Today's Links: Commie drift, Chinese mistresses and illegal mapping

China hurting in world opinion polls [China Post]

In a survey covering 18 countries which account for 56 percent of the world's population, 38 percent said China can be trusted to act responsibly while 52 percent said the country can't be trusted.

Letter accuses China's party of drift [Los Angeles Times]

A rare open letter signed by 17 former top officials and conservative Marxist scholars ahead of a key party meeting accuses China's top leaders of steering the country in the wrong direction, pandering to foreigners, and betraying the workers' revolution.

Nine in 10 downed China officials had mistresses [Reuters]

Chinese anti-graft investigators have found that 90 percent of the country's most senior officials brought down in corruption cases in recent years had kept mistresses, drawing a link between sex and misconduct.

Illegal mapping in China by foreigners on rise [China Daily]

The number of cases involving foreign institutions and individuals conducting illegal surveying and mapping in China has been on the rise in recent years, according to the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping (SBSM).

China PR machine "overwhelmed" by safety crisis [Guardian Unlimited] Barely a day goes by without some new scandal over a made-in-China product, be it toys, toothpaste, candies or seafood, and China has been quite "overwhelmed".