Tea Leaf Nation

China’s state-run media reported on April 8 that Huang Sheng, former deputy provincial governor of Shandong, was being tried in the city of Nanjing for accepting bribes. What drew the most attention, however, were not the bribes – which allegedly amounted to 12.23 million RMB, or almost US$2 million – but the news that the [...]

Fast vehicles and racy women have always been the playthings of the rich. But when a car is too fast to handle, the driver may find himself and his exotic cargo just where he didn’t want to be: the limelight. On the afternoon of April the 5, Yeh Mao-hong (葉茂宏), president of Architecture World (葉財建設), [...]

This article also appears in The Atlantic, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. Over the last few days, new regulations on China’s real estate information system have provoked another wave of anti-corruption sentiment. According to the Southern Metropolis Daily (@南方都市报), the government of Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province instituted a regulation on February 16 restricting access [...]

In modern China, a home is a symbol of financial independence, social status, and success. Many people toil away to realize this “Chinese Dream” of owning a home, even if it means working tirelessly to pay off the mortgage, becoming what the Chinese call a fangnu — a “slave to the house.” Introducing a new Internet [...]

This article also appears on ChinaFile, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. It’s a social media classic, a send-up of the corruption and profligacy that so often enrage Web users in China. A very short story variously titled “I Did Not Eat For Free” and “Help Me Pay This Bill” has been making the rounds [...]

This article also appears on The Atlantic, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. Last week, Transparency International released its annual Corruption Perceptions Index. The index surveyed business people and country experts to measure perceived levels of government corruption in countries and territories around the world. China ranked 80 out of 176 countries, with #1 (Denmark) [...]

The month-long online campaign to oust Shaanxi safety chief Yang Dacai (杨达才) has finally succeeded. On September 21, Yang, nicknamed by netizens as “Watch Brother” (表哥) for his affinity for expensive time-pieces, was removed from his position because of severe “disciplinary violations” (严重违纪问题). Further investigation is being carried out by Shaanxi’s Commission for Discipline Inspection [...]

On September 3, Sina Weibo user @首席观察 posted a picture under the tagline “A Document Worth Archiving” (值得收藏的文件). The picture shows an official notice, supposedly issued by an unspecified local party group (小組). As of the writing of this article, the picture has already been reposted 10,550 times and commented 1,756 times. The translation is [...]

[Please enjoy this Tea Leaf Nation bilingual brew. The article is first shown in English, and then in the original Chinese. 亲爱的读者，欢迎享受我们的 “双语茗茶”。英文翻译在上，中文原文在下。] Li Qinghong was a real estate businessman who had his start in the mining industry. On March 25, 2010, he was sentenced by the City Court in Guiyang, the capital of southwestern [...]

With all the furor over Bo Xilai, his family and the suspicious death of Neil Heywood, Tea Leaf Nation brings you a look back at the political calculations that lay behind Bo’s controversial reign in Chongqing and his daring gambit in the form of the “Smash Black – Sing Red” campaign that was to pave [...]

Audis signify a “whiff of corruption”; Buicks, luxury and respectability; BMWs, callous wealth; and in the wake of rumors surrounding a fiery car crash during Bo Xilai’s national downfall, the pitch-black Ferrari is now associated with larger-than-life international political intrigue. The one motif to tie all these car brands together? The graft and arrogance of [...]

Just give up. That’s the message Shaanxi province’s Zhaocun village is apparently sending its children, after government officials there kicked Yifu Elementary School students out of their newly-built school grounds to make way for an authorized car dealership (called 4S car shops in China). In mid-May 2010, approximately 80 students began studying at the newly-built [...]