Reporting from China

 
I’ve been the Shanghai correspondent for the Associated Press since late 2014. My focus is projects and investigations. I've been writing mostly about transnational criminal networks thriving in the shadows of China's rise, with specific attention to the opioid trade, counterfeiting and
money laundering. Before coming to China, I lived and worked in Italy Myanmar, India, Cambodia and New York. I’ve contributed to the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Washington Post and Newsweek, among others. 
 
 
 
 
 

Feb 15, 2017  |  SHANGHAI

The government of China awarded U.S. President Donald Trump valuable rights to his own name this week, in the form of a 10-year trademark for construction services.  The registration became official on Feb. 14 and was published in a trademark registration announcement on the website of China's Trademark Office on Wednesday.  This may well be the first foreign trademark to be handed to Trump during his presidency, but is unlikely to be the last. In China alone he has 49 pending trademark applications and 77 marks already registered in his own name, most of which will come up for renewal during his term.                                           
                                                                                          Read More>>

 

Highlights

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Oct 7, 2016 | SHANGHAI (AP) — For a few thousand dollars, Chinese companies offer to export a powerful chemical that has been killing unsuspecting drug users and is so lethal that it presents a potential terrorism threat, an Associated Press investigation has found. The AP identified 12 Chinese businesses that said they would export the chemical — a synthetic opioid known as carfentanil — to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium and Australia for as little as $2,750 a kilogram (2.2 pounds), no questions asked.  Carfentanil burst into view this summer, the latest scourge in an epidemic of opioid abuse that

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Mar 28, 2016 | ASHOOD, Israel (AP) - Gilbert Chikli was rolling in money, stolen from some of the world's biggest corporations. His targets: Accenture. Disney. American Express. In less than two years, he made off with at least 6.1 million euros from France alone. But he had a problem. He couldn't spend the money. A tangle of banking rules designed to stop con men like him stood between Chikli and his cash. He needed to find a weak link in the global financial system, a place to make his stolen money appear legitimate. He found it in China. "China has become a universal, international gateway for all manner of scams," he said in an interview

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Dec 10, 2015 | SHANGHAI (AP) — The woman called herself Flaming Lee, an English name she picked when she was 10 years old, long before she got into the dirty business of counterfeit goods. Her job as a private investigator sometimes took her to client meetings at Dubai's seven-star Burj Al Arab hotel. Otherwise, she lived in apparent simplicity. There were few signs of the deception that shaped her life. Officially, Flaming Lee hunted counterfeiters for Swiss power technology giant ABB Asea Brown Boveri Ltd. Unofficially, she herself sold counterfeit ABB circuit breakers for export — the very things ABB was paying her to track down.
                                    
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LATEST STORIES

 

CHINA MAKES DEADLY OPIOID CARFENTANIL A CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE

Feb 16, 2017  |  SHANGHAI (AP)
China is adding carfentanil and three related synthetic opioids to its list of controlled substances effective March 1, China's National Narcotics Control Commission said Thursday.The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration called the move a potential "game-changer" that is likely to reduce supply of key chemicals driving a surge of overdoses and deaths among 
Feb 15, 2017  |  SHANGHAI

The government of China awarded U.S. President Donald Trump valuable rights to his own name this week, in the form of a 10-year trademark for construction services.  The registration became official on Feb. 14 and was published in a trademark registration announcement on the website of China's Trademark Office on Wednesday.
erika kinetz trump china
Feb 14, 2017  |  SHANGHAI

There's a Trump toilet, a Trump condom, a Trump pacemaker and even a Trump International Hotel among hundreds of trademarks in China that don't belong to Donald Trump. But after a decade of grinding battle in China's courts, the president was expected to get an unlikely win this week: the rights to his own name. Trump's late victory in the fight to wrest back one sliver of his brand
Jan 6, 2017 | SHANGHAI

In a sign of improving cooperation between the U.S. and China to fight the global drug trade, the Drug Enforcement Administration will open a new office there and its top chief will visit next week for the first time in more than a decade.   
Dec 21, 2016 |  WASHINGTON

Government scientists say they're seeing the emergence of a new class of deadly drugs built to mimic the potent prescription painkiller fentanyl. What you need to know: dozen of variants: The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's 
Dec 21, 2016  |  WASHINGTON

 No one knew what was in the baggie. It was just a few tablespoons of crystalline powder seized back in April, clumped like snow that had partially melted and frozen again. Emily Dye, a 27-year-old forensic chemist at the Drug Enforcement 
Nov 3, 2016  |  SHANGHAI

A few thousand dollars, a few minutes
and a decent internet connection are all
it takes to source carfentanil online from multiple Chinese vendors. Two Associated Press reporters, working independently, documented multiple offers from the companies listed below to export
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Nov 3, 2016  |  SHANGHAI

Seizures of the deadly chemical carfentanil have exploded across the United States, with more than 400 cases documented in eight states since July alone

Oct 8, 2016  |  SHANGHAI (AP)
Before appearing in global narcotics supply chains , fentanyl and substances like it were viewed as potential chemical weapons. Scientists struggled to figure out how to package the chemicals so that they would incapacitate but not kill targets. Some highlights of those efforts:

May 27, 2016  |  SHANGHAI

In 2011, a respected anti-counterfeiting coalition in Washington escalated its fight against the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, saying that its websites served as a 24-hour market "for counterfeiters and 

 

May 13, 2016  |  SHANGHAI

An anti-counterfeiting group said Friday it was suspending Alibaba's membership following an uproar by some companies that view the Chinese e-commerce giant as the world's largest marketplace for