The English pronunciation of the Chinese vice-president’s name is “She” — and the Government’s maxim for this trip is: “Xi, Who Must Be Obeyed.”

China and the US got down to the key issues facing their leaders today after Hu Jintao’s formal welcome with full honours to the White House.

A dissident Chinese lawyer who was missing for more than a year suddenly resurfaced today, saying he is now living in northern China and wants only to spend time with his family away from media attention.

POLICE in central China detained 15 parents for a violent protest over factory pollution that left hundreds of children with lead poisoning, and accused them of links to the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, villagers said yesterday.

IT SEEMS we’ve swapped the tyranny of the crozier for the far more subversive tyranny of political correctness.

BRIAN COWEN was under pressure last night to fight for the release from jail of the mother of a Cork student when he meets Chinese premier Wen Jiabao.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge was accused of backtracking on promises of press freedoms today and some internet sites remained blocked in China less than a week before the Beijing Olympics begin.

Thousands of human rights protesters disrupted the Olympic Torch Relay through London today, billed as a journey of harmony and peace.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown today insisted he would attend the Beijing Olympics, despite a warning by the French that President Nicolas Sarkozy will boycott the Games unless China opens talks with the Dalai Lama.

As China raised its death toll after riots in Tibet to 19 today, US presidential hopeful John McCain criticised Beijing’s actions as “not acceptable”.

A Chinese national has been found guilty of murdering a Kilkenny postmaster who he shot in the stomach after a post office robbery that netted him more than €13,000.

In 1936, the Berlin Olympics turned into a display of Nazi propaganda.

Richard Gere today called for China to address its human rights record ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

A respected US human rights lawyer who has alleged the Chinese military routinely harvests organs from prisoners is to detail his findings in Dublin today.

A Green Party spokesperson Chris O'Leary has called on Cork City's elected representatives to withdraw the city's twinning with Shanghai following further reports of human rights violations.

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.

US president George Bush apologised to Chinese president Hu Jintao for a protest during an elaborate welcoming ceremony on the White House lawn.

AN ARRIVAL ceremony for the White House visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao yesterday didn't quite go to plan yesterday after a couple of embarrassing incidents.

US President George Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao agreed to cooperate more closely but failed to break new ground today toward resolving differences over trade and nuclear tensions with Iran and North Korea.

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.

Premier Wen Jiabao opened the annual session of China’s figurehead parliament today with promises of massive new social spending to placate the poor, restive countryside and said the sizzling economy will slow this year but should still grow by 8%.

CHINA’S propaganda mandarins closed an outspoken supplement of a respected newspaper, as web search leader Google announced restrictions on a service for China to avoid confrontation with Beijing.

Google today launched the latest version of its famous search engine in China, and defended its decision to self-censor some content as a trade-off that will grant Chinese greater access to other kinds of information.

China has agreed to allow a fact-finding mission by a top United Nations official who investigates allegations of torture.

A second Chinese defector has backed claims by a diplomat who left his job at China’s consulate in Sydney that Beijing is running a large spy network in Australia and other Western countries.

IT'S just as well that Dubya's attention was focused on blowing up balloons for his inauguration party yesterday, or he might have noticed that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was trying to slip a fast one by him.

The Chinese government has vowed to address human rights abuses in the country, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern claimed today.

IRELAND is due to sign an agreement which will make it easier for Chinese tourists to visit Ireland.

YOU may think I’ve got my dates mixed up, but in the current media clamour to get a new angle on Christmas I have been thinking about Mel Gibson’s forthcoming film, The Passion, which focuses on the end of Jesus Christ’s life on earth, not his birth.

PRESIDENT Mary McAleese was urged yesterday to raise the plight of human rights defenders being persecuted in China, during her State visit to the country.

The scene: Beijing. The time: The 2008 Summer Olympics. You are a policeman and your city is swarming with millions of foreigners – most of whom can’t speak a word of Chinese.

THE ability of newspapers to attract young readers determine their future success, the World Association of Newspapers congress in Dublin was told yesterday.

IRISH-based firms were last year granted licences to export €4.2bn worth of parts that can be used for military purposes.

A GARDA who was wrongly disciplined for sending a letter to politicians without the permission of his superiors has been reprimanded for sending the same letter to an internal garda journal.

PRACTITIONERS of the Falun Gong spiritual movement protested outside the Chinese Embassy yesterday over the alleged torture of fellow practitioners.

China today denied imprisoning dissidents in mental hospitals, but did not say whether it would grant a demand by the world’s leading psychiatric association to inspect them.

A CHINESE woman claims she was prevented by the Chinese Embassy from leaving Ireland to attend her mother's funeral because she is a practitioner of Falun Gong.

China’s President Jiang Zemin today marked Hong Kong’s first five years under Beijing’s rule by saying its capitalist ways are intact but that citizens should give more support to the mainland.

A Chinese court has sentenced four Falun Gong followers to prison terms ranging from seven to 16 years for hacking into a cable television network and broadcasting information about the banned group, state media said.

One hundred and fifty-one nominations have been received for the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize so far - many of them related to the response to the September 11 attacks.

More than 40 people have been detained after demonstrating in Tiananmen Square.

As the political and financial elite converged at the World Economic Forum in New York, so too has a broad swathe of the world’s protest movements - motivated by calls to lower the cost of Aids drugs, improve the treatment of workers in poor countries and protect the environment.

The 32nd annual World Economic Forum began in New York today with discussions on where the global economy is headed and how to deal with terrorism.