U.S. forces are so heavily saturated with different communication devices that if not transmitted by satellite would cause serious problems. Data flow is so great that there are no adequate available satellites. The Pentagon has quietly hired a Chinese satellite,… Read More ›
A deadlock in icy desert wastelands appears to make little sense as two Asian giants increasingly work together to boost trade and bilateral ties It’s more than 5,000 metres above sea level, cold, inhospitable, uninhabited, with hardly any vegetation or… Read More ›
China’s Black Hole – Let’s face it: We have little idea what’s actually going on in Xinjiang and Tibet. On April 23, 2013, or so it seems, 21 people were killed in the region of Xinjiang in northwest China. According to… Read More ›
China’s PLA (People’s Liberation Army) Daily reported on April 28 that the Chinese Defence Ministry has published a statement that new military license plates have been issued as replacements of old ones, to enhance overall control of military license plates…. Read More ›
Related government agencies and experts in Taiwan are currently conducting evaluations on whether to open an offshore island national park in the South China Sea for tourism and environmental education activities, the Marine National Park Headquarters (MNPH) said recently. “Experts are… Read More ›
That’s one way to get to the top of the class… The terrifying climb of Chinese school children as young as five, forced to scale sheer cliffs to get to school. The mountain-top village of only 100 residents is cut… Read More ›
India‘s Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid has said he will visit China in May amid tensions near the de facto border in the Himalayas. Mr Khurshid’s trip comes ahead of a scheduled visit by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to India. It… Read More ›
Being a Communist Party cadre has its advantages. But there are risks, too. Life as a Chinese government official isn’t what it used to be. Lavish, liquor-heavy banquets have been outlawed. It will soon be harder to get those military license plates,… Read More ›
NATO member Turkey signed up on Friday to became a “dialogue partner” of a security bloc dominated by China and Russia, and declared that its destiny is in Asia. “This is really a historic day for us,” Turkish Foreign Minister… Read More ›
Southeast Asian nations stepped up efforts on Thursday to engage China in talks to resolve maritime tensions, agreeing to meet to try to reach common ground on disputed areas of the South China Sea ahead of planned discussions in Beijing… Read More ›
Shanghai’s busy streets teem with Buicks, Fords, Volkswagens, and Toyotas. More than 9 out of 10 cars in the world’s most populous city are made by foreign companies, and it’s not just a reflection of mainlanders’ preference for Western design. Some local… Read More ›
The company that makes Japan’s legendary Shinkansen bullet trains certainly regrets working in China. One China defender recently claimed his countryman’s “bandit innovators” could be good for the world. That was small consolation for the Japanese, who say that China… Read More ›
Overcrowding on farms around Shanghai was the underlying factor that led to 16,000 dead pigs floating down the Huangpu river into China’s affluent financial centre, according to an analysis of official documents and interviews with farmers in the region. The… Read More ›
From 2005 to 2011, China rapidly developed its nuclear power capacity. In 2010 alone, it began operations at two new reactors and broke ground on 10 more, accounting for more than 60 percent of new reactor construction worldwide and making… Read More ›
A group of lawmakers including Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmaker Hidehisa Otsuji (front 3rd L), Japan Restoration Party member Takeo Hiranuma (front L) and LDP member Sanae Takaichi (front 2nd L) are led by a shinto priest as… Read More ›
Since the new avian flu strain H7N9 began appearing in China earlier this year, it’s infected over 100 people, killed 22, spread to five provinces plus Beijing and Shanghai and, as of Wednesday, is confirmed to have spread abroad to Taiwan. How… Read More ›
The view that war between the US and China is inevitable and that Australia will be drawn into such a conflict is a dangerous miscalculation, says defence white paper author Paul Dibb. The comments to be made tonight by Mr… Read More ›
China will build – from scratch – a large aircraft carrier capable of carrying more fighter jets, the official Xinhua news service reported, quoting a senior officer with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy. China has one aircraft carrier, the Liaoning,… Read More ›
Yarkandi caravan guides on the great Himal’s routes to Leh, might have mapped the journey thus: from the great plains, climb into the pass of the black gravel, the Karakoram. From there, cross the Chip-Chap, the very quiet river, to… Read More ›
Infrastructure costing an estimated $1.6 billion will need to be built in Northern Australia to accommodate a fully-equipped, 2500-strong US Marines task force due in Darwin in about 2016. And it is not clear yet who will foot the bill… Read More ›
For decades, fishermen along the northwestern Philippine coast treated the teeming fishing grounds of the Scarborough Shoal as their backyard, less than a day’s boat ride away. Now, they see it as a foreign country. “I lost my livelihood when… Read More ›
The International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) reported the increasing relevance of Chinese consumption trends in its last global report. China is the 5th market in the world, with a wine consumption value of over 15 million hectolitres (Mhl)… Read More ›
Major parties are neglecting the $2 trillion opportunity of exporting agricultural produce to Asia, instead miring themselves in the “140 character” world of political bickering and failing to provide the vision and leadership required to take the nation forward, says… Read More ›
When looking at Chinese growth, it’s easy to think of the country as one entity, and one figure. Will GDP expand by 8 per cent this year, or “just” 7? However, China is a bit bigger than just one number. With… Read More ›
China is struggling to get its estimated 100 million religious believers to banish superstitious beliefs about things like sickness and death, the country’s top religious affairs official told a state-run newspaper. Wang Zuoan, head of the State Administration of Religious… Read More ›
