China

BEIJING - Forget about the space race, the gold medal chase and the almighty gross domestic product. China is finally catching up to America in a crucial category: the celebrity sex scandal. Zhao Zhongxiang, a television broadcaster for 44 years and this country's closest thing to Walter Cronkite, is embroiled in a scandal that has whet the public's appetite for unflattering celebrity gossip - in this case, allegations of an extramarital affair with his physical therapist, who is suing him. For weeks, the Chinese news media and Web sites have feasted on each development and nuance: the sex, the lies, the dirty telephone chatter caught on tape (available for downloading)

President Barack Obama's China policy combines deterrence and engagement, but it gives insufficient attention to human rights. Since early 2009, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton noted that human rights "can't interfere" with other aspects of Sino-American relations, the administration has tried to avoid public discussion of the issue. Over the past year, the Obama administration has increased attention and resources devoted to East Asia. Expanded military cooperation with Australia and the Philippines, a robust Japanese-American defense relationship, and enhanced naval and air forces in the region illustrate Washington's efforts to counter China's growing assertiveness and military power.

There's one question Kathleen Kindig constantly hears from her customers out west: "Freeland, Md.? What are you doing in Freeland, Md.?"It's a logical question. Kathy Kindig runs Pipestone, a company that manufactures and sells china with Western motifs. So when her customers from Texas, New Mexico, California and such call her to place their orders, they can't resist asking what she's doing here in the Maryland countryside instead of someplace out on the mesa.What Ms. Kindig and a handful of workers actually are doing here is this: They take pure white hotel-grade, high-fire vitreous china ("blanks" as they are called)

American embassy officials in Beijing didn't exactly throw out the welcome mat when one of China's leading human rights activists showed up on their doorstep last week seeking refuge. But having allowed him inside and sheltered him for several days while they negotiated his fate with Chinese authorities, the U.S. made itself responsible for his safety, and it must honor that commitment even though he is no longer under the embassy's protection. Chen Guangcheng, a blind, self-taught lawyer and fierce critic of China's forced-abortion policy, told officials he had traveled 400 miles to Beijing after escaping de facto house arrest in a provincial town.

Historically speaking, China is a society that holds learning and education in high esteem. It's hardly alone in that respect. The emphasis on learning in the Chinese Confucian tradition are comparable to the learning-focused philosophies of Aristotle and  Socrates, which are underpinnings of western culture. China, it's also worth noting, is a key U.S. trading partner and a rapidly rising economic and military power, making knowledge of modern China a key intellectual commodity in the coming years.

America has suddenly become aware that there is a trade problem with China ("Export policy No. 1: getting China to play by the rules," Sept. 21). Once again, who could have predicted it? The American public is an addict. China is our supplier and the big discount chain stores are the dealers. We are addicted to easy money and bargain prices. The problem is that now we recognize that this is killing us and we want out of the arrangement. Whatever the solution, when an addict and his supplier break up, somebody is going to get hurt.

With no one interested in signing him in the NBA, guard Allen Iverson reportedly is considering an offer to play in China. Iverson's personal manager, Gary Moore , told NBA.com his client hasn't been been contacted by any NBA team with training camps set to open in less than two weeks. Moore said they have a "legitimate interest" with a team in China to work out a deal. Moore did not know the team's name but said the Chinese team first approached the 35-year-old Iverson last month.

When the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meets Wednesday, no one expects it to raise the federal funds rate — the overnight bank rate that now hovers below 0.25 percent. However, businesses, politicians and prognosticators are eager, perhaps inappropriately so, to hear clues about when it will begin raising short-term interest rates to a more normal level. Yet, Fed policy is much less relevant to U.S. growth and price stability than in the days of Paul Volcker, because China's yuan policy has substantially limited the importance of Fed interest rate decisions by severing the historic link between short interest rates — like the federal funds rate it targets — and long rates on mortgages, corporate bonds and the securities banks use to finance lending on cars and credit cards.

It's silly season again when holders of high office fulminate about various bogeymen to demonstrate appropriate indignation ahead of elections. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's recent testimony before both houses of Congress was a case in point, as is the bill just passed in the House of Representatives naming China a currency manipulator. Stop me if you've heard this one before. A large Asian nation rises to wealth on the strength of its exports. As a result, it builds a tremendous amount of dollar reserves — along with the increasing ire of its trading partners.

Up to 40 million Chinese people still live in caves. That's more than the populations of Texas and Illinois, combined. In fairness, a fraction of these caves are apparently pretty nice, complete with electricity and well-compacted dirt floors. But that's grading on a curve because, well, they're still caves. Meanwhile, 21 million Chinese live below what the Communist Party calls the "absolute poverty" line. That sounds pretty good if you have in mind our poverty line, which is just under $11,000 per year for an individual and roughly $22,000 for a family of four.

