Chinese President Xi Jinping and Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo have announced a significant elevation in diplomatic relations between the two countries, upgrading their ties to a strategic partnership.
The announcement came during a meeting on Thursday as part of President Akufo-Addo’s visit to Beijing for the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
President Xi expressed China’s readiness to strengthen the alignment of its development strategies with Ghana and to provide further assistance to support Ghana’s growth. He emphasized China’s willingness to deepen collaboration in key sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, energy, mineral resources, and infrastructure, while also seeking continued support for Chinese enterprises and citizens operating in Ghana.
Xi also reaffirmed China’s commitment to backing Ghana’s position on the global stage. Specifically, he highlighted China’s support for Ghana’s membership in the United Nations Human Rights Council for the 2024-2026 term and stressed the importance of enhanced cooperation on international and regional issues.
On his part, President Akufo-Addo thanked China for its long-term support to Ghana, saying that the investment and cooperation of Chinese enterprises has greatly promoted Ghana’s economic and social development.
Despite the strengthening of relations, the issue of Ghana’s debt to China remains a point of concern. A report submitted to the US Congress by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission in December 2023 revealed that Ghana holds the highest amount of debt owed to China, with a total of $31.1 billion in loans accumulated since being declared a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) in 2004. This figure places Ghana ahead of other heavily indebted nations such as Guinea, Ethiopia, and Tanzania.
Vladimir Putin has come to Beijing to meet with Xi Jinping, who he considers a close friend. This trip is meant to highlight the strong alliance between their countries, which they believe has no boundaries.
Putin and his group traveled to Beijing on Tuesday morning, marking only their second trip abroad since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest.
This year, the Russian president is also going on his first official trip outside of the old Soviet Union. He recently visited Kyrgyzstan, which used to be a part of the Soviet Union.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) accuses Putin of taking children out of Ukraine without permission. The ICC makes the 123 countries, who are members, arrest Putin and send him to The Hague for a trial if he visits their land.
Both Kyrgyzstan and China are not part of the ICC, which was created to handle cases of war crimes.
Xi recently saw the person he is often compared to in Moscow a few days after the legal document was given.
He asked Putin to come to a conference in Beijing called the Belt and Road forum, which is organized by the Chinese leader to promote international cooperation. Russian media reported that Putin will go to the forum’s reception and have discussions with the leaders of Vietnam, Thailand, Mongolia, and Laos on Tuesday.
Putin is an important guest at the forum. He will speak after Xi on Wednesday and then have a one-on-one meeting with the Chinese president.
Beijing said no to criticism from the West about its partnership with Moscow, even though the war in Ukraine is still going on. They said their partnership is not breaking any international rules and China can work with any country it wants.
Putin went to China for the Winter Olympics in February 2022. At that time, Russia and China said they would work closely together. But a few days later, Putin sent many soldiers to Ukraine.
Putin will be going to the Belt and Road Forum for the third time, and it will last until Wednesday. He went to the last two meetings in 2017 and 2019.
The forum focuses on the Belt and Road initiative, a big plan started by Xi ten years ago. His goal is to create worldwide infrastructure and energy networks that will connect Asia with Africa and Europe, using both land and sea routes. Putin has said that he likes the idea and thinks it is a good way for countries to work together without forcing anything onto each other.
Since the Ukrainian conflict began, Russia and China have strengthened their energy connections as a sign of their economic collaboration.
Russia sends about two million barrels of oil to China every day, which is more than a third of all the crude oil it exports. Moscow also wants to construct another pipeline that will transport natural gas to China.
The leaders of Russia’s biggest oil and gas companies, Rosneft and Gazprom, will be with Putin when he travels, but we shouldn’t anticipate any new energy deals.
The Kremlin said the trip is not a complete bilateral visit, but rather one that is happening alongside an international conference.
China has made it clear that its leader, Xi Jinping, will not be attending a significant meeting of world leaders in New Delhi this weekend. Instead, Premier Li Qiang will be representing China at the event.
Xi’s presence at the G20 event was uncertain last week after a news report from Reuters suggested that he might not attend. The report relied on information from two Indian diplomats who were not named.
