After centuries of western dominance, the world’s centre of economic and political weight is shifting eastward.

In just 30 years, China has risen from long-standing poverty to being the second largest economy in the world – faster than any other country in history.

From angry farmers to weary migrant workers, powerful politicians and everyone in between, what China says and does, has become of undeniable importance to the entire world.

 

 

 

 

 

WHO IS KIM JONG UN ? ….A PROFILE OF THE MYSTERIOUS NORTH KOREAN LEADER

 

CLICK HERE FOR PROFILE

 

 

 

 

 

Greenhouse gases make high temps hotter in China

12 Apr 2013
China, the world’s largest producer of carbon dioxide, is directly feeling the man-made heat of global warming, scientists conclude in the first study to link the burning of fossil fuels to one country’s rise in its daily temperature spikes. China emits more of the greenhouse gas than the next two biggest carbon polluters — the U.S. and India —…
A woman holds her daughter, wearing a mask, while the family visit Tiananmen Square on a hazy day in Beijing, China, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. Pollution has worsened in China’s capital and surrounding regions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

South Korea raises alert level, as North Korea readies missile test

10 Apr 2013
SEOUL: South Korea raised its military watch alert to “vital threat” today ahead of an expected North Korean missile launch, as UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned the Korean peninsula may be slipping out of control. South Korean intelligence says the North had prepared two mid-range missiles for imminent launch from its east coast, despite warnings from…
South Korea raises alert level, as North Korea readies missile test

 

 

 

 

 

Powerful Solomon Islands quake triggers tsunami

A powerful 8.0 magnitude earthquake struck near the Solomon Islands on Wednesday, triggering a small tsunami and prompting alerts across the South Pacific that were later cancelled. By News Wires (text) A powerful 8.0 magnitude earthquake struck near the Solomon Islands on Wednesday, triggering a small tsunami that swept into isolated island…
Tsunami like monster high waves - Philippines

 

Leftist terror group claims responsibility for U.S. Embassy bombing

Turkish police officers react after an explosion at the entrance of the U.S. Embassy in Ankara Friday, February 1, in this picture provided by Milliyet Daily Newspaper. Turkish police officers react after an explosion at the entrance of the U.S. Embassy in Ankara Friday, February 1, in this picture provided by Milliyet Daily Newspaper.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Officials confirm attacker’s identity through forensic testing
  • Terror group claims responsibility and criticizes Turkey for its ties to the West
  • “E. Alisan Sanli has become a martyr,” the group’s website says
  • Authorities have detained three people for questioning over the attack, semi-official media reports

 

 

 

 

INDIA CALLING

 

 

 

 

 

The Scariest Environmental Fact in the World

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See this sobering graph from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA):

As the data show, China is now burning almost as much coal as the rest of the world — combined. And despite impressive support from Beijing for renewable energy and a dawning understanding about the dangers of air pollution, coal use in China is poised to continue rising, if slower than it has in recent years. That’s deadly for the Chinese people — see the truly horrific air pollution in Beijing this past month — and it’s dangerous for the rest of the world. Coal already accounts for 20% of global greenhouse-gas emissions, making it one of the biggest causes of man-made climate change. Combine that with the direct damage that air pollution from coal combustion does to human health, and there’s a reason why some have called coal the enemy of the human race.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ANYTHING YOU CAN DO,
I CAN DO BETTER

South Korea Launches First Rocket Into Space Amid North Korean Threats

 

 

 

 

Beijing choking on thick smog — again

By Brad Lendon,
January 29, 2013 —
Tuesday's heavy smog is the fourth such episode in Beijing this year.
Tuesday’s heavy smog is the fourth such episode in Beijing this year.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Flights canceled, highways closed
  • Air quality ‘hazardous’ for 24 hours
  • Snow, rain may bring relief Wednesday

(CNN) — Hazardous smog was covering Beijing on Tuesday, reducing visibility to less than 200 meters (200 yards) in parts of Chinese capital while forcing the cancellation of airline flights and the closure of highways, Chinese state media reported.

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing reported that at 8 p.m. local time Tuesday air quality had been at hazardous levels for the past 24 hours, meaning that “everyone should avoid all physical activity outdoors; people with heart or lung disease, older adults, and children should remain indoors and keep activity levels low,” according to the embassy’s website.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Openness, reform and peacefulness is transforming modern China

The recent Chinese Communist Party conference has laid down the touchstones which will define China’s future, reports Liu Xiaoming.

