Chinese Officials

China's Cabinet says in a long-awaited report that a July bullet train crash that killed 40 people was caused by a design flaw and sloppy management. The Cabinet said Wednesday that 54 officials were responsible for missteps that led to the disaster near the southern city of Wenzhou. Those blamed included a former railway minister. The disaster prompted a public outcry about the dangers and high cost of China's showcase bullet train network.

BEIJING - The activist who was at the center of a diplomatic tussle between Beijing and Washington said Thursday that Chinese officials have told him the passports that he and his family just applied for should be ready within two weeks. A rights group, meanwhile, described more retaliation by authorities against his family. From a Beijing hospital room, where he remains under virtual house arrest, Chen Guangcheng said in a phone interview that it remained unclear if he, his wife, and their two children would be able to leave China shortly after getting their passports.

SHANGHAI - China’s economic planning agency has formally approved a plan to build a Disney theme park in Shanghai, ensuring the city will have a new showcase attraction after next year’s World Expo has wound down. The National Development and Reform Commission said the long-awaited park would be built in Shanghai’s eastern Pudong district. It said the project would initially occupy 287 acres - a bit more than half the size of the Los Angeles park and potentially the smallest of the Disney theme parks.

The activist who was at the center of a diplomatic tussle between Beijing and Washington said Thursday that Chinese officials have told him the passports that he and his family just applied for should be ready within two weeks. A rights group, meanwhile, described more retaliation by authorities against his family. From a Beijing hospital room where he remains under virtual house arrest, Chen Guangcheng said in a phone interview with The Associated Press that it remained unclear if he, his wife and their two children would be able to leave China shortly after getting their passports.

The U.S. says it's concerned about reports of reprisals against the family of a blind Chinese activist who escaped house arrest last month. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland says U.S. and Chinese officials have spoken about the "concerning" reports. Washington seeks more information from Beijing. After fleeing, Chen took refuge at the U.S. embassy, sparking a diplomatic standoff. The U.S. and China then agreed to let him go to the U.S. on an academic fellowship.

BEIJING - Blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng left the refuge of the US Embassy in Beijing for a hospital Wednesday, but was quickly cordoned off by Chinese police and reportedly seized by misgivings about his decision, as an apparent diplomatic triumph risked dissolving into a potentially damaging episode in US-China relations. After four days of secret negotiations, US diplomats initially announced, then later scrambled to defend, their role in forging an agreement that they said contained extraordinary Chinese promises to allow Chen - a self-taught lawyer...

NARITA, Japan - A Chinese activist who has spent more than three months living inside Tokyo’s international airport said yesterday that Chinese officials have given him permission to return home. Feng Zhenghu has been camping out at Narita International Airport since early November to protest China’s refusal to let him enter his homeland. Feng had angered the Chinese government with writings on alleged wrongdoing by local authorities and for supporting student protests. Feng had already announced Sunday that he had decided to end his protest...

BEIJING - Timothy F. Geithner, the US Treasury secretary, pressed Chinese senior leaders yesterday to join a US-led campaign to put pressure Iran over its nuclear program by sharply reducing Tehran's lucrative oil export business. And as they had before Geithner's arrival here Tuesday, Chinese officials said publicly that they wanted no part of it. But the administration of President Obama, armed with a new law that would punish foreign financial institutions that deal with Iran, appeared undeterred.

CONCORD, N.H. - Dartmouth College is spending the next five years helping China improve its health care system through a partnership that officials say could pay off at home as well. China announced in 2009 it would pour $124 billion into changing the system to provide basic medical coverage and insurance for all of its 1.3 billion people. The effort includes a partnership between China's Ministry of Health and Dartmouth College, which is home to a national institute on health care delivery.

