While the announcement that General Motors is selling its Hummer line to a Chinese manufacturer brought a collective sigh of relief that another major U.S. brand would be spared from collapse, here in China the first ever purchase of a U.S. auto brand by a Chinese company raised a number of questions.

Chiefly, who is this mysterious buyer, Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co.? And what does it want with a brand largely derided as a symbol of GM's financial troubles and the failed scheme of pushing fuel-inefficient cars in a time of increasingly green consciousness?

Prior to Tuesday's surprising announcement, Tengzhong, a company that is a mere five years old, was a largely unknown manufacturing company based in Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan.

Specializing in heavy machinery for road construction, plastics and other industrial products, Tengzhong was not a heavy hitter in the Chinese automobile industry. In fact, it was a non-entity: its previous entry into the vehicle market is a dump truck. The Hummer line will represent Tengzhong's first foray into the personal automobile market.

Despite their inexperience in auto-making, it was no surprise to many auto industry insiders that a Chinese firm would be the eventual winning bidder.

"It was largely anticipated that Chinese firms would have interest in purchasing assets from the Big Three, but the real surprise is that it would first be this [Hummer] asset and would come from a company that just one day ago was largely unknown outside of Sichuan province," Bill Russo, former vice-president of Chrysler's Northeast Asia division and now president of Synergistics Ltd., a China-based auto industry-consulting firm wrote in an email to NBC News responding to questions about the purchase.

Pointing out Tengzhong's lack of experience in the auto industry, Russo noted, "This is an organization that will pretty much rely completely on those who remain in the Hummer organization to run the company because they do not have people, to my knowledge, who can replace them."

Tengzhong is not alone as a Chinese car manufacturer lacking experience. China's automobile market is still very much in its infancy with dozens of small Chinese companies competing to break into this lucrative and increasingly growing market.

In fact, as NBC News reported earlier this year, one of China's largest domestic car manufacturing companies in China, Build Your Own Dreams Auto (BYD), started out as a small battery manufacturer before diversifying into cars, proving that the path to market dominance in China can come in the most unorthodox ways.

Skeptics note though car manufacturers like BYD were at least involved peripherally in auto-making via their advanced development of battery technology, Tengzhong truly is starting from scratch.

"It isn't obvious to me right now how a Hummer acquisition and entry into the automotive sector represents a logical extension for a company like Tengzhong," Russo noted. "Based on what I know now, I cannot even remotely find similarity between the Tengzhong case and what BYD is doing."

Tengzhong clearly sees a benefit from this merger though. The company appears intent to bring Chinese technological expertise to an aspect of Hummer where it has been roundly criticized: green tech and fuel efficiency.

In a statement earlier this week from GM, Tengzhong's chief executive, Yang Yi, said they will be investing in research and development to make more fuel-efficient vehicles for sale in the U.S.

Entry into the U.S. and other western markets has been a direction that a handful of Chinese automakers have been working towards and the purchase of an established western auto brand is seen as a viable way to break into those markets.

However, for most Chinese automakers, large and small, jostling for position in the wide-open China auto market remains the primary goal.

In this sense, upstart Tengzhong's Hummer purchase allows it to make a splashy entry into the domestic market with an international brand that is surprisingly well recognized and well regarded in China.

In the past few years, the blogosphere here in China has been awash with stories of motorcades of Hummers being purchased by newly moneyed Chinese and being used for lavish weddings parties.

Just like in the U.S., in China the Hummer represents a masculine car that appeals to an increasingly opulent niche market – a market that still has millions of new first time car buyers.

In 2008, domestic car sales were around 9.38 million units, and sales for the first quarter of 2009 show a robust 2.7 million vehicles were sold. Despite the economic crisis, the Chinese government has offered generous tax breaks to encourage car sales.

While Tengzhong purchase of Hummer does not seem to fit in with China's vision of greener cars, it will still likely be supported by Beijing for the technological boost that it will provide China's fledgling auto industry.

