The Nobel Peace Prize panel on Thursday defended its award to jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo as based on "universal values," rejecting Beijing's accusation that it is trying force Western ideas on China.

The attempt by a group of patriotic Chinese scholars to create a Chinese alternative to the Nobel Prize appears to have backfired disastrously today, with the recipient a no-show and the Chinese government distancing itself from their efforts.

The WikiLeaks cables have revealed that the US is closely monitoring China’s activity in Africa, which causes serious concern in American diplomatic circles. The growing flow of Chinese investments is one of the particular causes of concern. The fault with the Chinese is that they invest in African countries’ economies without interfering in their internal affairs, while Western powers put forward demands of “good governance”, whatever this may mean.

Once upon a time, it was a schoolyard taunt to label someone "four-eyes," but in Taiwan, they have adopted an unusual take on such labels. There is a strange and ubiquitous fashion trend seen among Taipei's teens and twentysomethings who sport eyeglass frames sans the lenses. It is not entirely clear where the trend originated, as some point to the Japanese and Korean pop scene as the trend's provenance, while others argue it to be a homegrown Taiwanese fashion.

Chinese students with foreign college degrees are coming home in ever greater numbers. Some are drawn by the new opportunities that China's rapidly expanding economy is opening up to highly educated, internationally minded young people.

The latest WikiLeaks release suggests that China is trying to distance itself from the North Korean regime and may be struggling to rein in the country, which is heavily dependent on China.

A troupe of 50 Chinese disabled artists will have a special performance at the Hanoi Opera House on December 2. They will perform their worldwide famous dance entitled “Goddess of Mercy with hundreds of arms and thousands of eyes” and a dance play entitled “My Dream”, which have become famous worldwide.

Australia is spending tens of billions of dollars to ramp up our naval power, chiefly to stand alongside our US ally in countering what strategists view as an expansionist China. But China is still working out the way it will work in the region, says Wang Yuzhu, a top international affairs expert in Beijing.