In 1989 China had a choice between three different political models but disruption in other nations left just one option, writes Minxin Pei.

Chinese president Xi Jinping has urged a reinvigorated Communist Party to take on a more forceful role in society and economic development to better address "grim" challenges facing the country as he opened a twice-a-decade national congress.

A former top general in China has been expelled from the ruling Communist Party to face bribery charges, becoming the most senior figure ensnared in an anti-corruption crackdown.

President Hu Jintao has stepped aside as Communist Party leader to clear the way for Vice President Xi Jinping to take the helm in China.

The man once considered China’s most-wanted fugitive was sentenced to life in prison for smuggling and bribery in a lurid corruption case that reached into the highest echelons of the Communist Party and involved a decade-long extradition fight.

The chief executive of Shannon Development said yesterday he has “no doubt that Chinese investment will come” to the Shannon Free Zone and Ireland based on the agency’s special relationship with China.

China has dismissed reports that retired President Jiang Zemin, who led the country through massive changes after the crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy movement, has died.

Jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize today for “his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights” – an award sure to infuriate the Chinese government.

China’s politically powerful vice president stepped down today in a reshuffling of the Communist Party leadership, removing from office a rival to President Hu Jintao.

CHINA’S vice-president stepped down yesterday in a reshuffling of the Communist Party leadership, removing from office a rival to President Hu Jintao.

China’s politically powerful vice president stepped down today in a reshuffling of the Communist Party leadership, removing from office a rival to President Hu Jintao.

The New York Times has welcomed the release today of one of its researchers who has spent 3 years in a Chinese prison.

A DAMNING report reveals China’s horrific trade in organs taken from Falun Gong prisoners but human rights and press freedom are not on the agenda for today’s EU-China summit in Helsinki.

Chinese President Hu Jintao wrapped up a four-day US tour today with a visit to Yale University, where he sought to quell fears about the international effects of his country’s booming economy and pledged continued cooperation with the United States.

While US president George Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao hoped their discussions inside the White House would cool tensions over a yawning US-China trade gap, demonstrators massed outside today to protest Beijing’s human rights policies.

BRITAIN’S Prince Charles last night launched a legal action over the publication of extracts from a private journal in which he branded Chinese diplomats “appalling old waxworks”.

A THREE-YEAR slide in industrial job numbers in the Mid-West was halted in 2004, according to Shannon Development's annual report, published yesterday.

Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin submitted his resignation today from his last official post as chairman of a largely ceremonial government military panel, the government said, completing a long-planned retirement.

DUBLIN-based Treasury Holdings yesterday announced a €1.2 billion joint venture to develop a 900-acre island site off the coast of China.

TWENTY-FIVE years ago, China’s foreign minister came to Ireland to study what was then known as the Shannon Free Zone.

Police kept China’s symbolic heart of Tiananmen Square free of demonstrators today, detaining at least 13 people while activists abroad marked the 15th anniversary of the attack on pro-democracy protesters.

IN the annals of embarrassing presidential relatives, Neil Bush is no Billy Carter or Roger Clinton.

CHINA is changing its constitution to protect private property rights for the first time since the 1949 communist revolution — a key step in making capitalism its economy’s driving force.

Britain’s biggest ever security operation will protect George W Bush when he arrives in London for his controversial state visit tonight.

CHINA president Hu Jintao called for a bigger public role in government and "democratic election", the government's news outlet said yesterday.

THE entire 70-man crew of a diesel-powered Chinese submarine was killed when the vessel had an “accident” while on an exercise in the Yellow Sea, the official Xinhua News Agency revealed yesterday.

DESPITE a new Russian veto threat, President George W Bush worked the phones to foreign leaders yesterday in an uphill struggle to gain support for a UN resolution setting up war against Iraq.

The Chinese president says the world must take "as much time as is needed" to defuse the situation with Iraq and avoid war.

China opposes war on Iraq and believes weapons inspectors should be given more time to enforce UN resolutions on disarmament, the Communist Party’s top newspaper said in a commentary today.

US PRESIDENT George Bush yesterday said “all options are on the table” for dealing with North Korea, but he expected a nuclear standoff to be resolved diplomatically.

A STUNNED world sent words of sorrow to grieving Americans after watching the dramatic break-up of the US space shuttle Columbia in the clear blue skies over Texas.

By Christopher Torchia, Seoul

China today revealed plans to become the planet’s third nation to explore space by blasting off a manned capsule sometime this year.

Vice President Hu Jintao was appointed as leader of China’s Communist Party today, handing him the country’s most powerful position and making him a certain bet to replace Jiang Zemin as president next year.

They were never guerrillas, hiding in caves until they could make their move and build the China of their dreams.

The deadly bombing in Bali was a “brutal and inhuman act” that reinforces the need for the entire world and the United Nations to fight terrorism together, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said today.

Prime Minister Tony Blair was today flying to the US for crucial talks with President George W Bush over how to halt Saddam Hussein’s efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction.

George W Bush has promised to seek congressional approval to use military force to oust Saddam Hussein as the White House considered giving Iraq a last-ditch ultimatum over weapons inspectors.

International efforts to pull India and Pakistan back from the edge of nuclear war appeared to stall again today as the Indian premier refused to hold talks with Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf.

Chinese police have detained 47 Christians after breaking up a prayer meeting in a village near Beijing, a human rights group said.

The man expected to become China's next leader has met George Bush and, in a rare public appearance, said their countries share important responsibilities.

US President George W Bush today arrived in Beijing, China, on the final leg of his Asia tour and said the country was lending ‘‘steady and strong support’’ to the US-led war on terrorism.

China has discovered 27 bugging devices in a US-made jet bought for the personal use of the president, Jiang Zemin.

US President George W Bush says he is confident China stands "side by side with the American people" during the military strikes on Afghanistan.

US President George W Bush is due to arrive in China on his first trip outside the United States since the September 11 terror attacks.

It’s a cornerstone of China’s foreign policy, invoked vehemently whenever critics challenge its human rights record or its policy towards Taiwan: Don’t interfere in another country’s internal affairs.

Australia, Japan and China have all thrown their support behind possible US retaliation for Tuesday’s unprecedented attacks on the centres of US financial and military might.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin today signed the first post-Soviet friendship treaty between the two nations, cementing their decade-long partnership.

China's President Jiang Zemin has arrived in Russia on a visit intended to cement the "strategic partnership" between the former Communist rivals with a pivotal friendship treaty.

The leaders of six nations led by China and Russia signed an agreement today on promoting trade and combating Islamic militancy.