Is China to blame for soaring global food prices? Not as much as everyone seems to think says Nicholas Lardy, an economist with the Peterson Institute of International Economics in Washington. Lardy is quoted in the second instalment of a five-part series on world food prices by NPR. And China's rice farmers certainly don't seem to be reaping the benefits. While inflation is arguably China's key economic headache right now, and soaring prices for food shoulders a fair proportion of the blame, the Economic Observer carries a lament from China’s rice farmers that they can’t unload their crop at a fair price due to a local surplus.

For more on food, check out the USDA Economic Research Service's monthly update on the China agricultural sector, covering 350 crops at both the national and provincial level.

Recent snowstorms have given fresh ammunition to China's power grid companies as they fight against Beijing's desire for them to divest non-core businesses as part of ongoing power reforms. While hospitals, hotels and other unrelated holdings are rightfully still in the firing line, divesting grid subsidiaries that oversee the construction and maintenance of power transmission lines and other infrastructure no longer looks like such a good idea.

Silicon Hutong’s David Wolf has an excellent piece on China's cable TV industry and its lackluster prospects for the future despite its already 139 million-strong subscriber base.

The Washington Post's Ariana Eunjung Cha takes a look at China's new labor law and the headaches it is causing businesses.

China is also hoping to extend industrial tariffs. Unsurprisingly, other WTO members are not thrilled.