"The new track follows the highway built by our soldiers in the 1950s. The terrain is so harsh that three of them died for every kilometer of road. You have to admire their spirit. But now, we've built the railway without the loss of a single life. Isn't China great?"

Wang, a stout and ruddy power factory worker from Hunan, is in the bunk two below mine. He is as keen to demonstrate the conviviality of China as he is to wax lyrical about the country's strength. As well as cracking open a bottle of beer and sharing his food, he offers a packet of Dongfanghong cigarettes -- "I smoke these because it was Mao's favorite brand" -- and travel advice: "Actually, there isn't much in Qinghai. It's full of police and soldiers, but we have very good public order."

Continue Reading...

During that time, Qiaotou has transformed itself from a farming village into a manufacturing powerhouse -- a microcosm of what has happened to the entire Chinese economy. It is a familiar story. Paddy fields have been cleared for factories. Peasants have become industrialists. The river, which used to be a clean source for irrigation, is now a heavily polluted outlet for brightly colored plastic waste.

Continue Reading...

This concrete-covered passageway is a monument to the giddy material progress made by the commune since China's policymakers began mixing their ideological drinks 26 years ago. None went as far as Huaxi in combining the strict political control of the ruling Communist Party with the get-rich-quick economics of the market -- and the results are being hailed as a model for the nation to follow.

To demonstrate how good that cocktail is supposed to make the locals feel, "Huaxi Road" is decorated with smiling pictures of every family in the village. Each household's assets are listed in detail: size of the family, value of their property, average level of education, number of members of the Communist Party, as well as how many cars, mobile phones, televisions, washing machines, computers, air-conditioning units, motorbikes, cameras, fridges and stereo systems they own.

Continue Reading...

In America and Europe it was the summer of love, but in Vietnam this was the year of the Tet offensive and some of the fiercest fighting of one of the 20th century's messiest wars. Hien's 19-year-old boyfriend, Bill, had just finished a tour of duty in Binh Duong province and was on his way back home to the United States. He planned to go to college and make a new start. Seven days after Bill left she gave birth to a son and had to find another man who would put his name on the birth certificate.

Continue Reading...

In driving off more than 1,000 riot police at the start of the week, Huankantou village in Zhejiang province is at the crest of a wave of anarchy that has seen millions of impoverished farmers block roads and launch protests against official corruption, environmental destruction and the growing gap between urban wealth and rural poverty. China's media have been forbidden to report on the government's loss of control, but word is spreading quickly to nearby towns and cities. Tens of thousands of sightseers and well-wishers are flocking every day to see the village that beat the police.

Continue Reading...

Qiu is now facing a possible death sentence in a Shanghai court case that has highlighted concern about the social, psychological and economic impact of one of China's fastest-growing industries. A spate of suicides, deaths by exhaustion and legal disputes about virtual possessions have been blamed on Internet role-play games, which are estimated to have more than 40 million players in China.

Qiu's favorite game was "Legend of Mir III," a South Korean game that is a huge hit throughout Asia. It took him hours in front of a computer to win the dragon saber, one of the game's most valuable weapons.

He used a feature of the game to lend it to Zhu Caoyuan, who reportedly sold it on without his permission for 7,200 yuan (about $870). Although this is considerably more than the average monthly wage, the police told Qui that they could do nothing because the law does not recognize virtual property. He has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Zhu, a crime that can carry the death penalty.

Continue Reading...

According to official figures released Tuesday by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, 1.6 million couples divorced in 2004, up by almost 300,000 from the previous year. Although the overall divorce rate is still lower than in Europe or the United States, the long-term trend is upward -- at an increasingly fast pace.

Adultery and divorce are becoming the most talked-about subjects in China's fast-changing society. Last year's most popular soap opera was called "China Style Divorce," a tale of infidelity and breakup that was voted the best drama of 2004 and watched by hundreds of millions of viewers.

Continue Reading...

Reflecting Communists' nervousness about commemorating a leader purged for tearfully sympathizing with Tiananmen Square protesters in 1989, there was no announcement in the Chinese media, and dozens of prominent dissidents were kept under house arrest to prevent from them mourning in large numbers.

The Zhao family has endured an awkward standoff with the government since the 85-year-old died on Jan. 17. Initial plans for a ceremony on Jan. 23 were postponed because both sides could not agree on the numbers allowed to attend or the wording of an official eulogy.

The Communist Party accused Zhao of making "grave mistakes" for his opposition to the 1989 crackdown. But the elderly politician refused to accept this verdict even though he was under house arrest for the past 15 years.

Continue Reading...

Michael's sister, Eileen, a 24-year-old event organizer, and Bob's nephew, Dominic Stephenson, a 28-year-old architect, were a couple. They had just bought a flat together in Leith after being together for four years; and they had gone on holiday to celebrate.