YANJI, Jilin Province, China –

"Huang yian ham ni da!"
"An nyung ha se yo!"
"Kam sah ham ni da!"

The cries that surrounded us as we walked onto the plane seemed standard fare – "welcome," "hello," and "thank you."

Except they were in Korean, and we were very much in China, boarding an Air China flight that would take us from Beijing to Yanji, a town in the country's far northeastern province of Jilin.

Yanji is the capital of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture and, as home to over 850,000 ethnic Koreans, is sometimes referred to as the Third Korea.

Adrienne Mong / NBC News

With its bilingual signs, the border town of Yanji looks as much Korean as it does Chinese. VIDEO: American journalists on trial in North Korea

In odd little ways, however, the area reminds me of China's other autonomous regions, like Xinjiang and Tibet, on the country's western frontier.

Bilingual, bicultural
For one, there's the language.  Everyone in Yanji appears to be bilingual, and all signposts are in Chinese and Korean.

Then there is the way Chinese media describe the area, not unlike the way they talk about other ethnic minorities as simple, happy tribal folk: "Yanbian has the largest population of Koreans in the country, who are noted for their singing, dancing and etiquette."

And, of course, there is geographic sensitivity. Yanbian borders Russia – Vladivostok is about 100 miles to the east – and North Korea, which as I write this is fewer than 100 feet from where I stand.

Adrienne Mong / NBC News

The Tumen River is a natural but porous border between North Korea and China.

In fact, as we drive along the Tumen River, which up here is all that separates China from its highly secretive and isolated neighbor, we are close enough to hear the voices of North Korean farmers floating across the river and to spot giant color portraits of the Great Leader Kim Il Sung decorating the outside of buildings. We can also see billboards proclaiming, "Sun of the 21st Century: Long Live General Kim Jong Il," the son of Kim Il Sung.

It was somewhere along this border that two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were captured by North Korean border guards on March 17.  The two women are standing trial in the capital, Pyongyang, on charges of engaging in what North Korean authorities call "hostile acts."  

Adrienne Mong / NBC News

A portrait of Kim Il Sung, North Korea's "Great Leader," seen from across the Tumen River in China.

They were filming a story about North Korean refugees fleeing the isolated and impoverished state into China. 

And while the porous border area in which they were arrested isn't anything like the Demilitarized Zone on the Korean Peninsula, it's still a politically sensitive frontier and off-limits to foreigners and journalists. It has long been known as a main crossing point for North Korean escapees.

Fruit vendors from the countryside around Yanji told us that they regularly hear stories about North Koreans, particularly women, sneaking over in search of jobs or just a different life; sometimes, though, they are smuggled or tricked into coming into China. 

"It's dangerous," said one vendor.  "The North Korean border guards are always trying to snatch them back."

But the traffic flows the other way, too.

China in North Korea
Our driver, Xiao Piao, drives up to Luo Jing, a town across the border, several times a month.  The 22-year old ethnic Korean, who was born in Yanji, does a thriving trade driving back and forth, ferrying all manner of Chinese-made goods into North Korea in exchange for seafood products to bring back into China. There was the unmistakable odor of fish lingering in our van.

"The North Koreans want everything," said Xiao Piao.

But what they seem to need most is electricity. The driver, who overnights regularly in North Korea, said power is unavailable after 7 p.m. every day.  

Adrienne Mong / NBC News

Cigarettes, CDs, and stamps from North Korea can be bought at border crossings in China.

In fact, an immediately noticeable feature of the mountainous landscape opposite the border from us was its bareness. There were no trees, whereas the same terrain on the Chinese side was covered with forests and shrubs. It's believed the North Koreans cut down all their trees to burn as fuel.

Xiao Piao is just one of thousands of people who engage in small-scale trade in North Korea. But while it's easy enough for someone like him to travel across the border, there are still strict controls.

He has to turn in his cell phone at the crossing each time he enters North Korea. And he is limited to where he can travel inside the nation. Pyongyang, the capital, and most of the country is still off limits, he said. 

