Today's Links

Photo by Jeremy Barwick.

• A man and a woman have been killed by a carbon monoxide leak in a downtown Shanghai apartment yesterday morning while two of theirr roommates remain in a coma.
• Taiwan is coordinating with mainland authorities on the possibility of increasing the number of charter flights to and from Shanghai for the convenience of Taiwanese residents looking to go home during the Lunar New Year season.
• North Carolina has opened its seventh foreign trade office in Shanghai. This is the state's second China trade office after Hong Kong.
• China will soon set a date for a "Serf Liberation Day" to mark the defeat of a pro-independence uprising in the region fifty years ago. This will be a holiday to mark the "emancipation of millions of serfs and slaves" in Tibet.
• The Railway Ministry has denied accusations that foreign companies are being squeezed out of the Chinese railway market and that local companies are exporting trains built with technologies stolen from Western companies.
• Corrupt officials in Guangdong Province are said to have gambled away more than $3m of public money in recent years in nearby Macau and on cruise ships off Hong Kong. Meanwhile, as the global economic crisis begins to hit home, Vice President Xi Jinping has urged Macau to diversify its economy tourists arriving at the gaming hub dwindle. China has tightened visa policies for mainland visitors going to Macau to curb corruption and shows no sign of loosening them up anytime soon.