On 5 August 2010, more than 33 miners were trapped deep inside a mine, causing many to fear for the worst. However, remarkably, 17 days later, the miners were found to be still alive, to the relief and joy of their families and countrymen. After reading news stories of the events and watching video, one couldn’t help but be struck by the stark contrasts with Chinese post-incident report coverage:

Recently in Shaanxi province, 118 migrant workers – who were mainly from Hubei province – were beaten by 300 thugs while staging a protest to get back their back pay at a railway bridge construction project near the historic city of Xi’an. In total, thirty workers were injured, nine severely. But strangely, what has attracted attention to their case is not the horrific scale of violence used by the employer, but the way the dispute was eventually settled.

“I would rather cry in a BMW than smile on the back of my boyfriend's bicycle”. This statement made by a female contestant, Ma Nuo, on a popular dating show has caused condemnation and controversy in China’s blogospere. Ma claims that she was taken out of context, but in any case, she gave a face and a name to rampant materialism, degeneration of values, and the notion that many young people will do anything to join China’s rising affluent elite, who have already become the world’s second largest buyers of luxury goods.

Chongqing plans to spend over 300 billion yuan ($44.28 billion USD) on “the ten people’s livelihood issues” (民生十条) over the next year and a half. Of this whopping amount of money, 130 billion yuan will be spent on “resolving rural residents who enter the city’s hukou status” and 70 billion on public housing. Billions of yuan will be spent on increasing farmers’ incomes, micro-loans, health services, rural health care, school security and other programs. Also, notably, 5 billion yuan will be spent on education for “left behind” children. (See Xinhua’s chart for full breakdown).

It was hoped that Zhang’s high-profile intervention in the Xiao case could help give a slither of hope to an impoverished man who has spent more than 80,000 yuan on medical expenses and has consistently had officialdom interfere in his case in order to help the local coal baron Liu Xing’an. Sure enough, on 26 June a representative from the Sichuan Federation of Trade Unions came to Xiao’s hospital bedside to give him a check of 2,000 yuan of condolence payments (慰问金) , which, lo and behold, happened to also make a nice photo-op. The trade union also claimed that since November of 2008 they had been following the Xiao Huazhong case, and that they had passed on the relevant information to higher-level leaders.

In an insightful article in Caixin Online, the prominent economist Andy Xie recently wrote about one of the key factors that is contributing to the recent strikes and labour unrest: important demographic changes.

A new book has hit the shelves in China, and is causing controversy. “The China Model” (中国模式), a collection of essay about China’s unique development model, is one of many new books that is part of an effort to put forth a “China model”, a model of development that is in opposition to the much maligned “Washington Consensus”. The Economist notes that the while Chinese officials are keen to downplay talk of the China Model, people peddling books aren’t quite as humble

Sometimes it’s easy to “exoticize” China, and think that China’s issues are completely unique. We may find it odd that officials have a structural incentive to either squash legitimate protests, which take the name “mass incidents”, or to buy off the petitioners with money from specially allocated “social stability” funds, rather than dealing with the root of the grievance itself. Likewise, we may find it bizarre than even China (yes China!) has things like cross dressing pop artists. Sometimes it seems like every art gallery in Hong Kong is required to have a kitschy Mao portrait or some post-modern take on sexy 1970’s-era female Red Guards – to appeal to the foreign demand for exoticized kitsch combined with absurd cruelty.

Danwei, in a translation from the Shenzhen Evening News, has an amazing story about a migrant worker who’s life has been turned upside-down simply because he’s trying to do the right thing. Danwei writes that, “Li Zhanfeng (李展锋), a security guard,…was hospitalized after being stabbed while trying to stop a robbery. His company had not registered him for work-related injury insurance, so he was treated at the hospital under the name of another employee who did have insurance. He reclaimed his name but now owes more than 30,000 RMB in outstanding medical bills that his former employer refuses to pay.”

Popular Chinese writer, blogger, and race car driver Han Han has been short listed as one of the possible candidates for the top 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. Right now there are 200 people on the list, and internet users are free to vote for, “leaders, artists, innovators and icons who you think merit spots on this year's list”.