CHINA US Focus - Perspectives shaping the world's most important bilateral relationship

WASHINGTON – US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Thursday that he would lead a trade mission to China at the end of March to strengthen business ties. The trade mission will be made up of more than 40 US companies and representatives from six states as well as a senior official from the Agriculture Department. [...]

BEIJING / SHANGHAI – Manufacturing bounced back to a five-month peak in February, supported by stronger exports, easing concerns about a possible contraction. The purchasing managers' index, an indicator of manufacturing activity, hit 51 last month, 0.5 points higher than January, the National Bureau of Statistics and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing revealed [...]

BEIJING – A senior leader Thursday stressed efforts to maintain steady and relatively fast economic growth and safeguard social harmony and stability in west China's Tibet autonomous region and Tibetan-inhabited areas in Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces. Jia Qinglin, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of [...]

BEIJING - China will boost the clean-up of thousands of millions of local government's debt in 2012, so to guard against possible defaults that would hurt its banks, the country's banking regulator said Thursday. The country will focus on cleaning up old loans made to local government financing vehicles (LGFV) while tightening new debt issues and [...]

BEIJING – China's State Council, or the Cabinet, on Thursday promulgated a regulation on the administration of the country's detention centers and the protection of the detainees' legitimate rights. However, the regulation is applicable only to the detention houses holding people in custody for minor offenses. It will not cover the sites where criminal suspects [...]