远行

IN THE year 15AD, during the short-lived Xin dynasty, a rumour spread that a yellow dragon, a symbol of the emperor, had inauspiciously crashed into a temple in the mountains of central China and died. Ten thousand people rushed to the site. The emperor Wang Mang, aggrieved by such seditious gossip, ordered arrests and interrogations to quash the rumour, but never found the source. He was dethroned and killed eight years later, and Han-dynasty rule was restored.

公元15年，亦即短命的新朝年间，一则不祥的谣言在四下传播：一条象征帝王的黄龙撞触死在了帝国中部的一座山庙上，上万人赶到了现场。皇帝王莽被这条煽动性的谣言激怒，下令逮捕和审讯造谣者以此来粉碎谣言，可他始终没有找到谣言到底起于何处。八年之后，王莽被废黜帝位并被杀害，汉帝重新即位。

The next ruler, Emperor Guangwu, took a different approach, studying rumours

IN OUR nearly 170-year history, The Economist’s coverage of China’s Boxer Uprising of 1900 was not a high point. On July 21st 1900, under the headline, “The Situation in China”, we reported without a shred of doubt that the Chinese government had “succeeded in murdering all the Ambassadors of all the Powers who sent representatives to Pekin, with their wives, secretaries, interpreters, and guards.” We adjudged that “China has deliberately inflicted upon all Europe andJapan an insult without a precedent in history,” and that Europe “must avenge it in some adequate way.”

在《经济学人》近170年的历中，对1900年中国义和团运动的报道不算出众。1900年7月21日的《中国形势》以不容置疑的口吻写道：“中国政府终于对向北京派驻代表的强国举起屠刀，杀害了各国大使以及他们的夫人、秘书、翻译和卫

The politics of economic reform中国的经济改革

The bees get busy改革派为影响“新朝”四处奔忙

CHINA’S reformers have had a few bad years. A booming economy, they complain, has sapped the government’s will to do battle on their behalf against increasingly powerful interest groups which see no need for change. But as the Communist Party prepares to hand power to a younger generation of leaders later this year, reformists see a glimmer of opportunity. They hope to challenge the assumption that the leadership transition will inevitably be a period of risk-avoidance and caution over policy.

中国改革派过去几年的日子可不好过。他们抱怨经济繁荣让政府不再愿意对日益庞大、止步不前的利益集团刮骨疗毒。但是，共产党即将在下半年进行权力交接让改革派又看到了一丝希望。普遍认为随领导层更替而来的必将是一段保守、谨慎的执政期，他们却在推动着另一种可能性。

After three decades of migrating to the coast, the inland population is increasingly working closer to its roots 

30年漂泊沿海地区之后，越来越多的内地打工者开始返乡工作

“RETURN to your hometown to work and care for your family”, reads a red banner strung over the main street of Fuxing, a hillside town in the heart of China. Until recently, farmers in surrounding villages dreamt only of getting away from their pumpkin patches and earning good wages in factories on the coast more than 1,000km (625 miles) away. Officials were happy to be rid of them. Now they are desperate to get them to stay.

“返乡工作照顾家人”，位于中国中部的山边小镇福兴镇，大街上挂着一条红色横幅这么写道。就在这阵子之前，周边村镇的农民都梦想着离开自己的破屋，到1000公里(625英里)远的沿海城市工厂挣大钱。而地方政府也乐意摆脱这些贫民。但现在政府迫切地让他们留下来。