Mao Zedong
A child plays with a red scarf near a decoration for the Beijing Winter Olympics Games in front of the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Jan. 18, 2022. The just-concluded Winter Olympics weren’t China's big event of the year, internally, at least. For the Communist Party, that comes this fall at a major meeting that will likely cement Xi Jinping's position as one of the nation's most powerful leaders in its seven decades of Communist rule. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
For Chinese leaders, Olympics weren't 2022's big-ticket item

By Ken Moritsugu Feb. 21, 2022 09:19 PM EST

The lit Badaling section of the Great Wall of China is seen near the 2022 Winter Olympics logo on the outskirts of Beijing on Feb. 8, 2022. China has thousands of years of doing things in a really big way, reinforcing its perceived place in the world and the political power of its leaders — from emperors to Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping. None of this bigness is new. It goes back to a dozen dynasties that ruled China for thousands of years, a tradition of projecting power that was adopted by the Chinese Communist Party when it came to power in 1949. It could be termed simply: big, bigger and biggest — and then some. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Home of the huge: China has long history of going really big

By Stephen Wade Feb. 10, 2022 12:27 AM EST

Dancers perform during the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Emboldened China opens Olympics, with lockdown and boycotts

By Sarah Dilorenzo Feb. 04, 2022 04:01 AM EST

FILE - A 1988 photo provided by China's Xinhua News Agency shows Communist Party Leader Xi Jinping, right, then secretary of the Ningde Prefecture Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), participates in farm work during his investigation in the countryside. Born in Beijing in 1953, Xi enjoyed a privileged youth as the second son of Xi Zhongxun, a former vice premier and guerrilla commander in the civil war that brought Mao Zedong's communist rebels to power in 1949. At 15, Xi Jinping was sent to rural Shaanxi province in 1969 as part of Mao's campaign to have educated urban young people learn from peasants. (AP Photo/Xinhua, File)
President Xi Jinping, China's 'chairman of everything'

By Joe Mcdonald Feb. 02, 2022 08:22 PM EST

FILE - A woman holds up a ligt candle and a phone showing the image of the 1989 tank man protester during a candle vigil to mark the anniversary of the military crackdown on a pro-democracy student movement in Beijing, outside Victoria Park in Hong Kong, Friday, June 4, 2021. As Beijing prepares to hold the Winter Olympics opening in February 2022, China's president and party leader Xi Jinping appears firmly in control. The party has made political stability paramount and says that has been the foundation for the economic growth that has bettered lives and put the nation on a path to becoming a regional if not global power. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
From Tiananmen to Hong Kong, China's crackdowns defy critics

By Ken Moritsugu Jan. 27, 2022 12:20 AM EST

France's Nikola Karabatic makes a shot during the men's gold medal handball match between France and Denmark at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Olympic Latest: France earns gold for 1st volleyball medal

Aug. 06, 2021 07:41 PM EDT

Hugo Barrette of Team Canada waits to compete during the track cycling men's sprint at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021, in Izu, Japan. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Italy rallies past Denmark for dramatic team pursuit gold

By Dave Skretta Aug. 04, 2021 05:55 AM EDT

Shanju Bao of Team China celebrates winning the gold medal in the track cycling women's team sprint finals at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Monday, Aug. 2, 2021, in Izu, Japan. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Mao pins worn by Chinese athletes may test Olympic rules

By Graham Dunbar And Joe Mcdonald Aug. 03, 2021 01:57 AM EDT

Daiki Hashimoto, of Japan, performs on the horizontal bar during the artistic gymnastics men's apparatus final at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Olympics Latest: Women's semifinals set in beach volleyball

Aug. 02, 2021 09:09 PM EDT

A tourists holds a flag as he poses for photographs in front of the sign for the Jinggangshan Revolution Museum in Jinggangshan in southeastern China's Jiangxi province, on April 8, 2021. On the hundredth anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, tourists in China are flocking to historic sites and making pilgrimages to party landmarks. (AP Photo/Emily Wang)
'Red Tourism' draws Chinese on centennial of Communist Party

By Emily Wang Fujiyama Apr. 26, 2021 10:34 PM EDT

FILE - In this Nov. 12, 2019, file photo, Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and China's President Xi Jinping shake hands prior to their talks on the sideline of the 11th edition of the BRICS Summit, in Brasilia, Brazil. Putin and Xi have developed strong personal ties helping bolster a “strategic partnership” between the two former Communist rivals. (Ramil Sitdikov/Sputnik, Kremlin/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Leaders of Russia and China tighten their grips, grow closer

