Last Thursday saw the implementation of a feature that allows Alipay users to create online communities. But, as has happened with online streaming sites, content revolving around adult themes quickly sprang up and began attracting both attention and criticism.One online group, called “Campus Story”, was filled with photos of young women dressed as provocative schoolgirls, while another group, called “White Collar Diary”, featured many professional-looking women.

In just a few days, these online groups had attracted massive attention for what the Shanghai Daily called their “excessively exposed photos”.

By Sunday, “Campus Diary” had received over 6.7 million views, while “White Collar Diary” had been viewed about 5.87 million times, the Beijing Times reported.What makes the online groups so controversial is a feature unique to the Alipay social platform: if an Alipay user has a good credit rating (usually of around 750), the user is able to donate monetary funds, or “tips”, to another Alipay user of their liking. For this reason, the new social platform has been criticized for becoming an “online brothel”, the People’s Daily reported.

Alipay said in a statement that the service was still in the trial stage, and changes were forthcoming. “As an open platform, Alipay’s social networking feature hopes to facilitate interaction and communication among its users while creating values for our partners in the field,” the statement read in part.

Alipay is China’s third most-popular app after WeChat and QQ.

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Workers at the shopping center on Beijing’s financial street covered up the statue and whisked it away only hours after it first appeared on Monday.

A phrase commonly used in finance circles, a “black swan” is a highly unanticipated event with far reaching consequences – just the kind of thing the CSRC would like to avoid.

Netizens ridiculed the decision to remove the offending statue. One person wrote, “Such a grand country, and yet can’t tolerate a single bird,” while another said, “This dynasty had better offer a sacrifice to the gods.” Yet another person said, “Don’t the firm tenets of Marxism insist on following atheism?”

It’s not the first time art has been removed from Beijing’s financial district.

Last June, characters from the hit animated TV show The Boonie Bears were removed just a day after they appeared at a plaza immediately facing the CSRC (shown below). Though the reasons why the bears were exchanged for monkeys was not made clear, it was thought that the bears were making rude hand gestures towards the CSRC. Additionally, “bear” is a term for falling share prices and widespread selling.

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The three Crown Resorts Ltd employees were charged with “suspicion of gambling” last Friday, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang. Geng did not elaborate on the charges.

15 other employees, thought to all be mainland Chinese citizens, have also been detained, but their fate remains unknown.

Gambling and gambling advertising are not legal in mainland China. Any person who “runs a gambling house or makes gambling his or her profession” can face up to three years in prison. However, gaming houses have attempted to circumvent this law by offering “destination packages” to entice mainland gamblers that have stayed away from Macao casinos during the ongoing corruption crackdown.

In October, Crown said “less than half” of its international VIP revenue, or about 12 percent of its total, came from Chinese high-rollers.

Although it may be difficult to reach them, mainland gamblers spend a lot of money at casinos abroad. According to Casino.com, Chinese gamblers represent 90 to 95 percent of Australia’s VIP casino demographic.

Although Macau is a special administrative zone of China, the former Portuguese colony is considered an offshore financial tax haven and free port, making its way for wealthy Chinese mainlanders to move their money out of the country.

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In what is thought to be the largest bust of its kind, the Chinese detainees are believed to have been running online gambling operations out of a former American air base, which is now a call center.

It remains unclear what the Chinese nationals are being charged with, but 900 of them were brought to the immigration detention centre in Manila.

Foreign Ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, said Beijing requested that Manila “make appropriate arrangements” for those who had been detained and quickly release individuals who had “legal identification.”

Diplomatic relations between China and the Philippines have warmed recently with banana exports once again opening up and visa-free access to Chinese tourists being considered.

In response to Geng’s statement, Global Times wrote in an op-ed: “We believe that the timely intervention does not put a strain on bilateral ties, but instead contributes to the prevention of further escalation of the events.”

Earlier this month, China formally arrested three Australian nationals employees of a Macau casino on “suspicion of gambling” charges after being detained for a month.

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According to The Independent, a tourist on vacation in Shanghai noticed the resemblance, and notified Taylor who was furious her work had been so blatantly copied.

“I know it happens and I have had works copied before – they always say it’s a coincidence but in this case it’s absolutely blatant,” said Taylor.

Taylor said her original work (shown below) was specifically created for London with elements evoking the docks, such as its cobblestones and highly-stylized dockyard nail.

Taylor attempted to contact the “artist” who created the Chinese copy, but was unsuccessful.

Located at Dongcheng Riverside Parkland beside the Huangpu River, the replica is not attributed to anyone. According to a reporter at the China Daily, there is no explanation as to why the piece was constructed at the site.

Shanghai municipal sculpture committee member Zheng Jiashi told China Daily that Shanghai highly respects intellectual property rights. Zheng said that if it is confirmed to be a copy, then “it must be taken down”.

