World News by Wild Rose

The setting may have been casual but the choice was not when the Communist Party boss of a northeastern Chinese province sat down with digital content creators at a coffee shop on Wednesday. Jilin province party secretary Huang Qiang invited the influencers to the relaxed setting of the Songyuan Coffee Shop in Changchun to encourage them to “actively promote mainstream values and spread positive energy”. According to a local government statement, Huang and the participants also exchanged views...

When China and the United States agreed in May to frame their relationship as a “constructive relationship of strategic stability”, the phrase left many observers trying to guess what it actually meant. Four months on, they have added an elaboration that offers further insight into the two sides’ respective priorities. After presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump met in Washington last month, the two sides pledged to build a “constructive relationship of strategic stability on the basis of...

China’s cooperation with the Pacific islands is not part of a geopolitical competition, top diplomat Wang Yi told a delegation of politicians from the region on Friday. The comments come as Beijing and Washington vie for influence in the South Pacific. “China’s engagement with Pacific island countries is a form of South-South cooperation based on mutual assistance and support,” Wang said, according to a statement from the Communist Party’s International Department. “This cooperation does not...

China should avoid taking a “confrontational posture” over a new security pact between the United States, Denmark and Greenland as it might end up being excluded from engagement on the emerging Arctic order. That was the warning from Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s National Institute of Strategic Studies (NISS), a Chinese think tank, in a report released on Wednesday. It also said the US was unlikely to turn the northern polar region into its “exclusive strategic backyard”. The report noted that...

China and the Philippines have traded accusations over a medical evacuation near the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, as Manila reports a near-doubling of Chinese military and coastguard vessels around contested South China Sea features in September. The latest exchange centred on the evacuation on Thursday of an injured Filipino serviceman from the BRP Sierra Madre, a Philippine naval vessel grounded on Second Thomas Shoal decades ago. Known as Renai Jiao in China and Ayungin Shoal in the...

Chinese President Xi Jinping was busy travelling abroad last month. In September, he paid a historic state visit to the United States, his first to the country in more than a decade. He also made his first visit to India in seven years, meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the Brics summit. China will host the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November, where Xi will meet US President Donald Trump for the third time this year. During the summit, Xi is...

Two summits in five months between US President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping have produced shared language but not an open Strait of Hormuz. After the May meeting in Beijing, there was little sign the two sides agreed on how to end the war. Xi’s visit to Washington yielded no breakthrough on Iran, though Xi backed a return to the interim US-Iran agreement. Last week, Trump rejected a truce proposal from Iran and said he was considering resuming US bombing of Iran after the midterm...

An aide to Russia’s president arrived in China on Thursday for a visit that will be closely watched for signs of preparation for a possible trilateral summit with the US during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ meeting next month. Nikolai Patrushev, who is also chairman of Russia’s Maritime Board, was set to hold talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Wednesday. Leading a delegation that included representatives from government...

Rio Times · Asia Intelligence Brief October 7, 2026 — China rejects UN human-rights criticism as politically motivated; Asian markets retreat on oil and Gulf risk; India awaits a hawkish rate signal; Taiwan receives first F-16V Block 70 jets. The post Asia Intelligence Brief — Wednesday, October 7, 2026 appeared first on The Rio Times.

“Morally bankrupt”? Was Michigan Republican John Moolenaar talking about himself? Last week, the chairman of the House Select Committee on China demanded that Starbucks “immediately reverse course and close its stores”. The coffee chain’s crime? It opened two stores in Urumqi – the capital of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region – in the city centre’s Grand Bazaar and its international airport. The way Moolenaar talked about it, you would think Starbucks was committing genocide and crimes against...

Hong Kong and mainland Chinese residents will have to register with immigration authorities on both sides of the border to use automated “joint clearance” channels at the revamped Huanggang Port crossing, with around 100,000 travellers a day expected to use the control point when operations begin. Hong Kong’s Immigration Department would deploy sufficient manpower to help passengers register at the checkpoint, assistant director Jacky Wong Ki said on Tuesday. “The whole registration process at...

In 2019, President Xi Jinping became the first Chinese leader to publicly call for the exploration of detailed proposals for governing Taiwan after reunification. Seven years later, the first proposals from a handful of the mainland’s leading research institutes have either been finalised or are nearing completion, the South China Morning Post has learned. Rather than setting out a single fixed model, scholars involved in those studies told the SCMP there should be different scenarios based on...

Mainland Chinese prefer coercion over military force to settle the “reunification question” with Taiwan, and their opinion of the US remains low, although they favour engaging with Washington on trade and security. These are the results from the latest survey of Mainland citizens, conducted between April 16 and June 26. This straddled the first summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing but came before the second one in Washington last month. “The...

Zheng Yongnian is a political scientist in China and a government adviser. His academic work is mainly about contemporary China, particularly politics, the country’s transformation and its external relations. This interview first appeared in SCMP Plus. For other interviews in the Open Questions series, click here. Many have offered a lukewarm assessment of the Xi-Trump summit in Washington, citing the lack of a breakthrough. What is your take? There are two primary views right now. One is...

