Society

The most popular recurring foreign talking point on China’s surging economy in the era of the global financial crisis is something like, “Maybe they have got something figured out over there in Beijing that we don’t.” That is, maybe authoritarian state-led capitalism isn’t all that bad.

Well, I can agree that state capitalism is certainly not bad for the winners, China’s state-owned enterprises. But what about the losers? I am thinking now of some people you might not normally have sympathy for, China’s rich (or once-rich) private entrepreneurs. Over the years I have encountered peasant oil barons, coal mine bosses, private airline chiefs and real estate developers who have all learned to rue the defects of state capitalism. Their stories differ widely but most have the same ending: profitable assets ended up in the hands of the government, and private risk-takers lost.

Philippine police are killing Hong Kong hostages or rescue them?

Finally, Philippine police rescued 10 bodies out the tourism bus.

China is angry after a violent hostage drama in the Philippines killed eight tourists from Hong Kong, and the Southeast Asian nation can do little to soothe the powerhouse, as a raft of visitor cancellations has hit the country's tourism industry.

Tens of thousands of people have marched in Hong Kong to denounce the Philippines and thousands of Chinese tourists canceled flight and hotel bookings. Two Chinese recipients of Asia's most prestigious award failed to show up for the Manila ceremony.

President Benigno Aquino III has asked for China's forgiveness while vowing "someone will pay" for the embarrassing official handling of the 11-hour hostage-taking Aug. 23 that unfolded live on television.

China has pressed North Korea to speed up economic reforms in a summit encounter that underscored Beijing's concerns about its impoverished and wayward ally, experts said Tuesday.

Many analysts said North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il's five-day tour of northeast China -- which ended Monday -- was aimed at conferring legitimacy on an eventual handover of power to his youngest son.

But for China, reviving the North's moribund economy also appears paramount at a time when it is trying to coax Kim back to nuclear disarmament talks and put a lid on regional tensions that risk perilous instability on its border.

After Kim Jong Il's safe return, North Korea confirmed what for days had been clear: the Dear Leader was on a not-so-secret trip to northeastern China.

Kim hobnobbed with top Chinese officials, including President Hu Jintao, toured factories and paid a nostalgic trip down Kim family memory lane, according to Chinese and North Korean state media — possibly, rumor had it, accompanied by the son many believe is being groomed to succeed him as North Korea's next leader.

There was no sign of Kim Jong Un, the 20-something son said to be in his favor, and there was no mention of him in either nation's dispatches about the five-day trip that ended Monday and was shrouded in typical secrecy.

Still, signs that the North Korean regime is laying the groundwork for a succession movement abounded in the 68-year-old Kim's pointedly patriotic and strategic trip by train through northeastern China.