BEIJING -- State media gave the official stamp of approval Friday over the decision to award the Nobel Prize for literature to Chinese novelist Mo Yan, giving him front-page coverage across the country.

The warm coverage of the award is unsurprising considering the prestige and recognition that China's ruling Communist Party will collectively bask in as a result.

But in another sense, the warm reception for the awarding is striking considering the anger and hysteria drummed up by Beijing following the 2010 awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned political dissident, Liu Xiaobo.

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In the two years that have followed Liu’s win, which was heavily censored in state media, China has maintained a chilly relationship with the Nobel committee and its home country of Norway. Meetings with Norwegian ministers and trade delegations have been canceled and important talks regarding the eventual opening of the Arctic Sea route have been halting.

China even went so far as to develop its own ill-fated peace prize, while exports of Norway’s famed salmon fell victim to the frigid political atmosphere between the two countries.

China’s first Nobel-winning writer?
But Mo’s victory seems to have thawed the relationship long enough for China to celebrate the writer, who state media has hailed as the country’s first winner of the prize.

"This is the first Chinese writer who has won the Nobel Prize for Literature," gushed China’s People’s Daily newspaper. "Chinese writers have waited too long, the Chinese people have waited too long."

But critics of the Communist regime point out that Gao Xingjian, who won in 2000 in part for his critical writing of the government, was China’s first winner of the Nobel for literature. He had been exiled to France by the time the prize was awarded.

Mo Yan, which means "don't speak," is actually a pen name. The 57-year-old Mo's real name is Guan Moye.

Mo has been favorably compared to American author William Faulkner and is perhaps best known in the West for his 1987 book, Red Sorghum. That book heavily relied on his experience growing up in a farming community in China's northeastern province of Shandong.

That honest connection to the rural experience has been a central thread through much of Mo’s writing, according to Dai Wei, a professor of literature at China’s Jinan University.

Special coverage of China: Behind the Wall on NBCNews.com

"Mo's topics are typically about rural life and his own life experiences, his stories are very close parallels to the real circumstances he lived through," Dai told NBC News. "He often writes about suffering. ... Some people think he glorifies suffering for Westerners, but everything he writes is based on real experience."

'The dark side of society and the ugliness of human nature'
Mo latest book, Frog, tells the dark story of a midwife who enthusiastically goes about her work enforcing China’s family-planning laws through forced abortions and sterilizations. The story, a searing critique of China’s one-child policy, won China’s Mao Dun Literature Prize last year.

"A writer should express criticism ... at the dark side of society and the ugliness of human nature, but we should not use one uniform expression," Mo said in a speech at the 2009 Frankfurt Book Fair.

Chinese author Mo Yan wins Nobel Prize in literature

But despite the critical and popular acclaim and Mo’s willingness to confront sensitive social issues in China, Mo’s victory has not come without criticism.

“Giving the award to a writer like this is an insult to humanity and to literature,” declared noted Chinese artist and activist, Ai Weiwei to the British newspaper The Independent. "It’s shameful for the committee to have made this selection which does not live up to the previous quality of literature in the award."

Ai’s diatribe toward Mo appears to be rooted in part to his work on a book last year to celebrate the 70th anniversary of a speech given by Mao Zedong.

More book reviews and news on TODAY.com

Mao’s speech, known as the "Speech at Yan’an Forum on Art and Literature" set the guidelines for appropriate subject matter for Chinese writers and artists of that revolutionary period, calling upon them to focus on and espouse the merits of Communism and threatening punishment to those who did not bend to the will of the party.

Mo Yan and around 100 other Chinese writers and artists hand-copied paragraphs from the speech for the book.

Criticism
That act, in conjunction with Mo’s position as vice chairman of the government-backed Chinese Writer’s Association, which has failed to voice support toward fellow writer Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel Peace Prize victory, has raised the ire of artists like Ai who wonder just how committed Mo Yan is to free expression.

Complete Asia-Pacific coverage on NBCNews.com

After all, critics argue, if a Nobel Prize-winning author with a leadership position in the national writing guild fails to stand up for a fellow artist, then who will?

Not fair, said professor Dai.

"I don’t agree with Ai Weiwei, it's just his personal opinion," said Dai. "People have different values, so they evaluate people differently. I think Mo Yan is a great author and Mo Yan is prized by the Nobel Prize council."

