Person named ‘K’ from China paid five defendants to injure Huang Yi-hao, New Taipei prosecutors say
Taiwanese prosecutors have charged five men over a plot to ram a car into a comedian who made fun of the Chinese Communist party and Xi Jinping.
Taiwan has repeatedly accused China of transnational repression to silence critics on the self-governed island, which Beijing claims as its territory and has vowed to take by force if necessary.
Continue reading...David Perdue’s remarks come after a Taiwanese minister spoke of the ‘severe’ military threat posed by Beijing to the self-ruled island
Donald Trump offered to sell weapons to China while hosting its leader, Xi Jinping, last week, the US ambassador to China said on Sunday.
David Perdue told Fox News on Sunday: “President Trump continues to say, hey, we sell arms to other people around the world. He actually asked President Xi, would he like to buy some at one point.”
Continue reading...Ping Ping and Fu Shuang to live at Atlanta zoo in Georgia as part of loan deal between Chinese and US governments
Two giant pandas from China arrived in Atlanta, Georgia, on Sunday morning as part of an agreement between the Chinese and American governments.
While in Washington DC for a three-day summit with Donald Trump, Chinese president Xi Jinping announced that the pandas would arrive in Atlanta in the coming days. The loan of the pandas to the Atlanta zoo was one of the few concrete outcomes to come out of Xi’s state visit with the US president, which saw expressions of goodwill between the leaders, but no fixes to any of the longstanding differences between the two countries.
Continue reading...As the UN warns traditional safeguards are ‘unravelling’, Donald Trump says he will encourage, not restrain, the AI race
When the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, sat down for an interview in the heart of Silicon Valley at the weekend he had known for two days that his was the first government known to have been attacked by a rogue AI agent.
He didn’t reveal the attack then, but he sounded a warning about the march of AI: “the risk is that AI develops in a way in which humans are no longer in control of what AI is producing.”
Continue reading...While the US president hailed the visit as ‘great’, almost nothing of substance was achieved, which was a win for Xi
If the Beijing meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in May was the “stalemate summit”, the second round of talks between the presidents of the US and China this week seemed to give up entirely on the idea of breakthroughs.
Instead, it was dubbed a celebration of “diplotainment” rather than diplomacy, where pomp prevailed over progress, and where one of the main outcomes was the news that two giant pandas would soon be sent from China to the Atlanta Zoo.
Continue reading...Deference was deafening as US president rolled out red carpet for world’s biggest jailer of journalists – perhaps he was seeking tips
One is an authoritarian who represses the media with a strong allergy to democratic elections. The other is head of the Chinese Communist party.
Donald Trump welcomed the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, to the White House on Thursday, setting the stage for a scene quite unlike anything the august old building has seen over more than two centuries.
Continue reading...Chinese president’s proposals for lessening tensions come amid period of intense competition between the two countries over AI and trade
Xi Jinping has called for extensive cooperation with Washington to avoid the “Thucydides trap” that could put the US and China on a military collision course amid rising tensions over artificial intelligence, trade and Taiwan.
At the start of his summit meeting with Donald Trump in the White House, the Chinese president laid out terms for a mutual understanding that he said could steer the two competing superpowers away from future military conflict and on to a road of mutual gain.
Continue reading...Chinese president’s arrival in Delhi seen as step towards reconciliation after deadly 2020 military clash
The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has received a red-carpet welcome in India for a summit of Brics developing nations, as regional rivals Beijing and Delhi make a public display of thawing relations while quietly competing to lead at a time of shaky US global dominance.
As Xi stepped off the plane, he was walked past an honour guard of Indian soldiers and traditional dancers in colourful dresses. Later on Saturday, he was due to attend a gala dinner for the two-day summit.
Continue reading...Global views appear to have flipped in Beijing’s favour, driven in part by tensions between the Trump administration and US allies, a new Pew survey shows
The world has largely viewed the US more favourably than China for years, but those opinions have flipped in Beijing’s favour this year, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, a remarkable shift driven in part by tensions between the Trump administration and US allies.
More people have favourable views of China than the US in 25 out of the 36 countries and territories that were surveyed, including Canada and Mexico. The poll was conducted from February to May, a period when the United States and Israel were engaged in a war against Iran.
Continue reading...The China-North Korea relationship has been strained by a fall in trade during the pandemic and Pyongyang’s increasing ties with Russia
Xi Jinping visits North Korea on Monday for a two-day trip, his first in nearly seven years, as China’s president looks to revitalise ties with his junior ally.
Xi is expected to meet North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, in Pyongyang. North Korea is China’s only formal treaty ally but in recent years their relationship has been strained by a virtual freeze in trade during the Covid-19 pandemic and Pyongyang’s increasingly close relationship with Russia.
