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China on Tuesday denied claims by a prominent South Korean activist that he was tortured by Chinese security agents during his 114 days of detention in Dandong. Pressed to respond to the claims by Kim Young-hwan, the Chinese Foreign Ministry faxed a terse statement saying, "China's supervisory authorities abided by laws in this investigation. China guaranteed the rights of the detainee." In an earlier interview with the Chosun Ilbo, Kim gave a detailed account of the torture he suffered for helping North Korean defectors hiding in China. One person close to Kim said, "Kim has more to lose than to gain from going public with the torture. He has no reason to make things up or exaggerate what had happened to him." But if Beijing admitted torturing a foreign national, "it would face a barrage of accusations from others who received similar treatment, leading to a mountain of legal problems," said one diplomatic source in Seoul. "There is a strong po...

By Lucy Hornby BEIJING | Tue Jul 31, 2012 10:34pm EDT BEIJING (Reuters) - China's official factory purchasing managers' index fell to an eight-month low of 50.1 in July from 50.2 in June, suggesting the sector is barely growing, a survey by the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Wednesday. The figures showed that factory output was expanding, but that new orders, including new export orders, were contracting in July more deeply than in June. Economists polled by Reuters this week had expected July's official PMI to edge up to 50.3, above the 50 point level that demarcates expansion from contraction, after Beijing had come up with various measures aimed at shoring up growth in the world's second-largest economy. The China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP), which compiles the data, said in a statement that the data suggested the economy is hitting a bottom and it will continue to stabilize in coming mont...

Clive Rose/Getty Images China’s Ye Shiwen shows off 200 IM gold, but celebration is marred by those who suspect record-breaking time is enhanced by doping.  LONDON â€" Ye Shiwen, China’s 16-year-old lightning rod, emerged from the Aquatic Centre’s darkened doorway, walked across the white-tile pool deck and slipped out of her warmups Tuesday evening. She lifted her water bottle and turned it over her head. Water spilled down her arms and she rubbed some across her black bathing suit. She looked into the crowd, recognized a collection of red flags emblazoned with China’s yellow symbols, and smiled. BALCO FOUNDER CONTE: DOPING AT OLYMPICS LIKE 'TAKING CANDY FROM A BABY' Shiwen dove in and ripped through the water to win the 200-meter individual medley by half a body length â€" .58 seconds â€" over Australia’s Alicia Coutts, but questions persisted outside the pool as she continued to be dogged by allegations that her two gold medals in the Games ...

Chinese teenage swimming sensation Ye Shiwen said the doping row surrounding her in London had inspired her to a second Olympic gold medal with victory in the 200m medley on Tuesday. Sixteen-year-old Ye, whose explosive win in the 400m medley in world record time last Saturday drew allegations of drug use, sealed the medley double with victory in 2min 07.57sec, a new Olympic record. Afterwards, Ye insisted: "I don't feel upset or sad about what the media have been saying about me. "I feel calm, but it just encouraged me to prove myself. "Of course, I think (the comments) are a bit unfair towards me, but I am not affected," added Ye, who was adamant in denying doping at any stage of her short career. "Absolutely not," she said, when asked if she had ever taken a banned substance. "I do two-and-a half hours (training) every morning, two-and-a-half hours every afternoon and I have trained for nine years. "I think everyone can ach...

Posted Tuesday, July 31st, 2012 at 7:10 pm Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen set an Olympic record Tuesday by winning her second gold medal at the London Games, adding the 200-meter individual medley title to a world-record performance in the 400-meter individual medley. Ye's second victory comes after her unprecedented performance Saturday in the women's 400-meter individual medley that sparked suspicions of doping. U.S. swimming coach John Leonard called the performance of the 16-year-old Chinese swimming sensation “unbelievable” and suggested that similar victories in the past have been fueled by performance-enhancing drugs. China's anti-doping chief Jiang Zhixue told the Xinhua news agency that it is unfair to criticize Chinese athletes because of their success, which he said is the result of training and hard work. Chinese swimmers have in the past been tainted by high-profile doping scandals, most notably in the 1994 and 1998 world championships. Ye swam...