China’s Foreign Ministry stated at a news conference that Li will be going to the summit on Saturday and Sunday, but they didn’t mention Xi.
Mao Ning, who speaks for the ministry, avoided answering a reporter’s question about why Xi is not at the G20 summit. This would be the first time China’s leader has missed a G20 summit.
Mao said that China highly values and takes part in important international economic cooperation events, such as the Group of 20. However, Mao did not directly answer the question being asked.
Beijing made an announcement because US President Joe Biden was sad that he won’t be meeting with Xi at the summit.
“I feel sad, but I will still have the opportunity to see him,” Biden informed reporters on Sunday.
Biden had said before to CNN that he would be meeting with Xi in “the autumn”.
They last talked on the sidelines of a meeting called the G20 Summit in Bali, which happened in November last year.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese leader Xi Jinping convened face-to-face to address the de-escalation of tensions along their contested border. It is a crucial encounter as the two countries have not engaged in face-to-face discussions since a lethal confrontation three years back. They reached a consensus to exert significant efforts in order to pacify the situation.
Modi and Xi have arrived in Johannesburg to attend a BRICS gathering.They talked on the side of the summit. On Thursday, India’s Foreign Secretary, Vinay Kwatra, informed reporters of this statement.The day before, the Chinese leader missed an important event. It is unusual for the leaders of India and China, both of which have the highest populations globally, to have personal meetings.
The argument over the border has caused tension between New Delhi and Beijing for a long time. This argument led to a war in 1962, which China won. In the years following that, a poorly defined unofficial border called the Line of Actual Control (LAC) has divided the two countries with nuclear capabilities.
Modi emphasized the importance of keeping peace and tranquility in the border areas and following the Line of Actual Control (LAC). This is crucial for improving the relationship between India and China.
On Friday, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the two leaders had an open and detailed discussion about the current relationship between China and India, along with other topics.
The text means that President Xi said it is important to make China and India’s relationship better,because it is good for both countries and their people. Both sides need to consider the overall benefits of their relationship and manage the border issue carefully to protect peace and calmness in the border area together.
The two countries, India and China, will have a meeting to try and improve their difficult relationship. This meeting is following their 19th round of talks to solve their border problem.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs said that both sides had a good and detailed discussion on resolving the remaining issues on the border in the Western Sector.
Modi and Xi went to a meeting called the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Uzbekistan in September last year. They were both there, but they didn’t talk to each other about important matters. They spokes hortly a few weeks later during the sidelines of the G20leaders’ meeting in Bali, Indonesia.
The relationship between the two countries became worse after a fight in Aksai Chin-Ladakh in 2020. It got even worse last December when soldiers from both sides got into a fight in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh,causing minor injuries.
In April, the defense minister of India told the defense minister of China that when their shared border is crossed, it weakens the foundation of their relationship.
India has implemented multiple measures in response to the 2020 clash, aiming to counter the threats posed by China. Popular Chinese apps like TikTok and others have been banned, as authorities assert that these apps undermine their authority and solidarity.Moreover, they have taken steps to stop Chinese telecommunication companies like Huawei and ZTE from offering their 5G network.
Recently, there has been an increase in restrictions on journalists in both nations, resulting in a limited number of approved reporters in each other’s regions.
New Delhi expresses concern over Beijing’s increasing assertiveness as both countries prioritize their individual interests.Because of this, India has built a stronger relationship with the United States. They are part of a group called the Quad, along with Japan and Australia, which is seen as a way to balance China’s influence.
China opted not to participate in a tourism conference held in the region of Jammu and Kashmir, which was orchestrated by India.They said that they do not agree with having any G20 meetings in disputed territory. Both India and Pakistan say that the Kashmir region belongs to them. India’s choice to hold this year’s SCO online meant that Modi and Xi couldn’t meet in person. Xi is also likely to go to the G20 leaders’ meeting in New Delhi next month.
The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, will travel to South Africa on Monday in an effort to increase Beijing’s influence among rising and developing countries while relations with the United States remain extremely tense and domestic economic problems continue to grow.
