In Photos: The Flash Cars of Beijing's Public Servants

The Chinese government is shocked – shocked, they say – to discover one of its own rising stars, Bo Xilai, the former Communist Party boss in the southwestern city of Chongqing, was deeply corrupt. Many ordinary Chinese were less surprised to read the lurid details of how much money Bo and his family allegedly embezzled. After all, while Bo was preaching socialist values in Chongqing, his playboy son, Bo Guagua, was spotted buzzing around Beijing in posh cars. (I won’t dare to wade into the debate over the model and colour of Guagua’s wheels, but there seems to be agreement he didn’t take taxis.) The Chinese Internet is filled with tales of government officials who take a cut of any money that passes through their department, often funneling their ill-gotten gains to accounts overseas. But in a system where nearly everyone relies on under-the-table earnings (President Hu Jintao, who presumably would be at the top of the scale, officially receives just $11,000 per year), and deals are often sealed by red envelopes stuffed with cash, how can anyone prove the corruption everyone suspects is rampant? Just look at their cars, many say. Do the flash cars with government plates on the streets of Beijing look like the wheels of officials living on modest salaries? We’re able to let you make your own judgments, thanks to a longtime foreign resident of China (he’s asked not to be named) who forwarded us a few snaps he took of the all-day auto show that is the streets of Beijing:

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Under the WeiboScope

A New Way to Make Sense of Online Social Media Trends

With more than 300 million registered users, the popular microblogging service Sina Weibo—sometimes called the Chinese Twitter—can offer unique insights into the quotidian musings of Chinese netizens. One way to sort through the barrage of microblogs posted each second is to make use of aggregation tools that provide a list of the most reposted or most commented-on microblogs within a specified period of time.

Sina itself provides one such aggregation tool.

Barbarians at the Gate, Again

Ever since foreigners arrived in China in large numbers in the 19th century, there has been a tendency either to lionise all that is foreign or to denigrate it, and to treat foreigners themselves either as gods or as barbarians. That dynamic has been very much on display in recent weeks.

Can China’s Billions Buy Media Credibility?

Having already achieved the status as the world’s second-largest national economy, China has decided that it also needs soft power, the ability to influence world public opinion to promote its commercial and foreign-policy interests. “To some degree, whoever owns the commanding heights of cultural development, and soft power, will enjoy a competitive edge internationally,” declared a communiqué that came out of the October 2011 plenary of the Communist Party’s Central Committee. Toward that end, the Chinese government allocated $8.7 billion in 2009-2010 alone to “external publicity work.”

Columbia Journalism Review

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CJR's mission is to be the intellectual leader in the rapidly changing world of journalism. It is the most respected voice on press criticism, and it shapes the ideas that make media leaders and journalists smarter about their work. Through its fast-turn analysis and deep reporting, CJR is an essential venue not just for journalists, but also for the thousands of professionals in communications, technology, academia, and other fields reliant on solid media industry knowledge.

Neil Heywood Death Investigation Reopened

A prominent American forensic scientist said that Chinese police asked him to analyse an unidentified blood sample, in a possible link to a spiralling political scandal surrounding the death of a British man. Henry Lee said police did not directly ask for help investigating the death of Neil Heywood, whose body was found in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing. The wife of the city's Communist party chief has been named a suspect in Heywood's death.

Identity Crisis Rattles Volvo’s Chinese Owner

New models bearing the Chinese-owned Volvo badge shared a luxury spotlight at the Beijing International Auto Show in April with perennial stars Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Lexus.

But behind the diamond-studded presentation was confusion over the legal status of Sweden-based Volvo Car Corp., its business operations in China, and the company’s owner China Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. Ltd.