CAIRO – At the Wadi Nile cafe in Tahrir Square, 40 men sat watching President Barack Obama's widely anticipated speech to the Muslim world on a television mounted high in one corner. 

The café was unusually quiet. Security concerns for the president's one-day visit to the Egyptian capital had prompted police to restrict traffic in the area, so the familiar cacophony of snarling engines and blaring horns on the streets outside was absent. The entire speech, translated simultaneously into Arabic, could easily be heard. 

David Silverman / Getty Images

Egyptian men watch President Barack Obama's speech on TV in a Cairo coffee shop on Thursday.

Wissam Charaf, a 30-year-old Lebanese visiting from Beirut, shared a table with Hisham Deeb, who lives immediately above the cafe. Deeb dropped by on his way home from shopping to drink a glass of tea and stayed to watch the speech.

When Obama began by addressing American-Muslim relations everyone listened intently. There were nods of approval when the president said, "I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition."

For nearly an hour, pausing for occasional applause from his audience at Cairo University, Obama spoke to the world's 1.5 billion Muslims. He touched on America's historic relationship with Islam, the necessity for cooperation against terrorism, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It was easy to imagine many of the world's Muslims, like the 40 men sitting in the Wadi Nile cafe, listening to his words as a captive audience.

SLIDESHOW: Obama's Mideast trip

When the speech ended there was no applause or overt celebration. The cafe's ambiance returned to normal. Fresh water pipes were carried to the smokers and the waiter brought a new round of tea.

Deeb paused in the cafe doorway on his way home. 

"It was a very good speech," he said. "He spoke about the issues I wanted to hear about – the Palestinians, Iraq and Islam. I think he was very good."

Charaf, clutching a suitcase and looking for a taxi to Cairo's airport for an afternoon flight to Beirut, was more effusive.

"I think it was a speech up there with the best of those by any American president," he said.  "It was equal to Kennedy saying he was a Berliner to the Germans all those years ago. He spoke to moderate Muslims, and he spoke to extremists by quoting the Koran to them. It was excellent." 

VIDEO: Watch Obama's full speech

Another customer, Mohammed Mahrous, was only slightly less complimentary.

"His speech was very balanced," he said. "One feels hope in the new American administration.  The speech will have a very good impact on Egyptians and on Muslims in other countries."

The television behind them switched to a picture of three Egyptian commentators sitting in a studio beginning to discuss Obama's speech.

The cafe's owner, a thin dark man named Issam, reached for a remote control and lowered the volume. Customers began leaving. For those who heard the speech live there was no need to listen to somebody else's interpretation of it. The show was over.

Related links:
Full text of Obama's speech in Cairo
How did Obama do? Vote, discuss

BEIJING – Twenty years ago, a handful of university students from some of China's most elite institutions shot to stardom when they led a series of mass demonstrations in Beijing calling for greater freedoms and economic reforms that challenged the supremacy of the Chinese Communist Party.

For some of us who remember clearly the events of those days, the names roll off the tongue – student leaders like Wang Dan, Wu'er Kaixi, Chai Ling, and labor organizer Han Dongfang – even today, 20 years after the crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests. 

Many of the bright lights of 1989 wound up in exile and in the intervening years have prospered in the West, Hong Kong, or Taiwan. But dozens of other organizers who came under the glare of the spotlight but didn't flee the country were rounded up and imprisoned.

VIDEO: Peng Rong, a young protester in 1989, recalls the Tiananmen Square protests 20 years later

One of them was Peng Rong, a native of Hunan Province, who was pursuing a graduate degree in biology at Beijing University when he became involved in the protests. As a result of his activism, he was imprisoned for two years and expelled from the university.

"We were all idealists," he said one recent sunny afternoon in northeastern Beijing. "We were taught to be idealists by the party." But the Communist Party, the students believed in 1989, had fallen short of its goals of pursuing freedom, equality, and fraternity. 

