"China said its recent gas discovery in the politically volatile South China Sea could yield 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas, underlining Beijing's determination to extract resources from waters claimed by several nations. The Lingshui 17-2 gas field was discovered 150 kilometers south of China's southernmost island of Hainan, and the Ministry of Land and Resources has approved it as a large-scale find, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It cited the country's main offshore oil and gas producer, China National Offshore Oil Corp...Petroleum reserves and fisheries are among the resources at stake in disputes over the South China Sea, which is one of the world's busiest shipping routes and a patchwork of overlapping claims by governments including China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan. China claims virtually all of the South China Sea," reports ABC News.  

According to Reuters, "China's main anti-graft body reprimanded the environment ministry on Tuesday for a series of problems, including interference by ministry officials and their relatives in environmental impact assessments. Environmental degradation is one of China's most serious issues and a very sensitive one too, with thousands of protests every year sparked by concern about pollution, particularly from factories. Polluting plants like chemical factories and oil refineries are supposed to undergo strict environmental impact assessments before being approved, but the anti-corruption watchdog said the environment ministry was not doing its job properly. 'Some leaders and officials and their relatives poke their fingers into environmental assessment approvals against the rules, or set up companies to contract for environmental assessments to seek profit,'... Money can change hands in exchange for such approvals, and money for environmental projects was also siphoned away by corrupt officials, the regulator said." 

The Wall Street Journal writes, "In December, representatives of the U.S., China and Afghanistan met for private talks in London, the first time the three countries convened to seek ways to forge peace in Afghanistan, a senior U.S. official said. The previously undisclosed meeting, which came within days of a visit by the Afghan Taliban to Beijing, was a step on a path long resisted by China, wary of the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and reluctant to meddle in its neighbor's affairs...China's move toward the role of mediator signals a foreign policy shift in Beijing-for decades focused on domestic issues-that could recalibrate the geopolitics of Central Asia and test China's capacity as a regional leader, Western officials said...China's participation is seen as part of a broader diplomatic effort that began around the time Chinese President Xi Jinping took power in 2012 and has since intensified."