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BEIJING: Japanese Premier Yoshihiko Noda's ongoing India visit aimed at boosting bilateral strategic ties was part of Tokyo's attempt to strengthen its alliances with Asia-Pacific nations to "contain" China, the official media here claimed today. Boosting ties with India is part of Japan's strategy of strengthening alliances with Asia-Pacific nations with an eye on China, state-run China Daily quoted security analysts as saying. The India-Japan summit is a continuance of Japan's "Arc of Freedom and Prosperity" strategy, which has been widely interpreted as an effort to contain China, Lu Yaodong, director of the department of Japanese diplomacy at the Institute...

Beijing city authorities on Friday issued new rules requiring microbloggers to register their real names before posting online, as the Chinese government tightens its grip on the Internet. The city government now requires users of weibos -- the Chinese version of Twitter -- to give their real names to website administrators, its official news portal said. The new rules will apply to weibo operators based in Beijing, which include Sina -- owner of China's most popular microblogging service which has more than 200 million users. "Websites with weibo operations must establish and improve a system of content censorship," according to...

Home schools emerged in many places of China today due to the parents' concern about the public education, the China Youth Daily reported Monday.A growing number of parents in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces are choosing to let their children receive an education at home rather than attend public kindergartens, primary, junior or senior middle schools.Some parents think their children cannot realize the happiness of learning, acquire useful knowledge effectively and master learning for a modern society through the current methods taught in schools. A recent seminar about launching home school projects was held by 21st Century Education Research...

*57-year-old accused of 'creating a public disturbance' *Show caused 'public disorder and chaos' *Artist wished to beautify love-making, lawyer claims A Chinese artist has been ordered to serve a year's re-education after he performed live sex as part of an exhibition, Chinese sources report. Cheng Li was detained and sentenced after his lewd public show in Songzhuang in eastern Beijing - and will now endure 11 months labour for his prurient act. The 57-year-old's actions - which are akin to those you might see in an Amsterdam peep show - apparently led to 'public disorder and chaos' in the capital...

Beijing to Track People's Movements via Their Mobile Phones By Michael Kan Mar 4, 2011 12:50 AM China plans on tracking the movements of people in Beijing using their mobile phones, a measure that while aimed at relieving traffic congestion, could set off concerns over misuse. China announced the plans in an article posted on a government website earlier this week. The system would work by tracking the movements of the 17 million users in Beijing currently signed on with the telecommunications carrier China Mobile. Once the users turned on their phone, the system could pinpoint their location and what...

Aircraft, cargo ships and fishing boats are moving towards Libya to evacuate Chinese nationals living in the North African country. Tunisian, Turkish and other workers are fleeing the country as well. Tripoli – China will send a jet, ships and fishing vessels from nearby waters to evacuate some 33,000 Chinese nationals working in violence-torn Libya. The government has set up an emergency unit headed by Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang to coordinate the repatriation of mainlanders, as well as people from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The State Council (cabinet) “decided to immediately deploy...

Chinese authorities moved quickly and with force to quash a pro-democracy 'Jasmine Revolution', believed to have been inspired by the recent uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. More police than usual were scrambled to line the streets today, and there were a number of activists detained after online sites had organised staged protests in Beijing, Shanghai and 11 other major cities. Citizens were urged to shout: 'We want food, we want work, we want housing, we want fairness' - a slogan that highlights common complaints among ordinary Chinese.

As Beijing's real estate prices rise, those who cannot afford the rent go underground -- literally. Hundreds of cellars and air-raid shelters are rented as living spaces. For 27-year-old Dong Ying, Beijing is a city of dreams. Two years ago, the sports teacher relocated to the Chinese metropolis. Here, she hoped, her wishes for a more interesting life would be fulfilled. She goes from fitness club to fitness club every day, working as a trainer. She pedals, she bends and straightens and ensures that the affluent city residents stay in shape. To reach her students, she spends four hours each...

Watch this video. You won't regret it.

