Politics
Global Times
Editorial on Hunan vote fraud: "The second shock is that the central authorities had the guts to expose the scandal, and swept over the entire municipal People's Congress without regard to the negative influence on the image of the authorities."
Bloomberg
China’s top government auditor Liu Jiayi pledges to watch levels of debt and spending closely to ensure the country’s fiscal stability.
Southern Metropolis Daily*
Huang Shuhe, the deputy head of China's state-assets administration, vows to punish loss-making state-owned enterprises in 2014.
People's Daily*
The PLA's armaments department has asked its party member cadres to submit information on real estate, cars.

Society
Financial Times
The rise of Chinese studying overseas has been particularly dramatic among lower-middle-class families: up to the end of 2009 students from such families made up only 2 per cent, by the end of 2010 the proportion had risen to 34 per cent.
Radio Free Asia
Chinese authorities have refused to inform the family of the whereabouts of Abduweli Ayup, a 39-year-old promoter of the Uygur language, since he was arrested in August for allegedly illegally collecting donations to run Uygur schools in Xinjiang.
Daily Beast
Chinese science fiction has become so mainstream that Xinhua News Agency found a way to bring practitioners of the genre, such as bestselling author Liu Cixin, into their campaign to use the lunar breakthrough to buttress national pride.
Wall Street Journal - China Real Time Report
The new story for the - now banned - computer game Battlefield 4 draws from the premise that a Chinese military leader has decided to attack American forces as part of an attempted coup.

Economy
New York Times
Private equity fund A Capital predicts that Chinese outbound investment will equal inward investment within the next three years.
Quartz
Two of China’s biggest banks, Bank of China and China Merchants Bank, have recently made plans to adopt “living wills,” or plans to wind themselves down in the event they fail without relying on a government bailout.
DigiTimes
The Ministry of Commerce is reviewing Microsoft's planned acquisition of Nokia's Devices and Services Unit for possible violations of its antitrust laws, and may take the opportunity to require Microsoft and Nokia lower their licensing fees.
China Dialogue
China National Petroleum Corporation is on the brink of taking on oil and gas rights across more than 1 million hectares of Peru’s Amazon.

Foreign affairs
Phnom Penh Post
Garment workers strike: Factory owners will find it advantageous to pay the wage hike, rather than miss out on huge profit potential to absorb China’s shrinking garment output, says the head of the opposition Sam Rainsy.
Kachin News Group
Chinese constructors are confident they can resume construction of the controversial Myitsone dam, poised to be Myanmar's largest.
East Asia Forum
Rather than choosing one of the traditionally important days on the Yasukuni Shrine’s calendar, Abe chose to make his symbolic gesture on 26 December - the first anniversary of his own return to power.
Wall Street Journal
China has given Venezuela US$5 billion in credits under a deal reached in September, says President Nicolás Maduro.