In spite of its spectacular rise as a global economic power, China is now grappling with concerns such as peasant income declining, widening inequity, worker unrest and corruption, farm productivity dwindling, according to Manoranjan Mohanty, political scientist and faculty member at the Council for… Read More ›
Whether it’s true or not, China appears to the International community as an aggressor. For half a century, Beijing supported the Kim Dynasty of North Korea. Now, that decision is “blowing up” in Beijing’s face, so to speak. Countries are… Read More ›
A powerful earthquake has killed more than 150 people and injured several thousand in China’s rural south west, officials say. The 6.6-magnitude tremor sent people fleeing from buildings across Sichuan province, which was devastated by a massive quake five years… Read More ›
China will send its first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, on a voyage on the high seas for the first time within a year, the state-run news agency Xinhua said on Friday. The Liaoning, purchased used from Ukraine and refurbished in… Read More ›
“The world is watching the United States Senate, and we will be held accountable,” Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, said after watching the failure of several measures to expand gun control. The accountability part will be up to American voters,… Read More ›
Australia has given-up hopes for a comprehensive free trade agreement with China and will instead focus its efforts on a scaled-back agriculture-focused deal with the Chinese government. The decision comes as China and Australia are deadlocked in negotiations on a… Read More ›
Wearing a floral brocade cardigan and toting a Huawei smartphone, Guo Qian, 22, gushes over her latest purchases on Taobao, China’s largest e-commerce platform. As an administrative worker, Guo makes only 3,000 yuan a month and spends most of it…. Read More ›
An international press freedom group, criticized a ruling that bans Chinese journalists from quoting foreign news outlets without permission, a move that further tightens Beijing’s control of the media. The directive from China’s media regulator, the General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio,… Read More ›
The Philippine coast guard has found hundreds of frozen scaly anteaters, or pangolins, in the cargo hold of a Chinese boat that ran aground in a protected marine sanctuary last week. Wildlife officials have been informed of the surprising discovery,… Read More ›
Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday affirmed China’s government’s bond rating of Aa3 but cut the outlook to stable from positive, the second pessimistic revision by a foreign ratings agency this month. Last week, Fitch Ratings cut China’s long-term local currency… Read More ›
Do we know what’s happening? Probably not. But historical context may help. The following article from Stratfor provides useful historical context for the current situations in North Korea and its usual (apparent) ally, China. It spans many centuries. The Chinese ruling… Read More ›
A day after asking Japan to stop encroaching its territory, Chinese military deployed its naval ships to patrol the islands disputed with Tokyo in the East China Sea. This is the first time in recent months China deployed its naval vessels for… Read More ›
China‘s defence ministry made a thinly veiled attack on the United States on Tuesday for increasing tensions in the Asia-Pacific by ramping up its military presence and alliances in the region, days after the top U.S. diplomat visited Beijing. China… Read More ›
China has revealed the structure of its military units, in what state-run media describe as a first. The army has a total of 850,000 officers, while the navy and air force have a strength of 235,000 and 398,000, China said… Read More ›
“While the dropping flowers pine for love, the heartless brook babbles on.” It is a well-known Chinese saying that was often used in Chinese old fictions when describing the failure of a lovely girl in pursuing a heartless boy. In… Read More ›
It is clear why Iceland is interested in China: the Arctic nation’s prime minister is in Beijing to sign a free trade agreement that will boost Icelandic fish exports more than somewhat. But why is China so interested in Iceland? Perhaps because the Arctic is… Read More ›
The surge of emigration was not something that was talked about in China until yesterday. The news broke when CCTV made special footage on emigration, which indicates the seriousness of the issue. Another graver piece of news is that even… Read More ›
Well, sorta. Maybe it will be his last, but I wouldn’t count on it. Kim Il-sung was born (it is written and may ever be true) on April 15, 1912. There are over 500 statues of Kim Il-sung in North… Read More ›
After Mao Zedong announced the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the Communist Party began to get rid of all the vestiges of the “feudal” society that had preceded it. This process culminated during the Cultural Revolution… Read More ›
Space is playing an increasing role in security talks between the United States and China, although no formal dialogue dedicated to space security has begun, a senior U.S. State Department official said on Thursday. “Over the past year or so,… Read More ›
China continues to suffer a labour shortage in its key coastal manufacturing regions. This, no doubt, is impacting U.S. and other foreign companies operating in China. But the labour shortage is not due to a lack of available workers. Instead,… Read More ›
The Unites States is the second-largest producer of cotton, a product that everyone wears, everyone uses. But that may not be enough to ensure the security of the American cotton industry, with China now a major player in the world… Read More ›
Two innocent people, a man and his nephew, were accused of raping and killing a woman, but were finally rehabilitated after being imprisoned for 10 years. Nie Haifen, the “ingenious detective” who was in charge of the case, has become… Read More ›
Blamed for empty shop shelves from Europe to Australia, networks of baby formula traffickers are shipping milk powder to Chinese parents fearful of local products, and working ever harder to meet demand. Chinese parents haunted by scandals involving poisoned baby… Read More ›
The “strategic partnership” announced this week between Australia and China is widely viewed within China and by experts internationally as a move in which Beijing hopes to start prising Canberra away from Washington on security matters. But this is a… Read More ›
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