And finally -- yet another chapter of the Chen Guangcheng saga comes to a close. The blind activist and self-taught lawyer left Beijing's Capital Airport yesterday at about 7pm with his wife and two children on a 13-hour flight to Newark. more ›

US Ambassador to China Gary Locke is at it again, giving China no face by doing all those things that Chinese officials won't do. Not content with buying his own coffee, carrying his own backpack, flying cattle class and staying in cheap hotels, Locke has performed his latest "stunt" -- kneeling in front of a child to speak to her. more ›

Shanghaiist's collective eyebrows were raised today by the appearance of what's essentially an evangelism guidebook written by Rev. Bob Fu, founder of ChinaAid, on the Foreign Policy magazine. In the article entitled Jesus loves China, too, the activist who was recently propelled into the media limelight through his advocacy for blind dissident Chen Guangcheng makes scant mention of religious freedom, the stated mission of ChinaAid. Instead, he lays bare his masterplan and agenda -- to "save my homeland, one soul at a time" -- so as to eventually turn China over to Jesus Christ. more ›

Blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng makes phonecall to a US congressional hearing asking to meet Hilary Clinton over fears for the safety of his family. The man translating for him is Bob Fu, president of ChinaAid, a US-based Christian human rights group. more ›

Translation of phone calls between human rights lawyer Teng Biao (滕彪) and Chen Guangcheng made yesterday evening while Chen was being held at Chaoyang Hospital. In this exchange, Teng convinces Chen to change his mind about staying on in China and to let the US embassy know he now wants asylum for the entire family. more ›

In just a few hours after leaving the US embassy and being reunited with his family, blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng has turned around to say he wants to leave China. In contrast to earlier reports by both Chinese and US officials that he left the embassy of his own volition, Chen added that he chose to leave because he was told that his wife and children would be sent back to Shandong. more ›

Turns out all that speculation that blind Chinese human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng fled to the US Embassy in Beijing was true. American officials confirmed that, following a six-day stint at the Embassy, Chen left Wednesday to receive medical treatment at a nearby hospital in the city. But it looks like Chen may have been forced out — he told the AP from the hospital this evening that authorities threatened to beat and kill his wife if he refused to leave the Embassy. more ›

The fate and whereabouts of Chinese blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng has overshadowed the upcoming China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue. more ›

The already testy South China Sea waters just got a little choppier. The US has proposed expanding its military presence in Southeast Asia with the pretty apparent (though undisclosed) goal of contesting China's clampdown in the region. The protocol calls for strengthening US alliances with Southeast Asian nations, and increasing its military operations in the area without establishing permanent bases in the region so as to avoid another Okinawa debacle. more ›

The war of the future may not be decided by tanks on a sandy embankment or by the nuclear arsenals of various countries, but rather on a keyboard. Experts state that China demonstrates incredible prowess in the cyber-warfare arena, boasting the capacity to sabotage the US power grid, hack into the Federal Aviation Administration's flight database, and even crash its financial markets (or at least, crash them again) - capabilities that China might employ should a conflict arise between the US and China concerning Taiwan's self-governance. more ›

Chinese general Luo Yan has proposed that Beijing tighten its military control in the South China Sea by increasing the presence of the National Coast Guard in the region. Luo claims that clamping down militarily in the area will foster the growth of Chinese fishing and oil operations. more ›

Contrite showhost Dapeng has gone on his latest show without his usual opening sequence -- yes the one he ripped off from Conan O'Brien -- and apologised to the American talkshow host for stealing his stuff, promising to never use it again. He also apologised to his audience for "losing the face of the Chinese people," and jokes "My ex-girlfriend sent me a text saying how she regrets dumping me and how she saw me on American television. Now, I'm international." Watch with English subtitles here. Thanks TeaLeafNation! more ›

A new deal signed by Chinese vice president Xi Jinping in Los Angeles, the last stop of his 5-day whirlwind US visit, will give American film studios greater access to China's $2.1 billion box-office market. US vice president Joe Biden has hailed the new deal as one that will support “thousands of American jobs in and around the film industry.” more ›

US vice president Joe Biden offers Chinese vice president Xi Jinping a toast as he pledges to improve China's human rights record: More videos after the jump... more ›

China's deputy permanent representative to the UN Wang Min, in an address to the UN General Assembly on Monday, called on the international community to play a "positive and constructive role" in the Syria issue, saying that the UN action on Syria "should comply with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter" and the basic norms guiding the international relations. more ›

Three protesters rappel from the Arlington Memorial Bridge in Washington DC to unfurl a banner which read, "Xi Jinping -- Tibet will be free." They were detained after hanging the sign. more ›

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 ›