Perhaps sensing the backlash against him, Mo spoke out Friday afternoon from his hometown. Mo told reporters he hoped that Liu Xiaobo "can achieve his freedom as soon as possible." He also noted that he had read Liu’s literary criticisms from the 1980s and that the dissident had the right to research his "politics and social system."

Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

Other supporters of Mo have also came to his defense, noting that many of his books have been banned in China and that the Nobel victory will help put Chinese literature on the map.

But few believe that the victory will help put Liu Xiaobo back on the map in China, where his victory is still not acknowledged by the government. Liu’s name and the term "Nobel Peace Prize" remain blocked terms on China’s twitter-like service, Weibo.

Just this week, a BBC report on Liu’s imprisonment noted that the activist and his wife, who remains under illegal house arrest, have been facing extraordinary pressure to accept exile from China in exchange for their freedom.

NBC News' Johanna Armstrong and Yanzhou Liu contributed to this report.

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BEIJING -- Weeks before a once-in-a-decade political transition in China, the presumed future leader of China has fallen off the radar -- sparking wild rumors on micro-blogging sites about his health and whereabouts.

Xi Jinping, the man many assume will become the future president of China and chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, has not been seen in public now for more than a week. The 59-year-old was last seen on Sept. 1 while giving a speech at the Central Party School in Beijing.

Since then, Xi has cancelled a series of meetings with senior foreign leaders including Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

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After Xi’s meeting with Clinton was cancelled late on the night of Sept. 4, rumors began to swirl around the U.S. press corps travelling with the Secretary that Xi had injured his back.

The Chinese government has since declined to give any updates on Xi’s health and present whereabouts. At yesterday’s regularly scheduled Chinese Foreign Ministry press conference, ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, was asked a series of questions about Xi to which he simply responded, "We have told everyone everything."

According to a Reuters reporter who went to the regular Chinese Foreign Ministry press conference Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei was asked if he could confirm that Xi was alive. His response: "I hope you can ask a serious question."

China's president-in-waiting Xi Jinping returns to Iowa

The reticence of Chinese government officials and state media to comment has merely served as grist to the rumor mill, which has had ample material following an unusually eventful year of political intrigue on the mainland.

The very high profile fall of former Chongqing Party boss, Bo Xilai, ripped aside the political curtains and gave the Chinese public a peek at the country’s usually opaque process of governance. Besides systemic corruption and serious political abuses, Bo's downfall also exposed divisive political rivalries at the highest levels of the ruling Communist Party at a time when it was in the thick of choosing its future leadership.

Now, with a new generation of Chinese leaders led by Xi poised to take over when the Communist Party’s 18th Congress meets later this year -- rumored sometime in mid-October -- Chinese regulators are especially cautious about news on their leaders-in-waiting.

News of Xi Jinping has been absent in recent days in Chinese state media and discussion on his whereabouts and condition have been silenced on microblogs like Weibo after Xi's name was blocked by censors. Some articles printed in online sections of foreign news websites were also apparently blocked.

In this news vacuum, rumors have begun to swirl around online about the fate of Xi. Most of the speculation focuses on the belief that Xi has some sort of back problem, with the reason for it ranging from a morning swimming session at Beijing leadership’s center, Zhongnanhai, to an ill-fated soccer game there too.    

With wife's conviction, what is next for China's Bo Xilai?

The rumors have also been more nefarious in nature. Boxun.com, a U.S.-based website dealing in Chinese news and political gossip, posted a wild, unconfirmed story that Xi had been injured in a car accident in which his vehicle had been struck by another car driven by military officers loyal to the disgraced Bo Xilai.

Boxun later retracted the story, but it has it not stopped similar unsubstantiated rumors from spreading online, forcing government censors to ceaselessly monitor China’s websphere for content that they characterize as harmful to national stability.

It is not unusual that Chinese leaders would not show up in public for a few days or a week at a time and, of course, Xi could simply appear in public and quickly quash speculation about his health. After all, late last year former Chinese President Jiang Zemin made a rare appearance in public after Hong Kong media speculated that he had died.

More China coverage from NBCNews.com's Behind The Wall

However, Jiang, while still extremely influential in the Party leadership, is not a part of the formal government. As the long-established heir-apparent to Hu Jintao for the Chinese Presidency, Xi is the future.

Whatever the true nature of Xi’s public absence, China’s leadership faces an enormous challenge in reconciling its proclivity for opaqueness with the demands of an increasingly plugged-in society at home and a global audience abroad.

