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

The Philippines claimed progress on Wednesday in persuading Southeast Asian leaders to present a united front to China in a festering maritime dispute, but the region remains divided over how to tackle its biggest security challenge.   The 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is under growing pressure to resolve the dispute following [...]

China's premier called the country's big banks a monopoly that needed to be broken to get money flowing to cash-starved private firms, as the nation's economy appears to have skidded to its slowest growth in three years.   China's state banks make money "far too easily", state media quoted Premier Wen Jiabao as saying on [...]

China is notorious for censoring politically delicate news coverage. But it is more than willing to let flattering news about Western and Asian businesses appear in print and broadcast media — if the price is right.   Want a profile of your chief executive to appear in the Chinese version of Esquire? That will be [...]

Foxconn Technology's agreement to improve the lot of its 1.2 million workers in China who make Apple Inc's iPads and iPhones is a signal that China is losing its title as the world's lowest-cost producer of everything.   It is not a pure economic argument, but an ethical one too that is gaining momentum following [...]

China accelerated the opening of its capital markets by more than doubling the amount foreigners can invest in stocks, bonds and bank deposits as the government shifts its growth model to domestic consumption from exports.   The China Securities Regulatory Commission increased the quotas for qualified foreign institutional investors to $80 billion from $30 billion, [...]