Hao Hao ReportThe best China news and blog posts

BEIJING (AP) -- Thousands of farmers in southwest China rioted at a government office after authorities imposed heavy fines on families that had more children than allowed under the country's family planning policy, a newspaper and a villager said Monday.

Anti-riot police were called in after villagers set fires and smashed cars Saturday at the Shapo township government office in the Guangxi region, Hong Kong's Ming Pao Daily News said.

This Radio Free Asia article (via Truth About China) reports that about 900 rural Guangdong villagers were beaten back onto the busses in which they came to protest in Guangzhou about corrupt land seizures.

Hundreds of Chinese students clashed with police and overturned and burnt their car after street inspectors beat up a female student, a police officer and witnesses said on Thursday, the latest in a series of public disturbances.

Once upon a time, in a land far away, a land with millions of years of unbroken culture but many broken parts, there once lived three little bears - DD, Dan and Dawanr. They all lived in a little part of the great land called TTC that was forever...

This CBC article outlines how pro-Beijing politicians have just given Hong Kong police Big Brother-like powers to monitor people.

"The Interception of Communications and Surveillance Bill will allow authorities to tap phone lines, screen e-mails and monitor private communications in homes and offices. The law requires any surveillance operation to be approved by judges appointed by Hong Kong's leader."

Citizen journalists site Global Voices Online is keeping track of articles written by bloggers in Tibet about the riot... very worth reading

It had to happen. Hong Kong's policy of "positive noninterventionism" was too good to last. It went against all the instincts of government officials, paid to spend other people's money and meddle in other people's affairs. That's why it was sadly unsurprising to see Hong Kong's current leader, Donald Tsang, last month declare the death of the policy on which the territory's prosperity was built.

A mysterious epidemic is killing pigs in southeastern China, but international and Hong Kong authorities said today that the Chinese government is providing little information about it, or about the contaminated wheat gluten that has caused deaths and illnesses in other animals.

The lack of even basic details is reviving longstanding questions about whether China is willing to share information about health and food safety issues with potential global implications.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has banned fire department officials from receiving sexual favors as bribes from companies seeking their business, local media reported on Friday.