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BEIJING -- China's health authorities will investigate allegations that genetically modified rice was tested on Chinese children as part of a Sino-U.S. research project, state media said Tuesday.

One Chinese researcher has been suspended by authorities while investigations are carried out.

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China is already the world's largest grower of genetically modified (GMO) cotton and the top importer of GMO soybeans but, while Beijing has already approved home-grown strains of GMO rice, it remains cautious about introducing the technology on a commercial basis amid widespread public concern about food safety.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention investigation came after a report last month by environmental group Greenpeace claimed that a U.S. Department of Agriculture-backed study used 24 Chinese children aged between six and eight to test genetically modified "golden rice."

Golden rice, a new type of rice that contains beta carotene, is intended to alleviate vitamin A deficiency.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said no domestic institutions had been approved to participate in the research and that it had also asked Tufts University outside Boston to help investigate the issue.

The International Rice Research Institute is working with leading nutrition and agricultural research organizations to develop and evaluate golden rice as a potential method to reduce vitamin A deficiency in the Philippines and Bangladesh.

The research by Tufts University and other Chinese scientists was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in August. It aimed to demonstrate that the rice could provide a good source of vitamin A for children in countries where deficiency in the vitamin is common.

Complete China coverage on NBCNews.com's Behind The Wall

Tufts reviews protocols
Andrea Grossman, assistant director of public relations at Tufts University, told state news agency Xinhua in a recent interview the university was deeply concerned about the allegations and is reviewing protocols used in the 2008 research "to ensure the strictest standards were adhered to."

"We have always placed the highest importance on human health, and we take all necessary steps to ensure the safety of human research subjects," Grossman said.

More coverage about food safety on NBCNews.com

"We have always been and remain committed to the highest ethical standards in research," she said.

The Greenpeace report sparked a wave of criticism on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, with the researchers accused of a breach of ethics for testing poor, rural children whose families may not have been informed properly.

Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

Scientist suspended
One of the Chinese authors, Shi-an Yin, has been suspended from work pending further investigation after his responses proved to be inconsistent, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Yin was cited by the official People's Daily newspaper as saying he helped collect data for the study but was unaware that it involved GM rice.

The second of the two Chinese researchers, Hu Yuming, denied his involvement in the research, the People's Daily said.

PhotoBlog: China quake survivors await shelter, expect rain

China, the world's top rice producer and consumer, approved the safety of one locally developed strain of genetically modified rice, known as the Bt rice, in 2009, but commercial production has been delayed.

Apart from genetically modified products, China's vast and unruly food sector is still struggling to come to grips with food safety four years after a major scandal where tainted milk powder was blamed for the deaths of at least six children.

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BEIJING – It may be Hillary Clinton’s final trip to China in her current role as Secretary of State, but China’s state media has not held back in saying what they really feel about the former first lady and, by extension, the United States.

In an editorial entitled, “Secretary Clinton: the person who deeply reinforces US-China mutual suspicion,” in Tuesday's edition of noted nationalist newspaper, Global Times, the paper took Clinton to task for her “meddling” in the South China Seas and Diaoyu/Senakku disputes.

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“Many Chinese people do not like Hillary Clinton,” the editorial stated. "She makes the Chinese public dislike and be wary of the United States, which does not necessarily serve U.S. foreign policy interests.”

Other Chinese state media avoided blaming Clinton for the current heightened tensions in the Asia-Pacific region, but nevertheless took issue with America’s recent “pivot” in the region.

Clinton has pledged to take a strong message to Beijing on the need to calm regional tensions over maritime disputes that have raised broader fears of military friction between the two major Pacific powers.

The last time Clinton visited Beijing, plans to highlight improving U.S.-China ties were derailed by a blind Chinese dissident whose dramatic flight to the U.S. embassy exposed the deeply uneasy relationship between Beijing and Washington.

This time, the irritants are disputes over tiny islets and craggy outcrops in oil- and gas-rich areas of the South and East China Seas that have set China against U.S. regional allies.

As Clinton preps for Asia-Pacific tour, is North Korea capable of reform?

As Clinton prepares to travel back to Beijing on Tuesday, U.S. officials say the message is once again one of cooperation and partnership -- and an important chance to compare notes during a tricky year of political transition.

