Go here for the full historical perspective: China is a very ancient country whose history is marked with periods of isolation from the rest of the world and periods of global interaction.

• Al Jazeera: Asia-Pacific

• Christian worshippers ‘detained’ in China

  10 Apr 2011 | 4:52 am

  The congregants, who belong to an unregistered church, tried to hold a service at a public space in the capital Beijing.

• Bomb threat looms over southern Philippines

  10 Apr 2011 | 1:50 am

  A day after a minor blast, military personnel defuse a second bomb in plots tied to al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf fighters.

• Fresh search for Japan tsunami dead

  10 Apr 2011 | 12:18 am

  Japanese and US troops launch massive hunt for bodies as thousands remain missing a month after quake-triggered tsunami.

• Climate change talks make little headway

  8 Apr 2011 | 1:11 pm

  Bangkok meeting raises doubts over chances of significant consensus at next annual conference.

• Carbon-tax plan angers Australians

Beijing has finally seen some snow.

This is the first time they’ve seen any precipitation at all since 26 October, and it’s not just Beijing. Six provinces in the northeast of the country are in the grip of a drought, and this is the heart of the wheat-growing region.

China is the world’s largest wheat producer and despite temperatures dropping down to an average of minus 10 Celsius in January, 18 per cent of global wheat production is grown in this region in winter.

Winter wheat is sown in mid-September or October and harvested in mid-May or June. Normally it only takes around 120 days to grow, but during the frigid temperatures between December and February, winter wheat lies dormant. A coating of snow should protect the plants from the severity of the Chinese winter, but this year there hasn’t been any

Go to AlJazeera for the full story!

BEIJING — The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission will set up its first office outside the United States in China in a bid to reduce the amount of dangerous products reaching the American market.

Commission head Inez Tenenbaum told reporters Monday the “history-making” office also aims to make it easier for the U.S. to raise concerns with the Chinese government about product safety problems, such as faulty drywall and toxic metals in toys.

“Rather than rely on recalls to help us enforce our standards in the United States, (we will) move toward being more proactive and prevent problems from occurring in the first place,” said Tenenbaum. “By having a proactive preventative posture, we can reduce the number of recalls and keep our consumers safe and also prevent the loss of revenue and damage to a manufacturer’s brand.”

MORE HERE:US sets up consumer product safety office in China

Officials said the 59-year-old fell ill shortly after returning from a visit to the Chinese mainland.  It is not yet clear whether she contracted the potentially fatal disease there or in Hong Kong.  The territory has raised its alert level to “serious”, meaning there is a risk of contracting the disease.

The last outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus in Hong Kong killed six people in 2003.

Health chief York Chow said there was no sign yet that the virus has been spread between humans and that investigations were focusing on poultry as being the source of the infection.

Go here for the full story:Hong Kong diagnoses first bird flu case in seven years

For the nine or 10 people besides me that follow China’s commercial aerospace sector, Reinhardt Krause posted an excellent summary on how China’s plan to build its first big passenger plane promises to reshape its fast-growing aviation market and what’s at stake for suppliers. Here’s my take on how it impacts Boeing and Airbus.

The Sino Sitch

–China’s aviation market is booming, with passenger traffic growing 20% a year, aggressive capacity and fleet expansion and a whirlwind of consolidation activity.

–Airline stocks, such as Hong Kong-listed Air China, China Southern and China Eastern, have rebounded strongly in 2010.

–The country will open 10 new airports this year, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China. The CAAC expects 250 airports by 2020, up from 176 at year-end.