A couple of weeks ago I wrote a piece speculating that the gathering gloom and doom about China’s economic performance in 2009 might be overblown, in part because some of those making the predictions like perennial pessimist Nouriel Roubini of New York State University weren’t China specialists and therefore might well have missed some …

Today is being marked by speeches (like this one by President Hu Jinato) to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the ‘reform and opening’ drive launched by Deng Xiaoping, the moment China took its first step on the road to the present day. For a amazingly prescient look at the future from the man himself though,take a look at this section …

A follow up on Du Daozheng, who fought the law (or city hall I guess in a more appropriate cliche) and won, at least for the moment. We’ve mentioned before feisty Du and his (relatively) liberal publication, Yanhuang Chunqiu, usually rendered as Annals of the Yellow Emperor. According to the good folk at the China Media Project at Hong …

My colleague Lin Yang writes:

Being a member of the “working class” in the People’s Republic (aka “workers’ paradise”) is no longer what it was 50 years ago. The “iron rice bowl” has been broken, many have been laid off during the reform of the huge state enterprises a decade ago and those who do have jobs usually labor long

…

At Global Voices Online, Oiwan Lam has a roundup of comments from opponents and backers of Charter 08, the pro-democracy manifesto issued by a group of Chinese scholars, lawyers and former officials last week.

More horrible numbers for China’s economy. Steel production in November: down 12.4 per cent year on year; Electricity production: down 9.6 %; fixed assset investment growth: declined to 26.8% in Jan-Nov from 27.2% in the first 10 months of 2008. The last figure is particularly relevant as FAI accounts for 42 % of GDP growth. Most …

I am taking some accumulated leave before it runs out at year end. I decided yesterday to visit one of the numerous small ski slopes that surround Beijing, catering to a nascent but enthusiastic group of mostly young Chinese who have taken up the sport. I went to Nanshan, probably the largest of the resorts, located about three quarters …

Earlier this month we related the story of a Belgian television crew that was roughed up by thugs in Henan province while covering a story about AIDS patients. As bad as things can be at times for foreign correspondents in China, they are far worse for Chinese reporters. Consider the case of Guan Jian. The Beijing News reported (here via …

TIME’s Deena Guzder and Ann Binlot examine an historic gay-pride event in Hong Kong.

Some random anecdotal evidence of the grim turn things are taking in China and how quickly it has happened.

Exapts are leaving: rentals in apaprtment buildings popular with foreigners in Beijing have fallen by about half in recent months. This is good news for me as I am looking to move to a cheaper place. But landlords are already …

Comment from Consciencechina on the deflation issue. What’s particularly interesting here is that regardless of official figures (dodgy of course at best), it’s people’s perception of how high prices ar and what they can afford to buy that are critical to their spending behavior. If many Chinese consumers think like consciencechina, we …

Just when you thought the economic news out of China couldn’t get much worse (see any number of previous posts including Austin’s last), along comes a new threat: deflation. Along with plummeting industrial production and exports, inflation–once the specter haunting Beijing (and, yes, that is a reference to the Communist Manifesto) — …

TIME’s China coverage today is all about the economy. Michael Schuman’s latest story looks at the decline of China’s car market, I have a piece on the drop in exports and Bill Powell examines how China can recreate the success of the past 30 years of economic reform.