But the unease remains, sharpened by disputes in the South and East China Seas that have rattled nerves across the region and led to testy exchanges with Washington just as the Obama administration "pivots" to the Asia-Pacific region following years of military engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Pacific micro-nations cash in on US-China aid rivalry

Both governments, too, are preoccupied with politics at home, with the Obama administration fighting for re-election in November and China's ruling Communist Party preparing for a once-in-a-decade leadership change. 

Mistrust
The general sense of mistrust over American involvement in these issues which China adamantly claims are regional territorial disputes was apparent in many users, perhaps most succinctly put by one user who wrote, “The Diaoyu Islands belong to Asian people, we don’t need American help on this issue.”

Much at stake for US as tensions rise in troubled China Seas

That position has dominated state media coverage of Clinton's visit to the region this week, manifesting itself in a consensus that the United States was behind much of the recent emboldened confrontations between other Asian powers – most notably the Philippines and Japan -- and China.

In yesterday’s edition of China Business News, an article noted that “The U.S. is the origin of all issues,” in the region and that Clinton’s visit to the region “delivers a message that Japan and the Philippines are just two sidekicks on the stage while the U.S. is the “boss” at the backstage.”

Whether state media's depiction of the U.S. Secretary of State accurately reflected the opinions of China's population was unclear, however.

Activist: I want to leave China 'on Clinton’s plane'

On China’s popular twitter-like service, Weibo, reaction to the editorial was mixed.

“The Global Times shouldn’t use their attitude towards Hilary to represent our collective opinion,” wrote one irate user. “I think she’s good, please don’t make fools of us.”

“History will prove that she [Clinton] is the real peacemaker," another user wrote. 

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Four years on from the Beijing Olympics, some of the Games venues are certainly white elephants.

But no one should underestimate the prestige factor for China's Communist Party government in terms of justifying the construction.

The construction of these structures allowed China to show that it could mobilize its resources and pull off -- as they often point out -- a flawless Games. Just before London 2012 began, the People's Daily newspaper said the Beijing Games were generally regarded as the best ever. 

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In that sense, the Games and the stadiums represent the best and worst of the Communist Party's relationship with the people and the direction it's taking for the future. 

The famous Bird's Nest stadium, built at a cost of about $500 million, usually has very healthy crowds of people around it and is in pretty good shape.

London 2012's legacy: No more UK couch potatoes or another Olympic 'white elephant'?

However, it has failed to attract a major sports team and has only hosted a few music concerts, a snowboard competition and a couple of friendly soccer competitions, involving top sides like Arsenal and Manchester City from England and Italy's Juventus and Napoli, who play this Saturday.

Water-slide popular
Many of the sites get a lot of visitors, though the numbers are said to be dipping.

The Water Cube has been one of the more successful venues since 2008. The popularity of a water-slide park built inside the Cube is reflected in its high prices. It also host concerts and other events periodically inside.

As I understand it, the Water Cube isn't making money, but it isn't losing too much compared to other sites.

More coverage of London 2012 on NBCNews.com

I visited the Olympic rowing site two months ago. While the park was quiet, Olympic athletes were training there and there were also a couple of corporate and high school student groups who had rented the place out to learn how to dragonboat race for team-building purposes.

Much of the site is blocked off, but they have adapted it since the Olympics ended, adding a water park for kids and tricycles for people to ride around the park.

The Olympic basketball venue was one of the few that actually successfully found a sponsor, Mastercard, and it has held a fair amount of events like NBA exhibition games every year.

Also many of the major Chinese pop bands and Western acts tend to hold their shows there.

So some of the venues are still performing a useful purpose and, even if others have become white elephants, for China's rulers, it was worth it.

Updated at 12:25 p.m. ET: BEIJING -- The wife of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai and a family aide have been charged with the murder of a British businessman, the government said Thursday, pushing ahead a case at the center of a messy political scandal that exposed divisions in the country's leadership.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported that the prosecutor's indictment said Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, had a falling out with Briton Neil Heywood over money and worried that it would threaten her and their son's safety. Gu and the aide, Zhang Xiaojun, are alleged to have poisoned Heywood together, the report said. Heywood's death in November was attributed initially to a heart attack or excessive drinking.

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"The facts of the two defendants' crime are clear, and the evidence is irrefutable and substantial. Therefore, the two defendants should be charged with intentional homicide," Xinhua said.

It did not give a date for the trial, but a family lawyer told Reuters it was likely to take place on August 7-8.

Thursday's brief report is the first official news that the case against Gu is proceeding since the announcement three months ago that she and Zhang were being investigated and that Bo was being suspended from the powerful Politburo for unspecified discipline violations. The Xinhua report did not mention Bo's case or a separate party investigation into Bo.

