This is a short activity designed to help you get a handle on the main issues involving China. Rather than tell you what these are, it makes more sense for you to discover them for yourselves. Afterall, China is in the news almost every day and the issues may change. Here's what to do:

1. Gather your teammates together. It's recommended that you have up to six individuals or 12 people working in pairs (mostly this will depend on the people in your class and the number of networked computers you have available).

2. Have each person or pair choose one of the six links below to explore.

3. The task is to find out what the main issues are relating to China, her people, and the world community.

4. Give yourselves 30 minutes of online reading, surfing, and thinking time to explore the link.

5. As you're reading, consider the source of the information (any reason to doubt the truth of what you're reading?)

6. After 30 minutes rejoin your teammates.

7. Each person (or pair) should share the main issues that were discovered relating to China.

8. As a group cluster the eight most important issues related to "What's going on in China?" (You can print this Webpage out and write on it or re-create it on note paper).

9. When you've finished clustering, you're ready to return to Searching for China.

• CNN.com International - Asia News magazine for the entire region

• Inside China Today two weeks of current news are posted by the European Internet Network, Inc.

• U.S. Department of State Background Notes on China (particularly look at the section titled: U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS)

• The Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States of America

• CIA World Fact Book Chapter on China, 2000 - information on geography, people, government, economy, transportation, communication, and defense forces.

Return to "Searching for China"