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

Pope Francis will visit Ireland in 2018. Whether he will venture into the North isn’t yet known but, later in the year, Belfast will welcome another distinguished visitor.

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.

The dimensions of Beijing and its minimalist architecture are alienating, and murals of China’s founding father, Mao Zedong, at odds with Prada stores, says Margaret Hickey.           

A photo of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg jogging in Beijing's notorious smog has prompted a torrent of mockery on Chinese social media.

China’s economic growth slowed to 7.4% in 2014, the weakest expansion in more than two decades, and is forecast to slip further over the next two years.

China’s president is to visit Ireland again following an invitation by President Higgins in Beijing.

The founders of Hong Kong’s Occupy Central civil disobedience movement called on pro-democracy activists to retreat from the city centre over fears of violence, just hours after a student leader had called on supporters to regroup.

Ireland’s Dan Martin continued his superb run of form when winning stage four of the Tour of Beijing in China yesterday.

As pro-democracy protests approach their tenth day in Hong Kong it is hard not to admire those who have taken to the streets to try to reshape their society — especially as this challenges a government happy to use the most violent means to close down opposition.

CHINA BODY-SEARCHED 10,000 PIGEONS

The all encompassing crackdown on attempts to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre says something about the nature of the regime that still holds China in its grip.

Yellowbird’s legacy is a bright ray of light in the bleak Chinese political landscape, writes Melinda Liu.

Yin Min held the ashes of her son and wept as she marked 25 years since he was killed in the crackdown by Chinese tanks and troops on protests at Tiananmen Square.

The director of Amnesty International UK said she was “forcefully” shoved by a Chinese embassy official during a ceremony to remember protesters killed in one of China’s bloodiest crackdowns.

Beijing is blanketed in heavy security today, the 25th anniversary of the bloody military suppression of pro-democracy protests centred on Tiananmen Square.

Beijing has launched a security crackdown on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the crushing of pro-democracy protests centred on the capital’s Tiananmen Square.

A photo posted on Reddit appears to show someone standing in front of a Dublin Bus last night.

Chinese police are circulating a list of eight suspects wanted in connection with an apparent suicide car crash near Tiananmen Square in Beijing that killed five people and injured dozens.

It is a matter of taste, or maybe conviction. Either way the relics of St Anthony have prompted the devotion of thousands in all-weathers around the country.

Tens of thousands of people have gathered at a large Hong Kong park to mark the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy campaigners in Beijing 24 years ago.

I understand that The Munster Literature Centre in Cork, as part of a Cork-Shanghai twinning project, are advertising a writer’s residency at Shanghai for a Cork writer.

MY IRELAND-SIZED sense of distance had got me in trouble-again.

Plans to rebuild a square are proving contentious, writes Louise Watt

A row over censorship at a Chinese newspaper has turned into a political challenge for the country’s new leadership after a series of protests.

It was an ominous start for the 2,268 Chinese delegates at a pivotal congress to initiate a power handover to new leaders.

China’s ruling communists have opened a pivotal congress to initiate a power handover to new leaders with a broad promise of cleaner government.

China’s President Hu Jintao called today for sterner measures against official corruption while urging the Communist Party to maintain firm political control as he prepares to hand over power after a decade in office.

The father of a man killed in the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown has hanged himself after two decades of failed attempts to seek government redress.

No tickets for London’s big event? Get into the Olympic spirit on a tour with a sporting twist, says Sally Howard

The state banquet in his honour was more than lavish, but still Enda craved the Chinese takeaway of his dreams.

THERE was a time when China was associated in Irish minds with foreign marvels such as kung fu, fireworks and tinned lychees.

Human rights groups are expressing their concern at the official visit of China's Vice President to Ireland.

China’s government vowed today to clamp down on inflation and urgently raise incomes as it pushes to spread the benefits of economic growth at a time when living standards are rising, but so are calls for greater change.

A 13-YEAR-OLD American boy campaigning to turn the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea into a peace park was taken away by Chinese police after staging a brief protest near Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

A 13-year-old American boy campaigning to turn the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea into a peace park was taken away by Chinese police after staging a brief protest near Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

Prison authorities in China have started giving Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo better food, the dissident's wife said today, while she herself faces restrictions on whom she can meet and must be accompanied by a police escort whenever she leaves her home.

CHINA has blocked European diplomats from meeting the wife of the jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner and cut off her phone, in anger over the award.

A vast floor within London's Tate Modern art gallery has been carpeted with more than 100 million “sunflower seeds” – the latest commission in the annual Unilever Series.

An imprisoned Chinese dissident who won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize was allowed to meet with his wife and told her in tears that he was dedicating the award to victims of a 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, his wife and a close friend said.

Cinemas closed and coal miners stopped work as China observed a day of mourning today for more than 1,200 victims of a mudslide a week earlier in a north-western town, while the race to protect survivors from more flooding continued.