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"Do you just want your kids to be test machines and cheap workers for corporations?"Lily Tang Williams, a mother of three, testified before the Colorado State Board of Education that Common Core was similar to the education she received growing up in Mao’s Communist China. “Common Core, in my eyes, is the same as the Communist core I once saw in China,” Williams said. “I grew up under Mao’s regime and we had the Communist-dominated education — nationalized testing, nationalized curriculum, and nationalized indoctrination.” In a post at FreedomWorks, Williams wrote about her experience with the Chinese education system: Our...

China’s central bank unexpectedly slashed interest rates on Friday to re-energize the world’s No. 2 economy, joining a growing list of major economies that are trying to encourage growth in the face of a global slowdown. On top of the rate cut, Chinese authorities promised to inject credit into the financial system if needed. Meanwhile, the president of the European Central Bank said Friday he was ready to step up stimulus for the 18-country eurozone economy, whose performance continues to disappoint. And Japan’s government this week delayed a tax increase after the country slipped back into recession. News of China’s...

Washington is not doing nearly enough to stop Chinese hackers who reportedly broke into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) computer system in September from stealing critical information from U.S. government agencies and American businesses, says Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA). “They have a more sophisticated spying apparatus than the KGB had,” Wolf told CNSNews.com. “We’re losing jobs, technology, everything is leaving. It’s like they’re coming in and literally taking whatever they want to take. And so sometimes you find out about it and sometimes you don’t, but there needs to be a coordinated effort [to stop them],” Wolf continued....

A special envoy of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has left Pyongyang for Russia to discuss ways to improve trade and political ties. Choe Ryong Hae, a senior official in the ruling Workers’ Party and one of Kim’s close associates, left Pyongyang on Monday. He is scheduled to stay in Russia until Nov. 24. …

The state’s response to this resurgence of faith is an escalating campaign of repression As he stood in the hot sun and watched a dozen earth movers smash through the walls of the Sanjiang church, Mr Dai felt a great sadness and also fear – for himself and for the future of his fellow Christians. “There were so many police blocking the road and surrounding mountains. They had cut off power to the whole area and blacked out mobile phone coverage and they were trying to stop anybody coming near,” he says. By pretending to be part of the demolition...

A U.S. Congressman says hackers from China were able to breach computer systems operated by the federal agency that oversees the National Weather Service and other climate-related programs. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency spokesman Scott Smullen confirmed in a statement Wednesday that four websites were “compromised by an Internet-sourced attack,” forcing the NOAA to perform unscheduled maintenance in recent weeks. …

When Xi Jinping took the reins of a booming China two years ago, President Barack Obama saw an opportunity to remake America’s relationship with the Asian power. But even after Obama’s unusually robust efforts to forge personal ties with Xi, the two leaders are meeting in Beijing amid significant tensions, both old and new. Xi has consolidated power since taking office, deepened China’s provocative maritime disputes with its neighbors and stands accused of continuing cyberattacks against the United States. U.S. officials have new concerns over the potential for a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong and are warily watching...

What is it with this guy?Obama bowed to Chinese President Xi JinPing today. Obama greets Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan at the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in China.Obama bowed to the last Chinese leader too.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said the army is under the absolute leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the principle should always be firmly upheld. “The Party commands the gun,” said Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and the Central Military Commission (CMC) chairman, at a military political work conference held in a former revolutionary base in the township of Gutian, Fujian Province on Thursday and Friday. The ideological and political development is the lifeline for military building and has safeguarded the CPC’s absolute command of the troops, Xi noted. …

So, dear Chinese reader, you still think the American Dream eclipses the Chinese one? Well, take a look at Zhou Xiaoping’s blogs and learn that in the U.S. you would have to shell out $3,500 in mandatory car insurance a year and spend $30,000 for a low-end domestic car, and that more than half of the kids in most public schools don’t graduate. All those numbers are way off. Even Chinese propaganda officials agree he makes mistakes. But while Beijing campaigns against what it calls online misinformation, erasing critical online comments and arresting dozens of bloggers over the past 18...

