Today's Links

Photo from Julien & Gwladys

• About 30,000 cleaners swept up 1,200 tonnes of fireworks debris left over from Sunday night's big celebrations.
• Originally scheduled for launch in August 2008, the much-touted luxury hotel Jumeirah HanTang Xintiandi Shanghai, will now be open for business sometime this year.
• Chinese government officials have denied U.S. Treasury secretary nominee Timothy Geithner's allegations that China is manipulating its currency.
• Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu answers questions related to North Korea, China's reactions to Obama's inaugural speech, the repatriation of Uyghur detainees from Guantanamo Bay and the current setback in Sino-French relations.
• Jane Macartney of The Times reports of closed-door meetings between government officials and pastors of underground churches. If true, this may be the start of a long reconciliation process between official and underground Protestant churches in China.
• Many hydro projects are lined up for carbon credits across China at a potential cost of billions to Europeans and Japanese, but may do absolutely nothing to lower global-warming emissions.