he Times is contemplating an alliance with a local newspaper publisher in China, prompting speculation that it plans a major expansion into the increasingly important market. Recent visits by the editor Robert Thomson to the communist country sparked speculation that the paper could launch a Times insert in a Chinese newspaper, but an exchange programme between British and Chinese journalists is more likely.

Thomson has visited China twice in the past two months and conducted a series of high-level meetings with local editors and marketing executives. The paper has hired Jane Macartney to be its China editor. Macartney, the former Reuters bureau chief in Beijing and southeast Asia, is a fluent Chinese speaker and the paper regards her hiring as a coup. It has also recruited Clifford Coonan to be a "superstringer" to specialise in business and economic news and cover for Macartney when she is travelling.... more