China’s defense minister met Thursday with Iran’s navy commander in the latest sign of warming ties between their two militaries following their first joint naval drills in the Persian Gulf last month. […] China has been building closer ties with the militaries of U.S. rivals such as Russia to help counter American naval dominance in the Asia-Pacific region.China and Iran also maintain close economic links, although Beijing has joined international efforts to prod Iran into cooperating with the global community over its nuclear programs. …

China may ban Facebook, but not its co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, who entertained an audience of students in Beijing with a 30-minute chat in his recently learned Mandarin Chinese. There was no explicit discussion of China’s ban on the social media site, which has been in place since 2009, though an indirect reference to it drew laughter during the question-and-answer session Wednesday at the prestigious Tsinghua University. Both Zuckerberg and the university posted video clips of the Q&A online. […] “Speaking of China, I have a more difficult question for Mark, which I hope will not get me fired. What are...

China says it’s against referring ally North Korea to the International Criminal Court over its human rights record. The U.N. General Assembly’s human rights committee is considering a resolution calling on the Security Council to take that step, citing the North’s dismal and well-documented record of sprawling political prison camps, starvation and mass executions. …

Smooth jazz star Kenny G insisted Thursday he’s not a foreign provocateur supporting Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests, after Beijing signaled its displeasure over his inharmonious visit and repeated concerns about meddling by external forces. The American musician created a stir when he tweeted Wednesday about his visit to the semiautonomous southern Chinese city, where thousands of student-led protesters have occupied streets for more than three weeks to press their demands for greater democratic reforms. …

Taipei is very closely watching Beijing’s actions in Hong Kong—and so far it doesn’t like what it sees. The events of the past three weeks in Hong Kong have underlined two major points. First, Beijing’s policy has not changed. Second, China’s attempt to reintegrate Taiwan with the mainland has been postponed indefinitely—perhaps forever. Beijing’s preeminent leader, Xi Jinping, has refused to allow Hong Kongers to participate in the nomination process that is the first step in the selection of the next leader of the province. This does not surprise anyone in Taipei. Even though Beijing formally accepts the one country-two...

The U.S. and China pledged Saturday to overcome mistrust, manage their differences and cooperate on key issues like combating terrorism and the spread of the Ebola virus as President Barack Obama prepares to travel to the Chinese capital next month. Meeting in Boston, Secretary of State John Kerry and Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi said the relationship between the two countries is mature enough to discuss disagreements while building on areas of shared interest. …

At an event on Thursday at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., Reggie Littlejohn, founder and president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, used a Chinese Communist Party official’s statistic to point out how many babies have been aborted in the 34 years since the one-child per couple policy was put in place. “Forced abortion is not a choice,” Littlejohn said. “The Chinese Communist Party has become the enemy of the people, and has boasted that it has prevented 400 million lives through the one child policy.” “That is a greater number than the entire population of the United States and...

Representative Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said at the Heritage Foundation on Thursday that despite his and other congressmens’ efforts to hold Communist China accountable for its one-child, forced abortion policy, President Barack Obama and his administration are not only ignoring the policy but are advancing the “brutal program.” “I respectfully submit that not only is the Obama administration turning a blind eye to the atrocities being committed under the one-child policy, but it is even contributing financial support—contrary to U.S. law—to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA),” Smith said in a keynote address at the event. …

A U.S. report released Thursday says China’s human rights record has worsened in key areas over the past year and that limits on free speech and assembly are growing. The annual report by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China said the country has tightened restrictions on civil society, rights advocates, journalists and religious organizations. It added that President Xi Jinping has adhered “to the authoritarian model of his predecessors” since taking power last year. That model “poses a serious challenge to U.S.-China relations and China’s own development,” the report said. It recommended that the U.S. press for more freedoms in China,...

The Chinese economy just surpassed the U.S. economy to become the world’s largest in terms of purchasing power, according to the International Monetary Fund.The IMF measures economic strength by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in both market exchange rates and average purchasing power, the latter being where China has overtaken the U.S. with a GDP of $17.6 trillion by the end of 2014 — 16.4 percent of the world’s purchasing power. The U.S. will close out the year with a purchasing-power adjusted GDP of $17.4 trillion, or 16.2 percent of the world’s total.Financial Times predicted the change in April and illustrated...