2nd Oct 09

The New York Times

Chinese Economic Juggernaut Is Gaining on Japan

TOKYO — For years, Japan has been readying itself for the day that it is eclipsed economically by China. But as a result of the global slowdown, Japan’s difficulty in managing its economy and China’s rise — on vivid display Thursday as Beijing celebrated the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic — that day may come sooner than anyone predicted.

China Celebrates 60 Years of Communist Rule

BEIJING — China’s leaders marked their nation’s 60th anniversary on Thursday with a precision display of military bravado that included, improbably, a female militia unit toting submachine guns and attired in red miniskirts and white jackboots, and a fleet of floats with representations of a giant fish and Mount Everest.

The Australian

Mao Zedong 'cool' at birth of People's Republic of China

FEW witnesses survive to tell of the day 60 years ago that changed the history of China and the world. One of the last is Li Pu. The 91-year-old retired journalist may be the last person alive who stood with Mao Zedong on the day he declared the founding of the People's Republic of China

The Age

China courts Taiwan amid milestone celebration

PRESIDENT Hu Jintao yesterday took new steps to woo Taiwan towards reunification and also to assert his leadership over the military, as China hosted a mass parade yesterday to celebrate its 60th birthday. About 300 Taiwanese delegates were reportedly invited to watch the parade, broadcast on Taiwanese TV for the first time.

Asia Times Online

China's eye on African agriculture
By Carl Rubinstein

China's growing appetite for African resources over the last decade is well documented. Indeed, China's massive industrial machine relies on oil from Angola, Sudan, and Nigeria, and minerals from South Africa, Zambia, and Liberia. While China maintains that its trade relationship with Africa is benign, some commentators see China's investment as a resource grab. In 2006, South African president Thabo Mbeki was notably frank when he warned that Africa could fall into a "colonial relationship" with China, leaving Africa "condemned to underdevelopment".

China maps an end to the Afghan war
By M K Bhadrakumar

The article "Afghan peace needs a map" [1] which appeared in the English-language China Daily newspaper on Monday should receive careful attention. China Daily is government-owned and the article is a very rare piece of focused opinion that proposes concrete steps to be taken on the way forward in unlocking the Afghan stalemate.

China's military struts its stuff
By Cristian Segura and Wu Zhong

BEIJING and HONG HONG - Celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) reached a climax on Thursday morning with a grand military parade in Tiananmen Square in the capital to showcase the rise of the Middle Kingdom.

The night Zhou was drunk under the table
By Ian Williams

As we approached the 60th anniversary on Thursday of Mao Zedong's declaration that the "Chinese people have stood up," I trawled through the memories of my time in China straddling 1970 and 1971, and found, with all the accuracy of retrospective prophesy, that there were more auguries of the current China than one might suspect.