China, Asia | featured news

The central Communist Party is attempting to dismantle the support network of Bo Xilai, the former party chief in Chongqing and to build a case against him and his wife.

India announced plans Wednesday to test launch a new long-range missile, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead as far as the Chinese capital Beijing for the first time. Officials and defense experts said if the tests of the Agni-V missile proved successful, it would mark a significant improvement in India’s nuclear deterrent capability, and would strengthen its hand in a hostile neighborhood, sandwiched between nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and China.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said Tuesday that news of a Chinese investigation into the death of a British businessman in China followed repeated British requests for an inquiry. Forty-one-year-old Neil Heywood was found dead in a hotel room in Chongqing, China's biggest metropolis, last November. His death was initially attributed to alcohol poisoning but foul play is now suspected.

China has moved quickly to cast the downfall of one of the country's top politicians as a simple case of legal wrongdoing. Bo Xilai has been stripped of his position in the Communist party's politburo because of his connection with the suspected murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.

Their technical skills helped Japan's corporate giants sweep all before them in the 1980s, and now thousands of aging Japanese engineers are finding a new lease on life in booming China.

Walt Disney Co. signed a co-production deal with China's DMG Entertainment to produce its next "Iron Man" film in China, highlighting the nation's draw for the global entertainment industry.

The British businessman whose murder has sparked political upheaval in China was poisoned after he threatened to expose a plan by a Chinese leader's wife to move money abroad, two sources with knowledge of the police investigation said.

China loosens its currency controls in a move that may spur gains in the value of the yuan. From Monday, the yuan can fluctuate up to 1% in trading against the US dollar from a fixed price set by the central bank, the People's Bank of China said.

With China’s propaganda apparatus in overdrive as the Communist Party demolishes the reputation of one of its former stars, a few defiant and angry fans are sticking to their guns. “We support the Chongqing Model and Bo Xilai,” declared a call to arms posted on the Web site of the Progress Society, a pugnacious “new left” fraternity that trumpets the ousted Chongqing Party boss as a hero. Its logo features a panda wearing a Mao cap and clutching a rifle in front of a Chinese flag.

China’s Communist machine on Wednesday launched a coordinated chorus of approval of the decision to oust fallen top official Bo Xilai and arrest his wife in a murder probe, likely an effort to stave off criticism from the disgraced politician’s many supporters.