BEIJING, March 15 (Reuters) – China will evacuate citizens
from areas worst affected by Japan’s earthquake and subsequent
damage to nuclear reactors, but has detected no abnormal
radiation levels at home, the government said on Tuesday.

China’s embassy in Japan said it was organising the
evacuation from parts of Japan worst affected by the quake and
tsunami “owing to the seriousness of and uncertainty surrounding
the accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant at present”.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China stands willing to give earthquake-struck Japan more help, Premier Wen Jiabao said on Monday, expressing sympathy for the stricken country with which Beijing has often had icy relations.

The quake and tsunami, likely to have killed at least 10,000, could help salve some of the animosity over territory, military distrust and bitter wartime memories that have dogged ties between Asia’s two biggest economies.

BEIJING (Reuters) – A small group of Chinese rescuers arrived in Japan on Sunday to search for survivors from a massive earthquake and tsunami, barely six months after Asia’s two largest economies faced off in a bitter territorial dispute.

Setting aside the acrimony over Japan’s wartime atrocities that underpins widespread Chinese public distrust of Japan more than six decades after the end of World War Two, Beijing has wasted no time in expressing sympathy for the disaster.

BEIJING, March 10 (Reuters) – Getting rich remains glorious
for many Chinese, but such aspirations pose a challenge to the
government’s attempt to bridge a potentially divisive rich-poor
divide.

China’s transformation from an impoverished backwater to the
world’s second-largest economy has created a growing army of
super wealthy, with the number of billionaires nearly doubling
to 115, according to the Forbes annual list of the world’s
richest people.

BEIJING, March 10 (Reuters) – China may be struggling with
growing income disparities, yet when it comes to making a
fortune, many Chinese still believe that to get rich is
glorious, especially if you are an entrepreneur.

Thanks to its booming economy — now the world’s second
largest — China has nearly doubled its number of billionaires
to 115, according to the Forbes annual list of the world’s
richest people.

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese leaders used it to toast Richard Nixon, Kim Il-sung, Margaret Thatcher and Ho Chi Minh, as well as the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

But a 20 percent price rise this year of China’s national liquor, Maotai, on the back of tight supply and rising raw material costs has got Chinese consumers hot under the collar, especially as Beijing tries to tackle growing inflation.

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING, March 9 (Reuters Life!) – Chinese leaders used it
to toast Richard Nixon, Kim Il-sung, Margaret Thatcher and Ho
Chi Minh, as well as the founding of the People’s Republic of
China.

But a 20 percent price rise this year of China’s national
liquor, Maotai, on the back of tight supply and rising raw
material costs has got Chinese consumers hot under the collar,
especially as Beijing tries to tackle growing inflation.

BEIJING (Reuters) -China must apply the lessons of the Middle East unrest to its mostly Muslim, far western Xinjiang, its top official said on Tuesday, adding that he was confident the region would remain stable.

Zhang Chunxian, appointed Xinjiang’s Communist Party chief last year, said stability depended on ensuring everyone benefited from the country’s stellar economic growth, a key government strategy to co-opting its people.

BEIJING, March 8 (Reuters) - China must apply the lessons of
the Middle East unrest to its mostly Muslim, far western
Xinjiang, its top official said on Tuesday, adding that he was
confident the region would remain stable.

Zhang Chunxian, appointed Xinjiang’s Communist Party chief
last year, said stability depended on ensuring everyone
benefited from the country’s stellar economic growth, a key
government strategy to co-opting its people.

BEIJING (Reuters) – Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, does not have a right to choose his successor any way he wants and must follow the historical and religious tradition of reincarnation, a Chinese official said Monday.

It is unclear how the 76-year-old Dalai Lama, who lives in India and is revered by many Tibetans, plans to pick his successor. He has said that the succession process could break with tradition — either by being hand-picked by him or through democratic elections.