August 2012

China’s most widely anticipated trial in a generation ended Thursday less than eight hours after it began, with Gu Kailai — a daughter of the Communist Party’s “red aristocracy” and the wife of deposed charismatic leader Bo Xilai — confessing that she poisoned a British businessman who she believed threatened her son, according to an inside observer’s courtroom account.

Chinese employers are increasingly turning to social media to recruit staff as they struggle to find the right talent. Such a move may give the upper hand to expats, many of whom are already familiar with social media tools such as LinkedIn as a recruitment tool among Western companies. Interestingly, the driving force isn't coming from the head offices of multinationals but their Chinese operations, who complain about not being able to find the right candidates, especially among foreign workers.

The office of a news publication in Hong Kong was attacked by four masked men Wednesday, sending shockwaves through the city’s traditionally free-wheeling journalism community. Witnesses said that in the early afternoon on Wednesday, four Chinese men wearing surgical masks and gloves rushed into the ninth-floor office of In-media, an independent online publication known for its outspoken, critical attitude toward the governments of both Hong Kong and mainland China. Two women in the office at the time told police the men used hammers to smash a number of computers, scattering parts across the floor.

The Chinese currently stand second in the Olympic medals table—in both gold and overall—but you would never know it from what’s going on in their media. Of course, there is celebration of the country’s athletes. Yet the flawless performances of the Chinese divers and spectacular achievements of the Chinese male gymnasts are in danger of being drowned out by a torrent of commentary focused on what the games mean for China as a society and for its place in the world.  Some of the commentary is lamenting, some angry, and still other searching.