- Chinese-style reform and opening? Not for North Korea, which is reportedly telling top party cadres to 'abandon the Chinese dream.'
- Chinese military to allow more 'portly' recruits in an attempt to attract educated enlistees.
- Over at China File, Hugh White, Zha Daojiong and others are involved in a discussion on whether a US decline would be good for China.
- China is turning numerous reef outposts into islands through land reclamation in the South China Sea, according to officials from other countries.
- Brilliant interactive display on the South China Sea disputes from the Council on Foreign Relations.
- Here at the Interpreter, John Garnaut writes why the arrest of 'rights protection' lawyer Pu Zhiqiang matters.
- Chinese internet giant Baidu turns to big data to forecast flu outbreaks.
- An interview with the 1967 class from a rural high school outside Beijing reveals that some of those who both suffered under and also served in Mao's Red Guards still revere the man:
Seeing Mao in a crammed Tiananmen Square, he says, “We didn't even have to walk. We were just carried along by the crowd. You would lose your shoes unless you tied them on with string.” Zhu reminisces about these days, despite the fact that a few years after he saw Mao speak in Tiananmen, Red Guards beat his father to the point of permanent nerve damage. For Zhu, it was a test of his revolutionary faith, and he passed.