The air forces of China and Turkey have carried out a joint exercise, the U.S. Defense Department said on Friday, in what appeared to be the first such drill involving Beijing and a NATO member country. Turkey assured the United States it would take the "utmost care" to protect sensitive U.S. and NATO technologies, said U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Tamara Parker, a department spokeswoman. She described Turkey's government as committed to the NATO alliance and the continuation of strong ties to the United States. "To the best of our knowledge, U.S.-made F-16s were not involved in the exercise," Parker said....

China recently conducted a long-range missile flight test that remains shrouded in secrecy. The Sept. 25 test highlights what China military specialists say is the growing threat posed by Beijing's development of long- and short-range ballistic and cruise missiles, and its new missile defense interceptors. A U.S. official confirmed that China's military fired a missile from the Taiyuan missile center, about 320 miles southwest of Beijing, to Korla, a city in western China some 1,800 miles away. Officials declined to provide details, saying the test data are classified. China watchers in Asia and the United States were alerted to the...

HUAIAN COUNTY, CHINA—So you think struggling home from Ontario’s cottage country was tough? Think again. And consider, if you will, the case of Chinese trucker Pang Laisuo. On Sunday his coal-laden transport truck was caught in a traffic jam near here, about 240 kilometres north of Beijing. Pang knew he’d have something of a wait. What he didn’t know was that it would last 18 hours. “Everyone who pulled up at 4 o’clock Sunday afternoon ended up being stuck there until 10 o’clock Monday morning,” says Pang, a lean and grizzled man in his 50s speaking at a roadside stop...

A nine-day traffic jam outside Beijing has drivers fuming, street vendors turning a quick profit and Chinese traffic authorities struggling for answers. Traffic has been slowed to a crawl since August 14 on a 100-kilometer stretch of National Expressway 110 that runs between Beijing and Heibei province. Officials say the jam is caused by an increase in trucks carrying goods to Beijing and by highway maintenance work along the route. Highways have become numerous and complicated in and around Beijing in recent years as the Chinese public has made a large shift to motorized travel over the past 30 years....

Now on Drudge: "BEIJING – The government calls it "sealed management." China's capital has started gating and locking some of its lower-income neighborhoods overnight, with police or security checking identification papers around the clock, in a throwback to an older style of control."

We have all found ourselves riding around town looking for a place to park our car, just to find them all taken. So we decide to drive around the block a few times in the hopes that someone will leave and we can grab the spot. Then just about the time we are ready to give up the hunt, we spot a person getting into their car. Finally we have a sense of relief knowing that we will soon have a choice spot to park our car. Well in this video you will be presented with two men in...

BEIJING (Reuters) – North Korean border guards shot and killed three Chinese suspected smugglers and wounded a fourth last week, prompting a complaint from Pyongyang's only major ally, China's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. China formally complained to Pyongyang, and the incident was being investigated, ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a regular news briefing in the Chinese capital. "In the early morning on June 4, North Korea's border defense troops fired at some citizens of Dandong in Liaoning province, because they were suspected of illegally crossing the border to trade," Qin said. "Three people were killed, and one was wounded."...

An MGM remake of the 1984 film "Red Dawn" - this time, with the Chinese and the Russians as the enemies - has drawn sharp criticism from one of the leading Chinese state-run newspapers two days in a row. "U.S. reshoots Cold War movie to demonize China" and "American movie plants hostile seeds against China," read the Monday and Tuesday editorials in the Beijing-based Global Times,whose daily circulation, in Chinese and English editions,is about 1.5 million. Coming on the heels of secretary of state Hilary Clinton's China visit, the commentaries said the $42 million film, directed by Dan Bradley and...

Russian experts arrived in Seoul on Monday to review findings of an investigation that blamed North Korea for the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship, as the South sought to build support for U.N. punishment of the North. If Russia endorses the multinational probe's conclusions, the move could convince China and other major powers to support possible U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang for the sinking two months ago of the Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors. The South Koreans shared the investigation's findings with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao last weekend before a summit, but Beijing has yet to blame North Korea...

