The move away from a planned economy and the apprenticeship of capitalism, which is sometimes uncontrolled in the real estate sector, have led to a series of imbalances between cities and the countryside. It is possible to think that the worst imbalances (in terms of the human and environmental costs of urbanization), which were wittingly accepted for a long time in order to allow the country to open up and to promote break-neck growth, are tolerated less and less and becoming politically intolerable. Urbanization has definitively and deeply modified daily life in China and the expectations of the population, even if these are not expressed in the ballot box. This article assesses China's unprecedented urbanization movement and describes the changes in China's rules of the game, together with the emergence of a more-or-less chaotic real estate market.

Nowadays it is not so much food security but food safety that is the preoccupation of the Chinese authorities. China seems to have recently discovered that without an adequate regulatory system in place it is impossible to curb food-related crises. Consumers' growing mistrust as well as the sometimes-tainted image of Chinese food products overseas - essential for exports - has spurred the authorities into action. After an initial review of the safety context in China, this article explains the measures taken by the authorities to curb the incidents and will try to assess the weight of consumers in this system in progress.

This content is published in French only: Consommation alimentaire et sécurité sanitaire des aliments en Chine

Should we consider Ukraine a transit country in deadlock, and reduce its energy role just to that of a transit country? Definitely not, because Ukraine is at once a large gas consumer and producer, and possesses massive storage capacity. But the economic and political situation of the country is alarming, even without considering the possibility of another gas crisis Without such a crisis, however, the event of Ukrainian bankruptcy would attract less broad international attention simply because it would not have direct impact on European gas consumers.