Reuters reports: "Syria's foreign minister will visit China this week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, amid a renewed bid by Beijing to play a more active role in finding an end to conflict in the Middle East.Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem will be in China from Dec. 23 to Dec. 26 and will meet his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a daily news briefing.Wang over the weekend invited Syrian government and opposition figures to come to China as Beijing looks to ways to help with the peace process.China has played host to both Syrian government and opposition figures before, though it remains a peripheral diplomatic player in the crisis."
CNN reports: "The full horrors of the landslide that buried an industrial park in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen are yet to be felt -- with bodies only just being pulled from a collapsed mountain of construction waste and trash. But the disaster has been particularly unsettling for this mega city of 20 million, regarded as the birthplace of China's economic miracle and a place many see as a model for the country's future...The company underplays its Chinese origins, but being based in Shenzhen has been the cornerstone of its success. The city bills itself as China's 'Silicon Valley' and is home to a $220 billion tech industry."
Quartz reports: "The Chinese yuan may soon be used as legal tender in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe's finance minister has said China and the southern African country are negotiating plans to increase local usage of the yuan. The two countries are also discussing the cancellation of $40 million worth of debt that Zimbabwe owes to China, its largest investor. Last year, Zimbabwe added China's official renminbi to its basket of currencies, which includes the US dollar, British sterling, and the South African rand, considered legal tender. The yuan has not yet been approved for public transactions. Zimbabwe abandoned its own currency in 2009 after hyperinflation rendered the Zimbabwean dollar worthless."