President Ma Ying-jeou yesterday laid down the blueprint for Taiwan's “gold decade,” and expressed his belief that improving cross-strait ties could compel China to remove the vast number of missiles that it has aimed at the island.

Kim Jong Il's recent visit to China was a gentle reminder that the road to Pyongyang leads through Beijing. China is the only power that has remained engaged with North Korea, through many ups and downs, whereas Russia, Japan, the United States and South Korea have all come and gone.

Political dialogue, cultural diplomacy and economic cooperation will be three crucial components of President Pratibha Patil's maiden visit to China from May 26 during which she will also inaugurate the first Indian-style Buddhist temple 'white horse' in Luoyang.

China’s current reputation for power benefits from projections about the future. Some young Chinese use these projections to demand a greater share of power now, and some Americans urge preparation for a coming conflict similar to that between Germany and Britain a century ago.

China welcomed a nuclear fuel swap deal Iran announced after talks with Brazil and Turkey and urged negotiations over the dispute, but Western powers rejected the deal as too little to halt momentum for sanctions.

DOT paintings from the indigenous Papunya community are heading to the heart of Beijing. In an exercise in cultural diplomacy, packers at the National Museum of Australia spent yesterday sliding paintings from its successful 2007-08 exhibition into crates marked for the National Art Museum of China.

Covering at least 1.5 billion people across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives and Afghanistan, SAARC is one of the largest regional organizations in the world. But its achievements so far have been so minimal that even its constituents have become lackadaisical in their attitudes toward it.

A photo exhibition called "Charming Beijing" was held in Bangalore, the capital of southern India's Karnataka state on Sunday to observe the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and India.