Melinda Liu

The last time that China suffered a natural disaster approaching the magnitude of the recent earthquake in Sichuan, its Maoist leaders considered psychology a "bourgeois" discipline.

The Sichuan quake has inspired a powerful, and unpredictable, movement among China's youth.

As China remains gripped by grief, staff at its famous panda reserve take stock of the earthquake's deadly toll.

Cyclone Nargis may have done more than just wreck Burma's cities. It may also spell doom for the government.

A leading Burmese exile discusses the junta's slow response to cyclone relief and why many see the cyclone as divine intervention against their despotic leaders.

The Games are a test of its superpower status. Beijing may be flunking.

As rulers successfully crush sympathy for Tibet at home, they stir it worldwide.

With Tibet in turmoil and the 2008 Olympics looming, Beijing is trying to repair its international image. The strategy is a familiar one: control the story.

The Dalai Lama wants to talk peace, but the anger of his long-suffering people is only hardening.

In an exclusive interview, the Dalai Lama talks to NEWSWEEK about the violence in Tibet, his vision of the future—and how he manages to sleep in spite of his distress over the killings.

As police clashed with Tibetan protesters in Lhasa last week, shops were set on fire, vehicles overturned, ethnic Chinese attacked and crowds turned back by tear gas in the worst civil unrest to seize the remote region in nearly two decades.

The ripple effects of Beijing's reaction to the Lhasa riots could spill over into the Olympics.

Novel ways to care for China's army of empty-nesters.

With the death of filial piety and the rise of 'kids for hire,' no Chinese family value is sacred anymore.

An aging population is transforming the family.

The N.Y. Philharmonic brings cultural diplomacy to North Korea, but the real encore may take a while.

Can a spectacularly successful U.S. concert in North Korea be a catalyst for the normalization of Washington-Pyongyang ties?

Jitters on the eve of the New York Philharmonic's historic trip to North Korea

Why pork-jackings and rising prices are bad news for the Middle Kingdom—and the world.

My last tea with Hu Jia, the Chinese activist arrested in a pre-Olympic crackdown.

Even in the west, the scandal would be juicy. During a Dec. 28 gala launch in Beijing for the Chinese state-run TV network's Olympics coverage, newscaster Hu Ziwei seized the microphone from her husband, celebrity sports anchor Zhang Bin, and publicly denounced him for an alleged affair.

Beijing's family-planning rules are slipping as the rich and powerful break the single-baby rule.

China is thousands of years old but has been made anew in the last three decades, and my family with it.

Autocrats worry about Buddha power. In much of Southeast Asia, monks occupy the loftiest of moral high ground. According to the Buddhist concept of reincarnation, misdeeds in past lives affect problems in the current one.

New data suggest China isn't lagging on Internet social networking. It's just innovating differently.

China's new heir apparent is a surprise pick, suggesting that 'intraparty democracy' is no joke.

Henry Paulson, U.S. Treasury secretary, once called Xi Jinping "the kind of guy who gets things over the goal line." This month Xi scored the goal of his career.

Unveiling China's new leadership lineup, party boss Hu Jintao introduces an heir and a spare.

Activists are using the Olympics to press China to reform. Now Beijing unleashes its own PR blitz.

China's stock markets are smoking, and smart money is flooding into the country; last year foreign direct investment reached nearly $70 billion. Add to that a 2006 trade surplus of $177.5 billion, up 74 percent from the year before, and a tidal wave of hot money (or short-term speculative investments).