-middle” attack, in which hackers trick users into believing that they are accessing online services through an encrypted connection, GreatFire.org wrote in a blogpost on Monday. The attacker then gains unrestricted access... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1620631/chinese-icloud-user-information-eavesdropped-amid-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1620631/chinese-icloud-user-information-eavesdropped-amid-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 Oct 2014 09:45:45 +0000 Two more protesters who were among the dozens of people arrested on Wednesday have told their version of events and expressed their anger over how Hong Kong police handled the clearing of Lung Wo Road. Police used tear gas and arrested 45 people to forcibly free the road in Admiralty early on Wednesday morning. Video footage aired by broadcaster TVB of protester Ken Tsang Kin-chiu being beaten for several minutes while under police custody has since caused outrage. On Thursday, seven police... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1617743/arrested-protesters-complain-police-violence-during-clearing-lung-wo?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1617743/arrested-protesters-complain-police-violence-during-clearing-lung-wo?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 Oct 2014 11:00:00 +0000 Unconfirmed reports suggest that another stabbing spree in China’s western Xinjiang region last Friday has claimed up to eight lives, including a pregnant police officer. Citing two local village leaders, Radio Free Asia said the attack in Pishan County in Xinjiang’s Hotal Prefecture killed eight people: six government employees and two attackers. The report on Monday evening said two men on a motorbike had carried out the stabbing rampage in the rural county. Chinese national broadcaster CCTV... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1616141/pregnant-police-officer-among-eight-killed-xinjiang-stabbing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1616141/pregnant-police-officer-among-eight-killed-xinjiang-stabbing?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 14 Oct 2014 06:00:15 +0000 An online publication appears to have resumed publishing articles in China after a week of silence that appeared to have been punishment for questioning the party line on media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, one of Beijing’s most outspoken critics. Lai had been portrayed in state media as one of the orchestrators of the demonstrations that brought tens of thousands of residents to the streets of Hong Kong over the last two weeks to demand real democracy by 2017. His Apple Daily newspaper had been... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1613838/deleted-article-jimmy-lai-sheds-light-chinas-state-media-spin?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1613838/deleted-article-jimmy-lai-sheds-light-chinas-state-media-spin?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Oct 2014 01:45:45 +0000 Chinese underworld traders are now making inroads into "crypto-markets", the notorious trading places of contraband goods and untraceable digital currencies, in the "deep web" where sites are not reachable by search engines.  The South China Morning Post has found several traders on crypto-markets operating from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong. They offer "hard to get" Colombian cocaine, Chinese-made methamphetamine for export to the rest of the world, Chinese passports and Hong Kong... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1613610/chinese-traders-flog-colombian-cocaine-crystal-meth-and-fake?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1613610/chinese-traders-flog-colombian-cocaine-crystal-meth-and-fake?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 10 Oct 2014 08:45:00 +0000 Police in Beijing detained at least seven people over a poem reading meeting last week in support of pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong. They are among the dozens of people who have been reportedly detained in China as the country’s online censors mount their largest-scale censorship operations so far this year. Two women and five men, most of them artists, were put under detention pending criminal investigation on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking troubles” in Beijing early last... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1612157/hong-kong-poem-recital-leads-detentions-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1612157/hong-kong-poem-recital-leads-detentions-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 08 Oct 2014 09:30:15 +0000 FireChat, a mobile messaging application that does not rely on data networks or Internet connections to operate, has seen explosive growth in Hong Kong since it became the app of choice last week in the city's Occupy Central pro-democracy movement.  Over the last week, FireChat has been downloaded 460,000 times in the city, according to Christophe Daligault, vice-president of sales and marketing of the app’s developer Open Garden. With a poulation of just over 7 million, Hong Kong has now... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1611322/grid-messaging-application-firechat-continues-ride-occupy-boost?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1611322/grid-messaging-application-firechat-continues-ride-occupy-boost?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 07 Oct 2014 06:45:00 +0000 Articles in Chinese state media on Wednesday indicate that the Central leadership in Beijing has no intention of considering giving in to the demands by Hong Kong demonstrators and allow genuine universal suffrage in Hong Kong in 2017. A commentary in the People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s leading newspaper, on Wednesday argued that the Occupy Central civil disobedience movement disrupted the daily lives of many Hongkongers and created a “threat to the personal safety and property of... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1606265/no-inch-compromise-over-occupy-central-chinese-state-media?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1606265/no-inch-compromise-over-occupy-central-chinese-state-media?