Shanghai will become the world center of yuan trading, clearing and pricing by 2015, according to a new plan published by the National Development and Reform Commission. The plan will see the total value of financial market transactions nearly tripling to 1,000 trillion yuan (US$158 trillion). more ›

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The above infographic from CEIC and Nomura Global Economics is a stark reminder that China still has millions of its own citizens to tend to, in light of the recent talk that the People's Republic should become Europe's sugar daddy. more ›

A few choice quotes from US presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's recent op-ed in the Washington Post entitled "China must respect the free trade system": more ›

Gary Locke -- the US Ambassador who buys his own coffee AND flies cattle class -- gave an important speech yesterday in which he laid out his vision for the future of the U.S.-China economic and trade relationship. Here are a few excerpts: more ›

China’s share of global economic power will hit 18% in the year 2030, matching the might of the American economy in the 1970s and Great Britain's a century before that. That's the forecast of Arvind Subramanian of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. In 2030, Subramanian predicts China will hold 18% of the world's economy, the US 10.1% and India 6.3%. If those figures are right, then China is going to take over the US as the world's economic superpower way before 2030 -- not an inconceivable thought at the rate American politicians are pushing China to revalue the yuan while their own economy remains in the doldrums. more ›

Recently we stumbled across People's Daily's Survey for 2011 NPC & CPPCC Sessions. Their statement of purpose says they want to learn "the hot topics and the major concerns" from netizens about the sessions, in order to better report on the issues. The bizarre selection of questions that follow make it pretty obvious there are at least one or two other motives at work. Here's a few highlights we don't think you should miss: more ›

It overtook Germany in 2009, and now China has overtaken Japan to become the world's second-largest economy. Yi Gang, China's chief currency regulator, mentioned the milestone in an interview with China Reform Magazine on Friday. Of course, Japan's individuals are overall much wealthier - China's per capita income has risen gradually, but is still but a fraction of both Japan and Germany's. But with 4 to 20 times the amount of people as anywhere else, any small increment helps propel the entire country up to the top spot - depending on how fast the exchange rate rises, China could leapfrog past the U.S. in 2025. more ›

• While it's long been tradition for the elderly to be looked after by family members in China, it seems that more and more senior citizens are opting for elderly homes. [Channel News Asia]
• John Garnaut profiles Yu Jianrong, a respected Chinese scholar who has, among other things, lived as a petitioner in Beijing's petitioner village to record how problems get solved (they don't) and researched mass unrest in the country. [Sydney Morning Herald]
• ESWN translates a story of a fireworks disaster in Guangzhou Province. A rich family who had bought several hundred thousand yuan worth of fireworks (without a license, of course), ended up killing 13 people and injuring 49 when something went wrong. [EastSouthWestNorth]

• Exec: China's anniversary film set to break record [Associated Press] "China's star-studded propaganda blockbuster that marks 60 years of communist rule is on track to match the country's box office record set by the Hollywood film "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" in July, a senior movie executive said Monday. "The Founding of a Republic" has so far made nearly 330 million yuan ($48 million) as of Sunday since it was released on Sept. 16, China Film Group Corp. Assistant President Zhao Haicheng told The Associated Press."
• Can China Lead a Recovery? [Washington Post] "Chen Zizheng wheeled his shopping cart down one of the aisles at the Carrefour store near his house and paused in front of the bottles of Remy Martin, Johnnie Walker and Hennessy, each selling for an amount about equal to the annual salary he earned when he was a young government employee. But those days were about 30 years ago, around the time Deng Xiaoping launched China on a path of economic reform and opening up. Now China's thriving economy has made it possible for people like Chen, a 67-year-old semi-retired aerospace industry official, to plop down 1,168 yuan, or $170, for a bottle of liquor at a branch of a French "hypermarket" chain."
• Kim Jong Il Hosts Dinner for Wen Jiabao [KCNA] "General Secretary Kim Jong Il hosted a dinner in honor of Wen Jiabao, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, on an official goodwill visit to the DPRK at the Paekhwawon State Guest House in the evening of Monday."

• “Zhejiang University Girl” Exposed By Human Flesh Search [Chinasmack] "On the evening of April 11th, through the human flesh search of netizens, the person who concocted “Zhejiang University Girl” came forward to apologize. The netizen passing as Zhejiang University Girl is “河谷渔风” ["He Gu Yu Feng"], from Jinhua in Zhejiang province, a male, born 1976 December 17. He admitted “Zhejiang University Girl” was fabricated. Reporters contacted and interviewed “河谷渔风”. “Writing this post was simply a fenqing vent. In the beginning it was posted on Tianya, there was no intention to target Zhejiang University, and even less to point at Professor Zheng Qiang.”"
• After Olympics, national spirit soars while human rights lag [USATODAY] "Not everyone agrees the billions spent on hosting the Summer Games was worthwhile. "I hoped the Olympic Games could improve my life, but they only brought disaster," says Zhang Wei, whose home was demolished in 2006 to make way for an Olympic makeover project just south of Tiananmen Square. She applied for a permit to protest but instead was sent to detention for a month. "The police told me it was because I told the truth about the demolition of my property to journalists," she says."
• Will Ditching The9 Help World Of Warcraft Get Past Chinese Censors? [Business Insider] "Starting in June, NetEase (NTES) will get exclusive operating rights to run the game in mainland China, replacing Blizzard's longtime partner The9 (NCTY), according to reports in Chinese media. Hopefully a new partner will help Blizzard through what's been a difficult period in its relations with the Chinese government. Blizz's latest Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, still isn't on sale in China."