A stark contrast to his globe-trotting days of diplomacy prior to the coronavirus outbreak is the three-day state visit, which also includes a summit with the leaders of the BRICS rising economies.
The last time the Chinese leader travelled outside of the nation was in March to meet with his “dear friend” Vladimir Putin in Moscow. There, the two authoritarian strongmen renewed their strategic alliance against the US and outlined their plans for a post-Western world order.
The BRICS grouping’s first in-person summit since the outbreak will give Xi another chance to pursue that ambition.
More than 40% of the world’s population resides in the countries that make up the bloc: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. They both want a more multipolar world and more influence over international affairs.
“Xi Jinping is not attempting to subvert the US’s dominance of the current liberal international order. His long-term objective is to transform the global order into one that is Sino-centric, according to Steve Tsang, head of the University of London’s SOAS China Institute.
Tsang stated that in order to achieve this goal, “it makes sense for China to engage with the Global South, (which is) much more numerous than Western democracies and mostly authoritarian in its governance structure.”
Chen Xiaodong, China’s ambassador to South Africa, praised BRICS as “the backbone of international fairness and justice” and “an important platform for cooperation among emerging and developing nations” ahead of Xi’s arrival on Friday.
The established structure of global governance looks to be dysfunctional, unable to function, and nonexistent. The BRICS will soon “play a leading role in the international community,” Chen told reporters.
A few days ago, US President Joe Biden met with the leaders of Japan and South Korea in a show of power and unity against the growing dangers from China. Now, Xi is travelling to South Africa.
The US and its two closest allies in Asia strengthened their military and economic ties during the Camp Davis meeting, and China was criticised for its “dangerous and aggressive behaviour” in the South China Sea.
According to Paul Nantulya, a research associate at the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies, the BRICS have gained increased strategic significance to Beijing as China and the United States are embroiled in an increasingly bitter rivalry.
Vladimir Putin won’t be present in person, so Xi will be the focus of the BRICS summit, he claimed.
Putin, who is wanted internationally for allegedly committing war crimes in Ukraine, will participate by video from Russia.
“Another multilateral platform through which China can exert influence around the world, especially in the Global South,” was how Nantulya characterised BRICS.
But Xi, who is ten months into his historic third term, is also facing a number of domestic difficulties at the time of the summit.
The long-awaited economic recovery of China following its strict Covid lockdowns is struggling. Instead, a slew of issues, including a growing real estate crisis, rising local government debt, and deflationary pressure, plague the second-largest economy in the world.
The youth unemployment rate in the nation, which just reached back-to-back records highs, is so severe that the Chinese government has stopped disseminating data on it entirely.
Hear how other nations may be harmed and helped by China’s economic decline.
According to Yun Sun, director of the China programme at the Washington-based Stimson Centre think tank, Xi’s diplomatic charm offensive is severely hampered by the faltering economy, particularly in the Global South.
“When Xi travels to underdeveloped nations, it’s customary for China to offer sizable aid, financing, and collaboration packages. But Beijing is no longer as prepared to do that given the situation of the Chinese economy, she said.
His ability to portray the great power leader he once was is limited by the economy.
The populace in China has grown considerably more wary of their government’s extravagant expenditures abroad.
Xi’s premier international infrastructure initiative, the Belt and Road Initiative, has received a lot of criticism on Chinese social media, according to Nantulya.
“Chinese citizens are wondering why China is investing so much money abroad when there are so many issues at home.”
According to Nantulya, the Chinese government has become considerably more picky about which international projects it funds as a result of the economy’s slowdown.
Xi’s journey to Africa is his first in five years.
His most recent trip to the continent, which coincided with the BRICS conference in South Africa, included a flurry of stops in Senegal, Rwanda, and Mauritius, covering nearly the whole Sub-Saharan region.
Beijing has not yet confirmed Xi’s further stops this time.
On the margins of the BRICS meeting, the Chinese leader will co-chair the China-Africa Leaders’ Dialogue with his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, according to China’s Foreign Ministry.
The conference has received invitations from 69 nations overall, including all African governments.
Brics, which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, is sometimes viewed as a replacement for the G7 group of industrialised nations.
