Society

Here's some reassuring news to send us into the September-October holiday season. In the wake of the Henan Airlines crash in Yichun a fortnight ago that killed 42 people, an investigation by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has revealed that more than 200 commercial pilots in China faked their resumes in 2008-2009. Even more disturbingly, more than half of the pilots with fake qualifications worked for Shenzhen Airlines, which holds a 51 percent share in Henan Airlines.

The State Stamp Bureau of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has issued a new postage stamp to mark the DPRK's National Pavilion Day at the 2010 Shanghai Expo, state media reported on Saturday.

The stamp bears the emblem of the Expo and its theme "Better City, Better Life" written in Korean, Chinese and English, the Korean Central News Agency said.

In the center of the stamps is the DPRK Pavilion's emblem with a picture of Chollima, a symbolic bronze statue of the DPRK.

The Shanghai Expo is the first world expo the DPRK has ever participated in. A total of 43 artists from the Pyongyang Art Group have arrived in China and they will give a performance on Sept. 6, the DPRK Pavilion Day.

The most popular recurring foreign talking point on China’s surging economy in the era of the global financial crisis is something like, “Maybe they have got something figured out over there in Beijing that we don’t.” That is, maybe authoritarian state-led capitalism isn’t all that bad.

Well, I can agree that state capitalism is certainly not bad for the winners, China’s state-owned enterprises. But what about the losers? I am thinking now of some people you might not normally have sympathy for, China’s rich (or once-rich) private entrepreneurs. Over the years I have encountered peasant oil barons, coal mine bosses, private airline chiefs and real estate developers who have all learned to rue the defects of state capitalism. Their stories differ widely but most have the same ending: profitable assets ended up in the hands of the government, and private risk-takers lost.

Philippine police are killing Hong Kong hostages or rescue them?

Finally, Philippine police rescued 10 bodies out the tourism bus.

China is angry after a violent hostage drama in the Philippines killed eight tourists from Hong Kong, and the Southeast Asian nation can do little to soothe the powerhouse, as a raft of visitor cancellations has hit the country's tourism industry.

Tens of thousands of people have marched in Hong Kong to denounce the Philippines and thousands of Chinese tourists canceled flight and hotel bookings. Two Chinese recipients of Asia's most prestigious award failed to show up for the Manila ceremony.

President Benigno Aquino III has asked for China's forgiveness while vowing "someone will pay" for the embarrassing official handling of the 11-hour hostage-taking Aug. 23 that unfolded live on television.