Beijing has been urged to do more to protect its overseas interests with a call for diplomatic engagement to reshape international rules and deeper security cooperation with other countries. As China’s expanding global footprint comes under pressure from geopolitics and restrictions from the West, a Chinese analysis posted on the Global Security Research social media account has called for a major shift in strategy. The author was not identified, but the account regularly posts analysis and...

Beijing has hit back at a US lawmaker’s criticism of coffee chain Starbucks for opening its first stores in Xinjiang, rejecting the allegation that China has committed human rights abuses against the far-western region’s mostly Muslim Uygur population. Foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun on Saturday said claims of “genocide” in Xinjiang were a “blatant lie” and accused the “US group” who raised the suggestions of attacking Beijing for political purposes. “Today’s Xinjiang enjoys social...

Zheng Yongnian is a political scientist in China and a government adviser. His academic work is mainly about contemporary China, particularly politics, the country’s transformation and its external relations. SCMP Plus readers get early access to articles in the Open Questions series. Many have offered a lukewarm assessment of the Xi-Trump summit in Washington, citing the lack of a breakthrough. What is your take? There are two primary views right now. One is nihilism, which holds that China and...

A meeting next month between the leaders of the world’s three biggest nuclear powers is possible but hinges on the three sides finding common ground and setting realistic expectations about outcomes, according to analysts. National Day congratulations from Moscow to Beijing on Thursday fanned speculation that the leaders of China, Russia and the United States could meet at the Apec summit in Shenzhen next month. In a letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir...

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering US-China relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Trade, Taiwan and ‘strategic stability’: key Xi-Trump takeaways overall Here are the key takeaways from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s whirlwind 43-hour trip to the United States, his first state visit to the country in more than a decade, after US President Donald Trump pulled out all the...

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering Latin American relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China pledges to ‘firmly support’ Cuba as US escalates pressure on Havana China will stand by Cuba in defending its sovereignty and resisting outside interference, foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said as Washington stepped up its campaign to force political change in Havana. Read...

China’s ruling Communist Party is marking 90 years since the end of the Long March with exhibitions, tours, film and television productions as it tries to mobilise the nation to contribute to its vision for the future. Ahead of the October 22 anniversary, commemorative activities are under way to promote the history of the Long March and revive its “spirit”. The Long March was an epic retreat between 1934 and 1936 by the party’s Red Army to evade Kuomintang, or Nationalist, forces during the...

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he discussed the release of political prisoners in China with his counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Washington last week. “We talked, and I think we had some very, very important discussions. Hopefully fruitful discussions,” Trump told reporters in the White House. Families had stepped up pressure on the Trump administration to push Beijing to release their loved ones ahead of Xi’s three-day state visit. Trump was asked whether he had raised the cases...

We have put together stories from our coverage of the Xi-Trump summit. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Why Xi Jinping skipped the UN after his Trump summit Han Zheng, China’s vice-president, called on “major countries” to respect the sovereignty and security of Middle Eastern nations and bring about a two-state solution for the “Palestinian question” on Saturday at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in an implicit dig at the US and Israel. 2. ‘Right...

China’s top diplomat suggested relations with Japan had deteriorated to a low point unseen in decades, adding pressure on Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to amend her Taiwan remarks.

China’s top diplomat Wang Yi met Japan’s former foreign minister Takeshi Iwaya, who is leading a 50-member delegation of corporate executives, in Beijing on Monday, marking the highest-ranking Chinese official reception for a Japanese visit in nearly a year. During the talks, Wang warned that bilateral relations were facing a “severe situation” and had “yet to be normalised” ahead of next year’s 55th anniversary of diplomatic ties, according to a readout from the Chinese foreign ministry. “A...

Beijing, Sept. 29 (Jiji Press)--Wang Yi, China's top diplomat, urged Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to correct her remarks about Taiwan during his meeting in Beijing Monday with former Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. Japan's leader needs to correct mistaken remarks about the issue of Taiwan as soon as possible, said Wang, foreign minister ...

China will stand by Cuba in defending its sovereignty and resisting outside interference, foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Monday as Washington stepped up its campaign to force political change in Havana. Guo made the remarks at a regular press briefing in Beijing on the 66th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. “No matter how the international landscape evolves, China will firmly support Cuba in exploring the socialist development path suited to its...

President Xi Jinping has ordered China’s security and legal apparatus to relentlessly eliminate risks and build a “safer” country a year ahead of the pivotal 21st Communist Party congress, which will usher in a major leadership reshuffle. The latest instruction, published by state news agency Xinhua on Monday night, is also the Chinese leader’s first major domestic directive since his state visit to Washington last week, signalling a pivot back to the domestic agenda – especially stability. In a...

Competition between China and the US will persist, but increased dialogue between the two economic superpowers will provide greater global certainty and ease geopolitical concerns, with Hong Kong positioned to play a unique role, the city’s financial secretary has told the South China Morning Post. In a wide-ranging interview, Paul Chan Mo-po said more communication and dialogue between the two nations would be “good for everyone”, as Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart, Donald...

For all the solemnity of the B-2 flyover with four F‑22 Raptors and a silent South Lawn drill, the real business of US President Donald Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week was narrower than the choreography. The Chinese readout reiterated the concept that should frame the relationship’s next phase: constructive strategic stability – cooperation as the primary track, competition kept within bounds, differences managed, conflict avoided. Stripped of banquet rhetoric, the...