Category Archives: Xi Jinping

Chinese jets fly sorties over Taiwan strait in show of force as US delegation departs

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End of secretary of state Antony Blinken’s three-day visit marks upsurge in military activity after period of relative calm

Taiwan has reported that a dozen Chinese warplanes flew sorties close to the island on Saturday, in a sudden surge of military activity just hours after the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, left Beijing following talks with President Xi Jinping and top Chinese officials.

Before Blinken’s three-day visit to China, US officials had pointed to a period of relative calm in the Taiwan strait over the past few months, after years of aggressive Chinese military manoeuvres and threats, as a factor in improving US-Chinese relations since Joe Biden held a summit meeting with Xi in November.

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US has seen evidence of attempts by China to influence election, says Blinken

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Secretary of state met Xi Jinping in Beijing and warned of sanctions over China’s support for Russian arms industry

Washington has seen evidence of attempts by Beijing to “influence and arguably interfere” in this year’s US elections, the secretary of state has said during a trip to China, also warning that Chinese companies face new sanctions if they do not stop supplying material and equipment to the Russian arms industry.

Antony Blinken told CNN that he had reiterated Joe Biden’s message to Xi Jinping not to interfere in November’s vote – a warning that reportedly received assurances from the Chinese president that he would not do so. Asked whether China was keeping to its promise, Blinken said: “We have seen, generally speaking, evidence of attempts to influence, and arguably interfere, and we want to make sure that that’s cut off as quickly as possible.

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German chancellor urges Xi Jinping to press Russia to end Ukraine war, saying ‘China’s word carries weight’

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Olaf Scholz says Chinese president agreed to back June peace talks that Russia is not attending while Xi says efforts for a resolution must involve both sides

Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, says he has urged Xi Jinping to press Russia to end its “senseless” war in Ukraine and that the Chinese president has agreed to back a peace conference in Switzerland.

Scholz said after a meeting with Xi in Beijing on Tuesday that “China’s word carries weight in Russia”.

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German chancellor urges Chinese industry bosses to play fair in EU market

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Olaf Scholz says European cars should have equal access to Chinese customers

The chancellor of Germany has urged industry bosses in China to play fair by not overproducing cheap goods or infringing copyright rules.

Speaking on a three-day visit to China, where he is travelling with leading business representatives and three government ministers, Olaf Scholz said he, in turn, would encourage the European Union not to be driven by self-interested protectionism, in which governments restrict international trade to help domestic companies.

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China and Taiwan are destined for ‘reunification’, Xi tells former president

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Chinese leader using meeting with Ma Ying-jeou to promote peaceful ‘reunion’ as only alternative to annexation, say analysts

Xi Jinping has met the former Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou, in what analysts said was an attempt to promote peaceful unification as the only alternative to military annexation of Taiwan.

Ma, who was leading a student delegation to China, met Xi in Beijing at the Great Hall of the People, a venue typically reserved for foreign leaders meeting with senior Chinese officials. Xi used the meeting to emphasise his belief that Taiwan and China were destined for what he terms “reunification”.

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‘I will not dance’: Olaf Scholz joins TikTok with a promise

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German chancellor follows in the footsteps of Joe Biden and other leaders on social media platform

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has opened a TikTok account, promising he will not be seen dancing on the social media platform popular with young people.

The newest official government channel “increases the information offer to citizens, who increasingly inform themselves and discuss politics on TikTok”, Scholz’s spokesperson, Steffen Hebestreit, said in a statement.

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Biden and Xi seek to manage tensions in phone call as US officials head to China

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Presidents clashed over Taiwan and US trade restrictions on technology in first direct interaction since November

Joe Biden and Xi Jinping have clashed in a telephone call about Taiwan and US trade restrictions on technology, but sought to manage their tensions as two top US officials prepare to visit Beijing.

The nearly two-hour telephone conversation on Tuesday was the two leaders’ first direct interaction since a summit in November in California that saw a marked thaw in tone, if not the long-term rivalry, between the world’s two largest economies.

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China sets challenging GDP target in face of regional tensions and ageing population

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Economists say 5% target is ambitious, as premier Li Qiang tells annual gathering that global economy and problems at home are presenting hurdles to recovery

China has set its target for GDP growth at 5%, in line with analysts’ expectations for another year of historically modest ambitions for the economy, amid regional tensions and its demographic crisis.

China’s premier, Li Qiang, spoke of the “challenges” facing China’s leaders as he delivered his annual government work report on Tuesday. He cited the global economy and regional tensions as hurdles for China’s recovery, as well as domestic issues such as low consumer demand in a challenging labour market.

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Intrigue swirls about possible reshuffles as China’s parliament convenes

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Policy blueprint to be set out for year ahead and big personnel changes may be announced

Thousands of delegates are due to arrive in Beijing this weekend for China’s most high-profile political gathering, a closely observed series of meetings that will lay out the government’s policy blueprint for the year ahead.

The event, known as the “two sessions”, begins on Monday as China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC) convenes alongside a separate but parallel meeting of the country’s top political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

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Taiwan considers joining ICC to deter potential China invasion

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Joining court would allow investigation of Xi Jinping if he were to order act of war against Taiwan

Taiwan’s government is considering joining the international criminal court, in part to increase deterrence of a Chinese attack or invasion.

