- Rumours are flying that former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda may have met Chinese President Xi Jinping on a secret visit to China. Meanwhile, Japan and China are reportedly seeking to hold an Abe-Xi meeting at APEC in November.
- The ministry of education is proposing to remove the clause that students 'should love the Communist Party of China' from its code of conduct, in favour of more historical and cultural forms of patriotism.
- China, America and a new Cold War in Africa.
- Latest Sinica podcast on the rule of law in China.
- China is building more offshore oil rigs.
- Reuters on the role of economics and satellites in promoting Chinese fishing in the South China Sea.
- The Economist asks is anti-graft anti-growth? This anecdote is too good to leave out:
Not that the anti-graft campaign is necessarily encouraging open and transparent behaviour. In Sihong county in Jiangsu province this month, authorities panicked when they heard that inspectors from the central government were coming. Having illegally converted farmland into highways, the bureaucrats carted in lorryloads of soil overnight to cover them up. Photos of the buried roads, now planted with soyabeans, have since become something of a hit around the country.
- Lots of great stuff in the latest China Leadership Monitor.
- The top 1% has one-third of China's wealth.
- It seems the more the Government tries to curb wearing of the veil in Xinjiang, the more popular it becomes. Jeremy Page argues that this is part of a growing wave of conservative Islam in China's west.
- The Chinese Government reported that about 100 people died in violence in Xinjiang this week, including the gunning down of 59 'terrorists'.
- Also on Xinjiang, here's a photo of officials handing out some of the 300 million rmb allocated in rewards for tip-offs in Xinjiang (h/t @ChuBailiang):
