Society

China has pressed North Korea to speed up economic reforms in a summit encounter that underscored Beijing's concerns about its impoverished and wayward ally, experts said Tuesday.

Many analysts said North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il's five-day tour of northeast China -- which ended Monday -- was aimed at conferring legitimacy on an eventual handover of power to his youngest son.

But for China, reviving the North's moribund economy also appears paramount at a time when it is trying to coax Kim back to nuclear disarmament talks and put a lid on regional tensions that risk perilous instability on its border.

After Kim Jong Il's safe return, North Korea confirmed what for days had been clear: the Dear Leader was on a not-so-secret trip to northeastern China.

Kim hobnobbed with top Chinese officials, including President Hu Jintao, toured factories and paid a nostalgic trip down Kim family memory lane, according to Chinese and North Korean state media — possibly, rumor had it, accompanied by the son many believe is being groomed to succeed him as North Korea's next leader.

There was no sign of Kim Jong Un, the 20-something son said to be in his favor, and there was no mention of him in either nation's dispatches about the five-day trip that ended Monday and was shrouded in typical secrecy.

Still, signs that the North Korean regime is laying the groundwork for a succession movement abounded in the 68-year-old Kim's pointedly patriotic and strategic trip by train through northeastern China.

A municipal court in central China has accepted the country's first lawsuit alleging work discrimination because of HIV status, state media reported Tuesday.

The China Daily newspaper said a court in Anhui province's Anqing city accepted the case Monday. The plaintiff, who was not identified by name, alleges that the city's education bureau denied him a teaching job after he tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, the paper said.

After ignoring or demonizing people with AIDS for much of the 1980s and '90s, China's authoritarian government has taken a more compassionate line on the disease and combating its spread in recent years. But people with HIV and AIDS still face discrimination when seeking education and work.

A recent study by the Economic Intelligence Unit indicates that Chinese consumers only make up 5% of the world’s $36.9 trillion consumption. However, we need to keep in mind that Chinese consumer market barely existed about a decade ago. The trend in Chinese consumption is, significantly, moving upward.

Retail spending has increased steadily at 15% and more in recent years. Chinese consumer confidence remained high even during the worldwide recession in 2008-2009. China has already become the world’s largest market for automobiles, television sets and cell phones, and the world’s second largest market for luxury goods.