Some say China will grow old before it grows rich, or that its economy, riven with corruption and distorted by increasing state control, is a house of cards. Perhaps. But Xi or no Xi, a country as powerful as China has become will remain an economic and strategic threat so long as it remains a one-party totalitarian state

Julia Gillard has spent the week ducking, weaving, disembling and presenting herself as the very picture of  outraged probity. It is an image that tarnishes under the light of scrutiny 

Emerging in fits and starts, most often from thickets of lawyerly split hairs, Prime Minister Gillard's defence of her honesty and integrity has so far failed to satisfy. Examine her words then and now, and the question of credibility looms large

Links to Quadrant Online's forensic examination of Julia Gillard's latest attempt to make the Wilson-AWU scandal go away