By Vladimir Isachenkov And Ken Moritsugu Apr. 07, 2021 04:56 AM EDT

Policemen wearing face masks patrol at the compound of No. 2 Intermediate People's Court in Beijing, Monday, Sept 22, 2021. The Beijing court was expected to put on trial second Canadian citizen Michael Kovrig held for more than two years on spying charges in apparent retaliation for Canada's arrest of a senior executive of the telecoms giant Huawei. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
2nd Canadian goes on trial in China on spying charges

By Sam Mcneil Mar. 22, 2021 03:38 AM EDT

Wuhan resident Zhu Tao speaks during an interview near boxes of instant noodles stacked in his bedroom at home in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020. Zhu, a government critic, took precautions against the virus early and felt vindicated when the outbreak exploded and the city went into lockdown. But now that the situation is back to something close to normal in Wuhan, Zhu finds himself at odds with his neighbors and the government. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Year after lockdown, Wuhan dissident more isolated than ever

By Dake Kang Jan. 24, 2021 12:05 AM EST

In this photo released by the Taiwan Presidential Office, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen raises her hand during an inauguration ceremony before a portrait of Sun Yat-sen at the Presidential office in Taipei, Taiwan on Wednesday, May 20, 2020. Tsai was inaugurated for a second term amid increasing pressure from China on the self-governing island democracy it claims as its own territory. (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP)
Taiwan President Tsai calls for stability in China relations

By Johnson Lai May. 19, 2020 10:18 PM EDT

In this combination image of file photos, from top left, shows an undated photo of Joan and Ed Porco in Orient, N.Y., provided by Julia Chachere; an April 8, 2020, photo of Bill Chambers when he was a young solider in the Canadian Army; an undated photo of Hannelore Fischer as a child after arriving in Portugal, provided by José Miguel Cruz da Costa; an undated photo of Sgt. Lenard Wells, a member of the League of Martin in Wisconsin, provided by Carl Hoyt/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel; from bottom left, an undated photo of Laneeka Barksdale, provided by the Barksdale family; a mid-1980s photo of then student Dr. Amged El-Hawrani in north London, who died March 28 at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester, Britain; an early 2020 photo of Rafaela de Jesus Silva in Troncoso, Brazil, who gave birth on March 25, 2020, and died a week later from coronavirus complications, provided by her boyfriend Erisvaldo Lopes Dos Santos; and an undated photo of Enrico Giacomoni provided by the Giacomoni family. (Various sources via AP, File)
Lives Lost: Victims of the virus, remembered for tomorrow

By Peter Prengaman May. 12, 2020 01:05 AM EDT

Editorial Roundup: West Virginia

By The Associated Press May. 06, 2020 12:48 PM EDT
Recent editorials from West Virginia newspapers: ___ May 5 The Herald-Dispatch on armed protesters...

FILE - In this July 1, 1982 file photo, Israeli medics from the occupying forces in Lebanon, give medical aid to two Druze children who were wounded during fighting between rightist militiamen and Druze gunmen in the Lebanese mountains near Bhamdoun. The 1975-1990 civil war killed more than 100,000 people and included Israeli invasions, bombardment, political assassinations, and occupation during and after that period. (AP Photo/Rabi)
National traumas familiar for virus-hit, unscathed countries

By Tamer Fakahany May. 04, 2020 01:10 AM EDT

In this April 8, 2020, photo, a ferry crosses the Yangtze River in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province. The reopening of ferry service on the Yangtze River, the heart of life in Wuhan for more than 20 centuries, was an important symbolic step in official efforts to get business and daily life in this central Chinese city of 11 million people back to normal after a 76-day quarantine ended in the city at the center of the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Wuhan embraces Yangtze River as virus-hit city reopens

By Sam Mcneil Apr. 21, 2020 09:41 PM EDT

This May 13, 2019 photo provided by Liu Dong’e shows her and her husband, Wu Chuanyong, while visiting Moscow. Wu Chuanyong had been enjoying a peaceful retirement in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. The 68-year-old family patriarch began each morning with a stroll through the park and ended the day watching television dramas. Then the coronavirus hit, quickly spreading in Wuhan and around the world. (Courtesy Liu Dong’e via AP)
Lives Lost: Virus struck Wuhan family, took its patriarch

The Associated Press Apr. 03, 2020 02:52 PM EDT