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Is China the new Soviet Union at the Olympics? It sure is looking like it today. At the center of this new Cold War is Ye Shiwen, a 16-year-old Chinese swimmer who came from fourth place today to win gold in the 200 meter individual medley and snagged gold on Saturday in the 400 meter individual medley. In her race Saturday, Ye shattered the world record by more than a second and knocked five second seconds off her personal best in the final 50 meters of the race. She was even faster in that last lap than American medal winner Ryan Lochte in the men's race. More than a few eyebrows were raised and commentators watching the race called it "unbelievable." But John Leonard, head of the American Swimming Coaches Association went a big step further saying her race "was reminiscent of some old East German swimmer." Call that the Olympic equivalent of a nuclear warhead. Anyone old enough to remember Soviet and East German competitors at the Olympics...

Is China the new Soviet Union at the Olympics? It sure is looking like it today. At the centre of this new Cold War is Ye Shiwen,  a 16-year-old Chinese swimmer who snagged gold  on Saturday in the 400 meter individual medley at a pace that shattered the world record  by more than a second and knocked five second seconds off her personal best in the final 50 meters of the race. She was even faster in that last lap than American medal winner Ryan Lochte in the men’s race. More than a few eyebrows were raised and commentators watching the the race called it “unbelievable.” But John Leonard, head of the American Swimming Coaches Association went a big step further saying her race “was reminiscent of some old East German swimmer.” Call that the Olympic equivalent of nuclear warhead. Anyone old enough to remember Soviet and East German competitors at the Olympics will  remember the hulk-like bodies of their athletes in the 1960′s, 1970′s and 1980′s ...

BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman refuted groundless criticisms on China's national defense policy made by a newly-released Japan's annual defense white paper, urging the country for serious introspection. "China strongly opposes to the groundless criticisms on China's normal national defense development and military activities, and the irresponsible remarks on China's internal affairs made by Japan's annual defense white paper," spokesman Hong Lei said in a written statement released Tuesday in Beijing. According to Hong, China has already made solemn representations with Japan on that matter. Hong also noted that Japan has caught wide attention from regional and international communities by making various excuses for its continuous arms expansion, reinforcement of military alliance and distorting facts on regional security issues in recent years. "What is Japan's real motivation by doing so?" Hong a...

Olympic organizers and swimming's governing body leapt to the defense of China's world record-breaking teen sensation Ye Shiwen on Tuesday, with the sport's president saying suspicions that she doped were "crazy" and motivated by jealousy and the IOC stressing its confidence in the drug-testing program. "We need to get real here," said International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams. "These are the world's best athletes competing at the very highest level. We've seen all sorts of records broken already all over the place." Adams said the top five athletes in each event, plus two others, are tested as part of "a very, very strong drug-testing program, and we are very confident if there are cheats we will catch them." "We can't stop speculation. It is inevitably a sad result of the fact that there are people who dope and who cheat," Adams said. "It's very sad we can't applaud a great...

China’s leaders pledged to keep adjusting policies to ensure stable economic growth this year as a state newspaper said some banks are telling branches to provide local-government loans. “The ongoing pace of economic growth is within expectations, but the external environment remains grim and poses difficulties and challenges,” the official Xinhua News Agency said yesterday, citing a meeting of the Communist Party’s Politburo. The meeting also determined that maintaining stable growth is still the top priority, Xinhua said. The Politburo reiterated that China will pursue a “prudent” monetary policy and “proactive” fiscal policy, signaling that authorities are trying to stem a six-quarter slowdown in the world’s largest economy without resorting to the level of stimulus implemented after the global financial crisis. “If the economic situation worsens, China can ease more,” said Zhang Zhiwei, chief China economist at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Hong Kong. Option...

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China’s stock-index futures were little changed, signaling the benchmark gauge may fluctuate at the start of trade, amid concern the slowing economy will hurt earnings growth. Futures on the CSI 300 Index (SHSZ300) expiring in August, the most active contract, fell less than 0.01 percent to 2,363.80 as of 9:22 a.m. in Shanghai. Suning Appliance Co. may drop after net income declined. Steelmakers may gain after a report said the government is considering a tax rebate for the companies. China Railway Group Ltd. may advance after the China Daily said the government may spend 1 trillion yuan ($156.8 billion) building subways in the five years from 2010. The Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) dropped 0.9 percent to 2,109.91 yesterday. The index fell 5.2 percent in July, the biggest decline among benchmark indexes in Asia. The gauge has fallen 14 percent through yesterday from this year’s high on March 2 amid concern the economic slowdown is deepening and Europe’s debt crisis is w...

