The Chinese team heads to the home of elite running.

The prison-industrial complex is not only a set of interest groups and institutions. It is also a state of mind. The lure of big money is corrupting the nation's criminal-justice system, replacing notions of public service with a drive for higher profits. The eagerness of elected officials to pass "tough-on-crime" legislation — combined with their unwillingness to disclose the true costs of these laws — has encouraged all sorts of financial improprieties. The inner workings of the prison-industrial complex can be observed in the state of New York, where the prison boom started, transforming the economy of an entire region; in Texas and Tennessee, where private prison companies have thrived; and in California, where the correctional trends of the past two decades have converged and reached extremes.

Match Group, which owns most major online dating services, screens for sexual predators on Match—but not on Tinder, OkCupid or Plenty of Fish. A spokesperson said, “There are definitely registered sex offenders on our free products.”

What the Chinese education system can teach America about relying on test scores as the main metric of success.

Is the Chinese government behind one of the boldest art-crime waves in history?

Exploring the relationship between cats and the Internet in Japan.

Thirty-four years after the Bhopal gas leak, the abandoned waste pits are spreading poison and still destroying lives.

How governments and private companies have engaged in digital arms trading by building a global black market for ‘zero day’ hacks.

Nicky Louie and the Ghost Shadows.

Hanging out with the AirHogs of Grand Prairie.

During the last decade, more than 1,500 Americans died after accidentally taking too much of a drug renowned for its safety: acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol.

Dead construction workers, a corrupt political family, and the “impossibly lucrative casino” on the island of Saipan where Chinese gamblers can game on U.S. soil.

Looking to Nietzsche for self-help.

On the grueling nature of Chinese restaurant work and the hopes and dreams of the cooks and delivery men who have migrated to the U.S.

The opioid’s potency has transformed the global trafficking—and policing—of narcotics.

On the elegance and utility of the rice cooker.

How did an obscure artist who survived the Cultural Revolution become a viral sensation and suddenly the surreal, sexy center of Fashion Week?

A secretive hedge fund used the British court system to punish an IP thief‚ even though he was already in jail.

Four men stood on the edge of the Shenzhen Health and Family Planning Commission, threatening to jump in protest. They referred to themselves as “China’s 21st century eunuchs,” damaged by medically-dubious surgeries.

When Zulhumar Isaac’s parents disappeared amid a wave of detentions of ethnic minorities, she had to play a perilous game with the state to get them back.

A surprising trip into the propaganda machine.

A tale of cannabis boom and bust.

Lunch with recycling tycoon Chen Guangbiao, the self-described “Most Influential Person of China,” to discuss his interest in buying The New York Times.

Without fanfare—indeed, with some misgivings about its new status—China has just overtaken the United States as the world’s largest economy.