BEIJING (Reuters) – A company developing a gold mine in Nevada has warned that the United States may reject its proposed partnership with a Chinese mining firm on national security grounds because the mine is near a military installation.

Toronto-listed FirstGold said the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) planned to recommend to U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday that he reject a plan to develop Relief Canyon mine, near Lovelock, Nevada, due to its proximity to the Fallon Naval Air Station.

BEIJING, Dec 18 (Reuters) – A miner developing a gold mine
in Nevada has warned that the United States may reject its
proposed partnership with a Chinese mining firm, on national
security grounds because the mine is near a military
installation.

Toronto-listed FirstGold <FGD.TO> said the Committee on
Foreign Investment in the United States planned to recommend to
U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday that he reject a plan to
develop Relief Canyon mine, near Lovelock, Nevada, due to its
proximity to the Fallon Naval Air Station.

DANDONG, China (Reuters) – Traders in the Chinese border city of Dandong say business has been drying up in neighboring North Korea following an abrupt currency shift that could spell months of uncertainty for its fragile economy.

Trucks laden with goods roll across a snowy, one-lane bridge connecting the two countries, but the traders said many shops and markets within impoverished North Korea had closed as owners try to get a clearer idea of how currency rules and prices will be set by the state, which dominates the economy.

BEIJING (Reuters) – The United States is seeking the release of an American citizen detained in Beijing for two years, in a case similar to the detentions of Rio Tinto staff which launched an international debate over China’s secrets laws.

Xue Feng, a geologist born in China, was detained late in 2007 after negotiating the sale of an oil industry database to his employer at the time, a U.S.-based consultancy.

HUAIROU, China (Reuters) – A lack of proficiency in English has been one of the main factors hindering Chinese peacekeeping forces in their missions overseas, officials said on Thursday at a new training center outside Beijing.

U.N. peacekeeping missions have given China, which has not been in an overseas conflict for three decades, a channel for diplomatic outreach and military experience as the People’s Liberation Army modernizes.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China is ratcheting up pressure for imperial treasures to be repatriated, condemning overseas auctions of its relics and demanding they come home.

China is particularly eager to get back a series of bronze animal heads looted in 1860 by British and French soldiers when they burned down the Qing emperors’ summer palace in Beijing.

BEIJING (Reuters) – Trade rows between the United States and China will be a key issue on the agenda when President Barack Obama holds talks with Chinese leaders in Shanghai and Beijing this week.

Here are some of the disputes dogging China-U.S. trade:

STEEL PIPES

The U.S. Commerce Department this month slapped preliminary anti-dumping duties ranging up to 99 percent on $2.63 billion in Chinese-made oil well pipe in the biggest U.S. trade action against China. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce denounced the move as protectionist and launched its own investigation into imports of U.S.-made automobiles.

SINGAPORE, Nov 13 (Reuters) – With pressure piling up on
China to appreciate its currency at the annual Asia-Pacific
summit, the Chinese president used his speech to the gathering
as a soapbox for some complaints of his own.

Hu Jintao’s 20-minute speech to the Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation — which never once mentioned the yuan — gives
insight into some of the concessions China may require if it is
to cooperate on currency issues that the West says contribute
to global imbalances [ID:nSP220440].

SINGAPORE, Nov 13 (Reuters) – The chairman of the
Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the world’s largest by
market capitalisation, said a stronger yuan would not be
conducive to the global recovery, and defended the wisdom of a
rash of lending by Chinese banks this year.

China’s central bank earlier this week signalled it would
consider shifting from an effective peg to the U.S. dollar,
which has been in place since mid-2008. The People’s Bank of
China said it would consider major currencies, and not just the
dollar, when guiding the exchange rate []ID:nSP466424].

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – When Chinese president Hu Jintao arrived in Singapore for a state visit this week, he announced China’s favorite diplomatic gift — two pandas — but chose his words very carefully.

Hu spoke of the two nations’ “close friendship” and “cultural ties,” but avoided any mention of a shared ethnic heritage in a nod to sensitivities in a region with long ties to China, and an equally long wariness of Chinese domination.