Just got this from Merrill Lynch. Given economists (and fund managers) recent track record on predicting the course of future economic development, I am a little skeptical, to put it mildly. But who knows? Maybe the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t an approaching train:

FEBRUARY 18, 2009, NEW YORK AND LONDON – Fresh optimism

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Here’s the web story from my trip into the Tibetan area of Qinghai Province that I mentioned in an earlier post below.

Oops. We were a bit too quick to post on the a-little-to-perfect story about the impact of the deteriorating economy in China below. Apologies. And thanks to Roland Soong, (among others) for pointing this out.

Lin Yang writes:

Unfortunately, the “mistresses get pink slips” story we read about turned out to be a least partly and

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My colleague Lin Yang writes:

With the flagging economy, no one’s job is secure, not even for a mistress. A Qingdao newspaper reported that a Qingdao businessman facing money problems decided to “fire” four out of his five mistresses last December.

According to the paper the man, surnamed Fan, was “inspired by those

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The state press reported today that Beijing has added nearly 1,500 new cars a day so far this year, about 100 more daily than last year. With the economic slump, declining auto sales and ongoing restrictions on driving in the Chinese capital, you’d think that the rate at which new vehicles jam onto the streets here would at least slow. …

For more on Hillary Clinton’s Asia tour, our colleague Massimo Calabresi has the view from Washington on what issues the new U.S. Secretary of State will discuss in Beijing including North Korea, Iran, Taiwan and the economic crisis.

Just back from a trip to the Tibetan areas of Qinghai province, where things are very tense in the wake of the new year holiday. Celebrations were largely aborted by Tibetans to commemorate the shootings in Lhasa last year where ordinary Tibetans believe that thousands of their compatriots were killed. Official Chinese figures say 19 …

My colleague Jessie Jiang examines the attack this weekend on a prominent Chinese writer:

As many followers of the Chinese blogosphere will know, Xu Lai, a popular blogger and reporter whose blog “ProState In Flames ” has become a major source of political humor for many, was stabbed by two unidentified men on Valentine’s Day at an

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Ahead of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Asia, China scholar Orville Schell writes for TIME about how the Obama administration should approach ties with China and why climate change should be the top priority for both countries. Schell says:

For the first time in recent history, the U.S. and China find themselves with

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My latest piece on China’s recent human cases of avian influenva and the curious lack of reported outbreaks in poultry is now posted here.

This week’s fire at the new China Central Television complex in Beijing has set off some stern online criticism of the state-run broadcaster. Some Chinese bloggers have complained about CCTV’s tendency to bend stories to fit the interests of the government. China Digital Times translates one widely recirculated post from a blogger who …

From my colleague Lin Yang, a look at some comments made by Xi Jinping, one of China’s next generation of leaders, during a speech in Mexico:

There are few clues as to what will be the style of the man who will most likely be China’s next top leader, Xi Jinping. Until his debut in the Politburo last year, he was mostly known as the son

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