Flag of China, chinese flag

 

 

 

 

 

 

FRONT AND CENTER

China’s President Steps Aside, Clearing Way For Younger Leaders.. Vice President Xi In Line To Take Power.. Corruption, Sluggish Economy Among Challenges.. How Selection Of Leaders Works

 

 

 

 

 

China launches probe into Bo Xilai’s alleged offences

27 Oct 2012
China on Saturday launched a criminal investigation into disgraced Communist Party leader Bo Xilai’s alleged offences, a day after he was stripped of his legal immunity and expelled from the country’s Parliament. “The Supreme People’s Procuratorate has decided…
In this Jan. 17, 2007 file photo, Gu Kailai, left, wife of then Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai, right, attends a memorial ceremony for Bo's father Bo Yibo, a late revolutionary leader considered one of communist China's founding fathers, at a military hospital in Beijing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home is where the heartache is…

Photo

On a recent trip home to Singapore, I was startled to learn just how much housing prices in the city-state have risen in my absence.

A cousin said he had recently paid over S$600,000 — about US$465,000 — for a yet-to-be-built 99-year-lease flat. Such numbers are hardly out of place in any major metropolis but this was for a state-subsidised three-bedroom apartment.

Soaring housing prices have fueled popular discontent — little wonder as median monthly household incomes have stagnated at around S$5,000.

For its part, the government — which houses 80 percent of people on the densely populated island — insists that public housing prices are shaped by ‘market forces’, pointing to a raft of financing schemes to help first-time buyers.

What’s less contentious is that Singapore is only part of a regional real estate boom that has driven property values by as much as 70 percent since the start of 2009 in cities such as Sydney, Hong Kong and Beijing.

Like Singapore, the government in China is acting to cool house prices that have skyrocketed in recent years out of the reach of a large swathe of its middle classes.

Chief among Beijing’s policy arsenal is social housing. The government is stepping up construction of public housing, targeting a rollout 36 million affordable homes from now until 2015. At the same time, clampdown on property speculation has also helped ease Chinese housing prices.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A spectacular fall

Sep 29th 2012,  | BEIJING

IF HE ever fell, it was going to have to be a great spectacle. And so it has become. Bo Xilai, a former member of the Politburo who had aggressively sought promotion to the most elite circle of power, was expelled from the Communist Party of China in grand communist fashion, with a litany of lurid charges (including mistresses and bribe-taking) heaped high upon him in an account released on Friday, September 28th by Xinhua, an official news service.

 

 

 

Boat sinks off Hong Kong after collision; 36 dead

02 Oct 2012
HONG KONG  A boat packed with revelers on a long holiday weekend collided with a ferry and sank off Hong Kong, killing at least 36 people and injuring dozens in the deadliest accident to strike the Chinese territory in years. The boat was carrying utility company workers and their families to famed Victoria Harbour to watch a fireworks display…
Police officers guard on a partially submerged boat after it collided with a ferry Monday night near Lamma Island, off the southwestern coast of Hong Kong Island Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012.
photo: AP / Vincent Yu

 

 

 

 

 

Anti-Japan protests in China spread to more cities

17 Sep 2012
BEIJING — Anti-Japan rallies spread to dozens more Chinese cities Sunday, as thousands of people demonstrated against the Japanese government‘s plan to buy  several uninhabited islands near Taiwan that China also claims. Protesters marched in front of diplomatic compounds, attacked Japanese businesses and burned Japanese flags.
Chinese protesters with the words "Boycott Japanese goods" on their shirts march towards the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, China, Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012.
photo: AP / Ng Han Guan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

China summons US diplomat in row over South China Sea

05 Aug 2012
China has summoned a senior US diplomat to protest against America‘s criticism of Beijing‘s establishment of a military garrison in the South China Sea. The move had intensified a bitter row over the disputed waters. China’s Assistant Foreign Minister Zhang Kunsheng summoned the US Embassy‘s Deputy Chief of Mission Robert Wang on Saturday…
In this photo taken on Friday, July 20, 2012, Chinese fishing boats sail in the lagoon of Meiji reef off the island province of Hainan in the South China Sea.
photo: AP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Terracotta Warriors

( Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor )



A boat passes a group of large lanterns during the Wuhan-Chengdu International Panda Lantern Festival on Donghu lake in Wuhan, Hubei province, China.

 

A group of floating lanterns