News stories by Antoaneta Bezlova, page 7

China’s pro-active stance in finding a settlement to the latest crisis in the Middle East -- a trouble spot which does not normally figure on Beijing’s list of top foreign policy priorities -- suggests heightened attention to energy security for the country’s power-hungry economy.

Twenty years after the Chinese communist party deployed tanks to crush protests by disgruntled students on Tiananmen square, the country is facing the same volatile mix of rising unemployment and economic gloom that sparked the 1989 mass pro-democracy marches.

China has failed to coax its old communist ally North Korea into signing an agreement to verify the state’s secretive nuclear activities.