Last month was the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). At the naval parade held to commemorate the event, in front of delegations from 29 countries, PLAN Commander General Wu Shengli declared that Beijing intended to build aircraft carriers, spurring widespread speculation over China’s blue-water ambitions. So what should we make of Beijing’s assertiveness and openness about its carrier plans? My advice: ignore it. Traditional measures of naval power fail to give an accurate picture of China’s maritime ambitions and capabilities. Beijing currently lacks the hardware and skills to keep a carrier at sea,...

High-level lobbying by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has failed to persuade the Chinese leadership to do anything substantial regarding Pyongyang's sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan in late March. Diplomatic sources in the Chinese capital said State Councillor Dai Bingguo privately told the American delegation — which just ended the second bilateral Strategic and Economic Dialogue (SED) in Beijing — that Chinese diplomats would privately urge the Kim Jong-Il regime to refrain from further provocative acts against South Korea. But there would be no public statements from Beijing condemning Kim’s latest act of brinksmanship. At the end of...

Diplomacy: When the U.S. sends its top diplomat and No. 1 economic official to the same country at the same time, it expects results. By that measure, our high-level overture to China this week was a big disappointment. The trip of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to China this week can only be called a diplomatic failure. The U.S. has several things on its plate right now that require Chinese cooperation. They include help in financing our soaring debt, which on Wednesday passed $13 trillion for the first time, and getting North Korea, a Chinese...

Beijing Hey kids, wanna go to the zoo today and look at the crocodiles? And then maybe eat one? The meat might be pungent, but the concept seems somewhat tasteless. The Beijing Zoo puts the same animals on its restaurant menu as it keeps behind bars. Crocodile, kangaroo, antelope, and hippopotamus are among the species that visitors can go the zoo to admire on the hoof, and then savor at lunch – steamed, braised, or roasted – at the Bin Feng Tang restaurant.

Taiwan's former security chief has confirmed for the first time that Taipei and Beijing used secret communications channels from 2008 as they worked to thaw glacial ties, it was reported Sunday. Su Chi, who was chief of the National Security Council until earlier this year, said in an interview with the Taipei-based United Daily News that the sensitive channels helped build trust between the longtime foes. He said the National Security Council did not talk directly to authorities on the mainland, but declined to provide details of the secret channels. "In my office, there were no hotlines. I did not...

The reclusive leader is expected to demand sweeteners to rein in its military and return to the international talks on nuclear disarmament.Reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-il arrived in China yesterday in search of economic support and diplomatic protection from his only major ally, after bungled policies at home and military grandstanding that has exasperated the region. China, which has propped up the North’s leaders for decades, is becoming increasingly fed up with its provocative neighbor, analysts say, but it is willing to bankroll Kim to prevent chaos on its border. Kim, aware of Beijing’s predicament, is expected to demand...

As South Korea is likely to bring the matter of the deadly sinking of the warship Cheonan to the United Nations Security Council amid growing suspicions of North Korean involvement, China is also becoming the focus of attention as a veto-wielding permanent council member. "Obviously, the incident puts South Korea on the spot. But it also puts China on the spot too because China has been endlessly indulging North Korea," Aidan Foster-Carter, honorary senior research fellow in sociology and modern Korea at Leeds University told The Korea Times. The Cheonan, a navy frigate, was on a routine patrol on March...

China inaugurated a missile plan in Iran last month, even as the United States and its allies were pressing Beijing to support a new round of tough economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, Jane's Defense Weekly reports. It's a military relationship that goes back two decades and, in light of Russia's reluctance to provide the Iranians with advanced air-defense missile system to counter possible U.S. or Israeli airstrikes, is set to expand. Robert Hewson, editor of Jane's Air-Launched Weapons, reported that the factory for assembling and producing Iran's Nasr-1 -- Victory 1 -- anti-ship missile was...

