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A Chinese naval vessel tried to force a U.S. guided missile warship to stop in international waters recently, causing a tense military standoff in the latest case of Chinese maritime harassment, according to defense officials. The guided missile cruiser USS Cowpens, which recently took part in disaster relief operations in the Philippines, was confronted by Chinese warships in the South China Sea near Beijing’s new aircraft carrier Liaoning, according to officials familiar with the incident. “On December 5th, while lawfully operating in international waters in the South China Sea, USS Cowpens and a PLA Navy vessel had an encounter that...

China’s military forces are showing no signs of increased alert status or readiness for conflict despite high tensions with Japan over Beijing’s air defense zone overlapping U.S. and Japanese air defense coverage of the disputed Senkaku islands. A senior defense official said U.S. military monitors observed “no unusual military movements” by the Chinese military since the Nov. 23 declaration of the air defense identification zone, which the Pentagon has called “destabilizing.” Imposition of the new air defense zone has sharply increased tensions in East Asia. China has scrambled jets to patrol airspace that includes the Senkakus, which China is claiming....

While checking out the Healthcare.gov website I found a page that flashes between page loads that most likely should not be seen. Low and behold there is Chinese wording? What’s with that? It flashes when doing a reload of this page: https://www.healthcare.gov/find-premium-estimates/ It would be interesting to know what it says… and why is Chinese wording on the US’s Healthcare website?

The rights to explore Brazil's biggest oilfield have been won at an auction by a consortium led by Brazil's state-run Petrobras, backed by Total, Shell and Chinese firms. The group made the only bid in the auction, offering the minimum share of the surplus production. The Rio de Janeiro beachfront hotel, where the auction took place, was guarded by 1,100 security personnel. Earlier, striking oil workers opposed to the contest clashed with police. Eleven companies had expressed interest in the Libra oilfield, but the Spanish Repsol pulled out on Monday, leaving the five winners as the only ones to present...

Video of why we can't compete with the Chinese: http://static.video.qq.com/TPout.swf?auto=1&vid=r010673xh67

Note: The following text is a quote: Three Chinese Nationals and Two Corporations Charged with Illegally Exporting Defense Articles and Commerce Controlled Electronics Components to China and Conspiring to Violate U.S. Export Laws BOSTON, MA—Three nationals of the People’s Republic of China and two corporations were charged on October 1, 2009 in federal court with conspiring over a period of 10 years to illegally export defense articles, designated on the United States Munitions List, and Commerce controlled electronics components to end-users in China, including several Chinese military entities. Acting United States Attorney Michael K. Loucks; John J. McKenna, Special Agent...

Downtown Detroit’s housing market was hit hard by the recession, as well the collapse of manufacturing and the long-term exodus of people. Currently one of the nation’s worst housing markets, the prices of homes have plummeted, while foreclosures continue to skyrocket. While the city is struggling to recover, China’s real estate-hungry buyers see an investment opportunity. While many people in the United States aren’t looking to purchase homes, a new craze has hit Chinese investors hoping to cash in on Detroit’s woeful housing economy. After announcing that the city filed for bankruptcy on July 18, Detroit property has been a...

Businesses in the heavily Asian city of Monterey Park, Calif., now must post their signs in English as well as in Chinese. The requirement will help promote economic development and increase public safety, the City Council said in passing the change unanimously. Businesses now must install at least one sign that uses the "modern Latin alphabet," KNBC-TV reports.

Over the past 15 years, China's commercial engagement with Africa has seen rapid growth in the trade, aid and investment sectors. Overshadowed by the constant focus on these sectors, tourism trade between the Asian nation and Africa has been quietly expanding. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is becoming an increasingly popular destination for Chinese tourists. In 2008, 2.6 percent of Chinese outbound tourists chose to travel to Africa, compared to the 8.8 percent that traveled to the Americas and the 67.8 percent that visited other Asian countries. South Africa is the most popular tourist destination for Chinese visitors to SSA. According to...

Police in China discovered decades-old chicken feet, beef tripe, and cartilage when they raided an illegal food storage site in the Guangxi region. Twenty tons of meat -- some dating back as far as 1967 -- was apparently smuggled by a gang into China from Vietnam, according to the Chinese news agency, Xinhua. According to a report in the South China Morning Post, the chicken feet were brought into China frozen, and then processed with bleach and other chemicals to add weight and improve color. By increasing the weight, the gang was able to turn about 2.2 pounds into more...

