
China will face bigger challenges in the Year of the Dragon its Prime Minister Wen Jiabao warned Saturday, as he pledged economic reforms to improve wealth distribution, state media reported.

Asia welcomed the Year of the Dragon on Monday with a cacophony of fireworks, hoping the mightiest sign in the Chinese zodiac will usher in the wealth and power it represents.

Namibia's competition commission said on Wednesday it had cleared a Chinese nuclear company to take over an Australian mining firm with rights to the world's fourth-largest uranium deposit.

China has seen an improvement in a key measure of manufacturing, boosting optimism that steady economic growth will continue into 2012. The purchasing managers' index rose to 50.3 in December from 49 in November, the statistical office said. A reading of more than 50 shows expansion.

United States announced it will press for further appreciation of the Yuan arguing the currency is undervalued, while declining to brand China a manipulator of its exchange rate.

China ratified support for Argentina’s sovereignty claim over the Falkland Islands. The message was delivered last week by Chinese President Hu Jintao's special envoy Jiang Shusheng and vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and is part of the reciprocal policy in support of Taiwan as a province of China.

A commercial US satellite company says it has managed to take a picture of China's first aircraft carrier during its sea trials in the Yellow Sea. If confirmed, it would be the first known photo of the former Soviet vessel recently refitted by Beijing.

China will impose punitive duties of up to 22% on large cars and SUVs exported from the United States, China's Commerce Ministry said on Wednesday, the latest in a series of trade disputes between the world's two largest economies.

China should be in no rush to allow Brazil’s new Valemax ships, the world's largest dry bulk carriers, into its ports, as they have not been thoroughly tested and any oil leak from one could be catastrophic, an influential Chinese industry group warned on Tuesday.

South Korea will try to reach an agreement with Japan and China to help reduce illegal fishing in its waters following the death of a South Korean Coast Guard this week during a fight with Chinese fishermen who were caught red-handed operating in the Yellow Sea.