President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to Kazakhstan from June 7 to 10, during which he will attend the 17th meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the opening ceremony of the World Expo in Astana.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the resumption of the national college entrance examinations, or gaokao. Reintroduced in 1977 after the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), the exams have changed many people's lives. Four decades ago, only 4 percent of the students taking gaokao got admission to colleges. Today, the percentage is about 80 percent in some areas, with the gross enrollment rate nationwide being more than 40 percent.
Editor's note: The Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region has achieved remarkable results in economic, social, cultural and human rights development over the past decades, especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. The following are the viewpoints of some Xinjiang officials and researchers on the region's progress:
Toshio Motoya, president of Tokyo-based land developer and operator of APA Group, is again playing his favorite game of manipulating historical evidence through a new book, which hit bookstores on Friday. In his latest book, The Real History of Japan: Japan Pride, Motoya continues to deny that Japanese troops were responsible for the Nanjing Massacre in 1937-38. He even goes further to blame Chinese soldiers for the looting and killings.
No doubt European companies that already do business in China, as well as the hordes that have their eyes set on the country, are well aware of the economic transition taking place.
After a decade in which the launch of e-readers such as the Kindle and the iPad promised - or should that be threatened - to supplant old-fashioned paper and ink, sales of physical books are on the rise.
I may be in the running for the title of world's most inept tourist. Who else would spend a month in Beijing and not see the Great Wall? Or, get arrested while trying to visit the Citadel in Vietnam's ancient capital of Hue?
If the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road are two wings on which Asia can soar, then interconnections are the blood vessels and channels that make them work.
In Europe, the Belt and Road Initiative does not get the attention it deserves. However, the history of the ancient Silk Road has fed our imagination for centuries.
Moody's Investors Service has lowered China's sovereign credit rating from Aa3 to A1, and upgraded the country's outlook from "negative" to "stable".
The official launch of the China-funded and built standard gauge railway in Kenya on Wednesday, which links its port city of Mombasa with the capital Nairobi, marks the beginning of a new era for the East African country's industrialization and economic development.