China Digital Times: This site has all the stories that you would never find in a state-run paper (It’s blocked in China so you know it’s good). As well as an entertaining list of Chinese net-slang.
China Geeks: Great site for deep reads on China. Frequently features translated essays followed by some commentary. They are also working on a documentary about kidnapping in China.
China Law Blog: The big blog when it comes to doing business in China. I enjoy it not only because it helps me understand some of the challenges within the Chinese legal system, but because of the countless tales of crazy China misadventures that could have been avoided with a little forethought.
China Real Time Report: A blog run by The Wall Street Journal, focuses slightly more on business, but still has a good mix of China news (usually quick reads).
ChinaSMACK: A fun blog that translates popular items from the Chinese forums. (This one tends to have bad language, but it gives a very interesting look at Chinese society).
CNN, BBC, The New York Times, and Al Jazeera (all Asia/Pacific links): These four sites round out my daily news gathering for the blog. (I check Fox News from time to time too, but the stories are almost all AP reposts)
Foreign Policy (China Channel): Mostly long form journalism, and photo essays. They do a great job of getting stories from a variety of viewpoints as well as finding a wide range experts to contribute.
Global Times: Another “news” site, but less official than the People’s Daily. A good source for strange news about China.
Hao Hao Report: A site that collects China news stories from around the web and then features the most popular ones.
Jottings from the Granite Studio: A blog written by a PhD candidate studying Chinese history. Usually he picks some interesting news bit to elaborate on.
Ministry of Tofu: This site is sometime criticized for focusing too much on the negative aspects of China. It is run by a Chinese person, who provides a lot of translation of popular internet stories, as well as interesting commentary.
Patrick Chovanec: A blog written by an economist at Tsinghua University. Written for people who are at least mildly familiar with economics, but is a good source for fact checking Chinese economic claims.
People’s Daily: I wouldn’t recommend this site for reliable news, but it is a good place to see how China wants to be viewed by the world. This is the mouth piece of the Gov’t.
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It is a very interesting look at a subject that is rarely discussed with expats (or anyone else).
Seeing Red in China 