About 25 years ago, an American intelligence officer was asked how far the Chinese could project military power. His terse answer: “About as far as their army can walk.” Today, that statement is most assuredly no longer true. China has accomplished perhaps the most remarkable expansion of military power since the US geared up for World War II. In the last 15 years it has deployed nuclear and conventional missiles that can reach US forces from the western Pacific to Washington, D.C. China’s military is also assembling a set of capabilities designed to avoid or offset traditional US advantages. This...

China warned the U.S. on Thursday against any future arms sales to Taiwan and reaffirmed its decision to suspend military exchanges over Washington's decision last month to sell $6.4 billion in military hardware to the island. China demands that the U.S. "speak and act cautiously" to avoid further damaging ties and upsetting relations between Beijing and Taiwan, Defense Ministry spokesman Huang Xueping was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency. Huang also said there had been no change in Beijing's decision last month to put off military contacts in protest over the Obama administration's decision to sell $6.4...

China on Friday stepped up the pressure on the United States, voicing fresh anger over an upcoming visit to Washington by the Dalai Lama and pledging a response to a giant US arms sale to Taiwan. With relations between the two nations deteriorating over a set of disputes, China said that it made a "solemn representation" to Washington about President Barack Obama's upcoming meeting with the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled leader. "China resolutely opposes the visit by the Dalai Lama to the United States, and resolutely opposes US leaders having contact with the Dalai Lama," foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu...

U.S. President Barack Obama has spent much of the last 12 months emphasizing the "mutual interests" that Washington shares with Beijing and the "mutual respect" they feel toward one another, despite inevitable disputes. Democratic members of Congress have held their tongues as Obama does his wooing; Republicans have seethed at the soft approach. Yet valiant though his attempts may have been to convince the Chinese (and himself) that power is not a zero-sum game, 2009 proved the opposite. Last year, Obama was ignored, rebuffed, and even humiliated by Beijing. And now the grievances on both sides are piling up: U.S....

Paulson: Crazy Putin Pushed China To Dump Fannie Bonds And Crush The U.S. Financial System Vincent Fernando | Jan. 29, 2010, 9:59 AM | 3,478 | comment 32 Tags: Economy, Markets, China, Credit Crisis, Politics Some scary details have emerged from Hank Paulson's memoirs. Allegedly, it appears Russia may have tried to conspire with China in a bid to collapse the U.S. financial system. They were hoping to sell Fannie and Freddie bonds during a time when the U.S. economy was on the ropes. This happened back around the Beijing Olympics, when the U.S. was supporting Georgia against Russia in...

One of the world's trickiest relationships is being tested in devastated Haiti, where China and Taiwan are rushing aid to one of Taipei's few remaining diplomatic allies. Taiwan even announced that its president would personally deliver earthquake aid later this month. Since the two sides split amid civil war six decades ago, China has used aid to try to persuade countries to cut relations with Taiwan and weaken the self-governing island's claim to independence. Meanwhile, Taiwan has used financial support to try to keep the few small, mostly impoverished nations that recognize it. But while the aid to Haiti comes...

China on Tuesday again warned the United States against selling arms to Taiwan, amid media speculation that Washington could soon act on the island's request for new weapons. "We firmly oppose the US selling arms to Taiwan," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters at a regular briefing, saying Beijing has had "serious consultations" with Washington on the issue. "We urge the US to recognise the gravity of selling arms to Taiwan... cancel any plans to sell arms to Taiwan and stop selling arms to Taiwan so as not to damage China-US relations." Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou, despite warming ties...

BEIJING (Reuters) – A man who killed and ate what may have been the last wild Indochinese tiger in China was sentenced to 12 years in jail, local media reported on Tuesday. Kang Wannian, a villager from Mengla, Yunnan Province, met the tiger in February while gathering freshwater clams in a nature reserve near China's border with Laos. He claimed to have killed it in self-defense. The only known wild Indochinese tiger in China, photographed in 2007 at the same reserve, has not been seen since Kang's meal, the Yunnan-based newspaper Life News reported earlier this month. The paper quoted...

