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).

China and World Bank to cooperate in Africa: From an article by Richard McGregor in The Financial Times:

The World Bank has agreed to work with Chinese development bodies on aid programmes in Africa and elsewhere as part of an effort to transform relations with a country that is fast rivalling its influence as a lender.

Robert Zoellick, the World Bank president, said on Tuesday that he had agreed with Li Ruogu, the head of the Ex-Im Bank, a big state-owned lender, to seek joint projects in Africa.

Books getting pricier in China: The AP has a report on how the rising cost of paper in China is pushing book prices upward:

Voracious demand for books and a crackdown on small, polluting paper mills have caused a paper crunch in China, pushing up the price of paper by 10 percent so far this year and forcing printers to delay books and publishers to raise prices.

So far the problems have been largely confined to China, but experts say that if the trend is unchecked, publishers worldwide could find themselves paying higher costs - and consumers facing higher book prices.

Danone exits Mengniu; more changes to come?: Reuters reports that French beverage giant Danone is exiting its joint venture with Inner Mongolian dairy Mengniu:

Shares in top Chinese milk processor Mengniu Dairy slid nearly 4 percent on Wednesday after France's Danone said it was pulling out of their dairy venture before it had got off the ground, citing slower-than-expected progress.

Danone's pullout raises questions over the French company's other partnerships in China -- a market that yields close to one-10th of its global revenue -- especially after ties with national drinks champion Wahaha soured when the two publicly accused each other of trademark violations.

Danone, the world's largest food and drinks maker, owns more than one-fifth of Huiyuan, China's biggest producer of juice drinks, and has partnerships with several other well-known local firms including Shanghai's Aquarius.

Hard times for China's local environment officials: At China Dialogue, Gaoming Jiang describes how largely-powerless local environmental bureaus get blamed when things go wrong:

An old friend of mine was recently made director of a county-level environment bureau. He recently paid me a visit and I congratulated him on his appointment, but he simply shook his head and told me he was troubled.

County-level directors, he said, are in a difficult position. In theory, they are subordinate to higher-level environment bureaus, but they are managed by the county Communist Party and government committees, meaning they take orders from local government officials. And while these officials may support environmental protection, they are more worried about GDP, finances and the evaluation of their performance. For instance, generating income from taxes to pay public sector workers such as teachers is accorded a far higher priority than the environment. The local government will often side with polluters, but the environment bureau is supposedly responsible for preventing pollution, so will take the heat for any failure.

From the craptacular to the sublime: The Peking Duck describes a four-hour-long extravaganza thrown for the six thousand workers of the Guangzhou arm of a multinational corporation:

I had seen craptaculicious extravaganzas on CCTV of course, and was always struck by how similar they all seemed - the lights, the costumes, the dance spectacles, the music, the Las Vegas cheesiness, everybody smiling so wide you fear they'll get some kind of lip infection.... But seeing it up front was intense. I have to admit, I was mesmerized and in awe; it' so overwhelming, you've little choice but to be in awe - - at least for a while. The performing isn't necessarily bad. In fact, some of the singers were quite talented, and the comedian with the odd bald head with a splotch of hair on the side had an amazing ability to imitate the sounds of animals and whistles of birds.