After a state visit to Russia in March, Mr. Xi will be travelling abroad for the second time this year.
It comes as the heads of the Brics states are scheduled to meet next week and discuss prospective membership expansion. Several African nations, including Algeria, Egypt, and Ethiopia, have previously expressed a desire to join the union.
Questions about whether the president of Russia would personally attend the conference initially cast a shadow over it; however, the presidency of South Africa later clarified that he would not.
Because South Africa is a signatory to the ICC and is consequently obligated to assist in his arrest, if Mr. Putin had left Russian territory, he would have been subject to an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest order because of the war in Ukraine.
A day after a Chinese delegation took part in international negotiations to settle the conflict that included Kyiv but excluded Moscow, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi assured his Russian counterpart that Beijing continues to be “impartial” on the conflict in Ukraine.
Wang emphasised to Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, in a phone chat on Monday that China and Russia are “trustworthy and reliable good friends and partners.”
According to a readout of the call released by China’s Foreign Ministry, Wang stated, “On the Ukraine crisis, China will uphold an independent and impartial position, sound an objective and rational voice, actively promote peace talks, and strive to seek a political solution on any international multilateral occasion.”
The call came after two days of talks in Saudi Arabia, where nearly 40 countries, including important allies of Ukraine like the US, UK, and Germany, as well as India and several Middle Eastern countries, gathered to talk about resolving the conflict after Moscow’s invasion began almost 18 months ago.
In order to identify “common ground that will pave the way for peace,” the group concluded that it is crucial to engage in international conversation.
According to China’s Foreign Ministry’s readout of the call on Monday, Lavrov “appreciates and welcomes the constructive role played by China” towards a diplomatic resolution of the “Ukraine crisis.”
Dmytro Kuleba, the foreign minister of Ukraine, referred to China’s participation in the discussions in Jeddah as “a super breakthrough and a historic victory.”
Xi Jinping, the leader of China and a self-described buddy of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has long been seen as a potential mediator who may help drive Moscow towards peace, and this expectation has been shared by both Ukraine and its Western allies.
Putin and Xi both saw the other as a key ally in altering what they perceive to be an American-led international order that is antagonistic to their objectives.
Despite Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which Beijing has never denounced, China has continued to strengthen its economic, political, and security ties with Russia.
Despite making efforts in recent months to establish itself as a viable peace mediator in the crisis, it did not send a team to previous international negotiations in Denmark in June.
China’s involvement in the Jeddah meetings coincides with the country’s efforts to reignite its relationship with important European trading partners in the face of economic hardship and continued tension with the United States. China has also been stepping up its ties with Saudi Arabia.
Beijing’s backing of Russia has seriously hurt Beijing’s standing in Europe.
The mission was headed by Li Hui, China’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs, who “had extensive interaction and conversation with all sides on the political settlement of the Ukraine problem… carefully to various points of view and suggestions, furthering the development of global consensus,” China’s foreign ministry said in a statement to Reuters on Monday. The ministry has been contacted by CNN for comment.
However, China’s participation in the negotiations did not seem to change its own position on the dispute.
Following the meetings, the ministry told Reuters that Beijing would continue to strengthen the dialogue based on its 12-point position on a political resolution to the problem.
Beijing’s earlier-in-the-year plan called for negotiations to end the crisis. However, it differs considerably from Ukraine’s own vision for peace in that it advocates for a ceasefire without also urging the evacuation of Russian soldiers, which, according to detractors, would enable Moscow to cement its illegitimate military victories.
Despite the opposing side’s objections, Ukraine and Russia continue to officially support the conditions for direct dialogue.
The Chinese foreign ministry reports that Lavrov and Wang addressed China’s proposal during their phone discussion on Monday, with Lavrov reportedly stating that Russia “highly endorses” it.
Wang called for both parties to “work closely and strategically” to promote a “multi-polar world” and “democratisation of international relations” – terms they used to express their shared vision for a world order where Western countries hold less sway. This conversation also highlighted their alignment in the international arena more generally.
According to an official Russian account of the call, which was released by state-run news agency Tass, the two “once again confirmed unanimity or broad consonance of Moscow and Beijing’s approaches to world affairs.”
