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Come here for my take on life in the world's most populous country - its politics, people and power
23:14 UK time, Friday, 26 April 2013
To our left, the desert stretched as far as the eye could see. To our right dry, rocky mountains soared upwards, the landscape harsh and barren, but striking too.
We were heading east from the ancient trading city of Kashgar towards the little town of Selibuya, the scene this week of the worst violence to erupt in Xinjiang since major riots in 2009.
20:39 UK time, Sunday, 21 April 2013
Through the centre of Longmen village columns of soldiers march in green fatigues, shouldering shovels.
They jostle for space with military trucks and ambulances.
07:09 UK time, Sunday, 14 April 2013
Damian added analysis to:
After weeks of rising tensions, and North Korea's threats of nuclear war, the diplomatic efforts to tackle this crisis are gathering pace.
The pledge to work with the US is a clear signal of China's displeasure with North Korea. China is North Korea's only ally, and is not going to stop supporting the North, but wants it to calm things down.
17:11 UK time, Saturday, 13 April 2013
Damian added analysis to:
After weeks of rising tensions, and North Korea's threats of nuclear war, the diplomatic efforts to tackle this crisis are gathering pace.
The pledge to work with the US is a clear signal of China's displeasure with North Korea. China is North Korea's only ally, and is not going to stop supporting the North, but wants it to calm things down.
02:14 UK time, Monday, 18 March 2013
China's new Premier Li Keqiang has signalled his government is prepared to start the process of reforming the widely-despised system of re-education camps.
The camps, a gulag-type network created half a century ago, hold thousands of inmates who are made to undergo "laojiao", also known as "re-education through labour".
15:23 UK time, Thursday, 14 March 2013
China's new President, Xi Jinping, says he is a man with a dream, which he calls "the China Dream".
His ambition, he's indicated in speeches in recent weeks, is to lead a Chinese renaissance so China can resume its rightful place in the world.
09:42 UK time, Tuesday, 5 March 2013
China's moment of change has come. After a decade in power, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao are stepping aside. Xi Jinping and a new generation are taking over.
Already elevated to the post of general secretary of the Communist Party last November, Xi Jinping will be confirmed as China's new head of state by the National People's Congress now meeting in Beijing.
06:42 UK time, Thursday, 7 February 2013
It's the biggest mystery on the internet in China today.
Tens of thousands of people have been signing up to follow a Sina Weibo microblog account - China's equivalent of Twitter - that seems to have inside access to the new Communist Party leader Xi Jinping.
12:34 UK time, Thursday, 31 January 2013
All week in Beijing, in offices and homes, in lifts and shops, restaurants, taxis and buses, one topic has dominated conversation - Beijing's foul air.
The descriptions of the grey smog that's hung over the city get more and more extreme: "Airmageddon", the "Airpocalypse".
11:34 UK time, Monday, 28 January 2013
The trial of the sacked former senior Communist Party official Bo Xilai is not expected to begin before March, according to a Communist Party-controlled paper in China.
The English-language tabloid the Global Times - which is published by the party's official mouthpiece, the People's Daily - said the trial "is expected to open after the 'two sessions' in March", sourcing the claim to someone close to the country's "top judicial body".
08:00 UK time, Friday, 18 January 2013
Through the grime and pollution that hangs over the city of Wuhan there are days when the sun barely shines. It's just a yellow disk.
This industrial city that sits on the Yangtze river in the middle of China is home to more than six million people.
14:20 UK time, Thursday, 15 November 2012
As Xi Jinping walked out to be presented as China's new leader, one thing was immediately clear to all of us waiting in the Great Hall of the People. His will be a different style of leadership from that of his predecessor Hu Jintao.
Mr Xi was immediately more relaxed and at ease than the man he had just replaced as general secretary of China's Communist Party. Where Mr Hu often appeared stiff and wooden, Xi Jinping smiled and even apologised for keeping his audience waiting.
16:00 UK time, Wednesday, 14 November 2012
As they stepped aside today, Hu Jintao and China's outgoing leaders may have congratulated themselves. China has enjoyed so much economic success in the past decade, it has risen so fast, that it is often said this coming century will be China's century.
China's authoritarian model is praised as more efficient and more nimble than sclerotic Western democracies. China, this view goes, is the future, while the West is in decline.
00:59 UK time, Wednesday, 14 November 2012
As China's Communist Party meets to elevate its new generation of leaders, there's a widespread feeling in Beijing that the past decade, for all the economic success it brought, has been a missed opportunity.
The outgoing leadership has focussed its efforts on growing China's economy. The incoming leadership, many believe, must now focus on important reforms if they're to secure China's economic future.
18:54 UK time, Friday, 9 November 2012
From the outside, the hold the Communist Party has on China looks as solid as a rock. It wields absolute power over China's 1.3 billion people.
But after six decades there are fears that the party is corroding from the inside, its ranks riddled with corruption.
14:50 UK time, Tuesday, 6 November 2012
Ever since Neil Heywood's death hit the headlines, there has been speculation in Beijing about his possible ties to Britain's intelligence services.
That he had "spy links" is, in many ways no surprise. It would have been more surprising if MI6 had not bothered to talk to him.
14:45 UK time, Tuesday, 6 November 2012
Damian added analysis to:
Ever since Neil Heywood's death hit the headlines, there has been speculation in Beijing about his possible ties to Britain's intelligence services. That he had "spy links" is, in many ways no surprise. It would have been more surprising if MI6 had not bothered to talk to him.
His business dealings with Bo Xilai's family would have been of definite interest to British intelligence. But it seems that while "useful", Neil Heywood was not a particularly high-profile source. It is significant that he was never "tasked" with discovering any specific information.
17:34 UK time, Thursday, 1 November 2012
In China's poorest province paddy fields stretch down the mountainsides. Here and there farmers squat, working in the mud.
Men thread their way through the patchwork of fields, balancing heavy sheaves of rice just harvested from poles slung across their shoulders.
07:54 UK time, Friday, 19 October 2012
China has captured chunks of the global economy, creating jobs for millions. But doing things cheaply has come at a cost, with health and environmental issues on the rise along with economic growth.
Numerous denim factories have created jobs in the town of Xintiang - but residents say they have also polluted some of the town's rivers.
15:04 UK time, Tuesday, 16 October 2012
Damian added analysis to:
The growing gulf between rich and poor in China is certainly something that worries China's leaders. In their 10 years in power, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao pledged they would create a "harmonious society". Instead inequality has risen - the World Bank says China is among the most unequal countries in Asia.
China's leaders have been responding. By slowing growth down to less than 8% a year and trying to "rebalance" the economy towards service industries and consumer spending they hope to create more jobs and encourage spending. They have called for minimum wages to rise by more than 10% a year until 2015. They say they have almost completed a national pension scheme covering all rural areas for the first time.
Damian joined the BBC in 1994 as a trainee reporter for BBC Television News.
For the past decade he has worked as a foreign correspondent based in Hong Kong, Moscow and Delhi before moving to Beijing in 2009.
Damian grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, where he was born in June 1970.
He graduated from Corpus Christi College Cambridge in 1992 with a degree in English literature.
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