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).

Danone and Wahaha smoke peace pipe: Mure Dickie of the Financial Times reports:

Danone, the French food group, and Wahaha Group of China have agreed a legal ceasefire and return to 'peace talks' for the resolution of one of the most high-profile disputes between a foreign company and a Chinese partner.

The two had exchanged accusations and lawsuits for many months, with the French company accusing its Chinese partner of setting up copycat operations outside the venture, selling soft drinks and other products under the Wahaha brand, which is named after the sound of a laughing child.

The standoff was discussed at the highest political levels last month during a visit by French president Nicolas Sarkozy to China and raised during a dinner hosted by President Hu Jintao. Franck Riboud, Danone chairman, also attended the dinner.

China's emerging land rights movement: China Digital Times summarizes four land rights cases. According to Chen Yongmiao:

Chinese farmers are finally showing their power, standing up to the sky. Hundreds of thousands of farmers from three different regions publicly announced to the whole nation that they have the right to own their land. Looking back at villagers in Xiaogang (小岗村) who divided their land in the early reform period, that could still be considered kneeling on the ground, an improvement from their previous totally supine position. This time farmers have really stood up, despite the potential high pressure from the government.

Coming soon, five-star serviced cave apartments: Laowiseass compares cave homes on the mainland with those in Taiwan.

How citizen media should work: John Kennedy translates a blog post by Zuola in which he answers his critics and lays out his ideas of what a citizen reporter should be:

A fist-chop in the throat and surveillance by secret police seems to have put a swift end to the career of China's most popular investigative blogger Zhou "Zuola" Shuguang, but judging from his post earlier this month 'Zhou Shuguang's understanding of citizen reporters and citizen media', if you were to ask him: "is citizen journalism dead?", you'd stand a very good chance of being told that bloggers like him can and must "do journalism", and why. Throw in the way he coldly describes personal accounts as sample specimens below, in addition to making a few criticisms and judgments, and you might just leave seeing citizen media as both an art and a science:

The U.S. - China trade deficit: reason for worry?: Michelle Bussenius at the Hoover Institute comments on protectionism and currency issues:

Despite momentary disagreements and terse words over exports and the renminbi, many economists believe that China is well on its way to becoming an economic powerhouse on par with the G-7 nations. Although the future tenor of U.S.-China trade relations is likely to include more than a few challenges, Robert J. Barro, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, takes an optimistic approach: "We should avoid the protectionist policies that now seem so threatening. And we should enjoy the flow of low-priced Chinese imports—this great deal won't last forever."

Interview with Wong Kar-Wai: tbjblog has snippets of a That's Beijing interview with Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai about his new film, My Blueberry Nights, starring Jude Law and Nora Jones.

that's: You've dubbed the film for the Chinese mainland. Tell us more about this decision.

WKW: Norah Jones is dubbed by Dong Jie, Jude Law by Cheng Chen, and David Strathairn is done by Jiang Wen. I thought at first that this could be a bit strange, but after making this version I don't think so anymore. I think this version helps the Chinese viewer get into the film. Now I feel it can be shared. The dubbing methods here still belong to the '60s, like when they dubbed Russian or Yugoslavian films. There isn't a creative process - it's a strict translation. But I believe dubbing should be a creative process. It should be like this the world over. This isn't just a traditional dubbed version; it's more.

Guide dogs come to Beijing: b. cheng at A Modern Lei Feng comments on a China Daily article on Ping Yali, the owner of the first guide dog in Beijing:

The only time, if ever, most non-disabled people will have interaction with a blind person is when they go to get a massage. There are many of the 12.3 million visually impaired or blind people who do have canes, but the number who would dare to venture out alone with a cane is very, very small and of those, almost none are totally blind.

I am starting to feel like a broken record, but the article hints at really how useless Ping's guide dog is. The article offers the quote: "'We were not allowed to enter subway stations, buses and sometimes even taxis,' Ping, a torchbearer for the 2008 Olympic Games, said."

More commentary at Beijing Calling.