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.

China’s top leaders have backed a corruption investigation into Zhou Yongkang, a former security tsar and one of the country’s most powerful politicians of the past decade, according to a report.

The Chinese leadership’s law-and-order chief is warning that China is ill-prepared for social unrest generated by changes in the economy, in the latest sign that the government is worried about the consequences of flagging growth.

CHINA must find new ways to defuse unrest, the domestic security chief said, underscoring Beijing’s anxiety about control after police quashed calls for gatherings inspired by uprisings in the Middle East.

A British landslide expert today urged China to immediately evacuate hundreds of thousands of people from the path of a giant dam he fears is ready to burst.

President Hu Jintao won a second five-year term as China’s Communist Party chief today, heading a new leadership line-up that features potential successors, yet could invite a divisive battle to succeed him.