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).

Former propaganda head on free speech: ChinaElections.net has published a translation of an article by Zhong Peizhang, former Chief of the News Bureau at the Central Publicity Department of the CPC. He discusses 'three essential points of gradual reform':

1. Emancipate our minds
...In order to emancipate our minds, we first need to thoroughly destroy 'capitalist phobia'...

2. Earnestly advance government system reform
...we must earnestly make the legislature and judiciary independent...

3. Guarantee free speech and set up community oversight
...The issue lies in choosing to expose weakness and resolving contradictions or choosing to shut the lid, allowing problems to intensify and moving towards corruption and break down.

Digesting China: At the Christian Science Monitor, Kendra Nordin reviews Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China, by Fuschia Dunlop:

Dunlop, now a food writer and twice-published author on Chinese cuisine, began her 15-year culinary adventure during a visit to China in 1992. Later, while a foreign student at Sichuan University, Dunlop found herself bored by government restrictions that limited her research on China's ethnic minorities. So she instead spent her days haunting street markets and befriending cooks.

Paul French is wrong about China (and Tom Doctoroff): JWT head Tom Doctoroff responds to a video recently featured on Danwei called 'Why Tom Doctoroff is wrong about China'.

How I got here...the long short version: Matt Schiavenza explains how he came to reside in Lianyungang, northern Jiangsu:

I thought of holding out for something in a bigger city, like Shanghai. I spoke to my recruiter, who discouraged that idea. "If you go to Shanghai, all you'll end up doing is getting drunk with other foreigners. Go to the smaller place, you'll have a more authentic experience."

These words elicited a romantic series of imaginations, and I excitedly saw myself tilling rice fields while listening to old men swap stories from the war. This would be great. I said "what the hell" and agreed.

Sing song diplomacy: The Guardian uses a peach of a headline:

China employs sing-song diplomacy

It may sound more highbrow than ping-pong diplomacy, but China hopes that an orchestral performance at the Vatican tomorrow will be as effective in thawing frosty relations.

Torching the relay: Geremie R. Barmé discusses the torch relay and Chinese nationalism in an interview with the Woroni, reposted at The China Beat:

Many Chinese writing on the net, or who I have encountered since March (I was in Beijing during the original Lhasa disturbances, and have travelled to a number of cities in China since then on a second trip--for reasons unrelated to these issues) also point out that they feel that China is not given due credit for the extraordinary changes that have swept the nation in recent decades that have seen the mass alleviation of poverty and the rapid modernization of the largest nation on earth. However, while conspiracy theories make for good copy, they don't help us understand the situation, or the long-term causes of the present rhetorical extremes both in China and elsewhere. Indeed, I would hasten to point out that media paranoia and hysteria is hardly something limited to China, and it would appear that many commentators and opinion-makers internationally have joined in the fray with enthusiasm.

Chinese firms bargain hunting in U.S.: An L.A. Times article looks at privately-owned Chinese companies that are aggressively expanding into the U.S., where the economy means prices are low.