The party was struggling with how best to transform the country's economy from socialism to something more dynamic. Back then, China was still in the early stages of economic reform, but corruption was endemic and inflation was high. Everyone – especially intellectuals – was feeling the pinch. 

"At the early stage of economic reforms, farmers joined enthusiastically and they benefited," recalled the now 40-something Peng. "But intellectuals didn't. Their paychecks were the same." 

He recited a popular saying from that time, "A nuclear expert earns less than a tea-egg vendor."

But Peng noted there were other motives that drove him to participate in the demonstrations. Student campaigns had been popular throughout the 1980s – some of them over commonplace issues like demanding the university keep power on through the night. (In fact, universities today still cut the power at 11 p.m.). "In that environment, you get involved no matter what," he explained.

There was also the luxury of unburdened youth. "There was no pressure then," said Peng.  "So there were a lot of students enthusiastic about engaging in politics when they didn't have too much to worry about themselves. They worried about big issues like the country's future or the people's future."

Adrienne Mong / NBC News

Peng Rong shows NBC News Cameraman David Lom photographs from his student days.

Peng, who slowly rebuilt his life, now has a family, owns his own apartment, and runs an art gallery on the fringes of Beijing. He speaks cautiously about the events of 1989 and the politics of today in China, and although his manner is free and easy, he doesn't offer too many personal opinions.

Looking back, he said he doesn't regret his past, but he does have regrets about whether he and his peers had been successful. "I think politically, we didn't quite achieve what we pursued," he said.  "In some areas, there have been improvements, but in other areas there is even tighter control than before."

He cited the Internet as an example of greater openness, although he noted this was less a reflection of government policy than the fact it is so difficult for officials to police the Web. 

(Nonetheless, this has not stopped the Chinese authorities from trying to block Internet sites they find unpalatable. Recently Twitter, Hotmail, and YouTube were blocked in China, and when we tried to search certain words or phrases in combination with "1989," the messages "Page Load Error" and "Connection Interrupted" appeared.)

Corruption, too, remains a serious problem in China, perhaps more so than 20 years ago. Peng – who dabbled in real estate and other entrepreneurial projects before he opened his gallery three years ago – expressed concern that his country's great economic strides will be fleeting or undone without further substantive reform.

He thinks the government still has too big a role in the country's economy, hindering its development. "Resource allocation seems to be favoring government officials. Corruption… is a burden."

SLIDESHOW: Tiananmen Square, 20 years later

'We Shall Overcome'
Before we parted ways, Peng showed us some albums containing pictures of him from his youth.  As he flipped through them for our cameraman to film, I suddenly recognized one.

It was a shot of the cover of the New York Times Sunday magazine from 20 years ago. On it is a young Chinese man with a mustache, wearing an oversize white T-shirt that proclaims in a handwritten scrawl, "We Shall Overcome," a bullhorn raised to his mouth, the portrait of Mao Zedong facing Tiananmen Square in the background. It was Peng as a young man.

He didn't comment on the photo, but his eyes lit up when I told him that I own a copy of that very same magazine. It's sitting in my home inside a folder of yellowed newspaper clippings from that spring of 1989. "It was amazing to see those photographs [at that time]," I told him.

The former student activist didn't say anything in response. He just nodded.

Related links:
China bars reporters from Tiananmen
China territory denies entry to dissident
Newsweek: Mother still waits for apology for her son's death
Archival video: NBC News coverage of the June 4, 1989 crackdown

CAIRO – Egyptians are immensely proud that President Barack Obama has chosen Cairo University as the site for his speech addressing the world's 1.5 billion Muslims on Thursday. They see it as a gesture of respect, and an acknowledgement that their capital is the seat of Islamic-Arab culture.

Workmen cleaned the university's gates this week as students hurried across the manicured campus. Final exams are only days away, yet the talk was all about the American president's visit.

VIDEO: Raised Expectations in Cairo

Amr Nabil / AP

A veiled Egyptian vendor sells newspapers and magazines about President Barack Obama in Cairo on Wednesday, a day before his arrival to address the Muslim world in a speech.