Prosecutors have interrogated Bo and Zhang and have "heard the opinions" of their defense lawyers, Xinhua said.

The scandal has exposed the bare-knuckled infighting that the secretive leadership prefers to hide and affirmed an already skeptical public's dim view about corrupt dealings in the party.

City divided by disgraced Communist leader's legacy

Disappeared from public view
Since Bo was dismissed in March, he and his wife Gu, formerly a powerful lawyer, have disappeared from public view and have not responded publicly to the accusations against them.

The charges were filed in the eastern city of Hefei, Xinhua said Thursday. It did not say when exactly the indictment was issued or when the crime occurred and why the case is being prosecuted in Hefei and not in Chongqing, the city Bo ran as Communist party secretary and where the couple lived.

But according to Si Weijiang, a prominent lawyer in China who is followed by 170,000 people on his microblog, Hefei, in eastern China's Anhui Province, was selected due to its political reliability.

Wang Shengjun, who is the chief justice of China's Supreme People’s Court, is from Anhui and the province has, according to Si, built a reputation of being politically reliable and harsh on defendants.

"The case being filed at Hefei, will set Chief Justice Wang's mind at ease," Si wrote Thursday.

Scandal sends China's netizens into a feeding frenzy

In another post, Si noted the intense political ramifications of this case.

"This is a political case. No accidents is success. So it [the court] must be a place that can be trusted," he wrote.

But Fang Hong, a Chongqing resident featured in a piece by NBC News in May, hailed the prosecution move as a "vindication of my criticism" of Bo's rule.

"They tried to destroy the rule of law so as to make it convenient for them to murder people, and now they will get what they deserve," he told NBC News.

"This case is being handled according to the law," he said, adding that "some people with limited understanding wrongly think it is a political striuggle, but it is not. ... What the law says is what they will get."

 

Political ascent stopped
Thursday's announcement comes months before the ruling Communist Party unveils a new top leadership.

Before his ouster, Bo was one of China's most powerful and charismatic politicians. The son of a revolutionary veteran, Bo was seen as a leading candidate for a position in the Politburo Standing Committee, the highest ranks of power, when a younger group of leaders is installed later this year.

Son of sacked Chinese official fights back

On his rise, Bo led high-profile campaigns to bust organized crime and to promote communist culture. In doing so, however, his administration ran roughshod over civil liberties, angered some leaders and alienated others with his publicity seeking.

The removal of Bo has triggered rifts and uncertainty, disrupting the Communist Party's usually secretive and carefully choreographed process of settling on a new central leadership in the run up to its 18th congress.

Left-wing supporters of the charismatic Bo have defended him as the instigator of a much-needed new path for China, and many of them see him as the blameless victim of a plot.

Behind the Wall: Full NBC News coverage from China

The 18th Party Congress, scheduled to be held late this year, will appoint that leadership. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao will then step down from their government posts at the National People's Congress in early 2013, when Vice President Xi Jinping is likely to succeed Hu as president.

Growing credibility gap
Analysts here agree that the legal steps announced Thursday are part of the authorities' effort to dispose of the case and remove a major distraction before the once-in-a-decade leadership succession later this year.

However, this week has been a week of disruptions that have kept government propaganda officials and censors busy.

Full international news coverage from NBCNews.com

Besides the ongoing saga of Bo, Beijing this past weekend dealt with the worst flooding in nearly six decades. Just as news of Gu’s charges came out, word also broke that the death count from the flooding, which previously had stood at 37, had been bumped up to at least 77. Many Beijing residents had been highly dubious of earlier government estimates of the death toll, highlighting the party's credibility gap.

The news also came on the eve of the 2012 Olympics in London, where China hopes again to top the tables in gold medals.

Still, the government was not taking any chances: the comments section on the official Weibo account of popular Chinese state newspaper, People's Daily, was turned off for the post regarding Gu's murder charges.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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By Ed Flanagan, NBC News

BEIJING – Hong Kong battened down the hatches Monday and rode out the strongest typhoon to hit the city in 13 years.

For the first time since 1999, Hong Kong raised its Signal 10 typhoon warning – the highest on the city’s weather observatory scale – for several hours Monday evening as typhoon Vicente pounded the region with gale force winds said to have reached speeds as high as 101 miles per hour. 

