CHINA IN THE NEWS

Growing concern about "left-behind children" (liushou ertong) whose parents migrate to cities to work leaving the children to be raised by grandparents or other relatives.

Nearly 58 million children, almost all in the countryside, are growing up without one – or, often, both – parents, according to state-run media, citing a 2010 survey by the All-China Women’s Federation. Nearly 80 percent are cared for by grandparents, while some are simply left to fend for themselves — 4.2 million, the survey found.

Growing concern about the ongoing disputes over the South China Sea, this time between the PRC and the Philippines.

“We’re just pawns,” said Roberto Romulo, a former foreign secretary of the Philippines who argues that China is flexing its muscles in a bid to gain unimpeded access to vast reserves of natural gas and oil believed to be buried under the South China Sea. “China is testing the United States, that’s all it is. And China is eating America’s lunch in Southeast Asia.” More recently, a senior Chinese military officer even dismissed any legitimate role for the United States in the South China Sea. “The South China issue is not America’s business,” Gen. Ma Xiaotian, the deputy chief of general staff of the People’s Liberation Army, said in an interview broadcast Monday by Phoenix TV in Hong Kong. “It’s between China and its neighbors.”

And Google decides to alert Chinese users when they use a search term that is likely to be blocked in China. Not sure who consequential this will be since most Chinese netizens probably use Baidu anyway.