Hao Hao ReportThe best China news and blog posts

BEIJING (AFP) - China's Communist Party on Sunday endorsed Hu Jintao's new economic model for the country, while opening the way for a top leadership reshuffle that will likely see the president consolidate his power.

Following the end of its five-yearly Congress, Hu, 64, is almost certain to be given a second term as party chief on Monday alongside a revamped line-up of leaders in the nation's most powerful political organ.

Shanghaiist's got a bit of a rundown on the about to arrive 17th National Congress and the rumours it is causing. A lot of it, as it always does with Chines politics, centres around the Hu and Jiang arm wrestling match. As action news goes, it's a bit dry, but interesting none the less.

Thirty years ago, on December 18-22, the landmark third plenary session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held in Beijing, setting a new direction for the country – reform and opening up. Great changes have taken place since then, from household life to the national strength, from the political field to the economic, sports, cultural, and social fields.

I recently asked my Chinese friends how they thought Chairman Mao would react if he was suddenly brought back to life in the 21st century. “Not happy” and “Disappointed” were the most common answers that I received; I was not surprised by such responses. After all, it is difficult to find very many reasons to label China as communist these days. The ruling party in China still calls itself communist. The international media still likes to refer to China as a communist giant. But where is communism still manifested in China today?

China’s propaganda mandarins are experimenting with a new policy to manage their message in the age of the internet: reporting the news as it happens. This marks an important shift for the ruling Communist Party, accustomed to deciding what will be reported and when.

Taiwan has revised its high-school history textbooks to show that Taiwan is an independent country and not part of China, media reports said Monday.

The China Times said that on the education ministry's order, the title of the national history textbook for high-school - to be used after the winter vacation - has been changed from 'National History' to 'China History'.

In this textbook, terms like 'our country,' 'this country' and 'the mainland' have been changed to 'China' to indicate that Taiwan is not part of China, the daily said.

Chinese artist Li Wei from Beijing started off his performance series ‘Mirroring’ and later on took off attention with his ‘Falls’ series which shows the artist with his head and chest embedded into the ground. His work is a mixture of performance art and photography that creates illusions of a sometimes dangerous reality. Li Wei states that these images are not computer montages and works with the help of props such as mirror, metal wires, scaffolding and acrobatics.

Let's face it: China is an environmentalist's nightmare. The air turns your snot black, the water is filled with toxic chemicals, and "litter" is an idiomatic concept.

Now, with Chongqing's taps running dry and 8 million thirsty people up a creek without any water, China's own Al Gore clones are starting to emerge. One possible candidate is water resources minister Wang Shucheng, who gave a bleak assessment of China's ecological future in his address to the National People's Congress

It's been five years since the idea of allowing private property was brought up with to the National People's Congress.

Six drafts later and the legislation seems it may be