Millions of Americans love their Apple products: from iPods to MacBooks to iPads. But there's a story behind the beloved devices. How do they get made and what price is paid? Our partner The New York Times has been investigating and this morning's story is a riveting read, in particular the safely problems at a Chinese factory that makes iPads.

Monday marks the beginning of 4709 in the Chinese calendar, the "Year of the Dragon". A strong, fiery, and auspicious cultural symbol, the lunar year ahead holds the potential for seismic change. In addition to the generational transitions set for its government, military, and the Communist Party, some experts are claiming 2012 will be the year China's economy collapses.

China's economy, the world's second-largest, grew at its slowest pace in more than two years, latest government figures show. Gross domestic product expanded by 8.9 percent in the three months to the end of December, from a year earlier. That is down from 9.1 percent in the previous quarter. The statistics bureau data showed that growth for the full year was 9.2 percent, down from 10.3 percent in 2010. Analysts said they expect the economy to slow further this year.

During a visit to Australian on Wednesday, President Obama announced that 2,500 U.S. troops will be sent to the country to boost security in the Pacific region. The move is seen as a strategy to counter China's increased influence. He spoke strongly on China's rising responsibilities and the U.S. perspective on its growing strength. China responded by saying that it "may not be quite appropriate" to expand U.S. military in the region.

Perhaps this has happened to you before. You’ve said something that someone misunderstood — with or without a translator. Due to culture, language, or even gender, a statement like "I appreciate your frankness" comes across as "I enjoy your rudeness." The new play, "Chinglish" pays tribute to, and pokes fun at, these moments when something gets lost in translation. The play is in both Mandarin and English. And because the show has subtitles similar to those at the opera, the audience is fully in on all the jokes, even when the mono-lingual characters are not. 

President Obama begun a tour of the Pacific Rim with a stop in his home state of Hawaii over the weekend, where he met with leaders from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation. There are 21 countries in APEC, and the president is using this opportunity to stress the importance of America's relationship with countries in Eastern Asian — most importantly, China. But while President Obama is shaking hands with Chinese President Hu Jintao, GOP candidates here at home having been calling China the bad guy.

Senate leaders say the Chinese government's practice of forcing the value of the Yuan artificially low, in comparison to the U.S. dollar, gives Chinese companies an unfair advantage in trade, and is harming the American job market. To combat this, the Senate has passed a bipartisan bill, which the White House is reviewing, to pressure Beijing to alleviate some of those financial controls.

Most of us think of opera as a traditionally Western art. Historically, the best composers wrote in French, Italian, German or English — until now. Over the past decade, the Chinese government has devoted millions to new opera houses, opera festivals and music education. The Chinese investment in opera has piqued the interest of classical music students here in the U.S., where budget-cutting has sapped funding for the arts.

Official statistics show that since 1999 over 64,000 Chinese babies, most of them girls, have been adopted by Americans. China’s one child policy has caused an increase in the number of children abandoned, many of whom end up in orphanages. But China has changed a great deal in the last two decades, and so has its attitude towards adoption. The Chinese government recently paid for 90 adopted Chinese children and their families to travel from the U.S. to the country of their birth on a "heritage tour" — billed as an opportunity for these children to learn more about their roots.

U.S. officials believe Pakistan may have allowed China to study and take samples of the stealth helicopter that crashed during the Osama bin Laden raid in May, before they returned it to the U.S. If the allegations are true, it continues a long history of China trying to obtain U.S. military secrets. How will this latest story affect relations not only between China and the U.S., but between the U.S. and Pakistan?

Yesterday, U.S. Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner spoke by phone with his Chinese counterpart, Vice Premier Wang Qishan, to discuss the challenges facing global markets after a tumultuous week for the U.S. economy. China's stock market plunged on Monday (along with the U.S.'s), following the news that Standard and Poor downgraded America's credit rating. Chinese investors are concerned that the current poor economic climate in the U.S. will lead to decreased demand for Chinese exports. China is the largest U.S. foreign creditor, but over the weekend on Chinese websites many people were calling for China to invest less money in the U.S.

The stock market opened higher than expected this morning, as markets reacted to the strongest jobs report since April. A report from the Labor Department showing that the economy added 117,000 jobs in July, bringing the unemployment rate down to 9.1 percent is buffering the U.S. stock market so far against the sharp sell offs around the globe yesterday. Yesterday was the worst day on Wall Street in three years.

China is weighing in on U.S. lawmakers' failure to make any meaningful progress on the government debt limit, during increasingly tense budget talks in the White House. China holds more than $1 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities, and a failure to reach a debt agreement would result in a credit downgrade for the United States, and devalue China’s holdings.

Chinese state media is denying reports this morning that Jiang Zemin is dead. The 84-year-old became China's leader in 1989, and shepherded the country through its unprecedented economic boom before handing power to President Hu Jintao between 2002 and 2004. The BBC is reporting that internet searches for Jiang's name have been blocked. Martin Patience, correspondent for the BBC, reports on the latest from Beijing.

China celebrates its 90^th year of Communist rule today; but in the background, the nation is playing deeply capitalist games with international debts. China owns a large portion of US debt, but a Reuters investigation shows that they may have more than the Treasury could previously report. By buying up US debt through internationally disparate financial intermediaries, Chinese entities hid exactly how much US debt they had acquired—estimates say it is above $1.13 trillion. 

Nearly 150 years ago America built the first transcontinental railroad, and 10,000 Chinese laborers used pickaxes to cut tunnels and rail-lines for just $30 per month. Now, President Obama is promoting high-speed rail, and the Chinese are again involved.  This time, though, they don't just want to swing an axe.  They want to design and part-fund it and have Americans provide the labor. Alastair Leithead, a reporter with the BBC, has been looking at the story for their series "Power of Asia." We also hear from Brian Leung, an associate professor of creative writing at University of Louisville, the author of "Take Me Home" a book about Chinese Americans in the nineteenth century.

Almost three months after his arrest in April, world-renowned artist and social activist Ai Weiwei was released Wednesday on bail from prison in China. Ai was arrested on charges of tax evasion during a crackdown on human rights activists, and has not commented on the government or his arrest since yesterday. He is perhaps best known for his design of the "Bird's Nest" stadium at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

In China, factory workers and their families are speaking out about a growing public health scandal for the Chinese government. Mass lead poisonings are showing up in factory towns across the country. Lead is showing up in high levels in homes situated near factories, as well as in the blood of factory workers and their families.

In May, China's inflation rose to its highest level in nearly three years, up 5.5 percent from the same month last year. There has been a wave of violent unrest in urban areas in China over the past three weeks. The country has repeatedly deployed its massive security forces to contain public anger over economic and political issues. BBC China correspondent Martin Patience reports on how high inflation and extremely high food prices are affecting the country.

The head of China's General Staff of the notoriously secretive People's Liberation Army, General Chen Bingde, has confirmed that the country is building an aircraft carrier. The vessel, a remodeled Soviet-era warship, is expected to be ready for trials at sea later this year. The carrier is symbolic of China's expanding naval power, and possibly of pending territorial disputes in the country's surrounding seas.