In remarks made by Singapore's K Shanmugam on the conclusion of his back-to-back introductory visits as foreign minister to the United States and China, he noted that comments he made on the US-China relationship during his visit to Washington were warmly welcomed in Beijing. more ›

Click the "CC" button to see English captions. more ›

US ambassador to China Gary Locke has announced a new interview waiver pilot program that is expected to make it easier for Chinese nationals to visit the United States. Under the new program, consular officers will have the power to waive interviews for some qualified non-immigrant applicants who are renewing their visa within 48 months of expiration of their previously held visa. more ›

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Two interesting soundbytes from US presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich from the GOP debate in Florida Thursday night: more ›

"The title is deliberately provocative, I understand. It's meant to push people outside their comfort zone. We're inert. How do we snap people out of it? We helped create an export monster. We helped them because we developed an appetite for their goods. So we've kind of gotten in this dynamic of exports for finance-we will buy your cheap goods so we can stock our Wal-Mart shelves. They're moving up the value chain. And in exchange for that, we'll look for you to be our number one lender, and that, in pop psychology, you call a co-dependency-exports for finance. They're stuck with us, we're stuck with them. Stalemates, or co-dependencies like this, don't last forever." more ›

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Former US ambassador to China Jon Huntsman has decided to leave the circuit of crazy wingnuts to themselves by quitting the GOP nomination race for this year's presidential elections. The news comes barely a week after Huntsman declared that his third-place finish in the New Hampshire primary was a "ticket to ride" in South Carolina. more ›

"Afghanistan is not our nation's future; and Iraq is not this nation's future. Our nation's future is how prepared we are to rise up as the American people and hit head on the challenges of the 21st Century... you know what I'm talking about? This is about economics and this is about education. And this going to play out over the Pacific Ocean, in countries I have lived in... If we don't get our act together, we are going to see the end of the American Century by 2050; and we aren't going to let that happen are we?" more ›

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Jennifer Gonnerman of New York magazine has a riveting account of the life and death of Private Danny Chen, a 19-year-old Chinese-American soldier who was found with a gunshot to his head in Afghanistan. The gunshot, as it turned out, was not inflicted by armed Afghan rebels, but by Chen himself. The abuse that he had to put up from his platoon mates for being the only Asian guy around was too much to bear. more ›

"As they would say in China, 他不太了解这个情形, he doesn't quite understand the situation. What [Mitt Romney] is calling for would lead to a trade war. It makes for easy talk but it's far different from the reality in the US-China relationship. You slap on tariffs, you talk tough like that -- of course that's got to be part of it as well -- but in the end we get a tariff in return if we don't sit down and have a logical, sensible conversation. And who's hurt most? It hurts the small businesses, and the small exporters, who are trying to get back on their feet in this country in a time when this nation can least afford a trade war." Another video after the jump... more ›

"I'm Chinese and I'm American and I love this country. I heard all these degrading things about China this and China that and it just doesn't make me feel good." more ›

A shadowy group of Ron Paul supporters in New Hampshire calling themselves "NHLiberty4Paul" has put up an anti-Jon Huntsman ad featuring the former ambassador to China with his adopted daughter from China, Gracie, and another adopted daughter from India, Asha. The ad features clips of Huntsman speaking in Chinese (with a background soundtrack of traditional Chinese music) and asks viewers whether they think he espouses "American values? Or Chinese?" It then ends with the declaration,“American values and liberty. Vote Ron Paul.” More after the jump... more ›

Michele Bachmann, the candidate who said China is the real daddy of the USA, has blinded US satellites with their lasers, that America should be more like China, and that US taxpayers are funding the Chinese military, has bowed out of the GOP race after finishing a disappointing 5%. more ›

In a seminal speech to mark Human Rights Day which commemorates the 1948 signing of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton challenged leaders of the world to “be on the right side of history” and to recognise that "gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights". It's a moving, impassioned speech which totally earned her the standing ovation at the end, and it's worth 30 minutes of your time. Read the full transcript of the speech here. more ›

It looks like Michelle Bachmann isn't the only person who thinks America should be more like China. Former president of the Service Employees International Union Andy Stern thinks so too. In a recent op-ed on the Wall Street Journal, he waxes lyrical over China's "superior economic model" which he witnessed first-hand during a recent trip here. Stern argues that the ability to plan -- something he thinks America has lost -- is what makes China tick: more ›

"We are in debt up to our ears to China. Well over $1 trillion we owe to them. That means we're making substantial interest payments to China. When we send our hard-earned money to China, that's our tax money. And what that means is we have less money for our military. And we just saw this year because of the failure of the Super Committee, $1 trillion less will be available for national defense. more ›

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Students from China at U.S. colleges and universities surged 23 percent this year to 157,558, accounting for more than a fifth of all international scholars in the country. more ›

A few choice quotes from US presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's recent op-ed in the Washington Post entitled "China must respect the free trade system": more ›

So much has been happening here on the mainland that we haven't been keeping up with what's happening in Taiwan. But fortunately we've got our friends from Next Media Animation to get us up to speed. Here's the latest: Taiwan wants 66 new F16s, but the US has decided not to sell its new planes. more ›

Salon.com has a rather hard-hitting piece on Neil Bush, the brother of former US President George Bush who just recently appeared on Sina Weibo and already has 76,000 followers. more ›

Nope, not Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida, but the other brother -- Neil Bush. Name not ringing a bell? He was the one who claimed back in 2003 that random women came to his hotel room in Hong Kong in the middle of the night and were NOT prostitutes and he did NOT pay them. more ›

Just two weeks into his job, new US Ambassador to China Gary Locke continues to enjoy his honeymoon period with Chinese netizens. more ›

Xinhua News Agency (in English here) says a first ever joint action by Chinese and US police has led to the arrest of a 26-year-old Fujian man, Wang Yong, who it said is the founder of "Sunshine Entertainment Alliance", the world's largest Chinese-language porn ring. more ›

Remember US Vice President Joe Biden's cheap Chinese brunch? Yes, apparently the Global Times even has a name for it -- "noodle diplomacy". more ›

US Ambassador Gary Locke may have only just touched down in China but he's already making waves in the People's Republic. more ›

Former US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman has finally ended the guessing game -- he's making a bid to be the next president of the United States. In his official announcement, he explains why, “We have lost faith in ourselves. For the first time in history we are passing down to the next generation a country that is less powerful, less compassionate, less competitive and less confident than the one we got. This is totally unacceptable and totally un-American.” more ›