Hong Kong authorities reported 129 people were injured by the typhoon, with as many as 30 of the injuries caused by flying debris scooped up by the high winds. Seven incidents of flooding were reported in Hong Kong’s New Territories region.

Meanwhile, Beijing suffered through a 10-hour downpour over the weekend that dumped 6.7 inches of rain in parts of the city and as much as 18 inches in the worst hit parts on the outskirts of Beijing in what is being called the worst flooding to hit the Chinese capital in six decades. 

The subsequent severe flooding killed at least 37 people in the country's capital and affected nearly two million people, sparking millions of angry messages and complaints on China’s Twitter-like service, Weibo, in recent days.  Users posted countless home videos and pictures of cars struggling through wheel-deep water, waterfalls cascading down into Beijing's subway entrances and cars being swept away by the currents.

The differing level of destruction between the two cities provoked outrage at Beijing’s government, with critics asking why the city’s infrastructure failed to buffer the storm.

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Hong Kong relatively unscathed in typhoon's aftermath
In Hong Kong, the damage from the typhoon wasn’t nearly as bad. Trees throughout the city were overturned while flying debris reportedly caused some minor structural damage in parts of Hong Kong’s usually busy financial district of Central. The high winds were said to have also whipped up large waves in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor which pounded walkways and ferry terminals around the famous city skyline.

 

The brewing storm sent office workers scrambling home as they hurried to avoid a partial public transportation suspension in the lead-up to the storm. Non-essential government offices were also closed early Monday and port and airport authorities shut down operations until the storm passed.

During the worst of the storm in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the BBC reported that 60 flights were cancelled, an additional 60 more delayed and 16 diverted.

By Tuesday 8 a.m. local time, the Hong Kong Observatory reported a weakened Typhoon Vicente was heading away from Hong Kong, allowing public transportation and flights from Hong Kong International Airport to resume. Trade on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index also resumed earlier Tuesday.

The typhoon is reportedly creeping its way into China’s Guangdong province, where weather experts were warning that Vicente could still dump as much as 12 inches of rain in affected areas.

The typhoon comes as China is experiencing serious weather disturbances throughout the country. Near China’s central metropolis of Chongqing, heavy rains have caused flooding and brought the Three Gorges Dam – the world’s largest hydropower dam – perilously close to its largest flood peak this year.

Critics pound government’s response to Beijing storm

While Hong Kong seemed to weather the storm, nearly every aspect of the government’s response to the Beijing flooding has been criticized by the public, with much of the anger being directed at the shoddy drainage system. Netizens have also been quick to complain about the Beijing municipal government’s lack of preparedness for dealing with the disaster and the city’s failures in weather forecasting and deploying a good storm-warning service.

Beijing officials are saying that economic losses from the storm will surpass $1.5 billion dollars. But the PR hit to the city’s vaunted new infrastructure just four years after its coming out party during the summer Olympics has been far more costly -- especially considering the relatively minor damage suffered by Hong Kong from a major typhoon.

Public outrage over Beijing deaths

“Hong Kong just experienced the biggest typhoon in 13 years, but there are only seven reports of flooding, one report of landslide and no one died,” wrote one angry poster on Weibo comparing the Hong Kong typhoon with Beijing’s flooding. “The media effectively announced the alert, and reported the complaints of its citizens…The whole society functions under the normal rhythm.”

“The rainfall in Beijing and the typhoon in Hong Kong,” stated another irate poster. “Two completely different systems are shown in the same mirror.”

Sensitive to the great public outcry, Weibo began censoring overly critical posts on the subject of the Beijing floods. Citing alleged directives from the Beijing Municipal Committee Department of Propaganda, the China Digital Times posted reputed orders from the department that called for “public opinion guidance concerning yesterday’s rainstorms” in the form of state-run media shifting the focus of its news stories away from issues like the failure of the city’s drainage system to features that “emphasize the power of human compassion over the elements.”

On the edge of the Gobi desert, Beijing has not always had to deal with large rainstorms like Hong Kong, which is regularly in the season path of typhoons in the South China Seas area. Still, with more heavy rains expected later this week, local officials here will certainly be feeling the heat to keep the city largely dry throughout the rest of this rainy season.

NBC News’ Tianzhou Ye contributed to this report.

BEIJING -- Wanted dead or alive: two Chinese piranhas.

News that piranhas, which are native to the South American waters of the Amazon, have come to the Chinese city of Liuzhou, has compelled local authorities to offer a $150 reward to anyone who can land one of the fish, any way they can.

