Free Republic

For a final assignment to cap a five-year posting to China, I never would have chosen this. But deep inside a cavernous setup of tight corridors and shelves, I'm standing in the dark, sweating profusely as the rain-like sound of millions of cockroaches eating fills the silence. It's a peaceful ambience that would go well on one of those calming sleep apps. Everything else about the situation would probably keep people awake. Around me on walls, the ceiling and floors, cockroaches large and small scurry about, scattering whenever my cameraman Steve Wang points his camera light at them. This is...

South Korea's trade deficit in kimchi, its proud traditional side dish of fermented cabbage, reached an all-time high last year as low-priced Chinese imports flooded the market, statistics showed Wednesday (Jan 17). The spicy foodstuff is emblematic of Korean cuisine and accompanies almost every meal served in the country, whatever its culinary origins, with kimchi-making still an important annual ritual for many families. But the commercial market has been deluged by Chinese producers in recent years, resulting in what has been dubbed the "kimchi deficit".

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has won the battle against SARS, Premier Wen Jiabao said on Sunday, as the focus on preventing the spread of the deadly virus turned to Beijing and the north ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday. Wen, speaking at the third plenary meeting of the State Council, said China had made advances in reforms and opening up the country in the last year, as well as in the fight against SARS. "Wen delivered a speech to the meeting, saying that the Chinese people won the severe fight against the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)," Xinhua news...