Guan Yongning is a senior cameraman with Reuters Television in Beijing . In  15 years in the field,  he has covered stories ranging from natural disasters to politics and major sporting events.  Guan was one of the chosen few reporters able to follow U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit in China up-close.  He tells the story of what reporters have to go through to capture a few precious shots of the U.S. leader.

The reporters able to cover Obama’s visit up close might be considered the lucky ones. Following the American commander-in-chief means long hours working days,  skipping meals, lugging around heavy gear and enduring the harsh Beijing winds. But would they give up the chance?

How does one measure how U.S. President Barack Obama was received by the Chinese government?

I like to read the tea leaves and decided one measure might be to compare the reception Obama got in comparison with that given his predecessors.

For me, an indication is the most senior Chinese official greeting an American president at the airport.

Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping was the first Chinese leader Obama met in Beijing when Air Force One touched down on Monday. Xi had rushed back on the same day to the Chinese capital from the northern province of Shaanxi, where he was on an inspection tour.

An Internet search showed that in 2002 and 2005, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing was on hand when U.S. President George W. Bush arrived. Li’s replacement, Yang Jiechi, turned up when Bush landed in 2008.

Judging from the rank of the top official greeting the two U.S. presidents, China appears to like Obama more than Bush.

It is no coincidence that Xi was tapped to welcome Obama.

Shortly after Bush was elected to his first term, he had riled China when he pledged to help Taiwan defend itself and offered the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own the biggest arms package in a decade. Bush is also unpopular in China for invading Iraq.

But even Obama’s red carpet greeting pales in comparison with the honour bestowed on U.S. civil  rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. after he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968. Then-Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong looked on from the Gate of Heavenly Peace over Tiananmen Square,  where hundreds of thousands of Chinese had converged, to condemn the assassination and to show his support for King’s civil rights struggle.

Photo Credit: U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (centre L) walk past an honour guard during Obama’s arrival in Beijing November 16, 2009. REUTERS/Jim Young

The U.S. President may be in China but it is business as usual for Beijing’s American acupuncturist.
 Connecticut born Bryan McMahon is treating a Chinese patient in his traditional courtyard in the backstreets of Beijing.
  Bryan has spent years studying Chinese traditional medicine in both Beijing and Shanghai.
 He says that part of the reason he chose Chinese medicine over its western alternative was the way in which it is so deeply rooted within Chinese culture.
Bryan’s patient Sai Na  believes the American-Chinese approach to acupuncture offers a new and improved form of treatment.

The U.S. rejection of the $18.5 billion bid by China’s top offshore oil company, CNOOC Ltd, for  Unocal in 2005 was not a move worthy of a world power such as the United States, asserts a Chinese academic with the government’s top economic planning agency.

“If you are weak, then I can understand,” said Chen Dongqi, deputy director of the Academy of
Macro-Economic Research under the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

“The United States is a strong country. What is it afraid of?” he said at the Reuters China Investment Summit.

“There is a problem there.”

Chen was responding to a question about rising protectionism in China, and criticism that Beijing had blocked Coca-Cola Co from buying China’s Huiyuan Juice.

Chen also said that blaming China for global climate change was also off the mark, as climate is affected by hundreds of years of human activity, not just a few decades.

“China’s economy has been growing for only 30 years,” he said. “I don’t believe a few years of fast economic growth from one country is responsible for climate change.”

Photo caption: Chen Dongqi, vice-head of the macro-economic institute under the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), speaks during the Reuters China Investment Summit in Beijing. REUTERS/Christina Hu

Photo:A compilation by Reuters of pool photographs and images provided by North Korea's KCNA news agency showing North Korean leader Kim Jong-il from 2004 to 2009. The photograph in the lower right was released this week by KCNA

By Jon Herskovitz

The image the world once had of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, with a trademark paunch, platform shoes and a bouffant hair-do, is gone and may never come back. He has now become a gaunt figure with thinning hair who has trouble walking in normal shoes, let alone ones with heels 8-10 centimetres (3-4 inches) high like he used to wear.

A look at photographs the North’s official media has released of Kim over the past few months indicate he is not a healthy man. There has been an enormous amount of speculation about what is wrong with Kim, 67, including a report from South Korean TV network YTN this week that he has life-threatening pancreatic cancer.

Kim’s health is one of the most closely guarded secrets in the highly secretive North and his actual condition is likely known by a handful of people in his inner circle who risk death or prison camp for themselves and their families if they ever whisper a word about Kim’s problems.

It is a state crime in North Korea to make any comment that questions Kim’s god-like status in the communist dynasty he has ruled since 1994 when his father and state founder Kim Il-sung died.

The most likely way that the outside world will ever receive any reliable information about Kim’s health is if his hermit state invites in foreign doctors to treat him. This appears to have happened about a year ago when he was widely suspected of suffering a stroke. U.S. and South Korean intelligence sources were then able to leak to the media information about what was ailing Kim.

Intelligence sources Reuters spoke to in Seoul would not confirm the latest reports of pancreatic cancer. They did agree on one thing, Kim is still sick.

Kim’s declining health has led to questions in the outside world if the man known at home as the “Dear Leader” still has his iron grip on power over the state he and his father have run since its inception more than 60 years ago.

Within North Korea, images of a weary Kim can actually help him win support among the public.