Supporters also say it would help universalise the international legal system, which has a low presence in Asia, and increase Taiwan’s global participation at a time when Beijing works to keep it as isolated as possible.

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China names former navy chief Dong Jun as new defence minister

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Appointment comes two months after Li Shangfu was ousted from the role amid corruption allegations

China has announced the appointment of a new defence minister, two months after the previous office holder Li Shangfu was stripped from his position without explanation.

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress – China’s de facto legislature – announced on Friday that Dong Jun, 62, would be the new defence minister. Dong was most recently the chief of China’s navy.

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China to rule on appeals in case of detained human rights lawyers

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Ding Jiaxi and Xu Zhiyong are leading figures in the thwarted New Citizens’ Movement group of activists and lawyers

A Chinese court is to rule in the appeals of detained human rights lawyers Ding Jiaxi and Xu Zhiyong, as Ding’s wife called on China’s top judge to “rectify the miscarriage of justice” in their case.

Ding and Xu are leading figures in China’s thwarted New Citizens’ Movement, a loose network of activists and lawyers concerned with human rights and government corruption. In April, the men were sentenced to more than a decade in prison for subversion of state power, in a ruling that was criticised by the UN’s human rights chief. Ding received a 12-year sentence, while Xu’s was 14 years.

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Xi critic who fled on jetski to South Korea will die if sent back to China, says father

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Fears South Korean court will impose harsh penalty on Kwon Pyong to appease Beijing

The father of a Chinese dissident detained in South Korea said his son will die if he is sent back to China, a country he escaped from on a jetski in a life-threatening journey in August.

A court in South Korea will decide on Thursday the fate of Kwon Pyong, who is charged with violating the immigration control act. Kwon, 35, pleaded guilty and appealed for leniency as prosecutors requested a sentence of two and a half years, which experts say is unusually harsh.

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Taiwan reports increased Chinese military drills nearby

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Defence ministry detects nine Chinese aircraft crossing Taiwan Strait’s median line after tensions were a focus of Biden-Xi talks at Apec summit

Taiwan has reported renewed Chinese military activity including nine aircraft crossing the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait and warships carrying out “combat readiness patrols”.

Democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has complained for the past four years of regular Chinese military patrols and drills near the island, as Beijing seeks to pressure Taipei over its sovereignty claims.

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Fire in China coal company office kills 26

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At least 38 injured in the blaze at Yongju coal mine company in Lyuliang City, north China’s Shanxi province.

A fire that erupted in the office of a coal company in northern China has killed 26 people, state media said on Thursday, the latest in a series of deadly accidents in the coal industry.

At least 38 people were injured in the blaze, which broke out at the four-storey Yongju Coal Industry Joint Building in the country’s top coal-producing hub of Shanxi. Calls to the company by the Reuters news agency were not answered.

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China praises ‘warm’ Xi-Biden meeting in change of rhetoric

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Foreign ministry says US and China have ‘most important bilateral relationship in the world’ after leaders’ talks

China has praised the “warm” meeting between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden in California, in a marked shift of rhetoric after months of negotiations aimed at restabilising what has been a testy relationship.

A readout from China’s foreign ministry said the US-China relationship was “the most important bilateral relationship in the world” and that “a stable and growing China is good for the United States and the whole world”.

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Xi Jinping suggests China will send new pandas to US as ‘envoys of friendship’

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Chinese president signalled that the pandas would be sent after his first face-to-face meeting with Joe Biden in 12 months

Chinese president Xi Jinping signalled on Wednesday evening that China will send new pandas to the United States, calling them “envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples”.

“We are ready to continue our cooperation with the United States on panda conservation, and do our best to meet the wishes of the Californians so as to deepen the friendly ties between our two peoples,” Xi said during a dinner speech with business leaders.

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Joe Biden hails progress after Xi Jinping talks but Taiwan still the sticking point

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Account of the summit from China’s foreign ministry was mixed, portraying Xi as having taken a tough line, telling Biden to stop arming Taiwan

Joe Biden has claimed that his summit meeting with Xi Jinping has brought substantial progress, including agreements on limiting narcotics trafficking, restoring militaries lines of communication, and to start talking about the global risks posed by artificial intelligence.

However, it was clear that after more than four hours of talks in a mansion outside San Francisco, the meeting had not brought the US and China any closer on the fate of Taiwan, which Xi reportedly told Biden was “the biggest, most potentially dangerous issue in US-China relations”.

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‘Planet Earth is big enough for two’: Biden and Xi meet for first time in a year

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US and Chinese presidents meet in San Francisco to discuss the economy, climate, military relations and Taiwan

Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met in California on Wednesday, exchanging handshakes and smiles as they embarked on face-to-face dialogues that both sides hope will stabilise US-China relations.

The US president opened his remarks by saying that tensions between the two countries should “not veer into conflict”.

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Biden: China and US military to resume ‘open, clear communications on a direct basis’ – as it happened

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Despite the US and China’s joint climate plan being welcomed by experts, the plan lacks specific emission reductions or a commitment to phase out fossil fuels.

The Guardian’s Oliver Milman reports:

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