Shanghai has pledged to join its fellow Chinese cities in raising city-wide air-quality measuring standards to the level of countries like the U.S. and Japan. Looks like all those damning pollution pieces, including a recent Nasa satellite image of China's smog, finally struck a nerve! more ›

In the wake of political decisions by Western heads of state to attend (U.S. President Bush and French President Sarkozy) or not attend (British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and German Chancellor Angela Merkel) the opening ceremony in Beijing next month, the New York Times's Lynn Zinser reminds us of a political statement that China made to send its team to the Olympics for the first time, twenty-four years ago. more ›