By Eric Baculinao, NBC News Beijing bureau chief

BEIJING – It was hardly conceivable that the sports of rock n’ roll dancing and Frisbee could help drive Taiwan closer to China, but that’s exactly what happened with the recent visit to China of a leading stalwart of Taiwan’s pro-independence movement.

Chen Chu, mayor of Kaohsiung, Taiwan’s second largest city, took a big political gamble by flying to Beijing to seek help in selling her hometown’s World Games, an alternative to the Olympics, that has seen disappointing sales. That a prominent figure of the pro-independence and anti-China opposition party had  no choice but to seek Beijing’s help bespeaks of the startling reversal of the political wind across the once-turbulent Taiwan Strait.

And, in turn, the dramatic shift from the threat of war to the outbreak of peace, due in large part to the growing economic dependence of Taiwan on China, is fueling speculation that the two former rivals are headed towards greater integration and reunification.

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BEIJING – “City of Life and Death” might sound like your average escapist action film helping to usher in the summer movie season. 

But it’s not.

The 2-hour black and white epic recounts the early days of Japan’s occupation of Nanking (now known as Nanjing) in 1937. Over six weeks, Japanese troops committed brutal atrocities against hundreds of thousands of residents of the wartime Chinese capital. 

Estimates of those killed vary wildly, but historians say around 200,000 to 300,000 people were slaughtered.  It’s a dark episode of World War Two that doesn’t get much mention in the West, but here in China no one has forgotten.

Courtesy of Lu Chuan Film Studio

Japanese troops take over Nanking in the “City of Life and Death.”

“In China, everyone knows about the Nanjing Massacre,” said 38-year old filmmaker Lu Chuan, who directed “City of Life and Death.” 

“But as far as I know, nobody outside of China knows [about it]… I think it’s important to let people outside of China know the truth, because wars and massacres are everywhere.”

Portraying Japanese in a new light
But Lu’s film does more than “tell the truth.”

Using an ensemble cast of Chinese and Japanese actors, the movie tries to portray Japanese soldiers in a much more humane light than previously seen in China-made movies of that era.

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As the number of people fleeing fighting in Pakistan’s northwestern Swat valley reaches nearly 2 million, the race to help those displaced by the worsening war may prove crucial in determining the outcome of the battle. NBC News’ Ian Williams reports.

VIDEO: Realatives, friends strain to take in Pakistan refugees

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