Ingy Attallah, a 20-year-old business major, is one of about 300 students chosen to attend the speech along with politicians, business leaders and notables from all over the country.

"When they told me I could attend, I was very excited. I was one of Obama's biggest fans during his election campaign, and when he won I was very excited," she said.

And what would she like to hear in the speech?

"A specific plan of action on how he will deal with the conflicts in the Middle East, especially the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. And when he will get American troops out of Iraq," she said.

Mohammed Abu Shakka, a 19-year-old engineering student, also plans to attend the speech.

"We have high hopes for Barack Obama," he said. "But if he doesn't do anything – just talk – it will get people really disappointed."

Actions, not just words – that was the strongest common sentiment we encountered this week when asking people in Cairo what they would be listening for in Obama's speech.

VIDEO: Obama says he hopes speech will open constructive dialogue with Muslim world

Israel-Palestinian crisis the 'main' issue
At Al Azhar, for more than 1,000 years a seat of Islamic learning, foreign students studying to become imams were seated in rows chanting Koranic prayers the day our team visited.

Mohammed Noor, a 24-year-old Malaysian who has been studying here for four years, hopes Barack Obama will preach non-violence in his speech.

"I hope that he will make a good relationship with the Islamic world and not use force anymore," he said. "We will not see America as our enemy anymore if he does what he says he will do," he added.

Mohammed Fouad, a 22-year-old Egyptian student, wants the American president to address the Palestinian-Israeli issue. "It is the main and first issue of this region," he said.

David Silverman / Getty Images

Islamic students leave the al Azhar mosque in Cairo after midday Muslim prayers on Tuesday as they head to exams at the the chief center of Arabic literature and Sunni Islamic learning in the world.

In Cairo's bustling streets there is a sense of anticipation that Obama's visit may also benefit the economy.

Hisham Al-Mugrabi runs a small restaurant serving the local version of fast food. Pausing between slicing strips of meat sizzling on a vertical grill in front of a gas-fed flame, he said he hopes the American president will somehow raise living standards in Egypt.

"We are expecting great changes and hope. God willing, he can do something to help our situation," he said.

In the city's coffee shops, where men gather most afternoons to sit and smoke water pipes, play cards and read newspapers, this week the talk was all about the visit of the American president.

Almost all of the people we spoke with agreed that he has to say something dramatic, something positive about the Islamic world and the role of Muslims.

"I would like to hear all the right things from Mr. Obama," said Ahmad Taha. "We want to forget the past, including Bush. We need America, the right America."

Media spin will matter
Many Egyptians will not hear Obama's speech live, even though it will be broadcast on television and radio direct from Cairo University. They will depend on the media to interpret it for them later on evening television talk shows and in the morning newspapers. 

Amr Adeeb hosts a three-hour TV show on the Orbit network, which is broadcast around the Middle East five nights a week. He said he'll be looking for answers to the most important questions his viewers ask.

"I need to see Iraq without American troops, I need to see Afghanistan without American troops, I need a final solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," he said.

But Adeeb, like many others in the largely conservative Egyptian media, said he will be giving Barack Obama the benefit of the doubt until he hears what the American president says and sees what he does in the future.

"He has a big responsibility in this speech," Adeeb said. "But it's not just words, but what do you have behind the words?  What's being cooked in the back kitchen?"

"Why should I tell my audience that the United States is a good friend and a good ally and that they are helping us?  They are cutting aid every day. They are not giving us the right weapons, they are not giving us the right tools to survive – although they are giving Israel everything," he said.

That perceived U.S. bias toward Israel is universally shared in the Islamic world. But many Muslims understand that America's relationship with the Jewish state has bonds that will not be strained or broken in one speech, so they are not expecting any major policy shift to be announced when Obama speaks to them from Cairo University. 

They do, however, expect him to respect their point of view. And they hope he will at least offer a prescription for Palestinian statehood and a timetable for a rapid withdrawal of American troops from the region.

