The sight of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao pottering about Iceland's natural wonders in windbreaker and hiking boots has raised suspicions over what China really wants from the island nation of 320,000. more ›

China's ruling Communist Party is mulling a series of political reform measures, including the reassessment of the 1989 Tiananmen student protests, multiple Hong Kong media outlets, including the Apple Daily have reported. more ›

"The fall of Bo Xilai, like the fall of the Gang of Four, was a non-normal process. It only goes to show that the Chinese Communist Party has failed to evolve even by a hair's breadth over the last three decades. In countries under the rule of law, problematic officials are dealt with using legal measures. China, on the other hand, operates within the black box. Bo Xilai may not be evil, but his opponents Hu and Wen are no saints either. It gives me goosebumps to hear people like Wang Kang praising Wen, like someone has just let off a foul odour. more ›

"Hong Kong journalists have asked me how I see the prime minister's remarks that real estate prices have not gone down to reasonable levels. I said SOHO is not your average developer. It is involved mainly in the development of office buidlings. When the premier said that real estate prices were not in line with incomes, he was referring to residential property prices. We have always thought that housing prices were too high vis-a-vis rental returns and household incomes. This is what we've said, and we've also acted in line with this belief. In the last few years, we have not bought any land for residential use." more ›

Who needs to watch Wen Jiabao's last NPC press conference when following foreign journalists at the presser on Twitter gives you all the highlights? We've gone ahead and done some embedded tweet journalism by compiling the best tweets related to Premier Wen Jiabao's press conference after the closing meeting of the Fifth Session of the 11th National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People (so far). more ›

Eligible AIDS patients shall be covered by China's basic allowance system, in which the poorest people can get subsidies from the government to ensure a basic living standard, said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. more ›

In response to the recent overcrowded school van accident that took the lives of 19 children and two adults in Gansu on November 16th, Premier Wen Jiabao has pledged to allocate central and local government funds to resolve China's bus safety issue within the space of one month. more ›

"India and China must work 'hand-in-hand to ensure that the 21st century belongs to Asia.'" more ›

• Wen Jiabao spooked everyone out recently by telling a story that isn't heard very often, of how his own family was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution.
• A group of university professors at Yangtze University in Hubei recently got on their knees for NIMBY protests against a steel processing plant near their campus.
• Chongqing's leadership is all about giving to the 99%, while Guangdong's bigwigs would prefer to keep it amongst the 1%. A bit simplistic an explanation, but that's apparently all anybody understands these days.

A few links to start off your day: more ›

Audio Transcript: more ›

There's been some confusion among several foreign correspondents about Prime Minister Wen Jiabao's comments in Wenzhou arising from a slightly faulty translation in Xinhua's English-language newswire, so we thought we'd jump into the discussion. more ›

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao visited the birthplace of Shakespeare in Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire for an informal visit one day before meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron. In comments made after the tour, the prime minister said, "I think it is fair to say that the Chinese people know the UK pretty well and I hope that more and more British people will know better about China. China has 5,000 years of history and it has over 2,000 years of recorded history. In this long history of this great nation, the literary figures of China have produced a myriad of literary works. And reading these works will help one better understand the course of development of this great nation. Politicians may get into a very heated debate at the negotiating table, but when you ask them, they may not necessarily truly understand each other's cultures and histories." more ›

China Premiere Wen Jiabao has a piece in today's Financial Times about China's economy. He says in the article (most of which is behind the FT's paywall, grr!) that China is capable of sustaining fast economic growth and that it has brought inflation under control. more ›

In order to commemorate the ten-day anniversary of Gloriously Benevolent Patriarch Kim Jong Il's departure from China (newly proclaimed happiest country in the world), we'd like to bring you some must-see CCTV News footage that details the Dear Leader's trip in full. more ›

Happy Children's Day! Yes, because children are often unduly neglected in China. We're celebrating the occasion by alerting you to video and pics of Wen Jiabao in a very fetching PE kit hooping it up at Shibalidian primary school in Beijing's Chaoyang district. more ›

It pains us to say that the scourge of drought that began earlier this year has yet to abate. more ›

Last Monday, Premier Wen Jiabao paid a rare visit to the State Bureau for Letters and Calls -- the government department where petitioners from all over the country go to air their grievances. It was the first time in 61 years a top government official has visited, leading many people to call it an "encouraging" effort to connect with the people. But by doing so, it seems Wen might have angered the head of the propaganda department. more ›

A post on the Guardian’s Environment Blog today laments over Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s weak showing at the unprecedented International Tiger Forum happening in Russia this week. Contrasting him with Russian president Vladimir Putin (the environmentalist’s Rambo who shoots at whales with crossbows and traps polar bears, all in the pursuit of science!) Wen appears not only timid but apathetic: more ›

Is reform for China coming even sooner than we previously thought? Jumping on the timing of Premier Wen Jiabao's recent censored CNN interview and dissident Liu Xiaobo's Nobel Peace Prize win (or perhaps just updated because), CCP elders Li Rui (李锐) and Hu Jiwei (胡绩伟) have written an open letter to the National People's Congress calling for an end to censorship. more ›

• We think we may have another ‘explanation’/’excuse’ to all of the recent sightings of UFO’s - pieces from Chang’e 2. Yes, after the recent take off of the lunar probe, pieces have hurtled their way back to Earth landing in two villages in Jiangxi province. There could be more to come too, just in time for World Space Week, China gets set to launch more satellites.
• We were slightly shocked/amazed at the manic speed of these Chinese factory workers. You might wanna grab some aspirin after watching the video.
• We reckon we've stumbled across a hoax, but let us know what you think! A computer, the ‘Revo-Round’, has been designed to preserve the ‘special features’ of the Asian population. Hmm…

In an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria last weekend (video here), Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao spoke extensively of his devotion to political reform, democracy, and freedom of speech. The interview has subsequently been subjected to an official news blackout in China. How are Chinese netizens reacting to such blatant party-on-party censorship? WSJ reports: more ›

"I believe I and all the Chinese people have such conviction that China will make continuous progress and the people's wishes and need for democracy and freedom are irresistible. I hope you will be able to gradually see the continuous progress of China." more ›