According to Tass, “They noted their rejection of the Western bloc’s confrontational policy towards Russia and China, as well as its attempts to stifle their growth through the use of sanctions and other illegal means.”
The two had not spoken since Wang’s surprise reappointment as China’s foreign minister in late July, following the abrupt replacement of Qin Gang, who had served in the position for barely six months.
Prior to being elevated to head the foreign affairs branch of the ruling Chinese Communist Party late last year, Wang served as foreign minister for approximately ten years. He now occupies both positions.
According to Tass, Lavrov wished his Chinese counterpart “great success in his new demanding role” and congratulated him on his appointment.
During a meeting with the 100-year-old former US Secretary of State, who is in Beijing this week on a surprise visit, Chinese leader Xi Jinping praised Kissinger as a “old friend”
According to official broadcaster CCTV, Xi and Kissinger met at the Diaoyutai official Guesthouse, a diplomatic building in western Beijing where Kissinger was welcomed during his first trip to China in 1971.
Xi mentioned in the meeting that Kissinger had since made over 100 trips to China.
The Chinese leader praised Kissinger’s role in normalizing relations between the US and China half a century ago, when the two countries were at a “critical turning point.”
In July 1971, Kissinger became the first high-ranking US official to visit Communist China. His secret meetings with Chinese leaders paved the way for then US President Richard Nixon’s “ice-breaking” trip the following year.
In the decades that followed, US-China ties blossomed alongside their economic interdependence. But in more recent years the relationship between the world’s two largest economies has deteriorated markedly.
For Xi, Kissinger’s presence was a reminder of less rocky times.
“We never forget our old friends, and will never forget your historic contribution to the development of China-US relations and the enhancement of friendship between the two peoples,” Xi told Kissinger.
Kissinger replied that it is a “great honor” to visit China, according to CCTV.
“I am very grateful to the Chinese side for arranging this meeting in Building 5 of the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. This is also the place where I met Chinese leaders for the first time,” Kissinger was quoted as saying.
“The relationship between our two countries is related to world peace and the progress of human society.”
The meeting comes after Kissinger met with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi and Defense Minister Li Shangfu, who has been under US sanction since 2018 over China’s purchase of Russian weapons.
The fact that Kissinger was granted an audience with Xi is indicative of how highly he is regarded by China’s leadership.
His previously unannounced trip overlapped with Kerry’s high-profile visit to Beijing, which saw US and China resume climate talks that had been frozen for nearly a year.
Noticeably, Kerry, who is also a former US Secretary of State, was not granted a meeting with Xi, despite being a serving member of President Joe Biden’s current administration and anticipation by some observers beforehand that such a face to face could be on the cards.
The visit by Kissinger, who said he was in Beijing “as a friend of China,” followed a series of trips by US cabinet officials in recent weeks, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
Blinken was the only US official who secured a meeting with Xi.
US officials have stressed that Kissinger is acting in his capacity as a private citizen and not as an messenger for the Biden administration.
Xi’s meeting with Kissinger is another sign that for China, unofficial people-to-people relations are becoming more important than official ones in its interactions with the US, said Suisheng Zhao, director of the Center for China-US Cooperation at the University of Denver.
Zhao described the trend as “a return to the pre-Nixon years,” before the two countries established diplomatic ties.
Last month, Xi met with American entrepreneur and philanthropist Bill Gates in his first known one-on-one meeting with a Western business figure in years.
Xi called Gates an “old friend” and stressed that he was “the first American friend I’ve seen this year.”
Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, said Xi’s meetings are chosen purposefully to send a signal to the outside world.
“The message is very clear: Xi Jinping wants to meet with the pro-China people, who are willing to speak out for China,” he said. “It is a divide-and-conquer strategy.”
Wu noted that Xi also held a surprise meeting with former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in Beijing Monday, and praised Duterte for making a “strategic choice” to improve ties with Beijing when he was leader.
In addition to who Xi chooses to meet, the setting of the meetings is also a telling sign of the relationship, Wu added.
During his meeting with Blinken in June, Xi was positioned at the head of a table where the rest of the two delegations, including Blinken, sat facing each other on either side.
