As more academics earn degrees abroad and go back to posts in China, informal networks are created that help outsiders check on the quality of applicants.

ECONOMIST: Academic fraud in China

But China asserts no claim, and you could go back to Kublai Khan to argue that China was in fact part of Mongolia.

ECONOMIST: A tug of war between commercial logic and popular sentiment

If you look at a comparison of price-to-earnings in China to those in emerging markets, you have to go back to 2006 to find that ratio as low as it is today.

FORBES: World Starting To See Big Bargains In Chinese Stocks

But in practice, its only answer is to try to tempt North Korea back to feckless multilateral disarmament talks that will go nowhere because China supports North Korean armament.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Rocking Obama's world

Operating in a country with a history of thousands of years -- and ways of doing business that go back as far -- it is valuable to develop insight into China's business culture and social etiquette to avoid misunderstandings that could scuttle deals and harm working relationships.

CNN: Doing business in China: Five tips for success

One thing that I was relieved to discover when I reached the end of the book was that, while I certainly gained new insights into many specific issues from reading it, nothing I came across in Awakening Giants caused me to wish I could go back and alter fundamentally anything about my own brief treatment of China-India comparisons in China in the 21st Century.

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First is a look at China's historic ties to oil-exporting Sudan ties that go back more than a century.

NPR: Series Overview: China's Rising Power in Africa

Back in October Beijing unexpectedly changed the rules to force all document shipments within China to go via China Post.

FORBES: Off Shore