The activist who was at the center of a diplomatic tussle between Beijing and Washington said Thursday that Chinese officials have told him the passports that he and his family just applied for should be ready within two weeks. A rights group, meanwhile, described more retaliation by authorities against his family. From a Beijing hospital room where he remains under virtual house arrest, Chen Guangcheng said in a phone interview with The Associated Press that it remained unclear if he, his wife and their two children would be able to leave China shortly after getting...

The U.S. says it's concerned about reports of reprisals against the family of a blind Chinese activist who escaped house arrest last month. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland says U.S. and Chinese officials have spoken about the "concerning" reports. Washington seeks more information from Beijing. After fleeing, Chen took refuge at the U.S. embassy, sparking a diplomatic standoff. The U.S. and China then agreed to let him go to the U.S. on an academic fellowship.

Asserting that cyberattacks against the U.S. don't come only from China, the U.S. and Chinese defense ministers said they agreed Monday to work together on cyber issues to avoid miscalculations that could lead to future crises. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that since China and the United States have advanced cyber capabilities, it is important to develop better cooperation. "It's true, as the general pointed out, that obviously there are other countries, actors, others involved in some of the attacks that both of our countries receive," Panetta...

South Korea has seized thousands of smuggled drug capsules filled with powdered flesh from dead babies, which some people believe can cure disease, officials said Monday. The capsules were made in northeastern China from babies whose bodies were chopped into small pieces and dried on stoves before being turned into powder, the Korea Customs Service said. Customs officials refused to say where the dead babies came from or who made the capsules, citing possible diplomatic friction with Beijing.

With a series of quickly choreographed steps, the U.S. and China outlined a tentative deal Friday to send a blind legal activist to America for study and potentially bring a face-saving end to a delicate diplomatic crisis. The arrangements, if kept, promise to give Chen Guangcheng much of what he wanted: a chance to live with his family in safety and to get a formal legal education. It would also allow Washington and Beijing to put aside a rancorous human rights dispute to focus on managing their rivalry for global influence.

China agreed to let foreigners own bigger stakes in its securities firms at a high-level dialogue with the United States, an American official said Friday, after talks went ahead despite a standoff over a Chinese legal activist. Beijing also agreed to expand access to its auto insurance market and to negotiate guidelines to regulate export credits, said the official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity. China's billions of dollars in loans and other support to exporters have been criticized as anticompetitive subsidies,...

BEIJING - Blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng left the refuge of the US Embassy in Beijing for a hospital Wednesday, but was quickly cordoned off by Chinese police and reportedly seized by misgivings about his decision, as an apparent diplomatic triumph risked dissolving into a potentially damaging episode in US-China relations. After four days of secret negotiations, US diplomats initially announced, then later scrambled to defend, their role in forging an agreement that they said contained extraordinary Chinese promises to allow Chen - a self-taught lawyer...

China agreed to let foreigners own bigger stakes in its securities firms at a high-level dialogue with the United States, an American official said Friday, after talks went ahead despite a standoff over a Chinese legal activist. Beijing also agreed to expand access to its auto insurance market and to negotiate guidelines to regulate export credits, said the official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity. China's billions of dollars in loans and other support to exporters have been criticized as anticompetitive subsidies, prompting pressure to impose limits.

South Korea has seized thousands of smuggled drug capsules filled with powdered flesh from dead babies, which some people believe can cure disease, officials said Monday. The capsules were made in northeastern China from babies whose bodies were chopped into small pieces and dried on stoves before being turned into powder, the Korea Customs Service said. Customs officials refused to say where the dead babies came from or who made the capsules, citing possible diplomatic friction with Beijing.

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration scrambled Sunday to contain a burgeoning diplomatic crisis between the United States and China, dispatching a senior diplomat to Beijing to discuss the fate of a blind dissident who fled house arrest last week. Amid intense secrecy, including a nearly blanket refusal to comment, the administration sought to negotiate for the safety of the dissident, Chen Guangcheng, who is apparently in US hands in Beijing - though it remained unclear late Sunday whether he was in the embassy, in a diplomatic residence, or somewhere else.