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SAN FRANCISCO -- The front door of the Consulate General of China in San Francisco was found ablaze on Wednesday night and is being investigated as arson, according to a fire dispatcher. The blaze was reported to be at the front door of the structure, located at 1450 Laguna St. in the city's Lower Pacific Heights neighborhood, a dispatcher said.

Full Title: (OT) Abe's Yasukuni Shrine Visit and the "Disappointed" US: State Dept Spokesperson Tells Chinese Reporter to Go Get a Dictionary and learn the difference between "disappointment", "regret" and "concern". The Chinese reporter's question is quite legitimate, as the words used in diplomatic statements are (or should be) strictly defined and used to convey specific meanings. The US State Department, following the example of the US Embassy in Tokyo, chose the word "disappointed" in their statement regarding Japan's PM Abe's visit to Yasukuni Shrine on December 26, 2013. But Ms. Harf, deputy spokesperson of the US State Department, told...

Federal authorities have filed charges for six Chinese nationals in an alleged scheme to steal valuable corn seeds from U.S. seed manufacturing companies for the benefit of their China-based seed companies. Mo Hailong, Li Shaoming, Wang Lei, Wang Hongwei, Ye Jian and Lin Yong each have been indicted on conspiring to steal trade secrets from U.S. seed companies, according to an indictment filed on Tuesday in the U.S. Southern District Court of Iowa. Mo was detained last week, but the others remain at large, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Southern District Court.

The world is changing. The question is whether or not we will realize it soon enough for any of us to make a single bit of difference. Behind the scenes, a debate has taken place about to what extent the People’s Republic of China has engaged in a controversial practice called gene-doping. Gene-doping is a series of techniques for genetic manipulation and modification. You may have heard of it in the past as being called gene-therepy, a practice which manipulates genetics in order to help sick people. Whether you call it gene-doping or gene-therepy depends if you are using the...

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.