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A Chinese tourist was beaten unconscious after being mistaken for a petitioner who wanted to lobby the authorities in Beijing, state media report.

China’s foreign ministry spokesman said Monday that Beijing “firmly opposes” the Obama administration’s plans to upgrade Taiwan’s aging fleet of F-16 fighter jets, but the measured tone suggested Chinese leaders may want to avoid sparking a full-scale confrontation with Washington over the issue.

Hundreds of villagers in eastern China have been demonstrating in recent days against pollution they say is caused by a solar panel factory, with some protesters storming the compound and overturning vehicles, local authorities and residents said Sunday.

European stock futures declined Wednesday as Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Societe Generale SA and Credit Agricole SA and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said developed nations should not rely on China to bail them out. U.S. futures and Asian shares dropped.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is aiming to handle one trillion yuan ($157 billion) of transactions in 2012 on its Taobao consumer sales platforms, the company's Chairman Jack Ma said Saturday.

Fitch Ratings warned on Thursday that it might downgrade the credit rating of China within two years and there was a greater than even chance of a downgrade of Japan's credit status.

Liang Wengen of Sany Heavy Industry is the new number one with a net worth of $9.3 billion, followed by Robin Li.

Chinese arms firms offered to sell weapons worth about $200 million to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's beleaguered forces in July, two newspapers reported, compounding pressure on Beijing's brittle ties with the rebels who have ousted him.

Experts say 2011 has seen a sharp and worrisome increase inside China of a security tactic that a United Nations international convention has sought to outlaw since 2010.

Measuring the country’s economic development against that of China seems to be a national obsession in India, but the rivalry seems to be largely one-sided.