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Russia is already more isolated than at any time since the Cold War" - President Obama, August 2014 "China will never support or join recently imposed sanctions against Russia" - China President Xi Jinping, September 2014

Dozens of Chinese firms are producing and exporting “tools of torture”, from electric stun guns to metal spiked batons, to countries with bad human rights records, rights group Amnesty International said on Tuesday. More than 130 companies are involved in producing or trading the equipment, typically marketed to law enforcement agencies, up from about 28 companies a decade ago, Amnesty said. […] One company, China Xining Import/Export Corporation, which advertises thumb cuffs, restraint chairs and electric stun guns, said in 2012 it had ties to more than 40 African countries, according to Amnesty. The firm could not be reached for...

President Xi Jinping should find the “handshake across the Himalayas” a lot warmer than usual when he starts his India trip today. As India prepares to overcome the reflexive suspicion of its giant neighbor and open the floodgates to Chinese capital, and Xi responds by opening the checkbook, relations between the two Asian giants are set for, as India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval puts it, an “orbital jump”. […] China, which (Modi) sees as his economic role model and has visited four times, in particular rolled out the red carpet. […] “There are two factors pushing India towards China....

In 1986, Deng Xiaoping launched the “863 program”, aimed to gain control of the rare earths market … saying: “The Arab countries have oil; China has rare earths.” […] The Ukraine crisis—and China’s rare earths industrial consolidation and reform—has given Russia an unprecedented incentive to develop a rare earths mining industry, which, in addition to its hydrocarbons, would give it further huge bargaining power on the world economy. It does not have the know-how, technology or refining plants yet, but China can offer these. …

The last king of Nepal is in stable condition in a hospital after suffering a heart attack, doctors said Sunday. Gyanendra Shah was brought to the hospital Saturday night, and was recovering in the intensive care unit and was out of danger, said Dr. Bharat Rawat at the Norvic Hospital in Katmandu. […] Gyanendra was the last king to rule Nepal before the Constituent Assembly abolished the centuries-old monarchy and turned the country into a republic. …

Ottawa confirms it has ratified a foreign investment treaty with China, more than two years after the controversial agreement was signed, as CBC News first reported Friday. The controversial Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) will come into force on Oct. 1, said International Trade Minister Ed Fast in a news release Friday afternoon. […] China ratified the deal quickly, but the Harper government did not. The deal has also faced opposition from the NDP, as well as a First Nations group who challenged the agreement in court. The NDP issued a statement saying “the agreement will give...

Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has signalled a rare attempt to mend fences with China when he appointed two MPs considered friendly towards Beijing to two senior posts in his governing Liberal Democratic party (LDP). […] In his first cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday, Abe also increased the number of female ministers to five—equaling a record set by his LDP predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, in 2001—as part of his program to increase the number of women in the workforce, a key part of his long-term growth strategy. His decision to appoint Sadakazu Tanigaki as LDP’s secretary general, and veteran MP Toshihiro Nikai...

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi starts a five-day visit to Japan on Saturday, looking to deepen defense and commercial ties between the two Asian countries as they grapple with an increasingly assertive China. Mr. Modi is to meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other officials for what are expected to be wide-ranging discussions about regional security as well as a possible deal on civil nuclear cooperation. […] “It is a watershed meeting,” said Brahma Chellaney, a strategic affairs analyst at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi. “It is crucial to preventing the rise of a Sino-centric Asia.”...

China is wooing filmmakers at the same time as it’s cracking down on them. Authorities are handing more slots to documentaries, giving even independent filmmakers a chance to be shown on state television. But while China is avidly pursuing what it considers serious content to replace popular dating, reality and game shows, it is also stifling material with any whiff of challenging the Communist Party line. A weekend crackdown by authorities on an independent film festival in Beijing was the worst in its eight-year history, with police confiscating hundreds of films and briefly detaining two organizers. China’s broadcasting authority has...

Outside a mosque in China’s restive west, a government-appointed Muslim cleric was dodging a foreign reporter’s question about why young men of the Uighur ethnic minority don’t have beards when one such youth interrupted. “Why don’t you just tell them the truth?” he shouted to the cleric…. “It’s because the government doesn’t allow beards.” A plainclothes Uighur policeman swiftly rebuked the young man. “Be careful what you say,” he warned. […] … Such a mood pervades Xinjiang’s south, a vast, mainly rural region that’s become a key battleground in the ruling Communist Party’s struggle to contain escalating ethnic violence that...

