The source of the tension between the neighbours is a disputed 3,440km (2,100 mile) de facto border along the Himalayas – called the Line of Actual Control, or LAC – which is poorly demarcated. The presence of rivers, lakes and snow caps means the line can shift in places. BBC
The disappearances in fact have happened during a tense period in the Taiwan Strait, with China sending more warships and military jets there in recent weeks. Some would be concerned about “issues of communication, escalation and crisis management,” said Ian Chong, a non-resident fellow at the Carnegie China think tank. BBC
While the US may be talking to China to put pressure on North Korea to stop any cooperation, it may be unlikely China would do this, said Mr Korolev. “If China wanted to play ball the American way, they had more than a year” to stop the war but they have not, he said. BBC
Li – who first rose to fame in 2017 when he started hosting online sales sessions on shopping platform Taobao – is one of China’s most successful salesmen. He hawks a a range of products from food to cosmetics and homeware, and reportedly sells millions of dollars’ worth of items every night. He earned the moniker Lipstick King by once selling 150,000 lipsticks within five minutes. Over the years, Li has garnered some 150 million followers across multiple platforms – that number has shrunk since his controversial comments. BBC
Nevertheless, he noted in his latest analysis, “it would be remarkable” that after more than a decade of Mr Xi in power “there is still such high-level corruption [in the military], and for the Rocket Force officers and Li Shangfu, Xi cannot blame his predecessors”. BBC
“By being the first to name an ambassador post-takeover, China aims to position itself as an influential actor in the region – a possible diplomatic flexing of muscles, especially when many Western countries are still hesitant to engage with the Taliban,” said Farwa Aamer, Director of South Asia Initiatives at the Asia Society Policy Institute. BBC
Mr Chong said he also learned through Canadian intelligence that Beijing had been gathering information on him, as well as his relatives in Hong Kong, for the last three years. In 2021, Mr Chong put forward a motion in parliament that declared China’s treatment of its Uyghur minority population a genocide. BBC
Ernie, touted as Baidu’s answer to ChatGPT, was introduced with great fanfare in recent weeks, pumping up the company’s shares. Baidu said it had received 33.42 million user enquiries within the first 24 hours of operation, averaging 23,000 questions per minute. BBC
First released on China’s version of TikTok, Douyin, the series has been played 270 million times on the platform. It has also seen its creators, who claim to be independent content makers, gaining more than five million followers on Chinese social media apps within one week. BBC
But he added that the summit’s chair – India – the US and “every other member” of the G20 would encourage China to “come in in a constructive way on climate, on multilateral development bank reform, on debt relief, on technology, and set aside the geopolitical questions and really focus on problem-solving and delivering for the developing countries”. BBC