China’s prime minister, Wen Jiabao, offers some gestures of conciliation
(March 5, 2010) BEIJING– At the opening of the annual session of China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC), the prime minister, Wen Jiabao, could not resist a bit of boasting. China’s economy, he said, in a two-hour speech, had been the first in the world [...]

(March 5, 2010) BEIJING– China, whose burgeoning spending on defence has fanned international concerns about its intentions, has reined in the rampant expansion of its military muscle. Its declared defence budget, revealed yesterday, will grow 7.5 per cent this year, its slowest rate for two decades — a period in which the emerging economic superpower [...]

(March 5, 2010) SINGAPORE — China’s official military budget for 2010 will rise 7.5 percent over last year, an official said on Thursday, ending a long period of double-digit increases in official defense spending. Parliamentary spokesman Li Zhaoxing said the increase would bring the defense budget for the year to 532.1 billion yuan (US$78 billion), [...]

(February 4, 2010) BEIJING — China on Thursday announced its smallest increase in defense spending in more than two decades, a likely result of both financial constraints and growing concern over perceptions of Beijing as a regional military threat.
The planned 7.5 percent boost in defense spending in 2010 follows at least 20 years of double-digit [...]

(February 21, 2010) SEOUL– North Korea has proposed holding military talks with the South next week after it raised tension on the troubled peninsula last week by warning it would hold live-fire drills near the border with its rival.
North Korea is apparently using military threats against U.S. ally South Korea to strengthen its hand to [...]

(February 12, 2010) BEIJING– North Korea is not eager to return to six-party talks but has not rejected the idea, the U.N.’s top political official said on Friday following a trip to the reclusive country.
“Their attitude right now, certainly they’re not happy with sanctions. They’re certainly not eager, not ruling out, but not eager to [...]

(February 13, 2010) INCHEON — North Korea may take some time before it returns to six-nation talks on ending its nuclear program, but the communist nation certainly wants to improve its ties with South Korea, a senior U.N. official said Saturday after his trip to Pyongyang.
Lynn Pascoe, under-secretary-general of the United Nations for political affairs, [...]

(February 12, 2010) SEOUL-— A top North Korean nuclear envoy wants to visit the United States for rare talks next month, news reports said Saturday, amid a push by diplomats to revive negotiations on ending Pyongyang’s nuclear program. Officials in Washington said no such trip was planned.
North Korea is strongly pushing for Kim Kye Gwan’s [...]

(February 12, 2010) In response to the American arms sales to Taiwan, China has taken a firm, opposing stance. Noting the pre-existing political tension between the Unites States and China, a number of theories have been proposed as to how China will retaliate to the arms deals. Beijing has still not made any official comment [...]

(February 5, 2010) U.S. President Barack Obama calls the $3.8-trillion US budget he just sent to Congress a major step in restoring America’s economic health.
In fact, it’s another potent fix given to a sick patient deeply addicted to the dangerous drug — debt.
More empires have fallen because of reckless finances than invasion. The latest example [...]