China This Week: Promises at the UN, Trawler Dispute with Japan, Family Planning

China and UN Co-operation: Speaking at the United Nations, Premier Wen Jiabao gave Beijing's pledge for a more active role in UN affairs.

Meeting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Wen said China has maintained coordination and cooperation with the UN to combat a series of global challenges such as climate change, as well as "hot spot" international and regional issues.

Wen also said China will continue to boost its efforts to ensure fulfillment of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

Wen also announced an Africa-China partnership to strengthen international AIDS prevention and treatment efforts.

According to UN statistics, an estimated 700,000 Chinese people have HIV, with 85,000 suffering from AIDS. There were 50,000 new infections and 20,000 deaths reported in China in 2007.

Wen's meeting with President Obama on Thursday focused China-US trade, the yuan exchange rate, the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, and climate change.

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Mexico: Twitter & Bloggers Break the Silence on the Drug Wars (Tuckman)

Jo Tuckman writes for The Guardian of London:

A small army of bloggers and tweeters is filling the gaps left by traditional media in Mexico that are increasingly limiting their coverage of the country's drug wars because of pressure from the cartels.

"Shots fired by the river, unknown number of dead," read one recent tweet on a busy feed from the northern border city of Reynosa, #Reynosafollow. "Organized crime blockade on San Fernando road lifted," said another. "Just saw police officers telling a group of narcos about the positions of navy checkpoints," ran a third.

Nothing of this kind appeared in the city's papers which, along with most media outlets in the north-eastern state of Tamaulipas, have become better known for what they do not publish than for what they do.

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China and Japan: How A Fishing Boat Led to a Headline Confrontation (Ford)

Several years ago, I worked with a talented Chinese student who wrote a Master's dissertation on the "textbook crisis" about Chinese objections to the portrayal of history in Japanese textbooks. Anger over the representation of Japan's invasion of China in the 1930s led to violent protests and Beijing's threats to reduce ties with Tokyo./p>

I was reminded of this all week as the Sino-Japanese tension escalated over Japan's interception of a Chinese trawler and detention of the captain. Amidst the mounting concern --- some Western media even speculated about what the US would do if China invaded Japan --- I expected the situation to be resolved. And on Friday, my prediction looked good when Japan released the Chinese captain.

Still, the episode illustrates how an apparently minor incident can be elevated to the status of diplomatic crisis....

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China Economy Weekly: Trade Battles with US, Power to Tibet, Investing In General Motors

Beijing Buys More US Debt:  China slightly increased its holdings of US Treasury debts in July, to $846.7 billion, after two months of net sales.

The news allayed concerns that Washington's largest creditor was moving away from investing in dollar assets.

Coincidentally, the debt data came out as two US Congressional hearings were being held on China's exchange rate policy. 

The hearings were attended by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who acknowledged that the two countries "have significant economic interests" in their relationship and highlighted the importance of the Chinese market on the US economic recovery. However, he expressed dissatisfaction with the pace of the yuan's appreciation.

China responding by warning that obsessing over yuan appreciation would not solve trade problems in the US and "might make things even worse"

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"It's Just Not Cricket": The Sports Betting Scandal Engulfing England and Pakistan (Haddigan)

On Monday the English cricket team played Pakistan in a one-day international at Lords, the spiritual home of the game. Not all was gentlemanly in the sport of gentlemen, however: a verbal and physical scuffle was sparked when an England player allegedly asked a Pakistani opponent how much he hoped to make from illegal betting on the game.

The incident escalated an already-tense situation. Three Pakistani players had been withdrawn from the tour of England after claims that "no-balls" had been bowled to pay off on large "spot bets". The chairman of Pakistan cricket subsequently claimed that English players had deliberately lost a game, escalating a scandal over match-fixing that threatens to tarnish the sport.

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China This Week: Severing Contacts with Japan, Meeting Obama, Awaiting European Plans

Chinese Premier to Meet Obama in New York:  Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will meet with US President Barack Obama during his visit to the United Nations in New York this week.

China-Japan Dispute Escalates over Detention of Captain:  China has again urged Japan to immediately set free the Chinese trawler captain who was detained two weeks ago near the Diaoyu Islands, saying the detention is "a protruding obstacle" to Sino-Japanese ties.

[Editor's Update: On Sunday Beijing severed high-level contacts and called off a visit by Japanese youth. Tokyo urged China to remain calm and to avoid escalating the conflict.  

Today Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshito Sengoku, has said all officials "should be careful not to arouse narrow-minded extreme nationalism".]

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China Economy Weekly: "Open to Foreign Firms" and Imports, Agreement with Taiwan, Inflation at 22-Month High

China "Open to Foreign Firms": Vice President Xi Jinping has said that China is taking vigorous steps to create a more open, optimal environment for foreign enterprises.

Xi made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the 2nd World Investment Forum  in Xiamen City in southeast China's Fujian Province.

 Foreign direct investment this year is set to "surpass $100 billion", compared to $90 billion dollars last year, an official with China's Ministry of Commerce said on Sunday.

Moving in the other direction, China is now fifth in outbound direct investment with a total volume of $56.5 billion, compared to a ranking of 12th in 2008.

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China This Week: Sino-US Talks; No More Iran Sanctions; Sea Tension with Japan; Ties with Myanmar

High-level talks strengthen Sino-US ties: Lawrence Summers, the head of President Barack Obama's National Economic Council, and Deputy National Security Adviser Tom Donilon visited China from 5 to 8 September, seeking to iron out touchy issues in bilateral relations.

President Hu Jintao called said during a meeting on Wednesday, "Further comprehensive development of Sino-US relations is more important than ever before, as the global economic recovery is facing a variety of unstable and uncertain factors. China and the US should view the bilateral relationship from a global and strategic perspective."

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EA Flashback: God on 9-11 "Which Part of 'Don't Kill' Do You Not Understand?" (The Onion)

By 2001, many of us at the University of Birmingham had become avid followers of The Onion, the weekly satirical US on-line "newspaper". As we all tried to take in the tragedy of 11 September, we wondered if The Onion would make any reference to what had happened. Indeed, we wondered if it would appear again: a week after the attacks, there was no edition. But on 26 September, there was. Indeed, almost the entire newspaper was devoted to a darkly humourous treatment of 9-11. To do it credit, the full issue should be read --- for example, "U.S. Vows To Defeat Whoever It Is We're At War With" is a spot-on forecast ofwhat would happen as the Bush Administration moved from Afghanistan to Iraq --- but here is one of the "reports"that helped us grieve and think through what had happened. And it also made us smile.

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