Two Chinese state-owned firms will hold initial public offerings with a combined value of US$3.6 billion in the biggest such deals in Hong Kong this year, a report said Monday.

Wal-Mart has withdrawn a batch of paper cup products labeled with its brand from Beijing after they failed quality tests, the company confirmed on Sunday.

An almost 20-year-old case of a Beijing student left paralyzed after allegedly being poisoned was back in the spotlight in Chinese state media Monday after a petition was posted on the White House website.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas arrived in Beijing on Sunday for a state visit, official media said, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also set to meet Chinese leaders later this week.

After word spread about an environmental protest that was planned for Saturday in the central Chinese city of Chengdu, drugstores and printing shops were ordered to report anyone making certain purchases. Microbloggers say government fliers urged people not to demonstrate, and schools were told to stay open to keep students on campus.

Immunologists expressed concern Friday about the “dangerous” work of scientists in China who created a hybrid bird flu virus that can spread in the air between guinea pigs, and now lives in a lab freezer.

Chinese police have broken up a criminal ring accused of taking meat from rats and foxes and selling it as lamb in the country's latest food safety scandal.

Unamused Chinese censors have been at work to stop people sniggering over the new Beijing headquarters of the People's Daily newspaper, which bears an unfortunate resemblance to a giant penis.

China became the world's largest personal computer market for the first time on an annual basis last year amid weaker global demand, a research firm said, adding that the nation is likely to retain the position in the coming years.

Chinese prosecutors have filed corruption charges against a former city official at the center of a sex tape scandal in which developers allegedly hired women to sleep with officials then extort money or favors from them.