Hong Kong is poised for a showdown with China when the Chinese parliament meets later on Sunday, with the largely rubber-stamp body likely to snuff out hopes for a democratic breakthrough in the regional financial hub at elections due in 2017.

• August 30, 2014

Chinese President Xi Jinping has said China will spur military innovation and called on the army to create a new strategy for "information warfare" as the country embarks on military reform, state media said on Saturday.

• August 30, 2014

Vietnam will send a special envoy to China this week to try to rebuild battered diplomatic ties with its communist neighbor after they sank to their lowest in three decades, amid a flare-up over sovereignty in the South China Sea.

• August 25, 2014

Representatives from China and Taiwan have reached an agreement to restart formal negotiations on a free-trade pact that would eliminate tax on the vast majority of goods flowing between the two, Taiwan officials said Tuesday.

• August 5, 2014

Regulators in Shanghai have found that a scandal-hit China-based food supplier forged production dates on some of its products and sold them after their expiry, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.

• July 26, 2014

China's factory activity expanded at its fastest in 18 months in July, while the euro zone's private sector also perked up, but the pace of U.S. manufacturing expansion slowed.

• July 25, 2014

Israel pounded targets across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, saying no ceasefire was near as top U.S. and U.N. diplomats pursued talks on halting fighting that has claimed more than 600 lives.

• July 22, 2014

Bashar al-Assad was sworn in for a new term as Syria's president on Wednesday, after an election which his opponents dismiss as a sham but which he said proved he had achieved victory after a "dirty war" to unseat him.

• July 16, 2014