Danwei Picks is a daily digest of the “From the Web” links found on the Danwei homepage. A feed for the links as they are posted throughout the day is available at Feedsky (in China) or Feedburner (outside China).
An open letter against an anti-fraud crusader: Xiao Chuangguo is an academic whom anti-fraud activist Fang Zhouzi accused of falsifying his resume. He sued, and published a rather nasty open letter before legal proceedings began last year. A translation of that letter appears on a new blog, the China Scientific & Academic Integrity Watch, which follows the activity of people in China working to uphold academic and professional standards.
China’s big iPhone secret: At Blognation China, David Feng explores how iPhones made in China for export make their way back onto the domestic market:
A highly investigative report from the Southern Daily in southern China reveals a secret "Chinese express" for the iPhone’s 1.3 billion potential fans. Streetloads (quite essentially) of shuihuo, or "illegit goods" versions of the iPhone — the phone being exactly the same as the one the US and Europe gets — are all the rage. Shops line the street, ready to sell the iPhone to those who want Apple’s latest-and-greatest gadget.
…So where do they get those iPhones? These phones actually make the cross-pond (as in cross-ocean) trip twice; they’re not from the PRC itself (as in it’s not a case of grabbing it straight from the factory). Instead, the phone is sent from the US, decoded, and offered for sale to mainland customers.
6.5% inflation!: From Richard McGregor in The Financial Times:
Chinese inflation reached an 11-year high of 6.9 per cent in November, a level that will harden Beijing’s resolve to tighten monetary policy and probably further delay energy price reform.
The annual inflation rate, which hit 6.5 per cent in October, is driven primarily by food prices, which rose by 18.2 per cent from a year earlier, mainly because of a shortage of pigs and rising global feed costs.
But underlying inflation was also up to 1.4 per cent from 1.1 per cent in October – the sharpest rise this year – because of higher oil and coal prices. Utility prices, including water, electricity and gas, rose 5.6 per cent.
Also on Reuters if you can’t access the FT page.