Instead, Michael and Bob have had to get to know each other in the most harrowing of circumstances -- at temporary morgues and the disaster site that was once the bustling tourist resort of Phi Phi Island.

Continue Reading...

The stage was set by dogs that checked the building for explosives and Secret Service agents, easily identifiable by the wires coiling down from their earpieces as they cased every room several hours before the principal U.S. actors arrived to seize the international limelight.

The comedy was provided by the visiting governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, who might reasonably have expected at least a celebrity's welcome, if not a hero's. But even though he is the brother of the most powerful man on Earth and came bearing news of a $350 million U.S. contribution to the $2.5bn international relief effort, nobody seemed to know who he was.

"Who are you?" asked one slightly bemused Australian consular official as the large-girthed U.S. stranger pumped his hand.

"I'm Jeb Bush."

"Oh, are you a relative of the president?" said the interlocutor, jokingly.

Continue Reading...

After checking the samples, the police forensic science officer at Phuket town hall slipped the materials inside a brown envelope, marked it d44 and stapled it to the missing person's forms filled in by her British father, Michael. The entire process took less than half an hour, but the results are not likely to come back for months, if they come back at all, because Dana's and Michael's contributions are part of the biggest and most difficult victim identification operation the world has seen.

Continue Reading...

The sense of urgency was prompted by reports of divisions within the North Korean leadership and expectations that the second Bush administration will intensify pressure on a country the U.S. president labeled part of an "axis of evil." Despite boasting about its nuclear deterrent, North Korea has been left on the diplomatic back burner for the past 12 months.

Six-country talks aimed at resolving one of the world's last Cold War conflicts have been postponed largely because the two main protagonists -- Washington and Pyongyang -- were awaiting the results of the U.S. presidential election. In the past month, however, the North Korean rumor mill has been working overtime. While no one is ever quite sure what is going on in one of the world's most closed countries, diplomats, intelligence agents, academics and defectors across the political spectrum and from several different countries are reporting signs of potentially destabilizing change.

Continue Reading...

Coming after the arrest or demotion of at least half a dozen other "public intellectuals" -- a term of former media praise that has suddenly become an expression of political abuse -- it has upset the hope that President Hu Jintao will allow more freedom of expression than his predecessor, Jiang Zemin. Chen, who wrote under the pen name Xiao Shu, was working in his office when security officers arrived unannounced. "They went to the magazine office and took him away," an unnamed source told Reuters.

Continue Reading...

The WFP will make its last donation to China next year, marking the end of a 25-year program that started in the wake of the Cultural Revolution and supported more than 30 million hungry people. "At the end of 2005, we will no longer be an active, operating program in China. China will no longer need us," Morris said. In recent years, that program has been steadily reduced as China's economy has soared with average annual growth rates of 9 percent, which have helped to lift up to 500 million people out of poverty.

Continue Reading...

The sale is a great leap forward for China, still nominally a Communist country, onto the global business stage. The deal is the largest overseas acquisition by a Chinese company, and Lenovo will become the third largest maker of personal computers in the world.

As a part of the $1.75 billion deal Lenovo will have use of the IBM name on personal computers and laptops for at least five years. IBM, founded in 1911, has been one of the most enduring symbols of corporate America and played a crucial role in shaping the modern era. The company, known as the Big Blue, ushered computers into homes and offices when it launched its first desktop in 1981. In the early years IBM became the standard in PC manufacturing, at one stage selling 70 percent of all computers made. Information technology departments fell back on the adage that nobody ever got fired for choosing IBM. The company's technology bled into everyday life, providing software for the first cashier machines and supermarket scanners in the 1970s.

Continue Reading...

"In the spring and summer of 1989, a serious political disturbance took place in China," wrote Mr Li in the monthly magazine Seeking Truth.

"With the boldness of vision of a great revolutionary and politician, comrade Deng Xiaoping  along with other party elders  gave the leadership their firm and full support to put down the political disturbance using forceful measures."

For such a senior figure, it was a rare public reference to one of the darkest chapters in the history of the Chinese Communist party, when People's Liberation Army troops killed hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators in and around Tiananmen Square on June 3 and 4 1989.

Continue Reading...

As part of a government plan to reconcile domestic propaganda with global capitalist profit, China's second biggest daily says it will issue shares on the Hong Kong bourse to finance a modernization and expansion program. Reflecting the political sensitivities of this latest step toward opening up one of China's last closed markets, the newspaper has declined to reveal when the offering will be made or how much it will be worth.

The flotation is being planned to ensure that management and editorial control remain with the authorities, who are struggling to accept that the media can be an independent public watchdog rather than a public relations tool.

According to local reports, investors will be offered only a quarter of the company, putting the float's value at about #200 million. Other restrictions are likely to ensure that the government maintains control.

Continue Reading...