• WSJ's Japan Real Time Report covers why Japan's new Prime Minister, Yoshihiko Noda, is boring at home and controversial abroad, especially in regards to the touchy subject of Japanese war criminals. Also amusing is the seeming list of demands issued by Xinhua in English at the new leadership.
• WSJ goes over a paper by Harvard University's Dani Rodrik explaining why despite anxiety over the issue, he believes developing countries like China aren't going to overtake the US and Europe any time soon. Rodrik argues that they must first overcome the "convergence gap”, or the gap in productivity levels often determined by their ability to absorb new technologies.
• Andy Hoffman writes a fascinating 5-page portrait in The Globe and Mail of Andrew Dawrant, the Canadian largely considered to be the top English-Chinese interpreter in China today. He is the only Native English speaker ever to be accepted as a Chinese language interpreter in the UN. He started learning at age 8 on his own volition, and by 15 he was couch crashing his way through Hong Kong. What a badass.
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A few links to fill in your day: more ›

Some creepy rare film stills have been released on the China-Underground website. The stills are shots of nuclear arms testing on various animals and vehicles during the 1960's. more ›

While countries around the world are scrambling for a major rethink of their nuclear power strategy, and in some cases shutting down their existing nuclear plants, China is bulldozing its way ahead with new nuke plants, the first of which is coming to Shandong, China this April! more ›

The general manager and Communist Party secretary of China National Nuclear Corp. is currently being investigated for "grave violations of discipline," according to the New York Times. The official, 56-year-old Kang Rixin is also a member of the Communist Party Central Committee and was responsible for increasing the nation's capacity for generating nuclear power at least sixfold in the next decade. While the announcement didn't say what accusations were being thrown at Kang, business journal Caijing said that unidentified sources suspected teh inquiry centered around roughly $263 million in company funds that disappeared in the stock market. They were also possibly looking into suspected bidding irregularities in nuclear power plant contracts. more ›