China’s top diplomat on Thursday scolded the United States and touted his country’s closer ties with Russia. The comments came on the sidelines of a meeting of China’s parliament. More from VOA’s Bill Gallo, who is in the Chinese capital. (Camera: William Gallo) Voice of America
TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi Thursday criticized the United States for trying to suppress China’s rise through sanctions and reiterated Beijing’s commitment to uphold the multipolar world order with partners such as Russia. Speaking to local and foreign media during the annual meeting of China’s rubber-stamp parliament, Wang said while relations between China and the United States have improved since the summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in November, Washington’s misconception of China remains strong and it has not honored the promises…
A former Google software engineer was charged with four counts of federal trade secret theft for an alleged plan to steal artificial intelligence technology from Google while also secretly working for two China-based companies, according to a Justice Department indictment Wednesday. Linwei Ding, a Chinese national, was arrested Wednesday in Newark, California. Hired by Google in 2019, he was granted access to confidential information about the company’s supercomputing data centers. He allegedly began uploading hundreds of files to a personal Google Cloud account between May 2022 and May 2023. While…
New Delhi — India has commissioned a new naval base on an island that lies off its southwest coast, as it looks to strengthen its presence in the Indian Ocean amid growing concerns about China’s expanding footprint in the strategic waters and a downturn in ties with the Maldives. The base, called INS Jatayu, lies on Minicoy, the southernmost island in India’s Lakshadweep archipelago, which straddles key trade routes. It will be India’s second naval base on the archipelago and is closer to the Maldives. After commissioning the base Wednesday,…
Members of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations are urging calm among those who operate in the increasingly volatile South China Sea. The plea was made Wednesday in a joint statement between ASEAN and Australia at the end of a three-day summit in Melbourne. The summit marked the 50th anniversary of Australia establishing formal ties with ASEAN. The declaration said Australia and ASEAN “recognize the benefits of having the South China Sea as a sea of peace, stability and prosperity,” and encouraged “all countries to avoid any unilateral actions”…
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation on Tuesday to give China’s ByteDance about six months to divest popular short video app TikTok or face a U.S. ban, seeking to tackle national security concerns about its Chinese ownership. The bill is the first significant legislative move in nearly a year toward banning or forcing ByteDance to divest the popular app, after Senate legislation to ban it stalled in Congress last year in the face of heavy lobbying by TikTok. Mike Gallagher, the Republican chairperson of the House…
When China opened its annual National People’s Congress in Beijing on Tuesday, one rising star from last year’s gathering was absent: former foreign minister Qin Gang. Ahead of this year’s meetings, China’s state media announced that Qin had resigned as an NPC delegate. That announcement, however, did little to unify opinion as to why Qin has not been seen in public since late June of last year and why he was abruptly removed from office seven months after he started. Reports citing anonymous and connected sources have suggested that his…
The White House says it looks forward to working with the new Indonesian administration but stopped short of congratulating Prabowo Subianto on his apparent victory in Indonesia’s presidential election last month. Prabowo, for his part, has vowed to continue a policy that allows Jakarta to reap Chinese investments while maintaining security ties with Washington. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report. Voice of America
Taipei, Taiwan — China’s top leaders set an ambitious economic growth target of 5% for 2024 Tuesday, vowing to “seek progress while maintaining stability” amid a sluggish economy and weak confidence among investors and consumers. Delivering his first work report since assuming the second-most powerful position in China last October, Chinese Premier Li Qiang acknowledged that China faces an environment characterized by opportunities, risks, and challenges but emphasized that favorable conditions still outweigh unfavorable factors, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency. In the face of weak economic growth worldwide…
The Philippines Coast Guard says one of its ships was damaged after a collision with a Chinese Coast Guard vessel in the South China Sea Tuesday. In a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela said Chinese coast guard ships carried out “dangerous maneuvers” against two Philippine coast guard ships, one of which sustained minor structural damage. A separate statement by the Philippines’ task force on the South China Sea said four crewmen aboard the other vessel were injured when…