On Thursday, Xi and Kissinger were seated on the same level across a small tea table in a much more cordial setting.
“The two meetings are very different,” Wu said. “The Chinese are very skilled in shaping the narrative and optics.”
Meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and top American diplomat Antony Blinken on Monday in Beijing might be a key step towards mending US-China relations, which broke down earlier this year after a dispute over a Chinese surveillance balloon.
Blinken is the first US Secretary of State to travel to Beijing in five years, and his discussions with senior Chinese officials are regarded as a crucial litmus test for whether a detente can be established during a period of persistent mistrust.
Uncertainty around whether Xi and Blinken would meet during the two-day visit further highlighted the fraught US-China relations and a failure to schedule a face to face would have been seen by Washington as a slight, breaking with a number of previous visits from top American diplomats.
The meeting, which took place at Beijing’s cavernous Great Hall of the People, was only publicly announced by the US about an hour before it went ahead. It lasted roughly half an hour, beginning at 4:34 p.m. local time and ended at 5:09 p.m., a State Department official said.
“The world needs an overall stable Sino-US relationship, and whether China and the United States can get along has a bearing on the future and destiny of mankind,” Xi told Blinken according to a Chinese readout of the meeting.
“China respects the interests of the United States and will not challenge or replace the United States. Similarly, the United States must also respect China and not harm China’s legitimate rights and interests,” Xi added.
The two global powers have been increasingly at loggerheads over a host of issues ranging from Beijing’s close ties with Moscow to American efforts to limit the sale of advanced technologies to China.
Key among those concerns has been repairing fractured lines of communication, which have broken down over the past year, especially when it comes to high-level military exchanges – raising concerns in Washington that a mistake or accident could quickly spin into conflict.
Earlier this year a Chinese surveillance balloon – detected floating across the US and hovering over sensitive military sites before ultimately being shot down by an American fighter plane – sent relations plunging to a new low and resulted in Blinken scrapping an earlier Beijing visit.
This time, the diplomatic mission went forward.
A roughly three-hour meeting between Blinken and China’s top foreign affairs adviser Wang Yi earlier Monday underscored the deep challenges in overcoming the mistrust and friction that has come to characterize the relationship.
The Chinese government’s growing clout internationally and increasingly authoritarian controls at home have pushed the US to reframe how it manages its relations with the power in recent years.
Repeating Beijing’s typical rhetoric, Wang blamed Washington’s “wrong perception” of China as the “root cause” of the decline in the two sides’ relations and demanded the US stop “suppressing” China’s technological development and hyping the “China threat,” according to a readout from Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
“We must reverse the downward spiral of China-US relations, promote a return to a healthy and stable track, and jointly find the right way for China and the United States to co-exist in the new era,” Wang said, adding that Blinken’s visit came at “a critical juncture in US-China relations, where a choice needs to be made between dialogue or confrontation, cooperation or conflict.”
Wang also reiterated that Taiwan is one of one of China’s “core interests,” over which it “has no room for compromise or backdown.”
The self-ruling democratic island, which China’s ruling Communist Party claims but has never controlled, has increasingly been another flashpoint in the US-China relationship.
During the meeting, Blinken underscored the need for the countries to “responsibly” manage their competition through “open channels of communication” to ensure it “does not veer into conflict,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.
The US would continue to use its diplomacy to “stand up for the interests and values of the American people,” Blinken said, according to the statement, which described the talks as “candid and productive” and said they including discussion of potential cooperation on shared transnational challenges.
Overall, Wang’s comments took a more combative tone than those of China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who met with Blinken the previous day. Qin said both sides agreed to “advance dialogue, exchanges and cooperation” and “maintain high-level interactions,” according to a readout from Beijing.
Blinken’s Sunday meeting with Qin, which stretched more than five hours and then wrapped with a working dinner, resulted in progress “on a number of fronts,” with both sides showing a “desire to reduce tensions,” a senior State Department official told reporters Sunday.
“Profound differences” between the US and China, however, were also clear during the meeting, the official added.
Neither side have mentioned concrete agreements so far.