Businesses in China and India, the emerging markets that Gov. Martin O'Malley has been trawling for trade relationships, are beginning to bite. This month, the governor announced the opening of a Chinese bank in Baltimore and conducted a forum for Indian business leaders, priming them to open U.S. subsidiaries in the state. The events could be a turning point for investment in Maryland from these countries. "Europe is struggling and global companies want to go to stable environments," said Nancy McLernon, president and CEO of the Organization for International Investment, a Washington-based nonprofit business association for U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies.

The Pentagon is creating a new intelligence service aimed at gathering information on terrorist networks, weapons of mass destruction and other emerging concerns, a senior defense official said Monday. The new Defense Clandestine Service will draw several hundred officers from the existing Defense Intelligence Agency, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the classified program. The officers - some military, some civilian - will work alongside CIA counterparts in places such as Africa, whereal-Qaida has grown more active, and Asia, where Chinese military expansion and North Korean and Iranian weapons ambitions are drawing increasing U.S. concern.

Morgan State University is establishing a student exchange program with Hubei University in China. The presidents of the two institutions signed an agreement formalizing the program Thursday afternoon on Morgan State's campus in North Baltimore. Hubei University was founded in 1931 and is located in central China, about 500 miles west of Shanghai. Hubei has established international student exchange programs with almost 70 universities, according to the university's website.

A Chinese bank will establish its first U.S. office in Maryland, state economic development officials announced Friday. The Export-Import Bank of China and the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development signed a cooperative agreement allowing the bank to open an office at the World Trade Center Baltimore at the Inner Harbor. The bank will focus on business development, project evaluation and building relationships in the U.S. market as well as consider providing funding for Chinese companies looking to invest in the United States.

  2012 marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon's historic visit to China, a diplomatic triumph that realigned American foreign policy. Since Nixon's trip, U.S.-China relations have been managed from the uppermost echelons of the executive branch of the federal government. Yet they have also been sustained and strengthened at the state and local level, as evidenced by Maryland's China diplomacy. Forty years ago this month, Maryland began its engagement with China by becoming the site of an iconic exchange in sports diplomacy, a groundbreaking ping-pong match between China and the U.S. The event was held at theUniversity of Maryland, College Parkon April 17, 1972, less than two months after President Nixon's return from China.

When it opens next year, the Great Mall of China near Beijing will be the biggest retail and entertainment center in the world, with 15 million square feet of shops, a theme park, a water park — and the world's tallest indoor roller coaster, imported from Baltimore. The still-unnamed "super launch" coaster will be designed and built by Premier Rides, a company that specializes in roller coasters, water rides and other amusement park attractions. The mall's developer, the Berjaya Great Mall of China Co. Ltd., commissioned Premier to work on the project earlier this year after meeting the firm's president, Jim Seay, last June during a Maryland trade mission to China.

Only 42 politicking days to go until elections, and the Obama administration has decided to get a little tougher on the single biggest distorting factor in the world economy. U.S. Trade Representative Ronald Kirk says the timing of Washington's increased pressure on China over currency manipulation and other issues is a coincidence. Whatever the reason, it's welcome. "We're going to have to engage China," Kirk said in an interview Monday. "We're going to have to continually push, cajole and in some cases where that doesn't work, file suit to say: 'Look, we invited you into the global trading community.

Google postponed Tuesday the launch of its mobile phone in China, adding to the potential commercial fallout of its dispute with Beijing over Internet censorship and e-mail hacking. One person briefed on Google's decision said it was linked to the company's threat that it will shut its Chinese-based search engine if restrictions aren't eased.

"Gas prices are outrageous. " Catherine Bell, a 66-year-old Social Security Administration retiree, was not happy Tuesday as she filled up her Chrysler at a Howard Street BP Amoco gas station in Baltimore. "You'll see when you get to retirement and you're on a fixed income. " The Baltimore resident reflects the feeling of a lot of Maryland motorists. Gasoline prices across the state and the nation are climbing fast, and motorists could see $4 a gallon at the pump in the coming months, fueled by demand in China and India and turmoil in the oil-rich Middle East, analysts say. The average price of regular unleaded gasoline in Maryland this month was $3.56 a gallon - nearly 20 cents more than in January and far above the $1.91 average in February three years ago. In Baltimore, the price averaged $3.59 last week, 50 cents more than a year ago, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic.

President Barack Obama believes government has a vital role in creating good jobs in America. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrichsay American business will create good jobs here if their taxes are lowered and regulations eased. The facts are on the president's side. U.S. corporations are increasingly global, with less and less stake in America. According to the Commerce Department, American-based global corporations added 2.4 million workers abroad in first decade of 21st century while cutting their American workforce by 2.9 million.