AlexBowman

According to the Times, Chinese bidders ... bid up some work of art tens and even hundreds of times Christie’s estimates. For example, a dubious vase from the Qianglong reign, estimated at US$2000 – US$3000, sold for $550,000; other pieces went for similarly inflated values. In any case: woe be unto the poor young man who suddenly finds himself the high bidder against one of these plants! His colleagues, all as drunk as he, start to pound his back and encourage him to out-bid the interloper. By this point, the MC is asking a different question: “Who really loves Chinese art?” Go figure: it’s always the young man with the company party who best appreciates Chinese culture, and ends up paying RMB 1000 ($146) for a painting worth a tenth of that. But, at least for a drunken moment, he has the admiration (read:face) of his colleagues. Personally, I always wonder about how much the spouses of these young men will appreciate the new acquisitions. - AlexBowman

A profile of Wu Jinglian. Extracts: AT 79, Wu Jinglian is considered China’s most famous economist. In the 1980s and ’90s, he was an adviser to China’s leaders, including Deng Xiaoping. He helped push through some of this country’s earliest market reforms, paving the way for China’s spectacular rise and earning him the nickname “Market Wu.” Mr. Wu — who still holds a research post at an institute affiliated with the State Council, China’s cabinet ... his assessments are often harsh. In books, speeches, interviews and television appearances, he warns that conservative hardliners in the Communist Party have gained influence in the government and are trying to dismantle the market reforms he helped formulate. He complains that business tycoons and corrupt officials have hijacked the economy and manipulated it for their own ends, a system he calls crony capitalism. He has even called on Beijing to establish a British-style democracy, arguing that political reform is inevitable. - AlexBowman

Global Voices on Bo Xilai's Chongqing crackdown and the law. Extracts: Whether what we're seeing in Chongqing is simply a crackdown on graft or actually a struggle against corruption, the fact is that is has dug up quite a few corrupt officials, and that is what's most important. With all the corrupt Party officials and cadres taken down in this crackdown action, it still hasn't smeared the reputation of the Party, in fact has displayed the central Party leadership's resolve to fight corruption... ... With how easy it's been for Chongqing to launch a small-scale cultural revolution, this is a tragedy for all Chinese people. ... Disregard of the law, lack of respect for rule of law, lack of lasting mechanisms in the fight against corruption, instead a hundred “cultural revolutions, a hundred “storms to fight corruption and root out evil”, the result of all which is the more they fight the darker things get, and the worse corruption gets. - AlexBowman