COPENHAGEN — China’s climate negotiators have told Western counterparts they can’t agree to an “operational agreement” on climate change that President Barack Obama had hoped to bring home from Copenhagen –- and will push for a short, noncommittal collective statement at the end of the talks, according to American staffers briefed on the situation. It’s not clear if remarks by Chinese officials, made during negotiating sessions on Wednesday night, signal the end of efforts to reach a significant agreement or simply represent an 11th hour bargaining tactic less than a day before Obama was due to arrive in Copenhagen. But...

Note: The following text is a quote: Home • Briefing Room • Speeches & Remarks The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release November 16, 2009 Remarks by President Barack Obama at Town Hall Meeting with Future Chinese Leaders Museum of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China 1:18 P.M. CST PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good afternoon. It is a great honor for me to be here in Shanghai, and to have this opportunity to speak with all of you. I'd like to thank Fudan University's President Yang for his hospitality and his gracious welcome. I'd also like to thank our...

China pointing about 1,500 missiles at Taiwan: Taipei official by Staff Writers Taipei (AFP) Oct 19, 2009 China now has about 1,500 missiles pointed at Taiwan, with no signs that the build-up is about to stop anytime soon, a spokesman for the island's government said Monday. The figure includes short-range ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, the defence ministry spokesman told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The number of missiles has been rising. We don't know when it will stop increasing," said the spokesman. He was speaking ahead of the release Tuesday of the ministry's annual report, which will include an...

BEIJING — Toothbrushes and nylon socks have become the latest projectiles in the continuing trade skirmish between the China and the United States. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce issued a preliminary ruling Monday that imposed a 36 percent tariff on American-made Nylon 6, a synthetic filament that ends up in a wide array of products, including toothbrushes, auto parts, socks and the handles of Glock handguns. Nylon 6 from Taiwan and Russia would also be taxed, but at much lower rates.

India raised the pitch of an increasingly testy row with China over disputed border areas Wednesday, warning Beijing about its involvement in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. "The Chinese side is fully aware of India's position and our concerns about Chinese activities," Indian foreign ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said in response to a Chinese statement that it would remain engaged in Pakistan. "We hope that the Chinese side will take a long-term view of the India-China relations and cease such activities in areas illegally occupied by Pakistan," Prakash said. The remarks came a day after India and China traded diplomatic jabs over a...

China said Saturday it was confident it could ensure the nation's safety after an Al-Qaeda leader called on members of the mainly Muslim Uighur minority in Xinjiang to launch a jihad against Beijing. "The Chinese government has the confidence and the ability to protect the safety of the nation, of people's lives and property," foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement faxed to AFP. Ma was reacting to a call made this week by Abu Yahia al-Libi, one of Al-Qaeda's top leaders, in a video recording posted on an Islamist website, according to the SITE Intelligence group. "Let...

A souvenir shop in the popular Houhai tourist area of Beijing has recently become quite famous because it is selling products with the image of U.S. President Barack Obama's face imprinted over that of China's late leader Mao Zedong, CCTV.com reports. T-shirts and pouches with the "Oba Mao" design, a creative idea by shop owner Liu Mingjie, have attracted the attention of many foreign tourists. "We usually sell souvenirs printed with historical figures," Liu said. "Oba Mao is my new creation. The souvenirs with this logo are quite popular among visitors, foreign tourists in particular." The shop has sold thousands...

Two dead, 14 hurt in Beijing knife attacks Fri Sep 18, 2:12 am ET BEIJING (AFP) – A Chinese man stabbed two people to death and injured 14 others in Beijing, state media said Friday, in an attack likely to highlight security fears ahead of China's National Day celebrations. Beijing police said in a statement that Zhang Jianfei, a 46-year-old man from northeastern Jilin province, was arrested in connection with Thursday evening's assault near Tiananmen Square. The police statement said 14 people were hurt but made no mention of any deaths, and police declined further comment when contacted by AFP....

