As a former immigrant, I revere America’s car culture. Automobile, to me, means freedom — to go where one wishes, rather than to be limited by the rail tracks or bus routes that the government determines. This freedom of mobility might increase in China as more Chinese buys cars, including foreign cars. This is certainly [...]

North Korea and Russia have reached an agreement to renovate the 55 km Khasan-Rajin railway, which will link North Korea’s port city of Rajin (Najin) to Russia’s Trans-Siberian Railroad. Some reconstruction is required as the two countries use different rail gauges, and North Korea’s portion likely is in varying stages of disrepair.
Though it will take [...]

Though the mechanics are obviously different than the Sino-Soviet Dispute, the outcome is similar enough to be compared; North Korea is in the middle of the re-emerging Chinese great power and the world’s only superpower (for a detailed explanation this, see Suh Dae-sook’s book). Bush’s change from a hard-line to La-La Land policy on [...]

Last week China expressed concern that the U.S. decision to destroy an errant satellite (which was a success) was actually a thinly veiled missile defense test. The official U.S. explanation was that the satellite contained a potentially toxic fuel that was never used due to a malfunction soon after it was placed in orbit. By [...]

Not new, but an interesting read: “Shot down over Communist China on their first operational mission in 1952, these young men spent the next two decades imprisoned, often in solitary confinement… Fecteau was released in 1971, Downey in 1973. They came home to an America vastly different from the place they had left, but both [...]

Earlier this week Chinese security officials removed four persons believed to be North Korean defectors – who likely will face imprisonment or execution if sent back to North Korea – from a South Korean government run school in Beijing, which South Korea protested. Aside from the fact that it was a ROK government facility, Robert [...]

The 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the supplemental Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees of 1967 has been ignored for years by both China and Russia. This is just one specific example of the consequences (h/t Are You Nkay?):
In 1999, a group of seven North Koreans fleeing their [...]

Earlier this year there were rumors that North Korean’s overseas, particularly diplomats, defied an order from Kim Jong-il to return all but one child to North Korea. True or not, there is now a rumor that all North Korean students in Beijing have been recalled:
All North Korean students studying in Beijing have returned to their [...]

Compare these pics at Google images to that of 51 year-old Chen Yan (h/t Bodhi):

A middle-aged woman has bemused her countrymen by bringing China’s famous leader Mao Zedong back to life.
Dressed in a grey, button-up waistcoast Chen Yan is the spitting image of the deceased Communist leader, who ruled China with an iron grip for [...]

Update: Angry Chinese Blogger covers the anti-satellite issue.
Original post: It is no secret that China poses a challenge to American hegemony in East Asia, and for Korea watchers it has been painfully apparent that China is best positioned to at least attempt to force North Korea to denuclearize - as its largest trade partner and [...]