China

Marion Gunn Jenkins, a retired teacher who worked for the Office of War Information in Washington and China during World War II, died of heart disease Saturday at Roland Park Place. The Guilford resident was 85. During the war, Mrs. Jenkins also served as the charge d'affaires at a U.S. consulate in China. After the communist regime forced her to leave China, she and her husband, Cyrus Felix Jenkins, an American oil company executive, relocated to Thailand, where she taught Latin and Asian history at the International School of Bangkok for 15 years.

Tens of thousands joined a demonstration by Buddhist monks through the streets of the city formerly known as Rangoon yesterday, in a stirring show of dissent against the generals' regime that has turned the once placid Burma into the authoritarian nightmare now called Myanmar. Last night, the government issued a warning to the monks' superiors that they must desist from further agitation, but it's unlikely to have much effect. The security forces have been conspicuously absent so far, which may be an ominous sign in a country where the last big demonstrations, in 1988, were brutally suppressed - or it may be a sign of uncertainty at the top. China appears to hold the key. It has been the regime's biggest supporter, and is clearly intent on exploiting Myanmar's significant gas and oil resources.

Last week on Survivor: China, being the hardest worker around camp didn't help former model Dave. What got in his way? His inability to speak to teammates in a nonpatronizing tone. They got fed up with him and sent him home, where he graced the audience with these classic closing words: "There are pieces of me that are worth a lot, perhaps even priceless. If they can't see that, well, I can't force them." Sorry, Dave. It wasn't your self-worth, it was that you were at the center of all the in-fighting!

CHANGSHA, CHINA I had thought of myself as a daring, resilient traveler, but this would be a test. As one of 27 volunteers with the WorldTeach China program, I was to spend a year teaching English to middle school students in China's Hunan Province, 800 miles southwest of Beijing. I was 24 years old, two years removed from college, and itching to experience daily life in a foreign land. WorldTeach directs programs around the globe and China was not necessarily my first pick, but as a Korean adoptee, I have long been drawn to the idea of going to Asia.

BEIJING -- A rare open letter signed by 17 former top officials and conservative Marxist scholars before a key Communist Party meeting accuses China's top leaders of steering the country in the wrong direction, pandering to foreigners, betraying the workers' revolution and jeopardizing social stability. "We're going down an evil road," said the letter posted on the Web site Mao Zedong's Flag. "The whole country is at a most precarious time." The challenge is unusual both for the importance of its signatories and for its timing during the time leading up to this fall's Party Congress -- an event held once every five years and a key date on the political calendar.

Guangyuan Wang traveled from China to Aberdeen to solve a baseball problem. As he works to nurture the sport in China, the youth coach has seen that it's not hard to get kids to start playing baseball. The challenge is to get them to stick with it as they get older. "There's a gap. They don't continue to play," said Wang, 34, who coaches baseball and softball to youth in Guangzhou. "Our mission is to learn new knowledge and bring that back to China." Hailing from a country where swooshing a pingpong paddle is more popular than swinging a baseball bat, Wang hopes to bring more interest in America's pastime to China after a monthlong visit to Ripken Baseball in Aberdeen.

His shop is a hot destination on Kings Road in the heart of London's trendy Chelsea district. But British designer William Yeoward is considered a style-maker on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Yeoward's antiques and designs - in fabric, crystal, china, furniture and home accessories - always seem fresh. Whether it's color (often bold or unexpected combinations), pattern (familiar but edgy), texture, finish or form that make them special, his handcrafted pieces stand out in the design world.

PHILADELPHIA -- While the White House has been focusing its foreign policy attention on Iraq, the rest of the world hasn't been standing still. China has been using a new approach to expand its influence and global appeal. This approach is one at which the United States once excelled but now does badly. Call it "soft power," a term coined more than a decade ago by Harvard's Joseph Nye to describe a country's ability to lead by example and get others to follow because they admire what you are. A new book called Charm Offensive: How China's Soft Power Is Transforming the World looks at Beijing's increasing skill at using diplomacy, trade incentives, cultural and educational exchanges, and other techniques to build an image of a benign global leader.

General Mills, Kellogg, Toys "R" Us and other big American companies are increasing their scrutiny of thousands of everyday products they receive from Chinese suppliers, as widening recalls of items such as toys and toothpaste force them to focus on potential hazards that were overlooked in the past. These corporations are stepping up their analysis of imported goods that they sell, making more unannounced visits to Chinese factories for inspections and, in one case, pulling merchandise from American shelves at the first hint of a problem.

Candlelight dance -- Candlelight Concerts will present two multimedia performances by Yu Wei, Chinese Dance Collection, at 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Sunday in Smith Theatre, Howard Community College, 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia. The performance includes imaginative costumes, film and narration connecting China's culture, history and geography to a young girl's journey from dancing in China to become a popular performer in the United States. Yu Wei (above) is honored in China as the "Daughter of Dance."

