Our daily round-up of the best China stories from the 21st Century Business Herald.

Obama sworn in as America’s President

According to White House scholars, America’s President will likely focus more on diplomacy in his second term of office as Obama spent so much effort in dealing with American economic problems caused by financial crisis.

Reports from the White House disclose that economic diplomacy and Sino-American dialogue will be emphasized by President Obama in the next four years. Chinese scholars also suggest that the U.S. strengthen economic cooperation with China through bilateral regulations.

Growth rate of China’s energy consumption hits 10-year low

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show the total energy consumed in China in 2011 including 3.48 billion tons standard coal, increasing by 7 percent year-on-year. Experts estimate that the growth rate of energy consumption in 2012 will drop below 5 percent, hitting a 10-year low since 2002. Meanwhile, coal imports have increased by 60 percent to 290 million tons in 2012.

With abundant energy supply and declining demands, many see an opportunity for Chinese policy reform in the energy sector.

Sina to launch self-help advertising platform, accelerating commercialization of Weibo

Sina unveiled its commercialization model for Sina Weibo by launching a self-help advertising platform for small and mid-sized companies, as well as to clear the commercial ecology of the Weibo platform.

Data from Sina reveals that Sina Weibo has owned over 400 million registered users and over 42.3 million daily active users.