China published on Monday a white paper on national defence, reaffirming its determination to crush any "Taiwan independence" attempt at all costs and reassure the world of its pursuit of peaceful development that will pose "no obstacle or threat to any one."

Go here to the Peoples Daily here.

Then Indian Ocean tsunami is still the focus of most media with related pictures covering the front pages of most newspapers. The death toll at the time of this post was 25,317 (Xinhua).

Another news item comes from the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG): on Monday they launched a campaign to find a slogan that will help present the "exciting image" of the 2008 Games to the world. Submissions can be mailed to BOCOG's Culture and Ceremonies Department, or sent via e-mail to wenhua@beijing-olympic.org.cn by the deadline of January 31, 2005. There is a Xinhua report about the slogan search here.

The pictured front page is from The Beijing News. The biggest headline is "China issues 2004 white paper on national defence"; the photo shows an Indian couple grieving over their son's death after the tsunami.