The North’s state propaganda has built an image of Kim as a person who works tirelessly to better his struggling state. The North's propaganda says Kim gets little sleep as he travels the country by day and forms its policies at night.

Kim rarely is seen in state media presiding over major state functions or greeting foreign dignitaries. That is mostly left to Kim Yong-nam, the North’s nominal number two leader and its head of state.

If Kim Jong-il looks weak and sickly, it arouses sympathy and support among the North Korean public who feel he has put his own well being at risk working for them.

In the weeks and months ahead, there will likely be more speculation as to what is physically wrong with Kim. Some of the reports will be more reliable than others. But the actual state of Kim’s health will not likely be known until a time the foreign doctors visit again or those nearest Kim feel safe to reveal the secret.

After watching the United States destroy every opponent in the basketball tournament by an average of more than 30 points before the final on Sunday, there probably weren’t many people expecting Spain to have a chance against a “Redeem Team” determined to win back the gold medal after the debacle of the bronze in 2004.

But then Spain played a superb match and kept the Americans on the ropes all the way to the very end with one dazzling basket after another.

It was by far the best match of the tournament. Dave Beckham was among the delighted eyewitnesses — we were all wondering which team he was rooting for — and so was Jacques Rogge and Juan Antonio Samaranch. All of them got cheers from the big crowd whenever their smiling images of were flashed up on the giant scoreboard. 

Many of the players and coaches after the match used the word “historic” to describe what they had just been through — getting a jump on the hundreds of journalists who had clearly just witnessed something special play out before their eyes. It’s a big word and often overused. But for anyone who was there, it was hard to disagree.

“We played with great character in one of the great games of international basketball history,” said U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski.

Spain’s Paul Gasol added: “People will remember it for a long time. We never backed down. We can be proud.”

Loaded with outrageous talent, the United States men’s basketball team insist they will be checking egos at the door at the Beijing Olympics.

Boasting Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, the NBA’s Most Valuable Player and its leading scorer, the Americans are favourites to win gold, although 2004 Athens gold medallists Argentina and world champions Spain will push them all the way.

The U.S. have won 12 Olympic men’s titles but have often been accused of arrogance. The current crop, who play hosts China in their opening Olympic game on Aug. 10, will have a different attitude. “You can’t be arrogant and win!” said American coach Mike Krzyzewski.

The arrogance of old has been replaced by humility, individualism and show-boating by team ethic. They have looked unstoppable in their warm-up games. But will it be enough for the ‘Redeem Team’ to win gold ahead of sharp-shooting Argentina and Spain?

PHOTO: Kobe Bryant and LeBron James of the U.S. react during their friendly basketball game against Russia in Shanghai August 3, 2008. REUTERS/Aly Song

The Olympic soccer tournament, which starts next Thursday, has enjoyed unprecedented publicity in the run-up to Beijing, unwittingly helped by the belligerent attitude of the European clubs.
 
In their attempts to avoid releasing Argentina striker Lionel Messi for the Games, Barcelona helped raise the profile of the competition to a level it has rarely enjoyed in the past.

Barcelona finally relented last Wednesday when FIFA reinforced its ruling that clubs must release their under-23 players, although the Spanish club have appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sports and will demand the player fly back from China if there is a ruling in their favour.

Earlier, Barcelona had dragged Messi off for a pre-season tour to Scotland and the controversy dominated headlines on both sides of the Atlantic.

Messi’s presence, even without the added publicity, is a huge boost and and means soccer will have one of the most illustrious athletes in the entire Games.

German pair Schalke 04 and Werder Bremen also helped the Olympic cause by refusing to release Brazilian pair Rafinha and Diego. Like Barcelona, they too are awaiting a ruling from CAS.

Unlike Messi, however, Rafinha and Diego took the case into their own hands as they simply defied their clubs and flew to join the Brazilian squad on a pre-Olympic tour.

Their actions show how seriously Olympic soccer — an under-23 tournament with three overage players allowed per team — is taken outside Europe.

Brazil, five-times winners of the World Cup, have never won an Olympic gold in soccer and will not consider their trophy cabinet to be complete without it.

Dunga, coach of the senior side, will be in charge of their team here as well. Already under pressure, he could lose both jobs if they fail — just as Wanderlei Luxemburgo did after a quarter-final exit in Sydney eight years ago.

They tried to include Kaka as an overage player but, after AC Milan refused to release him, called up Ronaldinho instead.

It is not just in South America that Olympic soccer is taken seriously.

Just listen to United States midfielder Freddy Adu. ”Most of the players, I’d say about 99.9 per cent, want to go to the Olympics. This is a big, big, big deal,” Adu told a news conference on Friday.

“Guys want to go but they’re just being held back by their clubs. They’re important for their clubs and you can understand it but I think it’s a great rule that they have to be released.”

Argentina also boast Sergio Aguero, the overage Juan Roman Riquelme, Real Madrid’s Fernando Gago and Liverpool’s Javier Mascherano in an impressive line-up and start as favourites to retain their crown.

Brazil, with AC Milan’s Alexandre Pato leading the attack, look capable of mounting a serious challenge if Dunga can overcome naturally cautious approach.

Netherlands and Italy are likely to lead the European challenge while Africa also look strong, represented by Nigeria, winners in 1996, and Cameroon, who won four years later.

PHOTO: Lionel Messi arrives in Shanghai, August 1, 2008. REUTERS/Stringer