China

Made in China now has a fast-growing sibling: Bought by China. Beijing is using its accumulation of billions of American dollars to step up its investments around the globe. In the last year, Chinese acquisitions in the U.S. have ranged from a relatively obscure theater in Branson, Mo., to stakes in such famous brands as Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson. China's huge stockpile of dollars stems in part from Americans' enormous purchases of relatively inexpensive Chinese manufactured goods and the significantly smaller volume of U.S. exports to the Asian country.

Rescue workers facing a rising death toll and heavy rains Tuesday dug for survivors of China's worst earthquake in decades, as people throughout the country searched for loved ones, medical help, water and food. At Zhu Renmin Hospital in Mianzhu, where thousands of dead and severely injured people filled a parking lot, police and government workers arrived early in the day to help move patients to the provincial capital, Chengdu, and hospitals elsewhere in the area.

A safety scare involving the holiday season's hottest toy cooled off Monday after federal safety regulators quickly put to rest claims that one model of the bestselling Zhu Zhu Pets contained toxic levels of the element antimony. "The Consumer Product Safety Commission confirmed today that the popular Zhu Zhu toy is not out of compliance with the antimony or other heavy-metal limits of the new U.S. mandatory toy standard," agency spokesman Scott Wolfson said. "We will still do our own independent testing at CPSC.

Averting a diplomatic disaster, the United States says its trouble-prone pavilion at Expo 2010 should be ready for the opening May 1 of the international fair here. Jose H. Villarreal, a San Antonio lawyer tapped last summer by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to right the troubled project, said Wednesday that all but $8 million of the $61 million needed for the pavilion has now been raised from 34 corporate sponsors. "It would have been unimaginable for the United States to be just about the only country on Earth not to be represented in a global event of this size," said Villarreal, who holds the title of U.S. commissioner general for the expo that is expected to draw 70 million visitors from May to October.

General Motors' tank-like Hummer is known in China as Han Ma Han Ma , which translates as "fierce horse." This week, the brand was put out to pasture by the Chinese company Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery, which withdrew its bid to buy the unit after the Chinese government refused to approve the deal. For a vehicle whose status as a symbol long ago overtook its value as a product, even its trip to the glue factory represents more than a failed business transaction. Few vehicles on the road today provoke visceral reactions like the Hummer, whose militaristic profile strikes some as a provocation and others as a declaration of independence.

Gerry Wolfe, the Canadian-born president of a Chinese mining company, has a pretty good explanation for why Beijing isn't hunkering down like everyone else during the global financial crisis: "The Chinese have more cash than anyone else right now." That's one reason Chinalco Mining Peru, a unit of China's state-owned Chinalco, is continuing with a project announced two years ago to open a $2-billion copper mine in the Peruvian Andes by 2012, Wolfe said in an interview in this capital Friday.

Lhamotso never learned to read and write, and she has few marketable skills other than the ability to milk a yak. Yet she can earn up to $1,000 a week these days, an unimaginable fortune for a Tibetan nomad. With the money, she has bought herself a shiny new Honda motorcycle. She and her husband gave up their tent for a house they built themselves with solar panels, a satellite dish and television. The worm, Lhamotso explains, "has changed our lives."

Apple Inc.'s iPhone has been a ringing success wherever it has been launched. But in China few are picking up the buzz. Challenged by high pricing, missing features and stiff competition, iPhones have logged only 5,000 sales since the handset debuted Oct. 30 in the world's biggest cellphone market. By comparison, more than a million units were sold in the first three days when the latest iPhone was launched in North America and Europe in June. One major hang-up might be the price.

China on Thursday announced the smallest increase in its defense budget in years, in an apparent attempt to assuage international fears that its military is growing too powerful. Coming after almost two decades of double-digit increases, the relatively modest 7.5% boost in the budget, to $78 billion, also highlights the Chinese leadership's stated plan to channel funding to social programs. "China is committed to peace," said Li Zhaoxing, a spokesman for the National People's Congress, where the budget figures were released.

Before her family bought a solar water heater, Liu Yan would bathe the way many working-class Chinese have for generations: boil water, dampen a rag and wipe away the dirt. Today, the 40-year-old mother and her family shower every day and wash their dishes with hot water. The stainless steel heater affixed to her red-tiled roof cost about $220. The device has become a symbol of China's rising standard of living and its leap into the era of clean energy. In the seaside city of 2.8 million where Liu lives in Shandong province, 99% of households use solar water heaters.

