Heirs of Mao’s Comrades Rise as New Capitalist Nobility

Lying in a Beijing military hospital in 1990, General Wang Zhen told a visitor he felt betrayed. Decades after he risked his life fighting for an egalitarian utopia, the ideals he held as one of Communist China’s founding fathers were being undermined by the capitalist ways of his children -- business leaders in finance, aviation and computers.

“Turtle eggs,” he said to the visiting well-wisher, using a slang term for bastards. “I don’t acknowledge them as my sons.”

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Billionaire Princelings Ruin a Chinese Vision

This week’s Bloomberg News expose on the so-called Eight Immortals is a case in point. Building on a June article tracing the accumulated wealth of the family of Xi Jinping, China’s next president, it described the vast fortunes being amassed by the offspring of the founding fathers who were instrumental in Mao Zedong’s rise to power in 1949. Mao changed the world by meeting U.S. President Richard Nixon, and Immortals such as Deng Xiaoping engineered the economic boom that has unfolded since then.

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China’s anti-corruption drive triggers frantic property dump among officials

Real estate agents in provinces such as Guangdong and Jiangsu have been frantically trying to push deals for a torrent of second-hand flats suddenly released on the market – many of which belong to government officials, the Oriental Morning Post reported on Monday.

Agony endures 75 years after Nanking Massacre

Three quarters of a century after Japanese soldiers butchered her family and left her for dead, Xia Shuqin says she relives her terror with every denial that the Nanking Massacre ever happened.

Microsoft ditches Windows Live Messenger for Skype

Microsoft said Windows Live Messenger (WLM) would be turned off by March 2013 worldwide, with the exception of China.

Neil Heywood Killed in China Had MI6 Spy Links

Cruising around Beijing in a silver Jaguar with "007" in the license plate, Neil Heywood seemed to relish the air of intrigue that surrounded him.

Chinese Messaging App Gains Ground Elsewhere

WeChat, a mobile messaging application created by Tencent Holdings, China’s largest Internet company, is aggressively trying to buck the trend and establish itself in the expanding global market for smartphone apps. Based on some analysts’ predictions, the company may actually have a shot.

China’s new leaders face tough economic choices

model that delivered three decades of double-digit growth is running out of steam and the country’s next leaders face tough choices to keep incomes rising. But they don’t seem to have ambitious solutions. Even if they do, they will need to tackle entrenched interests with backing high in the Communist Party.

China’s former Japan envoy accuses US of exploiting territorial rows

Former Chinese ambassador to Japan says Washington should distance itself from Tokyo

Xi Jinping sharpened his political skills in Fujian

Leader-in-waiting had setbacks in early years in Fujian, but learned fast. In the second of a three-part series, we look at his 17 years in the province

Xi Jinping began career as cadre in rural Hebei

Why did the well-connected son of a revolutionary leader swap a job in the capital for life as a party cadre in on obscure rural community?

Communist Party journal suggests it could learn from Singapore's PAP

Article says party could learn much from island's brand of authoritarianism

Two women injured in playboy Ling Gu Ferrari crash are named by magazine

The 25-year-olds were pulled half-naked from car smash in March

Ex-diplomat says Sino-Japanese rift part of US agenda

A former Japanese diplomat has accused the United States of manipulating Japan since the Second World War in order to “eliminate” prime ministers who sought to develop better relations with Beijing.

America embraces English English

Crikey - aided by the telly, fashion and the internet, a flood of Britishisms makes itself heard in the home of the Americanism

Long Reliant on China, Myanmar Now Turns to Japan

Is the PLA's modernisation a sign of power, or a repeat of a tragic mistake?

Ignoring the need for social reform while modernising the military risks repeating the mistakes of the Qing dynasty

Experts call for scrapping of mainland ‘golden weeks’

Holiday chaos leads to appeals for changes to the arrangements for allocating paid leave

Big changes due at the top of the PLA after party congress

With seven of 10 PLA officers on the Central Military Commission too old to go on, big changes are certain after the party congress

Hong Kong's Victor Li, son of "Superman", has hard act to follow

Back in the days before e-mail, Victor Li, the heir to Asia's largest family fortune, used to sleep with a fax machine by his bed, ready for his famously restless father, Li Ka-shing, to send through instructions at any time of night.

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