Continue reading...Chinese state media say Beijing emerging as ‘focal point of global diplomacy’ with Russian leader arriving on Tuesday
Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin exchanged “congratulatory letters” on Sunday ahead of the Russian president’s visit to Beijing this week, four days after Donald Trump left China after a high-stakes summit.
Xi said bilateral cooperation between Russia and China had “continuously deepened and solidified”, Chinese state media reported, with this year marking the 30th anniversary of the two countries’ strategic partnership.
Continue reading...Family and supporters had hoped the US president could help free the 78-year-old British citizen during summit talks in Beijing
Donald Trump raised the case of jailed Hong Kong democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai in talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping but was told it “is a tough one”.
Family and supporters of the 78-year-old British citizen had hoped the US president could help secure his release.
Continue reading...Change reflects both transformation of US in Trump era and China’s increasing confidence on world stage
Asked before he departed for Beijing if he would raise with the Chinese president the case of Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy activist jailed in Hong Kong, Donald Trump said: “I’ll bring him up.”
But, the US president added: “It’s like saying to me, ‘If Comey ever went to jail, would you let him out?’ It might be a hard one for me.” Trump was referring to James B Comey, a former FBI director and a frequent target of Trump’s ire.
Continue reading...US president has said he and Chinese leader ‘settled a lot of different problems’ but has given little detail on solutions
Donald Trump’s whirlwind trip to Beijing – the first US presidential visit in nearly a decade – wrapped up with much fanfare but little clarity about what was actually achieved.
Trump said on Friday he and Xi Jinping, China’s leader, “settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn’t have been able to solve”. But he didn’t provide much detail on what those solutions were.
Continue reading...Mirroring of each other’s attire may signal alignment – though the look wasn’t a huge departure for either leader
When Donald Trump and Xi Jinping met for a welcome ceremony in Tiananmen Square this week with the world’s gaze on them, they mirrored one another in strikingly similar suits.
Both were blue, single-breasted with flap pockets. Both had two buttons with only the top one done up. Both wore red ties.
Continue reading...Ahead of the crucial talks, security has been heightened in Beijing, with the US president set to meet Xi at the Great Hall of the People
I’m now sitting in the press filing centre at the China World Hotel in Beijing. Two American flags and a wooden lectern bearing a “United States embassy Beijing” seal stand on a black podium against a black curtain beneath a giant crystal chandelier.
There are TVs on either side of the podium: one showing CNN, the other Fox News. Sadly, that is as close as many reporters will get to seeing Xi Jinping and Donald Trump in action today.
Continue reading...US’s apparent decline has fuelled growing Chinese nationalism while US president has lost his novelty value
Yaoji Chaogan, a no-frills canteen next to Beijing’s historic Drum and Bell towers, once proudly displayed photographs of Joe Biden, who visited the restaurant when he was US vice-president in 2011. Biden’s visit went viral in China, with media praising his “noodle diplomacy” (one of the dishes that Biden ordered was zhajiang mian, a traditional style of Beijing noodles with bean paste).
But evidence of Biden’s visit was removed when the restaurant was redecorated a few years ago. A visit from a US leader is no longer something to boast about.
Continue reading...Tim Cook and Elon Musk, among other tech CEOS, will accompany the US president on a trip to China
Donald Trump is heading to China this week. If his guest list is any clue, he wants to discuss technology with Xi Jinping, though perhaps after the war in Iran.
On Monday, news broke that outgoing Apple CEO, Tim Cook, as well as SpaceX and Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, would join the US president. Other guests from the tech sphere include Meta’s recently appointed president, Dina Powell McCormick; Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of computer memory maker Micron; Chuck Robbins, CEO of longtime telecom giant Cisco; and Cristiano Amon, CEO of semiconductor maker Qualcomm, according to a White House official.
Continue reading...Taiwan, tariffs and the strait of Hormuz are on the meeting’s agenda for Beijing – but will the US president be forced to ask for help in ending his war with Iran?
On 20 February, a White House official confirmed that US president Donald Trump would be travelling to Beijing the following month to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Top of the agenda: the US-China trade war.
One week later, Trump approved joint strikes with Israel against Iran, starting a new war in the Middle East. Its ramifications have spread far beyond the region and caused alarm in Beijing. The presidential summit was postponed.
Continue reading...Cheng Li-wun’s visit to Beijing has sparked controversy in Taiwan, with critics accusing her of being too close to China
In a rare meeting with Taiwan’s opposition leader, China’s president, Xi Jinping, declared that people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait were Chinese and wanted peace.
The meeting in Beijing between Xi and Cheng Li-wun, the chair of Taiwan’s Kuomintang (KMT), is the first such contact in a decade. The visit has sparked controversy in Taiwan, with Cheng’s critics accusing her of being too close to China, a country that many in Taiwan see as a threat.
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