China

US President Barack Obama and China's Hu Jintao Tuesday pledged to apply their joint political might to the world's toughest problems, but friction was evident on Tibet, economics and Iran. In solemn talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, the high point of Obama's debut visit to China, the leaders ploughed through an agenda packed with top world crises, reflecting China's rise as a key global player. Hu vowed to work for "positive, cooperative and comprehensive" ties with Obama's administration, and the US leader, seeking to cement his early relationship with Beijing, adopted the same diplomatic formula word for word. The ... Read Full Story

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama faces tensions with China over trade and Tibet on his first visit to the emerging superpower for a summit that will grapple with economic imbalances and the future of the yuan. Obama arrived in Shanghai, China's commercial hub, late on Sunday to torrential rain and is due to meet city officials and hold a town hall-style meeting with young people before heading to Beijing later on Monday. Chinese state-run Internet sites have asked the public for suggested questions to quiz Obama with at the youth meeting, and many urged him to explain any plans to meet the ... Read Full Story

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese Internet users want to quiz U.S. President Barack Obama about trade feuds, basketball, Tibet and whether he will cede California to China, according to websites seeking questions for a "town hall" meeting. Obama arrives on Sunday for a four-day visit to shore up ties between the world's biggest and third-biggest economies, and a public high point will be a planned question-and-answer meeting with young Chinese in Shanghai on Monday. The White House hopes the quiz session will have a "web component," although details are still being negotiated, said Richard Buangan, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. "We're still ... Read Full Story

US President Barack Obama must press China on human rights violations in Tibet and its far-west Xinjiang region during his upcoming Asian tour, Human Rights Watch said Thursday. "We are seriously disappointed with the administration's efforts to date on human rights in China," Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director for the New York-based group, told the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Hong Kong. "It will be devastating if (Obama) doesn't speak about Tibet and Xinjiang." A senior US official said this week Obama plans to talk about religious freedom, Tibet and other human rights issues with President Hu Jintao when he makes his first official visit ... Read Full Story

China on Monday said it had put to death nine people over deadly ethnic unrest in its far-western Xinjiang region, the first executions since the rioting in July. Authorities convicted 21 defendants in October -- nine were sentenced to death, three were given the death penalty with a two-year reprieve, a sentence usually commuted to life in jail and the rest were handed various prison terms. "The first group of nine people who were sentenced to death recently have already been executed in succession, with the approval of the Supreme Court," Hou Hanmin, spokeswoman for the Xinjiang government, told AFP. It was not clear ... Read Full Story