Village chief offers lessons in democracy
A week ago I wrote about my conversation with a village chief who had come to Beijing for the National People's Congress. The feedback I received was divided,

Democracy must help development
People don't often get the same kind of shock twice on the same day from vastly different parts of the world. The shocks, on Friday last week, came in two statements about China's democracy.

Productivity key to rural advancement
Despite having lived and worked in some of the largest cities in the world for nearly 30 years, I am still in the habit of reading about the countryside. Some colleagues even call me old-fashioned.

Real feelings expressed in virtual world
This column is written to comment on some Chinese Internet opinions. I don't have sympathy for movie director Chen Kaige, because I think the way he reacted to a viewer who made fun of his recent release was not very wise.

People hate corruption, not wealth
Chinese media have a bad habit of sticking incorrect labels to people and events. They are making that mistake again right now, when they report people's complaints as a "hatred of wealth," or of wealthy people.

Do not treat medical reform so casually
Inadvertently, by reporting its suggestions on China's medical reform, the business consulting firm McKinsey & Co might have made itself a perfect case study of how badly an international company can adapt to the local environment.

Spending on education soaks up spare cash
Being one of the largest national monopolies, education is competing with other cultural services like a superpower against small poor countries, and is pushing them into a helpless state.

Abolition of farm tax only a beginning
A small good thing is not a big good thing at least not yet. While all in China welcomed the central government decision to discontinue the 2,600-year-old agricultural tax, some press commentators might have made a mistake by exaggerating its significance.

Local GDP revisions show service sector disparities
Some regional governments have been quick to follow the change in GDP accounting made by the National Statistics Bureau (NSB). Some of the regional revisions are encouraging, and others seem to suggest new problems.

'Discovered' GDP reveals exciting new opportunities
Many lessons can be drawn from the National Bureau of Statistics' revision of China's GDP (of 2004) last week, which enlarged the previously reported figure by 16.8 per cent, to mainly represent the more than 2 trillion yuan (US$247 billion) of added value from the service industries.

Media is not helping most business readers
Two things I came across last week remind me of the inadequacies of the Chinese economic press. It is still filled with vague slogans and general figures, and does not contain much information that is useful for those who do business in this country.

Relating Confucianism to everyday real life
The most effective way to let a tradition die is to make it boring and forgettable in everyday life. And this is the state of Confucianism today when it is taught with no connection to history, and people's real lives, nor with the modern ways of education.

Northeast must not let us down
There was an eerie calmness following the revelations about the poisoning of the Songhua River, a major water resource in Northeast China.

Chinese press misrepresents guru Drucker
The death of management consultant Peter Drucker two weeks ago has given rise to commemorative articles around the world.

Initiatives from local governments necessary
Officials don't usually get so much attention from the press when they retire. But as Zhang Baoqing, the former vice-minister of education, left his office for the last time, he was given the celebrity treatment by the Chinese-language press for revealing that policies from Zhongnanhai the compound of the central government are often ignored by local officials.

Internet war on economists is lesson for intellectuals
As a class war is being waged in the ghettos of French cities, another class war, as it were, is being waged on the Chinese Internet - and is teaching us a lesson about where reforms may need to be stepped up.

Vain glory is a fool's errand
Sometimes, what government officials do is simply inexplicable.

Natural Chinese herbs for bird flu
The following is not meant to be a piece of expert opinion, but some wild thoughts of an individual (myself) on the ongoing alarm caused by bird flu.

Digging out corrupt officials
It is an insult to the People's Republic of China: When Beijing attempted to divest local officials of their interests in often-dangerous private coal mines, it seemed to meet no small resistance.

Dig out corrupt officials in mine scams
It is an insult to the People's Republic of China: When Beijing attempted to divest local officials of their interests in often-dangerous private coal mines, it seemed to meet no small resistance.

Foreigners in policy making
Do foreigners and overseas Chinese have the right to share in China's budding democracy? I think they may, in the case of the country's income tax law amendments.

Corporate hub is too crowded
Twice a day and five days a week, I want to sing a song in my heart: I will surely cry for you, Beijing CBD-ya! Those who have lived long enough in China know the exclamatory "ya" is absolutely needed to emphasize emotions.

Don't bar older job applicants
The management of a famous newspaper has done a terrible thing.