• Child sex scandal involves teachers, officials [Shanghai Daily] "Eight people, including six government officials and teachers, will go on trial for their involvement in a child prostitution scandal affecting a dozen primary and middle school students in southwest China. The Guizhou police launched an investigation after receiving a complaint on August 15 last year from a mother who said her 13-year-old daughter, Li Yu, had been raped after being duped by a classmate, Wang Qing, in Xishui County. The investigation then uncovered a conspiracy which saw girl students being forced into prostitution."
• Mainland tourist apologizes for graffiti in Taiwan under public pressure [Xinhua] "A Chinese mainland tourist who has been lambasted on the Internet for carving his name on a rock face in a Taiwan scenic area apologized to the public on Thursday for his misbehavior. Zhao Genda, a 63-year-old pensioner from Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, gained instant notoriety after Taiwan TV reported that he carved his name and that of his hometown on the rock face at Taipei Yeliu Geopark on Friday."
• Can China be green by 2020? [BBC] "China's unprecedented economic growth over the past 30 years has come at a huge cost to the environment. The damage has not only been to the air the Chinese breath or the water in their rivers, but also to its reputation across the world. But there are signs that China may now be serious about tackling pollution to prove to the world that it can develop while causing less damage to the environment."

Curious about what the Chinese stimulus plan looks like? Caijing Magazine has put together an interesting pie chart based on the recent “rebalancing” by the National People's Congress. Some of the biggest changes: a massive injection into sci-tech and social welfare, and surprisingly less towards rural civilian projects, considering how much publicity talks of “helping the rural areas” have been getting. more ›

• Construction starts on rail link [Shanghai Daily] "Construction on the 29.68-billion-yuan (US$4.34 billion) Shanghai-Hangzhou high-speed railway started yesterday at Fengjing area in Shanghai. The project, which is expected to be completed before the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, will cut the journey between the two cities to 38 minutes from the current one hour or more and is part of a plan to cut travel time between any two cities in the Yangtze River Delta Region to within one hour."
• Has Western Fast Food Hit a Wall in China? [Mark's China Blog] "I can't say that I'm that surprised that Chinese people may move away from eating western fast food as much as they have been. First, western fast food joints in China aren't cheap. In America, when you eat the crap that fast food places serve up you at least don't have to spend much money. That can't be said for China."
• China: ‘Can I supersize my stimulus?’ [FT Alphaville] "Expectations are growing China could super-size its stimulus package when it votes on the budget next week, especially since the draft currently being considered already foresees a record-breaking fiscal deficit for the country in 2009 of some 950bn yuan (higher than previously expected)."

Freddie Mae, S&P, Lehman, Goldman, Nikkei and The Intern fight it out to be the ultimate Wall Street Fighter in this hilarious new video clip from the guys at CBFresh.
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but there is nothing much we can do." more ›

• 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.

The Economist has issued its latest Big Mac Index which uses the price of McDonald's hamburgers to compare international currencies. The fast food dish is a funny but apt international measuring stick, since its 31,000 stores in 119 countries make it a widespread global phenomenon. But all those burgers are telling essentially the same story, at least as it relates to China: the yuan is severely undervalued. That might be bad for foreign economic competition, but it’s good for us — the Chinese burger, at $1.41, is the second most affordable in the world, beat out by India for the cheapest spot by a single cent. And people wonder where the Chinese obesity epidemic comes from. more ›

More photos on the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site (and here). more ›

From Al-Jazeera:

The UN has said that emerging economies face challenge in achieving growth without damaging the environment. more ›

We know that this sounds like an April fool, but China could be facing a rice shortage. No, seriously. We told you a few days ago about KFC upping their prices; now the cost of the other staple in Shanghaiist's diet, rice, could be facing a hike due to fears over supply. For the moment, the government has frozen the price of rice — as well as that of other goods such as cooking oil — in an effort to curb food costs following their 23% leap in February, but has not ruled out price rises in the near future. They have also announced that farmers will receive increased prices for both rice and wheat as China attempts to avoid the rice production problems currently engulfing some other Asian states. more ›

Honestly, when China threw a shitfit after German chancellor Merkel met the Dalai Lama, we really didn't give a hoot, in part because we've given up on seeing our dream of Tibetan secession realized in our lifetimes. But one thing you might not have known is that this diplomatic contretemps spilled over to affect our fair city. There was supposed to be a week long symposium sponsored by Der Spiegel at the Duolun Museum... more ›

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences recently published a report about how much income you need in order to be classified as white-collar in various Chinese cities. At the top of the list was Hong Kong, where you needed to make at least 18,500 RMB. As for some of the other cities:The benchmarks in some major cities at the upper end are: 8,900 yuan ($1,194) in Macao, 5,350 yuan ($717) in Shanghai, 5,280 yuan ($708)... more ›