For the first time since the mid-1990s, sales of the 100 biggest arms dealers excluding China declined in 2011 as the economic crisis prompted budget cuts.
China on Saturday said retail sales jumped nearly 15 percent on-year during the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, as consumers splurged on jewellery, clothes and food.
Japan has suggested setting up a military hotline with China to avoid clashes between the two countries, which are at loggerheads over a group of disputed islands.
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday urged China to avoid confrontation and seek out a peaceful dialogue with Japan and other countries over territorial disputes.
China has banned ads that encourage giving luxury gifts to authorities, state media said Thursday, the latest push against official extravagance since new leaders took charge vowing better governance.
A Chinese police chief has been sacked after reports he owned hundreds of houses and a false identity card, state media said Wednesday in the latest scandal to fuel public outrage over corruption.
Agreeing a venue for the next round of talks between Iran and six world powers on Tehran's nuclear drive was hard enough. Achieving progress will be tougher still.
Tokyo summoned China's envoy Tuesday in protest at what it says was another incursion into its territorial waters, after Beijing's ships sailed near islands at the centre of a bitter dispute.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that in his coming book, Google chairman Eric Schmidt brands China an Internet menace that sanctions cyber crime for economic and political gain.
The collapse of a bridge on an expressway in central China was likely caused by an explosion on a lorry carrying fireworks, a local official said Saturday as state media said the death toll rose to 11.
More than 12,500 people have petitioned US President Barack Obama to help Hong Kong avoid a baby formula shortage, saying infants in the city are facing malnutrition due to mainland Chinese "smugglers".
The combined profits of China's major steelmakers crashed by more than 98 percent in 2012 as growth in the economy of the world's largest steel producer slowed.
The Wall Street Journal said Thursday its computers had been hit by Chinese hackers, becoming the latest US media organization to report an effort to spy on its journalists covering China.
Shanghai was forced to deny that China's future tallest building, now under construction, was on fire Thursday after what looked like smog surrounded the towering structure.