Tag: China News

Australian lawmakers talk up security cooperation during Taiwan visit

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A leading Australian opposition lawmaker visiting Taiwan this week has highlighted the importance of security cooperation between Taiwan and Australia. In a meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen Monday, Andrew Wallace, the deputy chair of Australia’s Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, said that in an ever-changing geopolitical landscape, security cooperation is “paramount.” “Taiwan and Australia both recognize the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. Our partnership, our strategic partnership, contributes significantly to regional security,” he said. Wallace is one of a group of five…

Top Chinese official to visit North Korea this week

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China’s third highest-ranking official Zhao Leji will visit North Korea this week, Beijing and Pyongyang said Tuesday, as the two countries mark 75 years of diplomatic ties. Zhao, who is a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo and is China’s top lawmaker, “will lead a Chinese party and government delegation to pay an official goodwill visit from April 11 to 13”, foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said. Beijing is North Korea’s most important ally and economic benefactor, their relationship forged in the bloodshed of the…

Taiwan war games to simulate repelling Chinese drill that turns into attack

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Taipei, Taiwan —  Taiwan’s annual war games this year will practice “kill” zones at sea to break a blockade and simulate a scenario where China suddenly turns one of its regular drills around the island into an actual attack, the defense ministry said on Tuesday. China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its territory, has been staging regular exercises around the island for the past four years, to pressure Taipei to accept Beijing’s claim of sovereignty, despite Taiwan’s strong objections. Taiwan starts its main annual Han Kuang exercises this month…

From overcapacity to TikTok, issues covered during Janet Yellen’s trip to China

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Beijing —  U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and her team are leaving China and returning to Washington after trying to tackle the major questions of the day between the countries. Here’s a look at what she tried to accomplish, what was achieved, and where things stand for the world’s two largest economies: Unfair trade practices Yellen said she wanted to go into the U.S.-China talks to address a major Biden administration complaint that Beijing’s economic model and trade practices put American companies and workers at an unfair competitive disadvantage by…

Chinese nationalist trolls pretend to be Trump supporters ahead of US elections

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washington —  British researchers say Chinese nationalist trolls have been posing as American supporters of former President Donald Trump on X to try to exploit domestic divisions ahead of the U.S. election. A report released April 1 by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London think tank, says it found four previous Mandarin-tweeting accounts that went silent before re-emerging as American Trump supporter personas tweeting in English. It linked them to China’s so-called Spamouflage network, which it described as a “long-running and widespread but largely ineffective” campaign to promote pro-Chinese…

Russia’s Lavrov visits Beijing to discuss Ukraine war, Asia-Pacific situation 

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Beijing on Monday to highlight diplomatic ties and to discuss the war in Ukraine and the situation in the Asia-Pacific region. The meeting between Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, comes as the two countries align on several issues and have increasingly been in disputes with democracies and NATO members. Lavrov’s visit will last until Tuesday and coincides with the end of U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s four days of talks in Beijing to speak with Chinese officials about economic issues. Yellen…

Sweden expels Chinese journalist, calling her threat to national security, report says

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Copenhagen, Denmark —  Sweden has expelled a Chinese journalist, saying the reporter was a threat to national security, Swedish media reported on Monday. The journalist, an unnamed, 57-year-old woman, was arrested by the Swedish security service in October and expelled by the government in Stockholm last week, Swedish broadcaster SVT reported. She is banned from returning. The woman arrived in the Scandinavian country some 20 years ago. She held a residence permit and was married to a Swedish man, with whom she has children, according to the broadcaster. The woman…

Yellen says US will not accept Chinese imports decimating new industries 

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BEIJING —  U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned China on Monday that Washington will not accept new industries being decimated by Chinese imports as she wrapped up four days of meetings to press her case for Beijing to rein in excess industrial capacity. Yellen told a media conference that U.S. President Joe Biden would not allow a repeat of the “China shock” of the early 2000s, when a flood of Chinese imports destroyed about 2 million American manufacturing jobs. She did not, however, threaten new tariffs or other trade actions…

US, Britain, Australia weigh expanding AUKUS security pact to deter China

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London —  The U.S., Britain and Australia are set to begin talks on bringing new members into their AUKUS security pact as Washington pushes for Japan to be involved as a deterrent against China, the Financial Times reported. The countries’ defense ministers will announce discussions Monday on “Pillar Two” of the pact, which commits the members to jointly developing quantum computing, undersea, hypersonic, artificial intelligence and cyber technology, the newspaper reported Saturday, citing people familiar with the situation. They are not considering expanding the first pillar, which is designed to…

China’s commerce minister due in Paris for EV talks

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Paris —  China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao is due in Paris Sunday for talks that are expected to cover China’s fast-growing export of cheap electric vehicles (EVs) into the European market. Four sources briefed on Wang’s trip told Reuters in late March that the discussions would focus on a European Commission investigation into whether China’s EV industry has benefited from unfair subsidies. European carmakers have a fight on their hands to produce lower-cost electric vehicles and erase China’s lead in developing cheaper models. The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm…