Chinese

NORTH AND SOUTH Korean soldiers exchanged machine-gun fire across the so-called demilitarized zone yesterday. Such incidents have been frequent in the half-century of the Korean peninsula's suspended civil war, though not recently. And these days, they're not to be taken that seriously save as another demand for attention by Pyongyang. Last week's North Korean claim that it now has enough plutonium from reprocessed spent fuel rods to begin making nuclear weapons can be viewed in a similar, though far more serious, light.

Since President Richard Nixon's visit to China in February 1972, American presidents have hoped that building personal rapport with Chinese leaders would strengthen bilateral ties and win political points at home. While Nixon's trip was a diplomatic triumph, later presidents have not been so successful. They usually discover that this type of Sino-American interaction has little impact on the relationship. President Barack Obama's recent effort to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping fits this pattern.

Hummer, the off-road vehicle that once symbolized America's love for hulking SUVs, faces a shutdown after its sale to a Chinese heavy equipment maker collapsed. Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machines Co. said Wednesday it pulled out of the deal to buy the company from General Motors Co. Tengzhong failed to get clearance from Chinese regulators within the proposed time frame for the sale, the Chinese manufacturer said. GM said it will continue to honor existing Hummer warranties. "GM will now work closely with Hummer employees, dealers and suppliers to wind down the business in an orderly and responsible manner," said John Smith, GM vice president of corporate planning and alliances.

The following is compiled from police reports from the Towson and Cockeysville precincts. Our policy is to include descriptions when there is enough information to make identification possible. A food delivery driver was robbed at gunpoint as he tried to deliver Chinese food at about 11 p.m. on March 5 near the 400 block of Schwartz Avenue, in Towson, police report. The robber stole cash and the Chinese food and fled. Towson Ensor Avenue , unit block, on March 9. Man's car towed for illegal parking.

MUTUAL trust is the cornerstone of Soviet-Chinese relations. It stems from mutual understanding, and summit meetings are the most direct route to it. . . .Soviet-Chinese relations are only now beginning to exert a stabilizing influence on the regional and global political climate. . . .The agreement on the eastern stretch of the Soviet-Chinese state border, signed during the Moscow meeting, open prospects for turning the world's longest continental border into a frontier of good neighborliness.

Washington. -- Was James Baker's trip to China a failure? Neither the Chinese nor the Americans made any significant concessions, though some valuable compromises on transfer of nuclear technology, copyright protection and prison-labor exports may have been reached.That there remains uncertainty regarding what the Chinese actually agreed to reflects Chinese disinclination to surrender freedom of action and the probable necessity of brokering adherence of the military to politically determined policies.

The Los Angeles Times said in an editorial yesterday:THE United States is probably a decade or more away from being able to deploy a system in East Asia to defend its forces and allies there against low-altitude missiles, but China is already threatening to turn that prospect into a source of contention.Beijing claims that such a system would provide the Japanese with a protective shield behind which they could develop offensive missiles to threaten China. It further fears seeing its strategic advantage diminished if the United States shares missile defense technology with Taiwan.

HONG KONG S.A.R., China -- There is something eerie about watching a fireworks display in Hong Kong on June 30 and returning home to Washington to watch more fireworks on July 4.The one is a leave-taking of British sovereignty and the passing ++ of a colonial territory back to its original owners. The other is an observance of a philosophy of life and government based on the rule of law that is reshaping the world in a way that will eventually include China.Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher busily told all who would listen of her optimism that Hong Kong has less to fear from China than China has to fear from Hong Kong.

When assessing an animated musical feature from Walt Disney, it's best to: Forget historical accuracy. Forget cultural integrity. Throw your notions of authenticity and consistency out the window and have a grand old time.In the case of "Mulan," this means forgetting whatever you know about ancient China, accepting anachronisms, anomalies and inconsistencies galore and surrendering to that special, if wildly anomalous, world known as Disney.Children especially should have no problem living in that world for an hour or so; indeed, they will be captivated by it. And "Mulan" has enough humor and visual sophistication to keep their adult companions not only awake but entertained.

BEIJING -- At first glance, it seemed like a terrific formula: a Chinese folk tale filled with adventure, Disney's masterful animation and tens of millions of Chinese children raised on Western movies.But instead of cashing in at the box office, Walt Disney's "Mulan" has bombed in her ancestral homeland."Mulan," which has grossed about $300 million worldwide, is the legendary story of a brave young Chinese woman who joins the army during the Sui Dynasty (589-618 A.D.) in place of her sick, elderly father.

Johns Hopkins will train China's next generation of doctors, researchers and hospital administrators under a new agreement with Sun Yat-sen University. The agreement was signed this week in the city of Guangzhou, where the university has affiliated hospitals, officials with Johns Hopkins Medicine International said. China's health system is growing rapidly and officials there hope Hopkins' expertise will help them develop a strong foundation for medical care.   Under the agreement, Hopkins researchers will teach courses at Sun Yat-sen.

More than 150 Baltimore County firefighters tackled a fire in a Rosedale strip mall Saturday afternoon, which appeared to have started in Jackie Chen's Chinese Restaurant, officials said. At least six stores were involved in the three-alarm fire in the 8400 block of Philadelphia Blvd., officials said. Firefighters, who were dispatched around 12:40 p.m., got it under control around 3:05 p.m. No injuries have been reported, and the cause of the fire is still under investigation.

In a few weeks, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will be reinaugurated with great fanfare in Washington. Shortly after that, in Beijing, Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang will ascend to the presidency and premiership of China. (China's premier is the second-highest office but unlike the American vice president is more like the country's chief operating officer, with the president as chief executive officer.) If our political leaders would play their cards right, the concomitant inaugurations could be prelude to a brilliant new start for our relationship with China.

When you enter Julie Chang's world languages class at Waverly Elementary School in Ellicott City, you leave English at the door. Then, if you know the answer to a question and are told to " qing ju shou ," you raise your hand. If you're told, " bu shou hua ," then you must keep quiet. And if someone asks about the weather and it's sunny outside, you say, " yin tian . " Chang teaches Chinese, one of two languages offered in the Howard County school system's world languages pilot, which is in its second year at Laurel Woods and Waverly elementary schools.

A Chinese national selling plastic bags, restaurant supplies and other merchandise from China out of a warehouse in Baltimore was sentenced to 16 months in prison Wednesday for dodging customs duties on the imported products, according to the Maryland U.S. attorney's office. Jin Qing Huang, 57, was president of Woncity Inc., which kept a warehouse in the 2800 block of Annapolis Road in Baltimore and another in Northeast Washington and imported large quantities of Chinese products.

Orioles left-hander Wei-Yin Chen is leaning toward not pitching for his native Taiwan in this spring's World Baseball Classic in March, according to an industry source. Taiwan, which competes internationally as Chinese Taipei, is playing in a World Baseball Classic qualifier next week in Taiwan against the Philippines, New Zealand and Thailand. Chen, who pitched for Chinese Taipei in the 2008 Beijing Olympics - he was 1-0 in two starts - and was a member of the team in the 2004 Athens Olympics, was 12-11 during his rookie campaign with the Orioles and was the winning pitcher in Game 2 of the American League Division Series.

WASHINGTON -- As the Jack Abramoff scandal arouses scrutiny of Washington lobbying, China is cashing into the game of political influence on Capitol Hill. Beijing is spending millions of dollars to secure its U.S. interests, improve its image and counter skepticism of Chinese intentions and values. This is a new development, and it will come under scrutiny today at a hearing of a House International Relations Committee panel. For years, Beijing enjoyed a low profile in Washington, allowing the U.S. business community to lobby for the bilateral economic relationship; both benefited.

BEIJING -- Despite the release of some prominent dissidents from Chinese jails last year, repression here worsened with almost 250 documented cases of new political arrests or trials, a major new report on Chinese political prisoners says.The report -- released yesterday by Asia Watch, the human rights group -- contains information on about 1,700 persons known or believed to be imprisoned in China for their political, ethnic or religious views and activities.Asia Watch says it represents "the most complete available accounting of political and religious imprisonment in China today."

Maryland-born author Carol Peacock describes living conditions in the poorest Chinese orphanages with a dispassionate eye. Her new novel, "Red Thread Sisters," describes playgrounds strewn with old tires and a caste system that divides children perceived to be adoptable from those judged by orphanage officials as less appealing. The novel depicts children so eager for their own clothes that they wear multiple gift outfits at once. In the book, young children routinely perform such adult chores as feeding babies and scrubbing kitchen floors.

U.S. Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger will be included in a "60 Minutes" piece Sunday looking at Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications equipment maker, that members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence see as a threat to national security. Here's the release from CBS News with a quote from Ruppersberger:            Huawei, a global Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturer already doing business in the U.S., poses a threat to national and corporate security say members of the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.  Those congressmen speak to Steve Kroft for a 60 MINUTES investigation to be broadcast Sunday, Oct. 7 (7:30-8:30PM, ET, 7:00-8:00PM, PT)