Happiness Abounds as Country Cheers

A friend in Shanghai writes to scold me for missing an obvious opportunity. When I reported yesterday the very welcome financial developments for our magazine, I used a blah headline to the effect of "Good News for the Atlantic." As my friend points out, this should have been the long-sought chance to repurpose a classic headline from my favorite newspaper, the (state controlled) China Daily:



So, there's the headline, at the top of this item. Better late than never.

China Daily is also the segue to a weightier issue: official China's handling of the selection of Liu Xiaobo for the Nobel Peace Prize. There's more to say here, which will include my best-faith effort to present the perspective of some Chinese readers (none of them government officials) who feel offended by the prize. I don't agree with them, but it's worth hearing their arguments -- which I'll do shortly, when I have "time."

For now, it's heartening to see that China Daily has lived up to its own standards in coverage of the award ceremony. Click for larger, or read the full story here: