The Washington Post reports: "A business group led by a Beijing insurance firm on Monday significantly raised its multibillion-dollar bid to buy Starwood Hotels and Resorts, one of the largest hotel companies in the United States, providing the latest example of Chinese interest in prime American real estate....The United States — and its real estate — have been of particular interest to Chinese firms. The Chinese government last year lifted a number of restrictions on foreign investments as the country looks beyond manufacturing for growth. Hotels, which often come with prime real estate, big-name brands and a promise of stable returns, have become an especially popular parking space for China's billions."
The New York Times reports: "China's government said on Monday that it would take steps to more strictly manage websites in the country, its latest push to set boundaries in the wider Internet. A draft law posted by one of China's technology regulators said that websites in the country would have to register domain names with local service providers and with the authorities....If the rule applies to all websites, it will have major implications and will effectively cut China out of the global Internet."
The Guardian reports: "China has accused Japan's 'warlord' prime minister, Shinzo Abe, of threatening peace in the region, following the enactment on Tuesday of controversial laws allowing Japanese troops to fight on foreign soil for the first time since the end of the second world war. The security laws, which were passed last September after chaotic scenes in parliament, reinterpret the country's pacifist constitution to enable Japan to exercise collective self-defence – or coming to the aid of the US and other allies – in overseas conflicts. In an online commentary, the state-run Xinhua news agency accused Abe of abandoning Japan's postwar constitution, which limits the military to a purely defensive role, saying the move would 'only serve to endanger the Japanese public's right to live in peace'."