New York Times reports that China strongly condemned the United States after a U.S. warship deliberately sailed near one of the Beijing-controlled islands in the hotly contested South China Sea to exercise freedom of navigation and challenge China's vast sea claims. The missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur sailed within 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers) of Triton Island in the Paracel chain "to challenge excessive maritime claims of parties that claim the Paracel Islands," without notifying the three claimants beforehand, Defense Department spokesman Mark Wright said Saturday in Washington. The latest operation also drew Beijing's ire. Defense Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun issued a statement saying the "unprofessional and irresponsible" U.S. action "severely violated Chinese law, sabotaged the peace, security and good order of the waters, and undermined the region's peace and stability." In an opinion published Sunday by the official Xinhua news agency, China described the maneuver as a "deliberate provocation" that raised doubts about the United States' sincerity just days after Secretary of State John Kerry visited Beijing for meetings about the South China Sea and North Korea that were called productive by both sides. China's official response has been restrained compared to the public outrage seen online.

New York Times comments that: "The risk of arriving in the middle of a huge dispute between the Saudis and Iranians paid off, delivering what Mr. Xi no doubt considered an important prize as he tries to extend China's prestige abroad. He became the first world leader to visit Iran after the completion of the deal on Iran's nuclear program that the United States and Russia worked on together with China's support. Arriving so soon after the lifting of sanctions provided an optimum moment for China to set the stage for its future deal making. China's deep economic interests in the Middle East carry little of the historical overlay of the empire building and alliance shaping of the European powers …for the moment, China is concentrating on buying and selling in the Middle East, and playing Riyadh and Tehran off each other for better oil deals, leaving the strenuous diplomacy to the United States …China is wary of the Islamic State, but is not hugely motivated to enter the Syrian conflict."

The Washington Post writes Chinese are packing train and bus stations as the peak travel season kicks into high gear this weekend with hundreds of millions of people going home for Spring Festival celebrations — or head for vacation destinations. Chinese travelers are expected to make 2.9 billion trips during the 40-day period between Jan. 21 and March 3, with the majority of those trips falling in the weeks around the Feb. 8 Lunar New Year, the Ministry of Transport said.This year's travel crush — considered the largest annual human migration — may be relatively less severe due to a lackluster economy. In coastal Zhejiang province near Shanghai, officials expect a 4.4 percent drop in passenger traffic as jobs dry up and migrant laborers pack up early to head to their family homes in China's hinterlands well before the New Year. By comparison, Chinese made 3.6 billion trips during the same holiday period in 2014.