Nicaragua has awarded a Chinese company a 100-year concession to build an alternative to the Panama Canal, in a step that looks set to have profound geopolitical ramifications. The president of the country's national assembly, Rene Nuñez, announced the $40bn (£26bn) project, which will reinforce Beijing's growing influence on global trade and weaken US dominance over the key shipping route between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The name of the company and other details have yet to be released, but the opposition congressman Luis Callejas said the government planned to grant a 100-year lease to the Chinese operator. The national...

The Pentagon revealed late last week it is paying the Chinese $10 million for a one-year lease for a satellite that allows U.S. troops on the African continent to keep in touch and share information, Wired reports. The announcement has U.S. policymakers on edge. Over the last several years, the U.S. government has publicly and loudly expressed its concern that too much sensitive American data passes through Chinese electronics — and that those electronics could be sieves for Beijing’s intelligence services. But the Pentagon says it has no other choice than to use the Chinese satellite.

On Tuesday's "Mornings on the Mall" on WMAL-FM in Washington DC, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) revealed that it was the Obama Administration that allowed hundreds of Chinese nationals to work in a sensitive area of NASA's Langley Research Center. One of the nationals was arrested Monday at Dulles airport as he was trying to leave the country when he failed to disclose all of the electronics he was taking with him. An affidavit says Bo Jiang was under investigation for possible violations of the Arms Control Export Act and that he had previously taken a NASA laptop to China that...

SNIPPET: "On Tuesday, Bryan Underwood was sentenced to nine years for trying to pass secrets to China.   The irony is that the Chinese government didn’t put him up to it, and when Underwood went to a Chinese government building to sell photos of a U.S. consulate compound in Guangzhou, the Chinese turned him away. They were not interested, or didn’t understand what he was trying to convey.'

Ken Shepherd's picture In a 41-paragraph front-pager today, the Washington Post's William Wan looks at how the "New pope will be challenged by strained ties with China." "A reset is possible as both sides introduce new leadership," added a subheadline. The website version had a wildly different headline, "For China's Catholics, new pope brings hope." Throughout his article, Wan used language that suggested that the Vatican and the Communist Chinese dictatorship were on the same moral plane (emphases mine): BEIJING — Of the long list of problems the next pope will inherit once the white smoke rises in Rome, few...

It appears a drone controlled by a Chinese agent masquerading as a journalist has shown the last minutes of Dorner's life as he shot himself and was burned in the ensuing fire he set when teargas was lobbed into the cabin. Sources say agent Man Hi Pau Pau was able to observe first hand the final scene in the Dorner cabin standoff incident at Big Bear.

United Nations agricultural experts are reporting confusion, after figures show that China imported 2.6 million tons of rice in 2012, substantially more than a four-fold increase over the 575,000 tons imported in 2011. The confusion stems from the fact that there is no obvious reason for vastly increased imports, since there has been no rice shortage in China. The speculation is that Chinese importers are taking advantage of low international prices, but all that means is that China’s own vast supplies of domestically grown rice are being stockpiled. Why would China suddenly be stockpiling millions of tons of rice for...

Oregon mother Julie Keith expected to find Styrofoam headstones in the graveyard kit she bought at Kmart for Halloween. What she didn't expect was a desperate plea for help from one of the Chinese laborers forced to make the holiday decorations in brutal conditions. The 42-year-old charity worker from Portland discovered the chilling letter hidden between the two novelty headstones when she opened the kit in October. 'Sir: If you occasionally buy this product, please kindly resend this letter to the World Human Right Organization,' the unsigned note, that was folded into eighths, read. 'Thousands people here who are under...

A knife-wielding man injured 22 children and an elderly woman outside a primary school in central China as students were arriving for classes. The attack took place in the Henan province village of Chengping just before 8am, said a local police officer. The attacker, 36-year-old villager Min Yingjun, is now in police custody, according to an officer who declined to give her name, as is customary among Chinese civil servants. It is the latest in a series of similar periodic rampages at Chinese schools and kindergartens. A Guangshan county hospital administrator said the man first attacked an elderly woman

A bankrupt battery manufacturer that was a cornerstone of President Obama’s effort to make the United States a global leader in clean energy technology could end up in the hands of a Chinese company when it goes on the auction block Thursday. Congressional Republicans call the company, A123 Systems, which received $133 million in federal stimulus grants, a textbook case of how the Obama administration wasted taxpayer money trying to nurture new industries. Administration officials say the stimulus money was used to build a new manufacturing facility in Michigan