Government efforts to cool the property sector have had little effect. Guo Jun, the chairman of the SOMO Real Estate Group and a columnist for China Real Estate News, argues on sina.com that the government first needs to address the conflict between property's role as a commodity and as a cornerstone of the nation's welfare requirements.

Investment in China’s shopping mall sector is booming, but as Jin Jing writes in the Shanghai Daily, it is a case of too much too soon.

In a strongly worded speech carried in the People’s Daily on July 12, Vice Premier Hui Liangyu warns that President Hu Jintao’s wish for sustainable development in China could become an empty slogan unless a solid institutional framework for development can be established to control local government.