Stories about China's economic and political rise appeared on a list of "the ten biggest news stories of the 21st century" published by American Global Language Reseach, and are thus considered big news. The 750,000 print, digitial, and internet media organizations that follow this published over 300,000,000 reports based on this information. So what aspects of China's rise are the most worthy of commendation and attention? The China Youth Daily and Sina did an online poll and the six winning traits were: economic development, international influence, improvement of the peoples' lives, technological [advancements], the new progress of cities, and China's [overall] degree of openness. Following the above information, discuss your own thoughts. Choose an appropriate angle, draft your own title, select any style of writing you like (except poetry). Don't stray away from what's covered in the question, don't quote/take from others, and don't plagiarize.

It's that time of year again. 9.2 million high school students nationwide are strapping themselves onto chairs for the two-to-three-day gaokao exam, which is China's national college entrance exam. more ›

It's a given: With any high-pressure exam, there are bound to be a few cheaters. However, the dishonest ones in this country are proving to be particularly tricky to weed out - especially when the test graders are abroad. Chinese students are in the habit of using substitute test takers, also known as “sharpshooters” to help them sit the gaokao, but also for the TOEFL and IELTS--two tests normally required to go abroad to study. more ›

• Party Secretary Indicted, part of Spain's "Universal Jurisdiction" [Xinjiang: Far West China] "Last Tuesday Spanish Judge Santiago Pedráz requested authorization from the Chinese Ministry of Justice to investigate eight Chinese leaders, including the Party Secretary of both Xinjiang and Tibet, on charges of mistreatment of minorities, a charge that involves not a single Spanish citizen."
• Chinese anger at student ID theft [BBC] "There has been outrage in China over reports that a police official helped his daughter get into university by stealing another student's identity. The official, Wang Zhengrong, stole the name and ID number of his daughter's classmate, state media reports. While Mr Wang's child took her university place, the other girl had to spend a year re-taking the exam."
• Taxing fun with (yes!) cell phones [Shenzhen Noted] "One of the events being promoted by the Shenzhen Bureau of Taxation is citizen participation in the 3rd National Tax Collection Text Message Publicity Contest (第三届全国税收宣传短信大赛). I hadn’t realized that the first and second contests had come and gone, but the current contest is open until June 30, 2009. The particularly ambitious can also compete in the ring-tone competition and the multi-media message competition (basically flash for phone)."

• Adam Minter of Shanghai Scrap says China's block of the New York Times does not matter as much as it once did.
• Chris Gill of Shanghai Eye says he has it from a reliable source that the HSK, the Chinese proficiency examination for foreigners will be scrapped in two years.
• Jenny Leung of China Digital Times interviews Qi Hanting, the student who founded the Anti-CNN website.