TAIWAN’S ECONOMY CONTRACTED 0.16% IN 2Q FROM YEAR EARLIER By Isabel Reynolds - 2012-07-30T23:58:42Z Japan’s government highlighted questions surrounding the role of China’s military in determining security policy in an annual defense review as its neighbor steps up deployment of naval assets. The relationship between the People’s Liberation Army and the Communist Party is becoming more complicated as China’s military modernizes, becomes more professional and undertakes a wider variety of duties, the Defense Ministry said in a white paper today. A more professional military could be tougher for civilians to control, Toshinori Tanaka, director of the Strategic Intelligence Analysis Office, told Bloomberg News. “The decision-making process has become less clear and that makes it more difficult to deal with,” Tanaka said. Focus on China’s expanding military has sharpened this year with a dispute erupting over rights to a group of uninhabited is...

REUTERS A child takes part in a protest march against a Chinese patriotic education course in Hong Kong on July 29, 2012. Your daily round-up of the best of the Journal’s China coverage: Tokyo Seeks to Expand Defense Against China : As a territorial dispute strains bilateral relations between Japan and China, Tokyo Tuesday criticized Beijing’s expansionary maritime strategies, and called for beefed up surveillance and defense capabilities around remote islands in contested waters. (Free) After Further Reviewâ€"China Reigns, Japan Medals, Britain Settles : Chinese men won their second straight Olympic gymnastics title, while a late judge’s ruling knocked Great Britain, which thought it had a surprise silver, down to bronze. Japan took the silver. (Free) Hong Kong Responds to Protests With Committee : Hong Kong’s government said a committee would monitor how “moral and national” education is implemented in local schools, but didn’t back down on introd...

Hong Kong stocks gained, with the Hang Seng Index (HSI) extending its advance for a fourth day to its longest rising streak since March, on signs China is boosting infrastructure investment as it seeks to spur growth in the world’s second-largest economy. China Railway Group Ltd. (390), the country’s biggest builder of train lines, gained 1.8 percent after China boosted investment in railways for a second time in a month. Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd., the nation’s largest producer of the metal, gained 1.6 percent. Hang Lung Properties Ltd., a Hong Kong developer that derives 46 percent of its sales from the mainland, gained 3.4 percent ahead of reporting half-year results. The Hang Seng Index rose 0.8 percent to 19,747.34 as of 11:16 a.m. Hong Kong time, with almost seven shares gaining for each that fell on the 49-member gauge. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI) of mainland companies added 1.1 percent to 9,624.76. “The question is when investors get bullish,...

Dark clouds of suspicion hover, ominous as a Beijing rainstorm, over the reliability of China’s economic data. Everyone from confirmed China bears to panda-hugging investment-bank analysts wonders whether growth is lower than the official statistics suggest. China Real Time has sent a sternly worded fax to Zhongnanhai demanding to know how fast China’s economy is really growing. If no response is forthcoming, we are willing to take the next step of asking an intern to call the switchboard. To fill the time while we wait for the Great Wall of Statistical Secrecy to crumble, we have constructed a data set on China’s economy entirely from private and foreign sources, untainted by the suspicion of political interference. This is what it says. Industry is the biggest chunk of China’s economy, accounting for almost half of total output. The official data has industrial output growth chugging along at a respectable 9.5% year-on-year in June. Independent surveys conduct...

By Patrick Boehler - 2012-07-31T02:32:11Z Hong Kong stocks gained, with the Hang Seng Index (HSI) extending its advance for a fourth day to its longest rising streak since March, on signs China is boosting infrastructure investment as it seeks to spur growth in the world’s second-largest economy. China Railway Group Ltd. (390) , the country’s biggest builder of train lines, gained 2.1 percent after China boosted investment in railways for a second time in a month. Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd., the nation’s largest producer of the metal, gained 2.2 percent. Hang Lung Properties Ltd., a Hong Kong developer that derives 46 percent of its sales from the mainland, gained 3.2 percent ahead of reporting half-year results. The Hang Seng Index rose 0.8 percent to 19,736.05 as of 10:24 a.m. Hong Kong time, with six shares gaining for each one that fell on the 49-member gauge. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI) of mainland companies added 1 percent to 9,615.65....

By MICHAEL AUSLIN By unilaterally creating a city government and installing a military garrison on a disputed island in the South China Sea, Beijing has further inflamed tensions and made a negotiated settlement of the Asia-Pacific's territorial disputes less likely. The decision to emphasize military measures in this ongoing diplomatic quarrel should worry those who argued that the growth of China's military power in recent decades was non-threatening and the natural action of a rising power. The credibility of the Obama administration's "pivot" to China is also being tested, and Washington must decide how to respond to Beijing's growing assertiveness. To simply leave far weaker neighboring states to face China alone risks surrendering U.S. influence in Asia and making conflict more likely. Beijing's action puts the Paracel Islands, Spratly Islands and Macclesfield Bank under the control of a new city called Sansha, along with a mayor and 45 deput...