Two Chinese helicopters have reportedly violated the Indian airspace in recent months in Leh area of north Jammu and Kashmir during which they air-dropped some canned food in barren land at Chumar, northeast of this Himalayan town, along the border. ( Watch Video ) The MI series helicopters were reported to the nearby defence post by residents of this high altitude area living along the Pangong lake, located in the lap of majestic hills, prompting the Army Aviation Corps to rush its Cheetah and Chetak helicopters. However, they could only find tell-tale signs left by Chinese helicopters which hovered in...

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Serbian President Boris Tadic on Thursday agreed to establish a strategic partnership between the two countries. During their talks held Thursday afternoon, the two heads of state exchanged views on building and developing a strategic partnership and reached a broad consensus. Chinese President Hu Jintao (L) welcomes visiting Serbian President Boris Tadic in Beijing, capital of China, on Aug. 20, 2009.(Xinhua/Ma Zhancheng)Hu highly valued Chinese relations with Serbia, saying the two peoples have traditional friendship and no matter what happened in the world, the relations between the two countries have developed healthily. He put forward...

LOS ANGELES—In two separate cases, three men have been sentenced to federal prison for attempting to transport sensitive and advanced U.S. technology to the People's Republic of China (PRC). Two men were sentenced yesterday, and another man linked to one of the schemes was sentenced last week to five years in prison. William Chi-Wai Tsu, 61, a Beijing resident, was sentenced yesterday to 40 months imprisonment for his role in exporting high-tech integrated circuits with military applications to the PRC. In a separate case, Tah Wei Chao, 53, of Beijing, was sentenced yesterday to 20 months imprisonment after pleading guilty...

When top US and Chinese officials meet on Monday for the first high-level talks of the Obama administration, the American complaints about China’s currency that long bedevilled relations will barely be on the table. For years, Washington alleged that Beijing unfairly manipulated its currency, the renminbi, to support exports, and demanded that China allow it to appreciate to force structural changes in its economy. Humbled by the financial crisis and heavily reliant on Beijing to climb out of it, Washington has shifted gear, relegating the currency to a subset of its push for broader economic reforms in China. “The US...

Rioters in China's far west Xinjiang region burned vehicles and blocked traffic in the regional capital Urumqi, and police rushed to the scene to impose order, the state news agency reported on Sunday. Restive Xinjiang is divided between the largely Muslim Uighur people and Han Chinese...

Joseph Zen, the former archbishop of Hong Kong, said the Vatican should harden its line towards Beijing and that a planned meeting of China's officially sanctioned priests and bishops would be a "slap in the face" to Benedict XVI. Catholics who were persecuted by the state in China should be prepared for martyrdom. "If the circumstance so requires, then we must be ready for martyrdom, there is no choice," he said.

China correspondent Stephen McDonell and ABC cameraman Rob Hill saw day turn into night as a freak storm swept across the capital Beijing today."It was pitch black outside and you could see people looking out from the office towers across the road from us," McDonell said."In a couple of the photos you can see a clock in the distance showing it was around 11:30 am local time."The storms were expected to affect western and northern Xinjiang, most part of Inner Mongolia, north-east China and north China.Today's extreme weather follows yesterday's hail storms across eastern China's Anhui province, which killed...

Twenty years ago, in the spring of 1989, millions of Chinese people peacefully demanded democracy from their Communist government. Centered in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the protestors were protected by the populace who set up barriers to keep them free from government intervention. But on the morning of June 4th, the Communist regime ordered tanks and soldiers to quell the protest. The violence and bloodshed that was the result has two opposing witnesses. The Chinese government insisted that 241 people died, whereas the Chinese Red Cross stated that over 2,600 had perished. Two decades later the innocent blood that was...