The biggest protests by Tibetan monks in 20 years have spilled over into some Chinese provinces.  Tibetans have demonstrated in China's northwestern province of Qinghai and the neighbouring province of Gansu.  It follows protest marches around the world to mark the 49th anniversary of an uprising against communist rule in Tibet.  On Monday (3/10), 500 monks marched through the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.  The human rights group, Amnesty International, condemns what it calls the harsh crackdown on the monks in Lhasa.  It is calling on China to immediately release all those detained.  China's foreign ministry says the protests are illegal and threaten social stability.  In a related development, Indian police have arrested 100 Tibetan exiles trying to walk to their homeland from the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.  Tibet and the Olympics  3/13  SB120535896141831595

The number of people using the world wide web in China has overtaken the United States.  China's Internet population has become the world's biggest with about 220 million web surfers.  The Chinese figure dates from late February, when the US online population was estimated at about 217 million.  The United States has occupied the number one position since the birth of the Internet as a network of computers under the auspices of the US Department of Defence in 1969.  But by the end of 2008, China is expected to have 280 million Internet users.  China Is Likely Top Internet User  3/14  SB120543225301733993

The United States has dropped China from its list of the world's worst human rights violaters.  The State Department's 2007 Human Rights Report showed China, which has raised hopes it will improve human rights by hosting the 2008 Olympics, is no longer rated with countries like North Korea, Burma and Iran.  No reason was given for removing China from the list but the new report says China's "overall human rights record remained poor" in 2007.  The US added Syria, Uzbekistan and Sudan to the list of alleged offenders.  U.S. Calls China Abuser of Rights  3/12  SB120529441953729799

In another sign that the line between hard news and celebrity news is dissolving, China has decided to issue a censorship directive on star coverage. It has ordered TV stations in Beijing and Shanghai to not report on actress Tang Wei. The move is part of the government's general recoil over Ang Lee's movie "Lust, Caution" and the movie's explicit sex scenes and the unpatriotic behavior of its characters. Ms. Tang, who is in her late 20s, became a household name in the Chinese-speaking world with her portrayal of an undercover activist who falls too deep into a sexually charged relationship with the enemy. The idea of a government ban on celebrity coverage is intriguing. Certainly, private-sector attempts not to cover Paris Hilton -- including the Associated Press's week-long Paris-Hilton news blackout last year -- have gone nowhere.

Representatives of China's official Catholic Church are to hold three days of talks later this month at the Vatican with Holy See officials. China severed ties with the Vatican in 1951 when it gave Taiwan diplomatic recognition. In 1957, the split became permanent when China set up the Patriotic Association to formally oversee the country's officially registered Catholics. The association claims some five million followers to its church. However, it is estimated some 8 to 12 million Chinese Catholics continue to pledge allegiance to the pope and worship in unofficial churches. They are often subject to police and government harassment. The Vatican says it will abandon ties with Taiwan if China guarantees religious freedom and allows the pope to name Chinese bishops. Beijing for its part wants the Vatican to recognise the one-China policy and to accept that religious affairs are an internal Chinese matter.

Australia's Reserve Bank (RBA) says China will continue to experience strong economic growth for many years to come.  The Reserve Bank has released the text of a presentation given earlier in the week by its governor, Glenn Stevens.  He told a closed-door Treasury seminar that the rise of China was not a flash in the pan of economic history, and that short of some catastrophic event, China had many years of strong growth still ahead.  Mr Stevens added that Australia, more than almost any other country, was benefiting from the big shift in relative prices flowing from the Chinese-fuelled commodities boom.  While that's boosted Australia's national income, the central bank chief believes the local economy has coped well with the inflationary impact, compared with such booms in the 1950s and 1970s.