he assembled a larger picture of China from individual local maps. But he imposed a system of reference lines on coordinate-free provincial maps, and then aligned them where the same town appeared ...

In the past year alone, China has had maritime disputes with Japan, Vietnam and also the Philippines. The carrier is a former Soviet warship - called the Varyag - that was never completed.

Chilling satellite images of a shipyard in China have revealed its military constructing what appears to be a new assault ...