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 01 Oct 2014 12:00:15 +0000 In June, mainland Chinese scholar Teng Biao addressed a crowd of more than 100,000 in a speech at Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to mark the 25th anniversary of the crackdown on the Tiananmen movement in 1989. Four months later, Teng, one of the most prominent advocates in the mainland’s civil rights movement, says he is surprised by the scale of Hong Kong’s current pro-democracy civil disobedience movement. Speaking by phone from Harvard University, where he is now a visiting research fellow, Teng... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1605341/qa-teng-biao-how-hong-kongs-occupy-movement-affects-mainland?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1605341/qa-teng-biao-how-hong-kongs-occupy-movement-affects-mainland?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 01 Oct 2014 05:45:15 +0000 Many of Hong Kong’s recent migrants from the Chinese mainland are struggling with mixed feelings as they witness massive pro-democracy demonstrations sweep the city. “I have mixed feelings,” said one Baptist University student from the mainland. “I very much support the Hong Kong people in expressing their concerns. I both admire and envy them for having the ability to do so, but, on the other hand, I’m pessimistic about the outcome.” The student, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1604691/mixed-feelings-occupy-central-among-hong-kongs-recent-mainland?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1604691/mixed-feelings-occupy-central-among-hong-kongs-recent-mainland?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 30 Sep 2014 11:30:30 +0000 Twitter has given a visualisation of the conversation about Hong Kong on the social media platform over the last few days, following a request by the South China Morning Post. The conversation peaked at 12 tweets per second on Sunday as the world watched the city's civil disobedience movement for genuine democracy unfold. There were about 1.3 millions tweets on Hong Kong's democracy movement over the last four days, a spokesman said on Tuesday.  Twitter has also created a gallery of the most... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1604409/infographic-how-hong-kongs-occupycentral-became-global-topic-twitter?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1604409/infographic-how-hong-kongs-occupycentral-became-global-topic-twitter?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 30 Sep 2014 01:45:45 +0000 Censorship on Chinese social media has reached a new record this year as the mainland’s editors of public debate rushed to quell conversations on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests. The number of Weibo posts that could not be accessed increased five-fold between Friday and Sunday, according to Weiboscope, a censorship monitoring project at the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre. “It’s a new record,” said Dr Fu King-wa, the university’s scholar behind the project. “You... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1603869/record-censorship-chinas-social-media-references-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1603869/record-censorship-chinas-social-media-references-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Sep 2014 06:15:15 +0000 A mobile messaging application enabling users to communicate without internet access has seen large numbers of new sign-ups from Hong Kong as pro-democracy demonstrators in the territory scrambled for alternative means of communication amid the weekend’s protests. Some 100,000 people have downloaded the application FireChat for smartphones over the last 24 hours in Hong Kong, according to Open Garden, the company that developed the communications tool which operates without an Internet... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1603812/hongkongers-flock-grid-chat-app-firechat-amid-fears-internet-shutdown?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1603812/hongkongers-flock-grid-chat-app-firechat-amid-fears-internet-shutdown?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Sep 2014 03:15:00 +0000 Access to the popular photo-sharing platform Instagram appeared to have been blocked on the mainland on Sunday after photos of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protest circulated widely. Users in the mainland said they could not access the photo-sharing service owned by Facebook on Sunday. The Instagram website could not be accessed on servers in Beijing, Shenzhen, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Yunnan on Monday, according to the Chinese censorship monitoring website greatfirewallofchina.org. #ins... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1603785/instagram-appears-blocked-china-photos-occupied-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1603785/instagram-appears-blocked-china-photos-occupied-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Sep 2014 02:15:00 +0000 A few state-run newspapers in the western Chinese city of Chengdu earned themselves a barrage of ridicule after they warned that the Japanese cartoon series Doraemon is just another tool used by the Japanese government to cover up its war atrocities. “We have to be clear about the strong political meaning behind [the cartoon], the Chengdu Daily, the Communist Party’s main newspaper in the capital of Sichuan province, warned on Thursday. The Chengdu Evening Post and the Chengdu Business Daily ran... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1601029/beware-chubby-blue-guy-chinese-dailies-warn-public-against-japans?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1601029/beware-chubby-blue-guy-chinese-dailies-warn-public-against-japans?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Sep 2014 10:15:45 +0000 As China’s corruption crackdown is spreading to lower levels of government and cities rush to clean up their act, one town in southern China has attempted to purge age-old institutions that even predate the Communist Party. The municipal administration of Chenzhou, a city in Hunan province bordering Guangdong, has prohibited its employees from setting up “townsmen associations”, clubs for residents sharing the same ancestral hometowns. Townsmen associations – which are ubiquitous on the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1600826/hunan-city-targets-hometown-clubs-curb-nepotism-and-favouritism?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1600826/hunan-city-targets-hometown-clubs-curb-nepotism-and-favouritism?