Category: BBC

India and China will restart direct flights between the countries this month, India’s foreign ministry has said, in another step towards ties being gradually normalised. There have been no direct flights between the two countries since 2020, following deadly troop clashes on their shared Himalayan border. But over the past year or so, Delhi and Beijing have been working towards re-building ties, including taking steps to de-escalate tensions at the border. On Thursday, India’s biggest budget airline IndiGo said that it would restart direct flights between the cities of Kolkata…

A Chinese national has been convicted of playing a key role in what is believed to be the single largest cryptocurrency seizure in the world, worth more than £5.5bn ($7.4bn). Zhimin Qian, also known as Yadi Zhang, pleaded guilty on Monday at Southwark Crown Court, London of illegally acquiring and possessing the cryptocurrency. Between 2014 and 2017, she led a large-scale scam in China by cheating more than 128,000 victims and storing the stolen funds in bitcoin assets, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement. The Met said the 47-year-old’s…

A pro-democracy campaigner who fled Hong Kong said he was denied entry to Singapore even though he had been granted a visa. Nathan Law, who lives in exile in the UK, said he arrived in Singapore on Saturday to attend a “closed-door, invitation-only” conference but was detained at the border for four hours. “I was not asked questions and they did not give reason for the denial,” the 32-year-old told the BBC. In a separate statement, Mr Law said he believes it was for “political” reasons. “I am unsure whether…

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order, approving a proposal that would allow TikTok to continue operating in the US under American ownership. But details of the deal have not been confirmed by China, or the app’s Chinese owner ByteDance. The BBC’s Suranjana Tewari explains everything we know so far about how the deal might work. BBC

Two teenagers who peed into a pot of broth at a hotpot restaurant have been ordered to pay 2.2m yuan ($309,000; £227,000) to two catering companies in China. The incident, which happened in February at a Shanghai branch of China’s biggest hotpot chain Haidilao, sparked widespread criticism after the 17-year-olds posted a video of their drunken act online. There is no suggestion that anyone consumed the contaminated broth but Haidilao had offered to pay thousands of diners who dined at the restaurant in the days following the incident. In March,…

US and Chinese officials will hold a second day of trade talks in Spain on Monday as the deadline for the Chinese owner of TikTok to find a buyer or face a ban in America looms. The negotiations, led by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, are the latest attempt to end a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. Top level trade delegations from Beijing and Washington last met in July, when they struck a deal to extend their tariffs truce by another…

US space agency Nasa has blocked Chinese citizens with valid US visas from its facilities – a move that effectively bars them from working at one of the most respected space research centres. Chinese nationals, who could only work at Nasa as contractors or students contributing to research, found out on 5 September that they had lost all access to Nasa’s systems and facilities, Bloomberg news reported, citing sources. Nasa then confirmed this, saying Chinese nationals would be restricted from using the agency’s “facilities, materials and networks to ensure the…

Donald Trump has rejected suggestions that the warming of relations between China, Russia and their allies poses a challenge to the US on the global stage. The US president told reporters in the Oval Office that he had “a good relationship” with President Xi Jinping and that China “needs us more than we need them”. It comes as Xi prepares to host world leaders at a “Victory Day” parade in Beijing on Wednesday – a showcase of China’s military might. Xi will be joined by North Korea’s Kim Jong Un…

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have kicked off bilateral talks in Beijing, on the eve of a massive military parade in the Chinese capital. Putin hailed relations between both countries saying they were on an “unprecedented level”, adding that their “close communication reflects the strategic nature of Russian-Chinese ties.” “Dear friend, both I and the entire Russian delegation are pleased to meet once again with our Chinese friends and colleagues,” Putin told Xi, according to a video published on the Kremlin’s official Telegram messaging app.…

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un will attend a military parade in Beijing next week alongside Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China has said, in what will be a landmark visit. This is Kim’s first multilateral international meeting, making the event a diplomatic win for China’s Xi Jinping who has been pushing for a new Beijing-led world order. It allows Xi to signal his influence – although limited – on both Putin and Kim at a time when Washington is attempting to make a deal with Moscow to end the war in…