Fellow UK artist Anish Kapoor has complained that her 2006 Chicago-based work, Cloud Gate, was plagiarized and exhibited in the Chinese city of Karamay. In 2013, copies of Florentijn Hofman’s Yellow Duck toured Chinese cities after becoming immensely popular with the Chinese public.

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Lin Shuping said she first realized she was pregnant when she was about to give birth. Lin gave birth to a healthy two kilogram baby girl after she fainted and was rushed to the No. 2 People’s Hospital.

Lin says she has no boyfriend, and has never been touched by a man. When asked where the baby came from, Lin said, “I don’t know.” She said her last period was in December of last year.

Lin has not yet applied for a birth certificate for her baby, and has admitted she doesn’t want the baby because she is unable to care for it.

The hospital is trying to reach Lin’s family in Pingle, Guangxi because she is unable to pay for her hospital bills. A fund has been created in her name.

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The latest update for Uber’s China app is now completely different from the one the ride-sharing service uses worldwide – making it difficult for expats and visitors to use in China.

Unveiled Sunday, the newest version of the Uber China app requires all users to create a new account using a local phone number as well as a valid Chinese online payment system such as Unionpay, Alipay or Baidu Wallet. Also, it’s completely in Chinese; “English language” is not currently an option.

Expats in China who haven’t yet made the leap to using mobile wallets will now be forced to do so; however, new visitors to China won’t be able to hail an Uber car at all.

Uber had previously distinguished itself by not requiring such information, making it more enticing to expats than its former competitor, Didi Chuxing.

The update basically means there are two Uber apps: one for the rest of the world, and one that is exclusively used in China.

Following Uber and Didi’s merger after years of heated competition, an update for the Uber China app appeared in October that contained some of these expat hurdles. At that time, Uber said these features will be corrected in future updates.

“We apologize to our users for any inconvenience may be caused by this transition. The Uber China team has been working hard to make the new version faster-responding and more user friendly,” said the company in a statement.

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As quoted by CRI, the official pointed out that China has a huge number of outbound travelers, and that the Philippines’ visa policy is “inconvenient for Chinese tourists”.

The proposed visa waiver is the latest development in the thawing of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Despite a ban on Filipino bananas and pineapples following a 2011 territorial dispute, China is once again importing the fruits ahead of President Rodrigo Duterte’s October state visit to China.

Chinese authorities have also openly considered lowering the threshold for Filipino teachers. The State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA) said the agency may soon officially add the Philippines to the country’s list of accepted native English-speaking countries for English teachers.

This marks a stark contrast to relations only three months ago, when the Hague international tribunal ruled in favor of the Philippines in the South China Sea dispute.

Visitors from around 50 countries currently enjoy visa-free travel to the Philippines.

Last year, some 491,000 Chinese tourists visited the Philippines. According to Chinese travel booking platform Ctrip, the Philippines is one of the top ten international travel destinations for Chinese travelers.

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“According to the predictions, if China kept the previous strict family planning policy, the population would peak at 1.415 billion in 2025,” said Zhai Zhenwu, President of the School of Sociology and Population Studies at the Renmin University of China. He also said the two-child policy will reduce the rate at which the population shrinks.

In March of this year, the head of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, Li Bin, said demographic models suggest the population in China will eventually peak at 1.45 billion.

Other experts have lamented that China’s declining birth rate will cause the country’s population to drop to half its current number within 80 years, dramatically impacting China’s labor force.

China’s population reached 1.37 billion at the end of 2015, up 6.8 million from a year before.

The UN is predicting India will overtake China as the world’s most populous country in 2028.

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The competition challenged six competitors to wolf down a kilogram of meat, two kilograms of noodles, three eggs, and a kilogram of vegetables – all within 20 minutes.

The winner, a Franco-Romanian, finished his meal in 18 minutes, 40 seconds amid chants of “Jiayou“.

A story in the Chongqing Morning Report paid special attention to the two non-Chinese competitors and their mastery of the chopstick:

The two laowai each used their chopsticks to stir around the bowl to grab a clump of noodles, which they ate by leaning their head to one side.

That description may sound like your average Zhou slurping at his noodles, but the two “laowai” also distinguished themselves by being the only two competitors to season their noodles with mala, the spicy-flowery flavoring unique to the region.

Do you have what it takes to be a Chongqing noodle eating champion? According to the report, the contest is an ongoing promotion at the restaurant, open to all customers.

Fun and games aside, China has struggled to adopt a healthy relationship with food consumption. “China is probably the only country in the world where UNICEF needs to work on over-nutrition and under-nutrition at the same time,” said Robert Scherpbier, chief of Health, UNICEF China.

This past spring, China overtook the USA to become the fattest country in the world, with 43.2 million obese men and 46.4 million obese women, each of whom face a health epidemic of obesity-related diseases. Meanwhile, UNICEF estimates that there are 12.7 million children in China who suffer from malnutrition.

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