China’s top UN diplomat slammed the US on Friday over its coercive behaviour, sanctioning of Chinese vessels and firms and for starting the Iran war along with Israel as Beijing assumed the rotating one-month presidency of the UN Security Council. The verbal blast came as Washington heaped more pressure on China on Friday by sanctioning a China-based petroleum terminal operator, the latest in a string of recent US moves to cut off Chinese funding to Iran under what the White House has dubbed...
China’s food supply could be vulnerable to global price spikes triggered by extreme weather or global conflict, as international bodies warn the US-Israel war on Iran is worsening food insecurity worldwide. The country has sufficient staple grain supplies, but Beijing said the nation’s food sector still faced structural challenges, including a weak processing industry and a lack of high-quality crop varieties in some areas. These weaknesses could pose problems for China if global food markets...
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Vietnamese leader To Lam are the latest world leaders to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping amid global trade tensions and the war in Iran. Xi also this week met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The president of Mozambique arrives in China this week as well. US President Donald Trump delayed his trip to China to May 14-15 in order to focus on the conflict in the Middle...
China is pushing a ceasefire in the Iran war as key to the Strait of Hormuz being open to international trade and energy, as US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping naval operation targeting the oil transit chokepoint. Guo Jiakun, a foreign ministry spokesman, said during a daily press briefing on Monday that the strait was an important channel for international trade in goods and energy, and that “maintaining its safety, stability and unimpeded passage serves the common interests of the...
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said more work is needed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.