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Politics & Society

US, China sign long-term energy, environment agreement

The US and China finalized a 10-year plan to cooperate on energy and environmental goals and launched talks on a bilateral investment agreement as the fourth round of the two countries’ Strategic Economic Dialogue came to a close in Annapolis Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. The energy and environment agreement includes the set up […]

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Politics & Society This Week in China

Do boring cities have better quality of life? Mercer seems to think so

Just received the latest quality of living city ranking from Mercer, an HR agency which calls itself a leader in “benefit outsourcing” (please leave a comment if you know what that means). Can’t argue with the bottom three cities in the ranking – Baghdad, Kinshasa and Karachi are the worst cities to live in. But […]

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Politics & Society

Tight security as torch reaches Xinjiang

The Olympic torch arrived in Urumqi, the capital of China’s western Xinjiang region, on Tuesday, accompanied by a heavy security presence, AP reported. Onlookers lining the torch route were handpicked by authorities, who were keen to ensure the event wasn’t marred by any displays of anti-China defiance. Armed police and sniffer dogs also patrolled the […]

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Politics & Society

Japan voices concern about China's defense spending

Japan remains concerned about China’s rising defense spending, Reuters reported. Japan’s foreign minister made the statement to his Chinese counterpart at a meeting in Tokyo. The Japanese official also said that the two sides needed to increase understanding and transparency on the issue. The Chinese official responded that China’s military policy is defensive, and that […]

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Politics & Society

PRC, Taiwan reach agreements on flights, tourism

The People’s Republic of China and Taiwan have reached agreements for regular non-stop charter flights, bilateral tourism and plans for future talks, the Financial Times reported. The agreements came out of the first official meeting between mainland and Taiwan representatives in a decade, following the election of Ma Ying-jeou as Taiwan’s president last month. Under […]