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Amateur fishermen have flocked to the city, in the southern autonomous region of Guangxi, to take part in the hunt. Issued fishing poles and doled out portions of meat for bait, these sport fishermen have been warmly encouraged to perch up on the banks of the Liujiang River to take a stab at hooking the beasts.

Dozens of experienced local fishermen have also been hired by the city government and relevant departments to trawl the river – normally forbidden by city ordinance – in a dragnet that has run systematically through the river.

Though the piranhas are not native to the region, ancient Chinese fishing techniques have been employed to hook the foreign invaders. Fishermen in Liuzhou were using banzeng, a system in which a net baited with one and a half pounds of pork is suspended from a series of bamboo poles and alternatively lowered 11 inches into the water and raised every 10 minutes.

Local media noted that the fishermen operating the four banzeng were operating them on 24-hour watches, dutifully fighting what some Chinese microbloggers have dubbed "the people's war against the piranha."

Bitten while bathing his dog
It all started earlier this week when Chinese state media reported that two men in Liuzhou were badly bitten by piranhas as they enjoyed the warm waters of the Liujiang River.

Zhang Kaibo was swimming and washing his dog in the river when at least three red-belly piranhas attacked him. Zhang managed to catch one of the piranhas with a net after he and his dog leaped out of the water – but not before Zhang was badly bitten on his hand, requiring stitches.

The local fisheries department held an emergency meeting and came up with a rash of policies, including the bounty, to hunt down the piranhas still at large.

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‘Intensive fish hunt’
NBC News attempted to contact the local city fisheries department on Thursday, but was told breathlessly that the entire department had gone down to the river to participate in the hunt.

An official who requested anonymity later contacted NBC News and said that despite days of intense fishing, none of the remaining piranhas has been caught.

"The latest development is that we will suspend our intensive fish hunt at 6 p.m. tomorrow," the official told NBC.

"[The hunt] has been a serious disturbance to the ecological system here since we are catching a huge number of carnivorous fish every day and the cost is also very high," the official said.

Exotic fish owners to blame?
The official blamed local exotic fish owners who had been unaware of how expensive it costs to maintain carnivorous fish like piranhas for their presence in the Liujiang River.

"I can only speculate that these were kept as ornamental fish and the hosts were probably intimidated by their appetites and released them," the official said.

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Earlier this week, Zhou Quan, a spokesman for the Liuzhou government told the China Daily newspaper that, "residents in this city have no need to worry about piranhas in the Liu River." Zhou cited the fact that the fish cannot survive in water cooler than 59 degrees Fahrenheit, making it likely that the piranhas would freeze once the cooler winter months arrived.

Loose controls
That assessment was shared by Wang Songjin, Senior Officer for the World Wildlife Fund’s China Marine Program.

"In China there are some nasty stories of invasive species,” said Wang, "but I don’t actually think piranhas should be the species we should be most concerned about."

Wang noted that while laws and regulations exist that restrict the import of invasive species into China, they can sometimes be loosely enforced, especially when it involves financially lucrative animals. In the case of piranhas, Wang noted that in his investigations, fish markets around China were selling common types of piranhas for up to $160 per fish.

"With species that can bring in a lot of money, the controls can be rather loose," Wang said.

Sizable reward
Still, the intense fish-hunt has generated interest throughout the country and especially on China's websphere. On Weibo, China’s Twitter-like service, many netizens were getting a good chuckle at the fat bounties placed on the heads of these two fish.

"When you work 30 days and only get 10,000 yuan [$1,568] a month … fishing in Liuzhou for 1,000 [yuan] a fish is like heaven!"wrote one user.

Another Weibo user had another solution for dealing with the piranha threat: "Just ask some medical expert to declare piranha organs as beneficial to human health. ... That should put them into extinction soon enough."

NBC News’ Tianzhou Ye contributed to this report.

 

Correction: July 13, 2012

This version corrects an earlier currency miscalculation. 10,000 yuan equals $1,568.

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Updated at 11:15 p.m. ET: Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng arrived in the United States on Saturday after China allowed him to leave a hospital in Beijing in a move that could end a diplomatic tussle between the two countries, NBC News reported. 

Chen's escape from house arrest in northeastern China last month and subsequent stay in the U.S. Embassy was a huge embarrassment for China and led to a diplomatic rift while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was visiting Beijing for talks to improve ties between the world's two biggest economies.