Related links: In Riyadh, Obama to open Muslim dialogue
Newsweek: Obama's goals in Cairo speech
Muslims want change on Mideast from Obama
Inside the Obama White House

HAVANA – Washington and Havana must travel a long road in order to re-establish relations broken almost 50 years ago, but both governments seem ready to take the first cautious steps.

At the suggestion of the Obama White House, the two sides plan to sit down to talk about immigration issues and restoring direct mail service.

The Cuban government not only agreed to the talks, but also suggested taking further steps. Havana believes the two adversaries could cooperate in fighting terrorism, drug trafficking and hurricane disasters.

While just the tip of the iceberg in the U.S.-Cuba cold war, this warming trend helped a group of American athletes to travel to the island this past weekend for the first time in 12 years.  

Team USA came here to compete with 240 athletes from 15 countries in a two-day track and field meet for the America's Cup in combined events. 

Chris Boyles, who has been ranked as a U.S. top 10 decathlon champion on three occasions, wasn't sure how the logistics were worked out. "But I got the call about the trip and I couldn't turn down this opportunity," he said.

Watch this video of the U.S. track and field team's returns to Cuba. 

Ashley Wilhelm Andres saw the trip as an opportunity to pit herself against Cuban athletes as part of her preparation for the June 25 USA Track and Field meet in Eugene, Ore. "The Cubans are tough competitors," she said.

Doug Logan, the Chief Executive Officer of USA Track & Field, the national governing body for the sport, is in talks with Cuban sports officials to increase track and field events between the two countries.

"As an organization, we had an obligation to re-establish friendships in the Caribbean and re-establish the people-to-people tradition we had with the Cuban people," Logan said.

Cuban national sports commissioner Esteban Brice welcomed the American participation while U.S. team manager John Turk stressed the sportsmanship of the event. "It always seems like sports transcends political boundaries," Turk said. "We are not here to play politics. We just want to compete."

And at the end of the day, both Cuba and the Team USA walked away with one gold medal from the tournament – but Cuba won more medals overall: four to two for the U.S.

TEL AVIV – Israel is preparing for the possibility of war and it appears to be serious about it.

At 11 a.m. on Tuesday, sirens blasted the air, sending millions of citizens into the nearest bomb shelter in the country's biggest-ever civil defense exercise. The drill is part of a five-day training code-named Turning Point III. It involves simulated rocket and missile attacks on Israeli cities and also preparations for a nonconventional strike.

Most of the kids from the Elharizi School in Tel Aviv were giggling in class as they waited for the siren. Their teacher was trying to get them to act seriously, but the loud siren did the job for her. You really can't stay too calm when you hear a blaring sound, wailing up and down, representing one thing: war.

VIDEO: Israel conducts massive defense drill

The kids, all the way from grade one to seven, made their way in pairs to the neat and clean shelter. They were told beforehand that they could bring games to play with while they waited for the all-clear sign. So the packs of cards came out, and most of the kids seemed happy to miss class and play their favorite game. 

Dozens of senior military and government officials from around the world, including representatives from the U.S. National Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), observed the school drill to see what lessons for emergency preparedness they could take back to their home countries. The officials said they were impressed with the calm conduct of the students who conduct similar exercises several times a year.

"Very impressive," said Andrew Slaten, the FEMA representative from Washington, D.C. attending the event. "We have a very long and active relationship with Israel's home front command. So it's a great opportunity to be here today to be able to experience the way that they have taken national preparedness to a comprehensive level – lessons that we can take back to the United States."

A dozen kids were asked to pretend they were wounded so medical teams could practice on them. One girl was crying her heart out so much that NBC News cameraman Dave Copeland and I looked at each other with surprise. It turned out she was in a state of shock and was really overwhelmed by the commotion. Her teacher was called and eventually managed to calm her down.

The simulation comes at a time of rising Israeli concerns over Iran's nuclear ambitions, but Israeli officials insisted that the drills were not a direct response to those fears.