WORLD: "Rebuilding The Middle Kingdom: To cushion itself against recession, China is investing in one of the most ambitious public-works programs ever seen," by Simon Elegant and Austin Ramzy, Time, 1 June 2009.

Clear proof that Time actually remains a news magazine: Look! An actual story!

Bit of a misdirect on the causality: this build-out long in the planning and making and executing. It was merely sped up in response to the global economic crisis, but it was going to unfold anyway.

Good overview, with the usual stuff sprinkled in about China's "growing assertiveness" that, to me at least, consists mostly of complaining.