This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

Scroll down for today's other posts.

• Strategypage comments on Chinese blogs, saying: It's estimated that about a million Chinese are now running blogs (web logs.) This, for Chinese security officials, is worse than chat rooms and bulletin boards. That would explain why there have been days of protests over the crackdown on university BBS, whereas the crackdown on Chinese blogs passed relatively quietly. Chinese security officials are worried about free expression online. But all this blog boosterism gets in the way of the reality - in China it is the chat rooms and bulliten boards are most worried about. Glenn Reynolds needs help with the tricks of Chinese bloggers, just in case. Let's get a bunch of mainland bloggers together and put out a book.
• It's nice to have friends. China and North Korea's Premiers got together and China offered help in promoting North Korea's economy and improving living standards "in terms of both spirit and material". Curiously there was no mention of nuclear weapons.
• The Tony Pierce/Xiaxue love-in continues. And Mr Brown is helping everybody join in the fun...mine is in the extended entry. The original is still the best.
• (10:16) It seems Danwei has been co-opted by Xinhua, China's official news outlet. While most of the blogosphere is over up in arms over Google's news sources it's good to see the monolithic Chinese media machine using bloggers. Even if they didn't ask permission. It looked like China was cracking down on journalists and threatening severe penalties for those impersonating them. Now it looks like they are outsourcing to blogs.
• I don't know how I missed this, but Xinhua had this article: French media give great, objective coverage to Anti-Secession Law. Objective being in the eye of the beholder. And people say irony is passe. Update: Jeremy from the now semi-official news source Danwei adds his $0.02.
• (14:05) ESWN goes into greater detail on the Chinese BBS crackdown. He observes:

  So this whole affair should not be considered as a one-dimensional crackdown on democratic aspirations for political freedom. According to the first excerpt, free speech was never really there before. According to the second excerpt, some people don't really care about democracy or any such, but only wanted a public forum to interact with the outside world on academic research. There must surely be other points of view as well. So what was the whole crackdown about? It was more about the idea that the BBS's pose a potential problem, and it was better to nip in the bud. This is counterproductive because the BBS's had been serving productive functions and the information flow will continue through other channels anyway.

  He also notes a similar situation happening in downtown Yonkers, as reported by the NYT, and the disgusting racist postings on one popular Chinese BBS after Condi Rice's visit. As ESWN, where's the great net nanny when you need it?
• (19:56) Brad Setser follows up his trip to China with thoughts on the renminbi.

This one's for you, Mr Brown...(via Jonathan Leger)