PSC holds first hearing over Constellation nuclear deal Maryland energy regulators are holding on Wednesday the first of three hearings for public comment on Constellation Energy Group's deal to sell half of its nuclear power business to a French utility. The hearings are part of the Maryland Public Service Commission's review of whether the $4.5 billion transaction is in the public's interest. The hearings are scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Department of Legislative Services Building in Annapolis; Sept.

EASTON - -The boy was near age 6 when he was abandoned in 1998. Police found him under a bridge in Luoyang, a city in eastern China. Unable to learn how he got there or where he came from, officers deposited him at a busy orphanage in town. That was the story Julia Norris heard two years later, in June 2000, when she visited the orphanage. That was still the story in April 2001, when she returned to adopt the boy and bring him to America. And it remained the story this spring as Christian Norris finished 10th grade at Easton High School, where he plays lacrosse and has a crew of buddies.

China will occupy President Barack Obama's agenda today as he delivers a major speech on the future of U.S.-China relations. The speech will aim to set a cooperative and constructive tone to kick off the Strategic and Economic Dialogue, which will be chaired by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and their Chinese counterparts. The president's speech - as well as the breadth of issues to be covered during the two-day dialogue - will undoubtedly demonstrate the global character of this relationship and the ability for the U.S. to manage a consequential and global relationship with China.

The $789 billion stimulus doesn't fix what ails the economy and is doomed to fail. Since 2007, the private sector has shed 6.6 million jobs - half in manufacturing and construction. A couple hundred thousands government employees have been added, but that hasn't affected the overall trend. During the last economic boom, a huge structural trade deficit emerged in the United States. Imports exceeded exports by about $700 billion annually from 2005 to 2008. By the end of the boom, nearly all of it was manufactured goods from China and oil. The failure to compensate for imported consumer goods and gasoline with exports creates a huge shortage of demand for U.S.-made products.

FRIDAY Cabaret: A Dozen Things I Want to Do on Stage is an eclectic one-woman cabaret show by Rebecca Nagle, a local new-media artist. Modeled after turn-of-the-century European cabaret, A Dozen Things is part burlesque, part performance art and part storytelling. A Dozen Things takes place at Load of Fun Studios, 120 W. North Ave. 9 p.m. Ticket prices vary. Go to loadoffun.net. Alsop and Bronfman: In the season-ending program, Yefim Bronfman performs Rachmaninoff's notoriously difficult Piano Concerto No. 3, with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop.

Police response all too familiar When I read Peter Hermann's story ("The 'nanny attack' and its follow-up" June 4), I had flashbacks of my experience with how the police handled my being robbed in my apartment building, right in front of my apartment door. It took over an hour for the police to show up. The officers told me they would look around the neighborhood. I told them someone would have had to see a young man running with a big black purse. I watched the officers as they left my building.

Repulsed by the government's violent response to protests in his homeland of China 20 years ago, Yifei Gan knew he had to remain in the United States to pursue artistic freedom. Inspired by her widowed mother's entrepreneurial spirit, Lily Bengfort visualized succeeding in business when she came to the United States from Guyana. And, touched by a desire to help fellow Korean immigrants, Young Song rode a rusty bike to school to earn two college degrees on the path toward his goal. These three immigrants couldn't be more different, nor could they be more alike.

To dig out of the "Great Recession," Washington needs to challenge China on trade and currency manipulation - but President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner must recognize that Beijing only has the leverage Washington gives it. The nation needs to realize that this is no Eisenhower recession, caused by too much inventory. Rather, this meltdown was caused by structural imbalances in the global economy that no stimulus spending can fix. Dysfunctions on Wall Street notwithstanding, China and several other developing countries produce far more than they consume and enjoy huge trade surpluses, thanks to artificially undervalued currencies, export subsidies and import restrictions.

CHINA : There are about 5.5 million people graduating from college in China this year, and more than 1 million of them probably won't be able to find a job, leading to fear of social instability in the world's most populous nation. Marketplace radio reports on this example of the unemployment problem's global reach. NEW YORK : Associated Press reports that dozens of unemployed people took part in the Unemployment Olympics on Tuesday, playing games such as Pin the Blame on the Boss and the corporate phone toss.

Eugene A. Lance, a World War II veteran who never forgot the boy he befriended in China during the war and was finally reunited with him 60 years later, died of lung cancer Jan. 20 at Gilchrist Hospice Care. The Lutherville resident was 85. Mr. Lance, who was born in Baltimore and raised on Pine Street, attended Polytechnic Institute until being drafted into the Army. After signing up for hazardous duty to escape a commanding officer with whom he had disagreed, Mr. Lance was sent in 1943 to an engineering unit assigned to China.