China

McCormick & Co. announced Monday that it had signed an agreement to buy a popular bouillion maker in China. Sparks-based McCormick has agreed to acquire Wuhan Asia-Pacific Condiments Co. Ltd. for approximately $141 million, according to a statement released by the company. Completion of the agreement, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected in mid-2013, the spice company said. The acquisition fits into McCormick's continued push to expand in overseas markets such as China, said Alan Wilson, its chairman, president and CEO, in the statement.

Watching the Olympic Games, I find one phenomenon particularly striking. After an event, athletes who literally seconds before had been attempting to trounce one another in competition suddenly start hugging each other. An outsider might wonder about this coexistence of competition and affection. As a former elite-level swimmer, I can tell you: While it's every athlete's goal to win, athletes realize that their competitors are largely responsible for pushing them to their best performances.

- The U.S. women's basketball team destroyed China, 114-66, on Saturday afternoon at Olympic Park Basketball Arena, closing pool play unbeaten in five games and setting team records while doing so. In winning its 38th straight Olympic game, the United States tied a 20-year mark for most points, sank 52 field goals to better by five a 16-year record, and distributed 33 assists to smash the 16-year record of 30. For good measure, Angel McCoughtry...

When President Barack Obama blocked the Keystone XL pipeline, Republicans said the move would encourage Canada to pursue oil deals with China instead of the United States and cede a massive chunk of North American oil assets to the communist nation. Now, China's state-run oil company CNOOC is poised to cut a $15.1 billion deal - the largest ever foreign acquisition for a Chinese company - with the Canadian oil company Nexen. This deal prompts great concern about the Chinese government's continued attempts to use its state-owned enterprises to acquire global energy resources.

China should be at the center of the 2012 Republican campaign for the White House. Unless Mitt Romney emphasizes specific solutions for creating jobs by ending unnecessary outsourcing to the Middle Kingdom, he won't win. President Barack Obama's economy is a disaster - since the recovery began in June 2009, economic growth has averaged a paltry 2.4 percent, and unemployment hangs stubbornly above 8 percent. Ronald Reagan, like President Obama, inherited a deeply troubled economy.

As the world struggles to deal with its two largest foreign-affairs dilemmas, Syria and Iran, resolutely standing in the way are the BRICs. That's the acronym foreign-policy wonks use for the block of nations that routinely refuses to join the multilateral world of diplomacy, dominated by the United States and the West. They seem to glory in being contrary. The nations are Brazil, Russia, India and China. Russia and China, of course, routinely veto any United Nations Security Council resolution criticizing Syria, as they did for the third time last week.

Today's decision by Russia and China to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution to impose sanctions on the brutal regime in Syria is, at most, a hollow victory for President Bashar Assad. Russian officials say they opposed the measure for fear that it would lead to regime change, possibly with the assistance of western military forces, as in Libya. But given the events on the ground this week in Syria, the veto appears likely only to ensure that regime change comes through blood and chaos, not diplomacy.

- American diplomats abroad confront a rapidly changing world brimming with both promise and peril. This reality is perhaps no more daunting than in the countries and regions - including parts of Africa, southeast Asia and key corners of the Middle East - where populations are young and the 21st century global power struggle will unfold. More than half of the world's 7 billion people are age 25 or younger. According to World Bank data, more than a dozen African nations also feature under-15 population shares near or above 40 percent.

Your recent stories last week about the closing of Sparrows Point and the Maryland Port Authority's purchase of new cranes from China were sad in many ways ("Gloom hangs over Sparrows Point mill," June 5). This state does not care about manufacturing, even though it could be the foundation of the region's economy. Maryland does little to encourage an industry that at one time helped this country lead the world. Instead, the state purchases $40 million worth of equipment from China, a country that really should give us the cranes, since they will be used primarily to unload cheap Chinese consumer goods and to load raw materials we are exporting to China.

W.R. Grace said Thursday that it will acquire the assets of Chinese manufacturer Noblestar Catalysts Co. Ltd. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Noblestar, based in Qingdao, makes fluid catalytic cracking catalysts and other related products, which are used in the petroleum refining industry. As part of the agreement, Grace established a new, wholly foreign-owned enterprise in China. Grace officials said the acquisition would help the Columbia company better serve its refining customers in China and northern Asia.