there are in fact two famous different villages named huaxi.
one of them is in jiangsu province, and is a famous economic model village.
the other is in zhejiang province,
and is the scene of the riot.
you can google them separately by adding the name of the province.

That would explain the confusion. Thanks ESWN.

I think Bill Rice has jumped the geo-political gun so to speak on the Malaysia peice. I read the article he was quoting from closely, and nowhere does it mention that a U.S. military presence will be patrolling the Malacca strait. The news article only states that Robert Zoellick offered security aid and that the Malasyian defence minister made cooeing diplomatic noises as opposed to the usual rebuffs made (see Japan's recent overtures). The article doesn't mention at all whether or not Malaysia has accepted the U.S. offer and it is almost certain that it hasn't.

In any case, while the defense minister appears to be receptive, others in the Malaysian government are not. The New Straits Times reports that,

" Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said the ministerial-level meeting among the littoral states was crucial in ensuring their sovereignty as well as security of the waters.

Commenting on reports that the United States had offered to help Indonesia and Singapore with navy patrols, he said this was also vital in keeping away foreign mercenaries.

"We cannot allow mercenaries, civilians or armed guards to operate in the area. That is the responsibility of littoral states. Otherwise, they will be taking over the role of the navy and maritime agencies."

Simon. . . no offence, but I see there's a link at this end of this entry, after the " Posted by Simon at 12:23" part. If you don't know what I mean, I've saved the screen shot in my photobucket account and you can check it out at http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y11/angechrissy/screen.jpg

I've just clicked on the link and it directs me to a Japanese XXX site.