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Sep 2014 05:30:15 +0000 Xinjiang official media said that 50 people, including 40 suspected assailants, were killed in what the authorities called a terror attack over the weekend in the restive region. Regional authorities had said earlier that multiple explosions on Sunday in Luntai county killed at least two people and injured many others. Government-run news site Tianshan Net said on Thursday night the explosions killed two police officers, two police assistants and six bystanders. Fifty-four people were also... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1600583/xinjiang-says-50-dead-54-injured-luntai-county-terror-attacks?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1600583/xinjiang-says-50-dead-54-injured-luntai-county-terror-attacks?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Sep 2014 20:00:15 +0000 Cao Baoyin, a well-known Chinese writer and columnist, was detained by police in Nanjing on Tuesday, according to two family friends. The family friends spoke to the South China Morning Post on condition of anonymity, given the sensitivity of the matter. Cao was detained on Tuesday, Zhou Ze, a rights lawyer, confirmed in a Weibo post on Wednesday evening. The post has since been deleted. He did not say whether charges have been put forward. According to Zhou, Cao called his wife from Nanjing on... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1600137/chinese-writer-cao-baoyin-detained-police-after-alternative?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1600137/chinese-writer-cao-baoyin-detained-police-after-alternative?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Sep 2014 06:15:45 +0000 Chinese authorities appear to have blocked the US-based internet search engine DuckDuckGo, which has enjoyed rising popularity over its privacy-oriented searches and iOS integration. "We saw the online mentions that DuckDuckGo was blocked. We aren't sure why. It has happened before and we were unblocked later," said DuckDuckGo founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg. The move adds the search engine to an increasingly long list of online services inaccessible in China in recent months. In addition to... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1598524/privacy-safe-search-engine-duckduckgo-latest-internet-service-get?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1598524/privacy-safe-search-engine-duckduckgo-latest-internet-service-get?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 23 Sep 2014 01:00:30 +0000 The human rights advocacy group Amnesty International has criticised China in a new report for failing to regulate the production and international trade of excessively violent law enforcement equipment such as spiked batons or thumb cuffs. The report, released on Tuesday by Amnesty and the industry consultancy Omega Research Foundation, said more Chinese companies than ever before produce equipment that goes beyond what law enforcers need to rein in criminals. While some of these products, such... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1598026/spiked-batons-neck-chains-and-shock-shields-report-slams-chinas-tools?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1598026/spiked-batons-neck-chains-and-shock-shields-report-slams-chinas-tools?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Sep 2014 23:00:15 +0000 At least two people were killed and many more injured in a series of explosions in China’s restive western region of Xinjiang on Sunday, state media reported. Explosions hit at least three locations in Xinjiang’s Luntai County at around 5pm on Sunday, the Tianshan news portal, run by the regional government, said in a short report on Monday morning. The report did not identify the explosions, which appeared to be coordinated attacks, as acts of terrorism. “The local social order was normal,” the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1597836/two-dead-and-many-injured-simultaneous-explosions-chinas-xinjiang?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1597836/two-dead-and-many-injured-simultaneous-explosions-chinas-xinjiang?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Sep 2014 01:16:37 +0000 Hong Kong has ruled out Singapore-style measures to stifle the multibillion-dollar online gambling business, amid growing fears internationally about its connections to organised crime. Draft legislation allowing Singaporean authorities to block access to unlicensed betting websites was introduced this month to tackle a global business that according to a Sunday Morning Post investigation has significant ties to Hong Kong and Macau. Online betting - the profile and reach of which has seen it... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1597108/hong-kong-regulators-rule-out-blocking-access-illegal-gambling?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1597108/hong-kong-regulators-rule-out-blocking-access-illegal-gambling?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Sep 2014 21:15:15 +0000 In the fragrant environs of the Mong Kok flower market, a florist leans on a delivery truck parked outside his shop, intently studying his smartphone. To the casual passer-by he looks every inch the typical cash-savvy Hong Kong shopkeeper, checking every last cent on the delivery invoice. But a closer look reveals that the unassuming man in his fifties is in search of a cash prize, the size of which a lifetime of profits from his humble flower shop could never hope to generate. He's scrolling... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1597094/back-room-hong-kong-bookies-go-global-thanks-online-betting?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1597094/back-room-hong-kong-bookies-go-global-thanks-online-betting?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Sep 2014 21:15:15 +0000 A fraudulent smartphone app claiming to coordinate the Occupy Central pro-democracy movement has circulated online, a group of programmers said on Wednesday. The spyware is disguised as an application for Android smartphones or tablets, Code4HK, a group of coders trying to improve government transparency in Hong Kong, said. Activists first received a link to the application in messages from a phone number unknown to them on Tuesday. “Check out this Android app designed by Code4HK for the... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1594667/fake-occupy-central-app-targets-activists-smartphones?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1594667/fake-occupy-central-app-targets-activists-smartphones?