This Saturday night sees the last Star Ferry leaving from the old Hong Kong side wharf as the government continues in its efforts to move the wharf so close to the Kowloon side the ferry will serve as a bridge instead of a mode of transport. Conveniently located on a stretch of reclaimed land in front of Hong Kong's tallest homage of the phallus, the IFC, the new terminal looks exactly the same as the old one minus decades of grime. Happily the old terminal will soon be demolished to make way for a highway. It's great to watch progress in action.

To finish the week on a more high brow note, latest editions of both the Jamestown Foundation's China Brief and the Hoover Institution's China Leadership Monitor are out. The highlights:

Nan Li looks at new developments in the PLA's operational doctrine, which nicely leads into James Mulvenon's analysis of new trends in Chinese military corruption (who knew a place with thousands of years of history can find new corruption trends?). There's also a Ricahrd Weitz piece on the Sino-Russian arms dilemma and one on defense reform in Taiwan.

In the politics and economics area Barry Naughton talks about another cycle of macroeconomic crackdown (crackdown being the obligatory sensationalist word to use on anything China) which suggests China's economic policy is too rigid for its dynamic economy. Josephy Fewsmith looks at a Zhejiang city's experiment with opening up the budget process to public scrutiny within a "consultative democracy" framework and Alice Miller ponders the Hu succession problem.

Finally Alan Romberg disuccs the Taiwan-China-US triangle, saying Taiwan domestic politics will overshadow everything else, although with the newly elected Democrats looking to scratch their protectionist itch this could well be superceded by economic issues.

Happy reading, although you may not have enough time on the new 2 minute Star Ferry ride to get through it all.