---

A United Airlines plane carrying Chen, his wife and two children, landed in at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday, said NBC News' Bo Gu, who was on board the flight.

During his flight out of China, Chen told Gu that he had to escape because his health was deteriorating quickly. He had a cast on his right leg but said he is recovering from an injury sustained during his escape.

He said he believes China’s central government is good-willed and all the evil done to him and his family was by the Shandong authorities. He said he hopes the central government will investigate.

Chen was promised he could return to China anytime he wants, he told Gu. He said his children were not happy to leave China, though.

He also said he is concerned about his nephew, charged with attempted murder for injuring officials who broke into his house on the night Chen escaped.

He expressed concern that "acts of retribution may not have abated" in his hometown. The village of Dongshigu, where Chen's mother and other relatives remain, is still under lockdown.

Chen said after going on to New York that he was gratified the Chinese government had been dealing with his situation with "restraint and calm," Reuters reported.

"I hope to see that they continue to open discourse and earn the respect and trust of the people," Chen, speaking through a translator, told reporters outside a New York University housing building in Manhattan's Greenwich Village neighborhood.

"I'm very grateful for the assistance of the American Embassy and also (for) receiving a promise from the Chinese government for protection of my rights as a citizen over the long term," he said. "I believe that the promise from the central government is sincere and they are not lying to me."

"I believe that no matter how difficult the environment nothing is impossible as long as you put your heart to it ... I hope everybody works with me to promote justice and fairness in China," he said. "Equality and justice have no boundaries."

Chen is going to study as a fellow at the NYU School of Law, the institution said Saturday. 

Earlier: Blind Chinese activist Chen leaves Beijing on flight to US 

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Updated at 7 a.m. ET: BEIJING – Blind Chinese social activist Chen Guangcheng began the final leg of his long odyssey to freedom, leaving Beijing Saturday on a flight to the United States.

Early Saturday morning NBC News called Chen at the Beijing hospital where he has been held since leaving the U.S. Embassy on May 2. Chen said he still didn’t know when he was leaving but remained optimistic that it would be soon.

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Moments later, NBC News made a second call to Chen, during which a group of Chinese officials were heard entering the room.

One of them was heard telling Chen, “wrap up, you are leaving today.”

During a 10-minute conversation, Chen was told he would undergo some final medical check-ups and then he and his family would be taken to the airport. 

At one point, Chen, 40, reminded the officials that the investigation into his detention in Shandong should continue after his departure. 

After the officials left, Chen got back on the phone. He sounded excited about his imminent departure and said he had left the phone on so that NBC News could hear the conversation.

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News of Chen’s release from hospital and departure to the United States caused a stir online and foreign journalists rushed to Beijing’s Capital Airport.

At the airport, it was largely business as usual, with no apparent additional security around. 

Shortly after he arrived at the airport, he appeared to be uncertain that he would actually be leaving. "I'm at the airport now. I've already left the hospital. But there are many things that are still unclear," he told Reuters, saying he had not got his passport.

'Thousands of thoughts'
But NBC News watched as two security officers walked up and checked in plain black suitcases, apparently the family’s luggage, and a ticket counter representative confirmed that Chen and his family had checked in on the flight.

"Thousands of thoughts are surging to my mind," Chen told The Associated Press by phone. 

To his supporters and others in the activist community, Chen expressed gratitude and indicated that he hoped to return. 

"I am requesting a leave of absence, and I hope that they will understand," he said. 

The flight took off shortly before 6 a.m. ET. Chen is expected to travel to New York, where he has been offered a fellowship at New York University.

His departure brings to an end a saga lasting weeks that has put a strain on US-China relations and underscored continued human rights issues in the mainland.

Chen, a self-taught lawyer who has worked to expose forced abortions under China’s tough one-child policy in his home province of Shandong, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2006 for disrupting traffic and damaging property.

Upon his release, he was placed under house arrest until his daring escape last month to the American embassy in Beijing.

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Chen initially stated he wished to stay in China to help bring about reform, but later changed his mind and said he wished to leave for the United States.

At a U.S. Congressional hearing on May 4, Chen pleaded for help and requested again to be brought to America.

Chinese officials earlier this week had begun the process of preparing a passport for Chen and his family, but Chen told China Aid’s Bob Fu -- a friend of Chen’s –- that he and his family had still not received any passports from Chinese authorities.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for more details.

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