Summary: A controversial WSJ piece by noted China expert David Shambaugh this past weekend caught the attention of China watchers. Entitled "The Coming Chinese Crackup," Shambaugh wrote, "The endgame of Chinese communist rule has now begun, I believe, and it has progressed further than many think." While predictions like this have been a mainstay since the Tiananmen Square crackdown, rarely have scholars of Shambaugh's stature aired such a dire prediction. Predictably, China's nationalist newspaper, The Global Times, felt compelled to rebut Shambaugh in its Chinese-language edition. 

If David Shambaugh becomes a vanguard agitator for the 'China collapse theory', then his academic end will be a tragedy. He is obviously more enthusiastic about his internal contradictions, emotionalism and obsession with alarmist conclusions than with searching for new evidence. This has already become a matter of his scholarly work and personal integrity - not merely a question of the correctness or incorrectness of his scholarly conclusion. Most scholars live in their respective societies, and not fawning to that environment is an ever-present trial. Chinese scholars have this problem, and it seems American scholars do too. We ask David Shambaugh to conduct himself with dignity and carefully consider his views."

Source: 环球时报

Summary: As Internet entrepreneur James Ding said in remarks made at UC San Diego last month, the Internet industry in China has done best when left alone by the Chinese government. While the Chinese state has made Internet regulation a priority over the past several years, its involvement in the sector is set to increase in the coming years, as intimated by a new plan being rolled out under the name "Internet Plus." As with anything coming from Beijing, the proof is in the implementation.

Excerpt from the story: "The notion of 'Internet Plus' highlighted by Premier Li Keqiang in his government work report last week has drawn wide attention, especially from those running the nation's most innovative firms such as Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent and Xiaomi. The report outlined development of an 'Internet Plus' action plan to integrate mobile Internet, cloud computing, big data and the Internet of Things with modern manufacturing, to encourage the healthy development of e-commerce, industrial networks and Internet banking to help Internet companies increase their international presence. 

'Mobile Internet is like electricity. When we first had electricity in the past, earthshaking changes took place in many industries,' said Pony Ma, CEO of Internet giant Tencent. Ma, a national lawmaker attending China's ongoing parliamentary session, brought four proposals on the idea of 'Internet Plus' this year. He proposed mobile Internet be used to address social issues such as medical treatment, allocation of education resources and smog. 

In the future, the government and the market will each perform their own duties, and the government will provide better services while encouraging innovation, Pony Ma expected."

Source: 光明日报