From The New Statesman, the Beijing Olympic Games have been described as the superpower's "coming-out party". The authorities are also slowly realising that the arts will play a central role in improving China's international image (and more and more). From Prospect, the giant city of Hefei is almost unknown outside the country, but it aspires to be China's Silicon Valley by 2020, and its aspirations are emblematic of China's future. America's emobyte deficit: China’s youth surpass their American rivals online. Many of the products shoppers buy are made in China. How do workers there feel about efforts to curb consumerism — and the market for their goods? Ethics, ecology and enlightenment: An interview with the late Ramachandra Gandhi on philosophy, exclusivist politics and being the Mahatma’s grandson. The capitalist communist: How poetic Marxist Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has transformed business prospects in West Bengal. An article on Pakistan's valley of extremism and a look at how you helped build Pakistan's bomb. Urban space, niche repression: Saskia Sassen on how Pakistan's arc of protest leaves Lahore, its most historic and political city, unmoved.
