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The man expected to become China's next leader, Vice-President Xi Jinping, appears in "good shape", US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has said after talks in Beijing. The talks marked Mr Xi's first official meeting since he went missing two weeks ago without further explanation.

President Obama's handling of China receives "somewhat mixed reviews from the public," a new poll says. The Pew Research Center reports that 45% say Obama is not being tough enough, while 39% say Obama's China policy is about right.

A former police chief at the center of a major China political scandal admitted attempting to defect to the United States, and did not contest charges of bribery and illegal surveillance at his trial on Tuesday, a court official said.

The Obama administration accused China of unfairly subsidizing its exports of autos and auto parts, while China filed its own trade case against the United States.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday that U.S. and Japanese officials have agreed to put a second missile defense system in Japan... While officials insisted the radar system would not be aimed at China, the decision was sure to raise the ire of Beijing.

Some Japanese firms have temporarily shut factories and shops in China after angry protests over a territorial dispute, with Chinese state media warning on Monday that Japan could suffer another "lost decade" if trade ties sour.

Thousands of Chinese besieged the Japanese embassy in Beijing on Saturday, hurling rocks, eggs and bottles. Protests spread to other cities in a dispute over a group of remote islands.

China's presumed next leader has made a public appearance for the first time in two weeks. The official Xinhua News Agency says Vice President Xi Jinping arrived at China Agricultural University in Beijing on Saturday for activities marking National Science Popularization Day.

Just a day after Romney went after Mr. Obama for allegedly not cracking down on China's economic "cheating," the president's re-election campaign is rehashing is attempting to cast doubt on his credibility on the subject. "Mitt Romney? Tough on China? Romney's companies were called pioneers in shipping U.S. manufacturing jobs overseas," says a narrator in the thirty-second spot, entitled "The Cheaters," which is set to air on television in nine battleground states.

Six Chinese maritime surveillance ships entered waters around a group of islands at the center of a heated territorial dispute between Tokyo and Beijing, ignoring warnings from the Japanese authorities.