"CHINA Eastern Airlines will launch the first regular direct services between Shanghai and Hawaii on August 9. The Shanghai-based airline yesterday said it will fly to Hawaii every Tuesday and Friday, using an Airbus A340 aircraft, which can accommodate about 300 passengers." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

After more than 70 years a large rare fungus collection has been returned to China from Cornell University. Curator Shu Chun Teng smuggled the collection out of the country at the start of World War II just as the Japanese were invading to keep it safe. He later suffered during the Cultural Revolution for "selling China's history." [New York Times] more ›

China is the country most feared by Americans as a potential military threat, according to a recent survey by the Financial Times. While China and the United States both appear to at least be interested in engaging each other to secure peace in the Asia-Pacific region, they are also sizing each other up for the possibility of some kind of military confrontation in the future. Shortly after this high level military exchange was conducted in Hawaii, China announced it would suspend all such future exchanges as a way of protesting the supply of military weapons to Taiwan by the U.S. more ›