Your Move, China

If North Korea has in the past made a habit of annoying China, its only ostensible ally in the world, what must Beijing be thinking now? For most of the past six years, China has been the host and chief promoter of the so-called six-party talks. Their explicit goal: to get North Korea to give up its nuclear-weapons program

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Tiananmen protester still defiant

If 63-year-old Chinese scholar Zhou Dou had his way, he would be on hunger strike on June 4, sitting quietly through the day at Purple Bamboo Park, 20 minutes’ taxi ride from Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. His aim: to mark the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown and to dramatize his defiant call for answers from Chinese authorities. “What is the truth” he pressed rhetorically, as he discussed his plans with CNN a week earlier.

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China’s youth post-Tiananmen: Apathy a fact or front?

They’re known as the "post 1980s" kids or the "Tiananmen-plus-20" generation: 200 million-strong, Web-savvy, pop-culture-conscious and decidedly apolitical. As the world observes the 20th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Wednesday, pro-democracy advocates abroad lament how little Chinese youth today know or care about the student-led movement that ended with the deaths of hundreds when tanks rumbled through the capital’s streets and troops opened fire. But what is lost in the generalization is whether today’s political apathy is a fact or a front

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Treasury chief to meet with Chinese leaders

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is set to meet with several high-ranking members of the Chinese leadership this week, marking the Obama administration’s first major overture to the powerhouse nation. Geithner left Saturday for meetings in Beijing, where he’ll discuss ways to strengthen relations between China and the United States, according to the Treasury Department. China is one of America’s most important trading partners, and its economy is tightly intertwined with efforts to reverse the global downturn

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Hong Kong Workers Swoon Over Lunchtime Karaoke

It’s a sunny Thursday in Hong Kong when Carmen Wong takes the mic in a dimly lit room at a karaoke lounge. As she belts out a number by Cantopop star Sammi Cheng, her colleagues bounce to the beat, waving forks in the air between bites of udon noodles, pork cutlets and potato salad.

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China quarantines U.S. school group over flu concerns

A group of students and teachers from a Maryland private school have been quarantined in China because of swine flu concerns, a school spokeswoman said Thursday. The Chinese government has confined 21 students and three teachers to their hotel rooms in Kaili, China, because a passenger on their plane to China was suspected of having swine flu, or H1N1, said Vicky Temple, director of communications for the Barrie School in Silver Spring, Maryland.

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