Social media in China, which has nearly 600 million users, has long been recognized as a political game-changer. In a country where a one-party regime maintains tight censorship over traditional media, the relative freedom of expression available via Chinese social media, particularly Weibo (the Chinese equivalent of Twitter), has made it a powerful platform for rallying public opinion.

When one of South Africa’s biggest newspaper chains was sold last month, an odd name was buried in the list of new owners: China International Television Corp. A major stake in a South African newspaper group might seem an unusual acquisition for Chinese state television, but it was no mystery to anyone who has watched the rapid expansion of China’s media empire across Africa.

Since last year in China, people have been retiring faster new workers are entering the workforce. Fourteen percent of the population is now at least 60 years old, and at this pace, China’s total population will start to decline in 2030. And now even some of those retirees are contributing to population loss, increasingly spending their twilight years in Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines, according to a recent report in China’s state-run Global Times (GT).

China's 591 million web users are encouraged to think twice about information they share through social media in order to avoid serious punishment. Anyone caught using social media to spread "slanderous rumors" or "false information" about the government or politics can face up to 10 years in jail, according to a new legal interpretation of Internet restrictions.

Australian voters were not thinking much about foreign policy when they voted last weekend to dismiss the Labor government of Kevin Rudd and install a conservative government under Tony Abbott, the leader of the opposition Liberal Party. Instead, the election hinged on sharp domestic debates and on personality questions. Both sides tacitly agreed to ignore the huge foreign policy question that looms over the country: How should Australia position itself between its traditional ally, the United States, and its major trading partner, China, as their strategic rivalry grows?

Thousands of messages posted on the Internet every day in China get censored. Until now, little has been known about how the Chinese censorship machine works — except that it is comprehensive. "It probably is the largest effort ever to selectively censor human expression," says Harvard University social scientist Gary King. "They don't censor everything. There are millions of Chinese [who] talk about millions of things. But the effort to prune the Internet of certain kinds of information is unprecedented."

Western media organisations are trying to demonise China and promote revolution and national disintegration as they hate seeing the country prosper, the head of China’s official Xinhua news agency said in comments published on Wednesday. China’s ruling Communist Party has in recent weeks been tightening controls over the internet and reminding state media of its responsibility to promote a “correct political direction”, as President Xi Jinping dashes hopes his administration will embark on political reforms.

Ahead of the G20 meeting, president Xi Jinping has met his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto in St. Petersburg on Wednesday. It’s the third meeting between the two leaders this year. Both sides vowed to boost their comprehensive cooperative relationship. Xi says China-Mexico relations have entered a new phase, and that the two countries should continue to boost bilateral investment and economic cooperation.