China recently conducted the second flight test of a new, ultra-high-speed missile that is part of what analysts say is Beijing’s global system of attack weapons capable of striking the United States with nuclear warheads. (please see article for full text)

China’s president has promised to rein in “unreasonably high” pay for executives at government-owned companies in an apparent effort to mollify public frustration at the wealth of state industry. President Xi Jinping’s announcement, carried by the official Xinhua News Agency, comes as the ruling Communist Party is pressing government officials to cut spending on limousines, banquets and other trappings of office. …

Mainland Chinese are skirting rules aimed at limiting their purchases of property in Taiwan, stirring anger among local home buyers and fueling worries over Beijing’s creeping influence over an island that it views as a renegade province. While Chinese money has boosted property markets across the world—from Sydney and London to Vancouver—mainland capital flows into the self-ruled island are an especially emotive issue for many Taiwanese. The government in Taipei has been criticized by some for not being more restrictive on mainland ownership of Taiwanese real estate. Fueling fears of further encroachment by Beijing is a review of a cross-strait...

The World Trade Organization has upheld a ruling that China violated trade rules with restrictions on the export of “rare earths,” the minerals used in mobile phones, hybrid cars and other high-tech products. […] China has about one-third of global deposits of rare earths but accounts for more than 90 percent of production. In 2009, it alarmed foreign companies by limiting rare earth exports in an attempt to boost its domestic manufacturing base. …

Tensions between the United States and China over cybersecurity have risen as the two countries continue to trade barbs over hacking. But according to an essay on the website of a state newspaper that was widely republished this week, there is, in fact, a longer-running cyberwar underway between the United States and China. And the weapons employed, the essay argues, are far more sophisticated than hacking. Photo Lei Feng, the Chinese soldier revered as a model of selflessness. Lei Feng, the Chinese soldier revered as a model of selflessness.Credit Adam Dean for The New York Times “America has long used...

The continued deterioration of relations between Russia and NATO may not yet have resulted in a new Cold War, but it’s undoubtedly produce an environment in which Russia has independent reasons to try to hurt the United States. While the arms trade between China and Russia exploded after the fall of the Soviet Union, shipments of major systems slowed in the early part of last decade. Part of the reason was demand; China felt that it no longer needed to pay top dollar for Russian systems that it could build itself. Another reason, however, involved Russian intellectual property concerns stemming...

As skyscrapers around Hong Kong harbor erupted into a reverie of laser beams and giant digital displays during their synchronized nightly light show, one innocuous 28-story building near the water’s edge had stayed dark for months, clad in bamboo scaffolding for a face-lift. Then, in June, the renovated tower came to life, flashing giant Chinese characters that some in Hong Kong saw as a warning. “People’s Liberation Army,” it said.Many in this prosperous city had already feared that Hong Kong’s future as an open society as well as a semi-autonomous part of China was in jeopardy in the face of...

Five months after the first pictures surfaced in February 2014, the Type 055 cruiser testing rig at Wuhan has taken significant steps towards completion. The advantages of a land based test rig allow Chinese naval engineers to make cheaper adjustments and modifications to the electronics, compared to rebuilding an expensive cruiser on sea trials. Once launched, the Type 055 cruiser will be among the world's most powerful surface combatant warships, giving the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) a multipurpose warship useful for both blue water expeditionary warfare and anti-access/area denial missions. While much scaffolding remains, the photos show recent additions...

Chinese authorities have tightened already rigorous Internet controls by cracking down on online pornography and what state media called “rumormongers” and “slanderous content.” […] Xinhua said the government would also increase punishments for spreading rumors online, although it didn’t specify how it would do that. Already, Chinese courts can sentence people for up to three years in prison for writing online comments deemed defamatory. As part of the new campaign, the government has shut down websites and punished nearly 40 people it called rumormongers. …

One of ChinaÂ’s renowned ancient towns was under water on Wednesday as heavy rain hit the centre of the country, with tens of thousands of people evacuated from the area. The old town district of Fenghuang nestles on the banks of a winding river in a picturesque, mountainous part of Hunan province, and boasts stunning Qing and Ming dynasty architecture dating back hundreds of years. [Â…] According to ChinaÂ’s official Xinhua news agency, the Tuojiang river in the town had reached 1.1 meters above its previous highest recorded level, and several bridges had been damaged or destroyed. Â…