Day: November 15, 2023

No end in sight to China’s property crisis as new home prices post sharpest decline since February 2015

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Home prices in major Chinese cities fell for the fourth straight month in October, recording the steepest drop in nearly nine years, as demand continues to slump despite measures to support the market. Prices of new homes in 70 medium and large cities fell 0.4 per cent month on month, the most since a 0.5 per cent decline in February 2015, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Thursday. Prices fell 0.3 per cent in September. Fifty-six of the cities tracked saw prices of new homes fall last…

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

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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”. Furthermore, Biden himself…

Biden-Xi Talks Lead to Little but a Promise to Keep Talking

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President Biden said on Wednesday that four hours of discussion with President Xi Jinping of China had brought about two significant agreements, on curbing fentanyl production and on military-to-military communications. But both American and Chinese accounts of their first encounter in a year indicated little progress on the issues that have pushed the two nations to the edge of conflict. Emerging from the talks, and a brief walk with Mr. Xi on the grounds of a mansion south of San Francisco, Mr. Biden told reporters that the conversation had been…

Three key takeaways from Biden’s meeting with China’s president Xi Jinping – video

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US president Joe Biden sat down with China’s president Xi Jinping for the first bilateral discussion between the leaders in 12 months. Speaking to media afterwards, Biden elaborated on three key components of the discussions including a collaborative effort to stop the flow of Fentanyl from China to the West, the ongoing threat of AI and re-establishing direct military communication. The Guardian

N Korea, Russia strengthen key sector ties, risk UN sanctions breach

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North Korea and Russia agreed to further boost their cooperation in various sectors, including the economy, science, and technology – a development that could create potential loopholes in the United Nations sanctions aimed at curbing Pyongyang’s nuclear program. Officials of Pyongyang and Moscow signed a protocol that vows the expansion of the bilateral cooperation in North Korea’s capital Wednesday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said. “The Protocol of the 10th Meeting of the Trade, Economic and Scientific Cooperation Commission between the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of…

Xi Invites ‘Old Friends’ From Iowa to California Dinner

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Washington —  Among the guests at a $2,000-a-plate dinner for Xi Jinping Wednesday night was Luca Berrone, attending as a guest of the Chinese government. The Des Moines businessman worked with the volunteer-driven Iowa Sister States program to establish a relationship with Hebei Province in 1983. It was a connection made with corn and solidified with soybeans by an organization that “is dedicated to connecting Iowans with to the world community.” The group’s mission, it says “is to develop and implement programs that promote the cultural, economic and other interests…

Takeaways From Biden’s Long-awaited Meeting With Xi

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WASHINGTON —  It was a meeting a year in the making. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping sat down together on Wednesday just outside of San Francisco, where Asian leaders gathered for an annual summit. It was almost exactly one year since their last encounter in Bali, Indonesia, on the sidelines of another global gathering. In addition to a formal bilateral meeting, Biden and Xi shared a lunch with top advisers and strolled the verdant grounds of the luxury estate where their meeting took place. There’s no word…

Joe Biden reaffirms stance on Taiwan, confirms agreement on new talks at meeting on Apec sidelines

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The US and China agreed to cooperate in fighting fentanyl and other narcotics, engage on managing artificial intelligence, resume military to military contacts and maintain the status quo on Taiwan, US President Joe Biden said after his first direct talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in a year. “We’ve made some important progess,” on measures to stop the flow of fentanyl into the US, Biden said in a press briefing after the meeting, flanked by two American flags. “What I’ve said since I’ve become president, what every previous president of…

Biden and Xi agree to resume high-level military communication

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Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the US-China relations myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have reached an agreement to resume communications between their countries’ militaries at a summit in San Francisco designed to stabilise relations after several years of rising concern about possible conflict over Taiwan. At a press conference on Wednesday following his meeting with Xi, Biden said the two countries had reached a series of agreements, including a commitment from China to…