Asia

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Obama Meets Xi: A Chance To Make History

2:34pm June 04, 2013

President Barack Obama will meet with Chinese president Xi Jinping in California June 7-8. The rare, informal meeting offers an opportunity to discuss economic, security and environmental objectives. Douglas Paal, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, discusses possible outcomes.

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Sushi Chef Was Confidant To North Korea's Kim Jong Il

1:36pm June 03, 2013

Little is known about the men who have led North Korea. But one person with great insights into Kim Jong Il and his successor Kim Jong Un is a Japanese sushi chef. He provided Kim Jong Il both sushi and loyalty for many years. Renee Montagne talks to novelist Adam Johnson about his encounter with the chef, which he writes about in the latest issue of GQ magazine.

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This photo shows a heavily logged concession affiliated with Asia Pulp and Paper, or APP, one of the world's largest papermakers, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, in 2010.

Battling Deforestation In Indonesia, One Firm At A Time

8:57pm May 31, 2013

by Anthony Kuhn

Environmentalists are focusing on big corporations to prevent the destruction of rain forests cut down for paper products. With help from some unlikely characters, they've scored a success against one of the world's largest paper companies.

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A couple waits for a high-speed train in the Chinese city of Qinhuangdao. Modern infrastructure and the expanding private sector have greatly increased efficiency and customer service in many parts of Chinese life.

World News

In China, Customer Service And Efficiency Begin To Blossom

7:56pm May 29, 2013

by Frank Langfitt

NPR's Shanghai correspondent Frank Langfitt worked in China in the 1990s when the bureaucracy was crippling. Back then, Westerners hired people to sit in line for hours to pay their bills. Now, you can waltz into convenience stores and take care of such tasks in minutes.

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U.S. Drone Strike Hits Taliban Stronghold In Pakistan

10:47am May 29, 2013

There was a U.S. drone strike Wednesday in a Taliban stronghold of northern Pakistan, killing at least four people. It was the first strike since President Obama's speech last Thursday announcing that the use of drones would be scaled back to limit civilian casualties. It's also the first strike since Pakistan held elections earlier this month.

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World News

China's Shuanghui Buys Pork Giant Smithfield For $4.7 Billion

10:47am May 29, 2013

A Chinese meat producer plans to buy the U.S. meat company Smithfield, the world's largest pork producer, for $4.7 billion. The Shuanghui company is enticing Smithfield's shareholders by offering $34 a share, about 30 percent more than Smithfield's current stock price.

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Environmental regulation can make a difference. In Shanghai, the government limits car ownership by auctioning off license plates each year at prices exceeding $14,000 apiece. Shanghai also benefits from its location on the water and winds coming off the

China's Air Pollution: Is The Government Willing To Act?

11:55am May 24, 2013

by Frank Langfitt

There is some political willingness, but because China is highly decentralized politically, the Communist Party has only limited influence over provincial governments and how they regulate their dirty factories. The powerful state-owned oil companies have also resisted pressure to produce cleaner-burning fuel.

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Nay Aung is the founder of Oway, a tech startup in Yangon, Myanmar. He used Taste Cafe as his unofficial office when he started his company — in part because it was one of the few places in Myanmar with a stable Internet connection.

World News

Can This Man Bring Silicon Valley To Yangon?

9:29am May 24, 2013

by Robert Smith

A Stanford MBA who used to work for Google returned to Myanmar to be an Internet entrepreneur. But it's tough to start an Internet company in a country where the power goes out every day.

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A Look Ahead To The Flash Point In The South China Sea

1:54pm May 23, 2013

Beijing continues to pressure its neighbors over strings of disputed areas in the South China Sea that reportedly hold massive deposits of oil and gas. The ongoing disputes raise serious questions about China's goals in the region and how the United States should address escalating tensions.

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The video for Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's newly released song starts by re-creating the conditions of his captivity during the 81 days he was held in police detention in 2011, and later dissolves into a dystopian nightmare.

China's Artist Provocateur Explores New Medium: Heavy Metal

8:18pm May 22, 2013

by Louisa Lim

In 2011, police detained Ai Weiwei for 81 days. Now, he's released a song that's turned the experience into a heavy metal protest song, along with a dystopian nightmare video. The lyrics are explicit and angry. Ai says his music is for the many political prisoners who remain jailed.

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