A North Korean envoy told China’s president on Friday that his reclusive country was willing to take “positive actions” to ensure peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, as China steps up diplomatic efforts to bring Pyongyang back to talks.

But Choe Ryong-hae, a special envoy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, made no offer to abandon North Korea’s nuclear programme. The United States insists North Korea takes meaningful steps on denuclearisation before there can be dialogue.

Thousands of Chinese Catholics gathered in Shanghai on Friday for a celebration to honour the Virgin Mary, in a show of religious fervour permitted by the Communist-ruled state.

China exercises strict control over religion, requiring followers to worship in state-approved churches.

In an annual tradition dating back more than a hundred years, pilgrims walked up Sheshan – or She Mountain – the site of two churches and the seminary for Shanghai’s Catholic Diocese in the city’s southwest.

A recent Communist Party circular, warning officials of "dangerous western values," appears to have been challenged from inside the ranks of the party leadership in Beijing.

Those who have written the circular "consider the people's legitimate calls for reform as activities by hostile forces and 'dissidents' and thus wrongly estimating and analysing the situation," Yang Tianshi, a senior scholar and adviser, wrote in an essay shared online.

China and the United States are hoping for a new chance to set the course for smoother relations through a secluded desert summit as the Asian power’s leader Xi Jinping projects a more confident style.

Xi and Barack Obama will meet June 7-8 at the tony Sunnylands resort in Rancho Mirage, California, their first encounter since the Chinese president took power and three months ahead of their first scheduled run-in at the Group of 20 summit in Russia.

Having your name in lights inside a nightclub is perhaps not the best idea when your party is openly cracking down on the extravagent lifestyles of its members. 

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived in Switzerland on Thursday for talks set to focus on a landmark free trade deal with the Alpine country, which he has dubbed a touchstone for Beijing’s growing ties with foreign nations.

Li, who is on the first stop of his debut visit to Europe since taking over in a once-in-a-decade power transfer in Beijing, flew in to Zurich late on Thursday.