China and the US are fighting it out for the total number of medals earned at the London Olympics, but China is dominating the gold medal count. The US and China are neck and neck in the total medal count at the Olympics. Skip to next paragraph Subscribe Today to the Monitor Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition The two countries were tied for some time today, at 13, but now China is back in the lead at 14. China is still far ahead in the total gold medal count, with eight to the US's three. Italy is in third place with eight medals total and two gold. China has been making history, winning competitions that have usually gone to other countries, and proving their dominance at the Beijing Olympics wasn't simply home-soil advantage. China swept synchronized diving, He Zi and Wu Minxia took the gold in the women's event, and today Cao Yuan and Zhang Yanquan beat the Americans, British,...

China's Zhang Xi (L) returns a shot as her teammate Xue Chen watches during their women's preliminary round beach volleyball match against Switzerland at the London 2012 Olympic Games at Horse Guards Parade July 30, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Marcelo del Pozo

Olympic medal events roundup Wu Minxia is close to crowning herself China’s new diving queen. Wu and partner He Zi won the first diving gold medal of the London Olympics on Sunday, putting the country on a path toward a possible sweep of the eight medals. They led throughout the five-dive round and totaled 346.20 points in the 3-meter synchronized event. ‘‘It’s kind of if they mess up, then you have an opportunity,’’ American silver medalist Abby Johnston said. ‘‘Anything can happen in this sport, so you still have that possibility.’’ It was Wu’s fifth Olympic medal, one short of countrywoman Guo Jingjing’s record of six. Guo was China’s superstar diver until her retirement 1½ years ago. Wu has three golds, one silver, and one bronze. She could earn another in the individual springboard event, where she has medaled twice before and will compete against He. ‘‘It feels normal,’’ Wu said in Mandarin. ‘â...

LONDON (AP) -- The Chinese have their sights on an unprecedented diving sweep. Sounds familiar. The Americans are feeling confident about their chances of winning a few more medals. Now that's something new. With the icy precision everyone has come to expect from the world's diving powerhouse, Wu Minxia and partner He Zi captured their sport's first gold medal of London Olympics with a commanding performance in the women's 3-meter synchronized event on Sunday. Everyone else was playing for silver, which may become a theme at the Olympic Aquatics Centre. China nearly swept the diving medals four years ago, winning seven events before Australia's Matthew Mitcham pulled off a huge upset from the 10-meter platform. "It feels normal," Wu said in Mandarin. "I really don't have that many emotions." While this may have been a ho-hum result for the Chinese, the U.S. team was downright giddy. It had been 12 long years since the once-pow...

LONDON (AP) -- North Korea has another chance to spoil weightlifting powerhouse China's gold medal quest Monday in a battle for the men's 62-kilogram category. Kim Un Guk of North Korea, the 2010 world champion, is up against Chinese rival Zhang Jie, who won the world title last year and holds the total world record in the weight class. Zhang will be under pressure to put China back on track in the weightlifting competition after countryman Wu Jingbiao finished second Sunday behind surprise North Korea winner Om Yun Chol in the 56-kilogram division. To make matters worse for China, its medal hopeful in the women's 53-kilogram category, Zhou Jun, was eliminated without a single successful lift. Kazakhstan's Zulifiya Chinshanlo won the gold medal after setting a world record in the clean and jerk. China's hopes in the women's competition Monday are pinned on Li Xueying, who leads a strong field of competitors in the 58-kilogram category. Her top challe...

London 2012 diving: Wu Minxia and He Zi won the first diving gold medal for China Sunday. Abby Johnston and Kelci Bryant of Team USA finished second.   Wu Minxia is close to crowning herself China 's new diving queen. Skip to next paragraph Subscribe Today to the Monitor Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition Wu and her partner He Zi won the first diving gold medal of the London Olympics on Sunday, putting the country on a path toward a possible sweep of the eight medals. They led throughout the five-dive round and totaled 346.20 points in the 3-meter synchronized event. "It's kind of if they mess up, then you have an opportunity," American silver medalist Abby Johnston said. "Anything can happen in this sport, so you still have that possibility." RECOMMENDED: Are you a true Olympic fan? Take the quiz It was Wu's fifth Olympic medal, leaving her one away from tying...