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Sep 2014 09:15:30 +0000 Hong Kong's Food and Environmental Hygiene Department continues to update a list of bakeries, restaurants, retailers and distributors in Hong Kong suspected to have traded or used lard products supplied by Chang Guann, the firm at the centre of the "gutter oil" scandal. The Taiwanese company blended some of its lard with "gutter oil" - made from recycled food waste - and sold it as cooking oil.  About 70 per cent of the lard that bakeries used in Hong Kong came from Taiwan, according to an... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1593130/hong-kong-gutter-oil-map-v40-your-neighbourhood-store-list?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1593130/hong-kong-gutter-oil-map-v40-your-neighbourhood-store-list?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 Sep 2014 03:30:45 +0000 Chinese censors have rushed to delete a video from the website of China Central Television after an embarrassing incident in which the state broadcaster accidentally aired a scene featuring prominent dissident artist Ai Weiwei on a late-night comedy show. The 57-year-old Beijing-based artist has been widely silenced in China for his criticism of the Communist Party in recent years. His name, image and art are often promptly censored in Chinese cyberspace. On September 7, Ai made a short... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1593182/ai-weiweis-unscheduled-television-appearance-embarrasses-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1593182/ai-weiweis-unscheduled-television-appearance-embarrasses-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Sep 2014 09:30:30 +0000 Beijing police detained liberal writer Huang Zerong on charges of “provoking trouble” on Sunday after he reportedly criticised the Communist Party’s propaganda chief Liu Yunshan online. The 81-year old writer, better known by the alias Tie Liu, was taken from his home at around 1am, according to Huang’s wife. Police also took books, journals and a computer.  Huang's wife has since been informed by police that her husband had been criminally detained on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1592956/chinese-writer-liu-tie-aged-81-held-after-criticising-communist?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1592956/chinese-writer-liu-tie-aged-81-held-after-criticising-communist?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Sep 2014 02:15:15 +0000 When a relative of a long dead Austro-Hungarian navy soldier approached Gerd Kaminski, a China scholar in Vienna, in 2007, she pointed him towards a treasure trove of thousands of photos of Beijing, many of which were a century old.  Kaminski, director of the Austrian Institute for China and Southeast Asia Studies in Vienna, worked his way through the photos and published a selection along with other photos he was given by descendants of Austrian diplomats and traders in imperial China.  “These... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1589405/photos-beijings-diplomats-soldiers-and-arms-traders-century-ago?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1589405/photos-beijings-diplomats-soldiers-and-arms-traders-century-ago?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Sep 2014 03:45:30 +0000 Six armed men abducted an 18-year-old Chinese man in the southern Philippines on Thursday evening, local police said, suggesting the kidnappers were Islamist insurgents who fund their struggle with ransom payments. “Most likely, they were Muslim militants,” Police Superintendant Jose Bayani Legados Gucela of the Philippine police’s Regional 9 office told the South China Morning Post. “We cannot yet divulge the identity of the suspects as the investigation is still ongoing.” The armed men... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1590735/chinese-teenager-abducted-muslim-militants-say-philippine-police?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1590735/chinese-teenager-abducted-muslim-militants-say-philippine-police?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Sep 2014 03:00:15 +0000 There has been much speculation in mainland Chinese media over the last five months about Su Daren, a power broker who allegedly facilitated a controversial mining deal which brought down Song Lin, once the high-flying chairman of one of China’s largest state conglomerates. On Thursday, a state-run newspaper suggested Su’s ties went much further, alleging the former teacher at the PLA Academy of Arts had facilitated shady deals involving even higher-ranking Chinese officials who are now being... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1590716/mainland-media-tie-chinese-militarys-singing-celebrities-graft?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1590716/mainland-media-tie-chinese-militarys-singing-celebrities-graft?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Sep 2014 02:45:00 +0000 The Simpsons will make its official debut in China this month – marking the first major video-streaming deal after Chinese regulators tightened the approval process for streaming sites. Internet giant Sohu and 20th Century Fox Television Distribution announced the licensing deal on Monday, the companies said in a statement. It will be the first time the 25-year-old cult cartoon series will be officially broadcast in the country. The companies said the deal includes the 26th season of the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1589237/simpsons-coming-china-sohu-online-streaming-deal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1589237/simpsons-coming-china-sohu-online-streaming-deal?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 10 Sep 2014 05:00:00 +0000 Huawei, China’s largest maker of telecommunications equipment, has investigated 116 employees and sent four of them to court over allegations of graft in its consumer and corporate units, reports have said. The staffers are suspected of taking bribes in China, Caixin and China Business News, two mainland media outlets, reported. The graft occurred in the company’s enterprise and consumer units, the reports said. The employees reportedly sold Huawei products and services at a discount in exchange... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1588711/chinese-telecoms-giant-huawei-probes-over-100-staff-internal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1588711/chinese-telecoms-giant-huawei-probes-over-100-staff-internal?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 09 Sep 2014 09:30:45 +0000