Durian and over 100 bottles of Singha beer were the two most important non-diplomatic items that the Thai delegates took with them to Peking (now Beijing) for the establishment of diplomatic relations with China on July 1, 1975.
China's decision to allow the yuan to appreciate by 0.43 per cent will have an impact on its trade with the rest of the world, especially its neighbours like Vietnam.
Burning police cars. Protesters emerging from sewers. Smashed windows, black-clad anarchists and tear gas: a global economic summit came to Toronto, bringing TV images of mayhem in its wake.
The brazen nature of some dating competitions, including events on Chinese provincial television, has raised concerns in China about society's obsession with money and the extreme commoditizing of sex and relationships, said an article in the Telegraph on June 23.
China's looser grip on its currency won't alter sluggish U.S. or European growth prospects unless Beijing is prepared to assume the mantle of the world's consumer of last resort.
For the first time in generations, getting older means carrying more mortgage debt and less savings into retirement, thanks to the housing crash and rising joblessness among those 45 and older.
Fast-growing white-collar workers constitute the newest underclass in China, which is an unprecedented and troublesome development in China, said an article in Newsweek on June 19.
Ahead of the official announcement of the House of Councillors election on Thursday (June 17), the Democratic Party of Japan and Liberal Democratic Party recently hammered out drastic tax reform proposals, including raising the consumption tax rate.
China's announcement that it will introduce more flexibility into its exchange rate is a deft political move amid rising international criticism of Beijing, but the economic implications are much less certain, said an article in the Financial Times on June 20.
It seems Taiwan cannot exist without the Chinese mainland these days, as the island is increasingly dependent on the mainland economically.
Such a prompt reciprocal gesture from the Chinese side bears testimony to the importance that both countries place to a sound friendship based on equality, mutual respect and trust and non-interference in each other's affairs.
Provided Kyrgyzstan does not descend into total chaos, its ethnic violence is unlikely to hand gains to militant Islamists whose creeping influence in central Asia is testing nerves from Moscow to Beijing.