Hao Hao ReportThe best China news and blog posts

The Washington Post reports on Chinese journalists taking bribes in exchange for withholding 'bad news'. Describes a case of bribery that took place at the Southern Metropolitan Daily.

Richard at The Duck shares an article from the BBC regarding 18 "hospitals" (I, you and everyone should use that term lightly) that have been using fake blood protein in IVs for critical/serious patients.

Is anyone, like myself, just non-pulsed by these "fake (insert something vital here)" reports now? I mean, it's infuriating, frustrating, dangerous, mind-numbingly stupid... and yet... it just seems like another day of news reports from China.

Stories like the one about slave workers in brickyards may not have become public without citizen journalism. Government has "launched a number of online crackdowns" since January.
"A letter posted on the Internet by 400 parents of children working as slaves in brickyards was the trigger for the national press to finally report on the scandal", reports The Age, Australia.

For the most part, the news in China about IPR protection is bad news. There are copies of DVDs everywhere, LV bags are sold in bulk, and fake pharmaceuticals are a real concern for the government.

But the news isn’t all bad. In fact, while conducting a 20 city survey on manufacturing we decided to add a simple question:

Are there any specific cases where IPR suits have been filed, and what was the outcome?

For some time now, I have been searching the news for an update on the dispute between Groupe Danone, the large French food and beverage group, and Wahaha. The latter is one of China’s most famous privately-owned companies, and Danone’s partner in 39 beverage joint ventures across the country.

After dominating the headlines for weeks earlier this year, all parties seem to have gone underground, and news of the well-publicized dispute has been scarce ever since.

Bad news is no news according to our boys in Beijing. This is on digg too, so if you want to vote it up the Digg list, by all means, please do.

Toxic waste dumped into a river in northeastern China caused a bubbly red slick, prompting alarmed residents to buy bottled water and a complaint by Russia that Beijing was too slow in issuing a warning, news reports said Thursday.

China’s propaganda mandarins are experimenting with a new policy to manage their message in the age of the internet: reporting the news as it happens. This marks an important shift for the ruling Communist Party, accustomed to deciding what will be reported and when.

Howard French ponders the word "Laowai," and wonders why the pre-Olympic push for politeness doesn't include getting rid of this term altogether.