In an annual news conference Sunday in which he took direct aim at the United States, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao defended his country's currency policy and said it was up to Washington to mend Sino-American relations. Rejecting charges that China kept the yuan artificially low to boost its exports, Wen said the Chinese currency was not undervalued and that the government's policy of controlling the exchange rate had increased imports and helped spur economic recovery around the globe.

In an annual news conference Sunday that took direct aim at the United States, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao defended his country's currency policy and said it was up to Washington to mend Sino-American relations. Rejecting charges that China kept the yuan artificially low to boost its exports, Wen said the Chinese currency was not undervalued and that the government's policy of controlling the exchange rate had boosted imports and helped spur economic recovery across the globe. President Obama on Thursday called on Beijing to move to "a more market-oriented exchange rate."

Inside the Great Hall of the People, it's all canned speeches and stilted words of praise for the Chinese Communist Party. Yes, it's the annual National People's Congress. Yawn. But take a step outside. There, it's pot-bellied paparazzi chasing after celebrity delegates and more costume changes than a Vegas diva. Think Democratic National Convention (or Republican, if they're the party in power) meets the Academy Awards. The term "rubber stamp" accompanies references to the congress in Western news reports often enough to be an epithet.

The love between man and elephant does not come easily. Just ask villagers in this tropical swath of southwestern China, where pachyderms gobble up crops, rampage through greenhouses, and have been known to knock laundry off clotheslines. When angry, elephants can turn deadly. In 2008, a woman was trampled to death in her food kiosk in a tourist park here called Wild Elephant Valley. A few months later at the same park, an elephant critically injured a U.S. tourist trying to take pictures.

It's less than two hours before boarding time but most of the staff of Libo Airport are walking off their dinner of spicy dog meat with an evening stroll around the parking lot. Others sit in a circle on a grassy median smoking cigarettes and marveling at a full moon. A security guard naps on a metal bench. A saleswoman behind the ticket counter enjoys a shoulder rub in the darkened terminal. "Can you at least turn on the lights?" asks a traveler carrying a bag of snacks.

As a former South Korean intelligence agent, Kim Young-kwang knows all about subterfuge, secret documents and international intrigue. But that's just soulless spy craft compared with what he considers the most engaging case of his life. It's a 100-year-old riddle that involves heroes from two nations, a Chinese prison, a Buddhist monk, a dose of Seoul politics -- and a voice from the grave. For more than two decades, Kim has traveled across the region to sift through yellowing archives, interview witnesses and amass a vault of evidence, all in hopes of answering a nagging question: Where are the remains of Ahn Jung-geun?

'Nixon in China' What: Long Beach Opera Where: Terrace Theater, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach When: 8 p.m. March 20 and 4 p.m. March 28 Price: $5 to $95 Contact: (562) 435-2994, www.longbeachopera.org Running time: 3 hours, 30 minutes

China on Thursday announced the smallest increase in its defense budget in years, in an apparent attempt to assuage international fears that its military is growing too powerful. Coming after almost two decades of double-digit increases, the relatively modest 7.5% boost in the budget, to $78 billion, also highlights the Chinese leadership's stated plan to channel funding to social programs. "China is committed to peace," said Li Zhaoxing, a spokesman for the National People's Congress, where the budget figures were released.

Averting a diplomatic disaster, the United States says its trouble-prone pavilion at Expo 2010 should be ready for the opening May 1 of the international fair here. Jose H. Villarreal, a San Antonio lawyer tapped last summer by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to right the troubled project, said Wednesday that all but $8 million of the $61 million needed for the pavilion has now been raised from 34 corporate sponsors. "It would have been unimaginable for the United States to be just about the only country on Earth not to be represented in a global event of this size," said Villarreal, who holds the title of U.S. commissioner general for the expo that is expected to draw 70 million visitors from May to October.

Made in China now has a fast-growing sibling: Bought by China. Beijing is using its accumulation of billions of American dollars to step up its investments around the globe. In the last year, Chinese acquisitions in the U.S. have ranged from a relatively obscure theater in Branson, Mo., to stakes in such famous brands as Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson. China's huge stockpile of dollars stems in part from Americans' enormous purchases of relatively inexpensive Chinese manufactured goods and the significantly smaller volume of U.S. exports to the Asian country.