A report released on Wednesday exposed the fact that the Chinese version of Skype has been snooping and storing the full text chat messages of TOM-Skype users (along with regular Skype users who have communicated with TOM-Skype users) on publicly-accessible servers.
The report, BREACHING TRUST: An analysis of surveillance and security practices on China’s TOM-Skype platform, was authored by Canadian Nart Villeneuve, of the Citizen Lab, an interdisciplinary research and development lab that performs research at the intersection of technology, civic networks, and human rights (and whose site is seemingly blocked in China).
The key findings of the report:
Every few months the media seems to dig up a new quality control issue with Chinese products. Many of these are largely just typical media fear factoring, but the recent “melamine in milk” debacle is very real and very wide-spanning.
If you’re like me, you probably gasped in horror when it was reported that all the major milk distributors in China had milk tainted with melamine. You heard about the babies dying and started looking ominously at your fridge.
Then, again assuming you’re like me, you stopped and said, “wait, WTF is melamine?”
Not boring anyone with the chemical details, essentially it is an organic compound that in one form or another is likely all over your house. …
I’ve just received the following press release release from the British Embassy in Beijing.
It appears to me that the office has taken some heat from home about tracking down their nationals in natural disasters, and is now very concerned you may get crushed in a shoddily-built school or swept away in a flood - and that just does not happen to Brits. It’s just not… proper.
Neither is the cost of an airlift out of a danger zone.
While they’re at it, maybe they can help this woman.
CALLING ALL BRITS IN CHINA OR GOING TO BE IN CHINA OVER SUMMER!!!
If you, your family or friends are travelling to China this summer, get them …
What follows is the fifth part of a series of posts we’re running by fellow Laowai - Turner Sparks. Turner and his friend Jake decided just sitting around Suzhou and watching quake relief efforts on TV was not good enough, and so hopped into Turner’s car and pointed it towards Chengdu. Read
Part I,
Part II,
Part III, and
Part IVThursday
Our friend Shannon arrived by plane from Suzhou Wednesday night after hearing about the work we were doing and deciding that his experience as an EMT would be of use. As I mentioned earlier, the Red Cross was chalk full of volunteers so the three of us decided to head over to Heart …
The following has in no way been confirmed to be legitimate, however I wanted to post it here to see if anyone had heard anything about this.
From the Hangzhou Expat forum:
This information has not and most likely will not appear in the press or the media. But a co-worker’s wife who works in a medical treatment center in Shanghai just recently received between 20-30 victims of two separate bombing incidents on the Shanghai subway.
It’s being kept very, very under wraps at the moment, so no word on who was responsible, if the perpetrators were or were not terrorists, which subway station it was at, or exactly when it happened; but it was sometime within the past week. …
In some brief news unrelated to the earthquake, the Mother Jones blog has reported that Pringles and Fanta are now banned in China because of toxins. You need to watch out for the berry-flavored version of Fanta, the rest are apparently ok. Also, Chinese officials found an infestation of beetles in Nestle’s coffee flavor. Mmm, delicious.
In what can only be assumed to be fear over increased problems related to the Olympic games, China has cut off multiple entry travel visas, and limited them to 30 days.
As Journey to Nowhere reports from the SCMP (which stoically continues to charge for online content):
Beijing has stopped issuing multiple-entry visas, risking major inconvenience to foreigners who travel to the mainland regularly, especially on business. Hong Kong travel agents say the ban will stay in place until after the Olympic Games.
Travelers are now restricted to single- or double-entry visas valid for 30 days. Multiple-entry visas that have not expired are still valid.
Andrew Work, executive director of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said the ban …
I’ve been hesitant to write much about the violent 
underway in 
, as I figured it was a sure way to get the site blocked(a la YouTube).
However, I’m really impressed with the folks over at Peking Duck and their ongoing updates about the situation. Additionally, there’s some fantastic activity in the comments coming from both (all?) camps of the issue. I encourage you all to check it out.
Also, Michael D. Manning’s Opposite End of China is dishing out some great coverage of the topic, and how things have spilled over into other areas of the country. It is, however, being blocked for those of us in-country
Which brings me to the fact that I’ve had a …
With Spring Festival just a couple weeks away, time to remind any first-time Laowai to be careful as they venture out in what must be the world’s largest annual mass-migration.
Despite being one of the larger stories on Chinese-language news channels, little has been mentioned externally about an accident in Wuhu, Anhui, on January 13, where a female college student was cut in half by a train.
Leng Jing, a third year student at Anhui Normal University, was waiting on the Wuhu station platform for the train that would have taken her home to Fuyang for the holidays.
As is common practice this time of year, tickets for …
Several times recently I’ve been out at restaurants that I’ve been to frequently, only to discover they’ve been ripping me off for ages.
The trick is a smooth one and I can only blame my unfailing trust in humanity for allowing it to happen. The scam? The Laowai Menu.
Living in a tourism-supported city like Suzhou, even the smallest food spots in the downtown core tend to sport some form of English menu. Perhaps because the menus are quite clearly far-too-direct translations of Chinese dishes (ie. “the pig’s intestines soup”, “couple lung slices”, etc.), I always assumed the prices were as well.
However, after recently A-Bing the English and Chinese …
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