China:In a year low on powerful images from China, a picture that lingers is of President Hu Jintao and eight rather stiff men in identical blue suits walking out on to a flower-lined podium to greet journalists, one day after the end of the 17th Communist Party congress.
Smiling as ever, Mr Hu introduced the men expected to succeed him at the helm of the world's most populous country in 2012 - Shanghai party secretary Xi Jinping and Liaoning chief Li Keqiang. The message was clear. Don't expect democracy in 2008, rather a further tightening of control by the party.
China spent 2007 looking ahead to the Olympic Games in August 2008, but the presentation of the new breed of Communist leader showed how attention is already turning to what shape the country will take after the dust has settled on the Olympiad and what role China is going to play regionally and globally as its economic rise translates into greater diplomatic muscle.
It was another year of breakneck economic growth, social upheaval, Olympic development and signs of China's growing influence in the world. But as the party congress showed some things don't change and are unlikely to in the coming years, even if the theoretical focus has switched from Marxist-Leninism to "socialism with Chinese characteristics".
Olympic planning dominated much of 2007, as did schemes to reduce the appalling pollution. For three days in August Beijing's drivers with odd or even number plates could only drive on corresponding odd and even days, to cut down on the three million cars. The International Olympic Committee said some endurance events might have to be postponed if the air quality was not good enough.
We got a taste of the kind of hysteria that pertains in China over the Olympics when Zhang Huimin (8) ran 3,560km - almost the length of China - one of many feats of athleticism inspired by the national fervour.
This was a year when the attitude to China became more focused on how to deal with its rise. After years of fervently courting favour, there were signs that the European Union was becoming less accommodating to China's whims, largely because the yuan has slid 8 per cent against the euro since July 2005, even though Beijing has let its currency rise 10 per cent against the dollar over the same period. EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson criticised Chinese trade practices in a speech that highlighted growing tensions.
Michael O'Sullivan, secetary general of the European Chamber of Commerce, noted that EU leaders had raised concerns about issues such as market access and intellectual property rights protection. However, he said he believes the Chinese leadership takes these concerns seriously and he hopes to see significant progress in 2008 in improving the overall trade and investment climate.
The Chinese singled out German chancellor Angela Merkel for a broadside after she met the Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, and insisted on raising human rights during bilateral talks in August. However, French president Nicolas Sarkozy's inaugural visit to China was non-confrontational. His "new realism" policy was rewarded with a bonanza of business deals, from nuclear reactors to aircraft.
The Dalai Lama could become a pivotal figure during 2008, as he has appealed for permission to go back to Tibet and visit holy sites in China. The Olympic year might be good timing for a rapprochement, particularly as the Dalai Lama's approach is more moderate than some of the younger generation in the Tibetan Autonomous Region.
At six-party talks involving both Koreas, China played a major part in brokering a deal offering energy and other forms of aid in return for North Korea shutting its nuclear facility and ultimately giving up nuclear weapons.
This was another year in which China did not invade Taiwan. China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since their civil war split in 1949 and threatened to use force if the island, which still styles itself as the Republic of China, formally declares statehood.
Mr Hu has asked President Bush to help rein in Taiwan and stop its contentious plan to hold a referendum next year on UN membership.
Taiwanese voters go to the polls in March, and if pro-independence president Chen Shui-bian wins, the rumours are that independence will be declared on August 7th, one day before the start of the Olympics. Now that would be something to animate the stiff blue suits.