While Qin holds the title of Foreign Minister, he wields less power than Wang, who directs the country’s foreign policy through his position among party’s core leadership.
Blinken’s original scheduled visit in early February had been agreed on as a follow-up to an amicable face-to-face between US President Joe Biden and China’s Xi on the sidelines of the G20 in Bali in November.
That meeting – the first in person between the two leaders as presidents – was seen a pivotal step in restoring certain lines of communication, which Beijing last year severed last year following a visit from then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan.
Both the US and China have played down expectations of a major breakthrough during Blinken’s visit.
Ahead of the meeting, Washington was careful to manage expectations, with a senior State Department official last week telling reporters that he does not expect “a long list of deliverables.”
Meanwhile, both sides are also navigating how the meetings play to their respective domestic audiences.
In the US, how strongly to counter China has become the topic of heated political debate – with some lawmakers slamming the Biden administration for sitting down with Beijing.
China views Washington as actively trying to thwart its development, and is also very much aware the US is headed into a presidential election cycle, where hawkish rhetoric against it may intensify further.
Its officials also meet Blinken in an environment where China’s state media and official rhetoric have long portrayed Washington as a bad-faith actor responsible for destabilizing ties.
Xi Jinping, the leader of China, has urged his country’s top national security officials to consider “worst case” scenarios and prepare for “stormy seas,” as the Communist Party’s attempts to fend off any perceived internal and external threats become more arduous.
At a meeting of the party’s National Security Commission on Tuesday, Xi stated that “the complexity and difficulty of the national security issues we now face have significantly increased.”
The key tests of strong winds, heavy waves, and even dangerous, stormy seas must be prepared for, he continued, adhering to bottom-line thinking and worst-case scenario thinking.
The latest stern instructions from Xi, China’s most powerful leader in decades, comes as Beijing faces a host of challenges, from a struggling economy to what it sees as an increasingly hostile international environment.
In face of what he called a “complex and grave” situation, Xi said China must speed up the modernization of its national security system and capabilities, with a focus on making them more effective in “actual combat and practical use.”
He also called for China to push ahead with the construction of a national security risk monitoring and early warning system, enhance national security education and improve the management of data and artificial intelligence security.
Since coming to power a decade ago, Xi has made national security a key paradigm that permeates all aspects of China’s governance, experts say.
He has expanded the concept of national security to cover everything from politics, economy, defense, culture and ecology to cyberspace. It extends from the deep sea and the polar regions to space, as well as big data and artificial intelligence.
Under Xi’s notion of “comprehensive national security,” China has introduced a raft of legislation to protect itself against perceived threats, including laws on counter-terrorism, counter-espionage, cybersecurity, foreign non-government organizations, national intelligence and data security.
Most recently, it broadened the scope of its already sweeping counter-espionage law from covering state secrets and intelligence to any “documents, data, materials or items related to national security and interests.”
“Everything in Xi’s PRC is national security and there is an intensifying focus on better coordinating security and development, with the security side winning out over the economics side it appears,” Bill Bishop, a long-time China observer, wrote in the Sinocism newsletter, referring to China with its official name, the People’s Republic of China.
In Hong Kong, a sweeping national security law was imposed by Beijing to stamp out dissent after huge democracy protests roiled the city.
The perception that security has replaced economic growth as Beijing’s top priority is compounded by multiple recent raids on foreign companies, including American consultancy Bain & Company and due diligence firm Mintz Group.
The raids have spooked international businesses, at a time when the Chinese government is trying to woo foreign investment to help revive a slowing economy hampered by three years of zero-Covid restrictions.
In March, Chinese authorities detained a Japanese employee of Astellas Pharma in Beijing on suspected espionage – the 17th Japanese national to have been detained in China since the counter-espionage law was introduced in 2014.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Xi said China must proactively shape a “secured external environment” to better maintain the security of the country’s “opening up” and “promote the deep integration of development and security.”
As the crackdown on religious liberty grows, thousands of ethnic minority Muslims encircled a mosque in southwest China over the weekend in a last-ditch bid to stop what they claimed was an attempt by authorities to destroy its dome and minarets.
In the midst of a massive drive to “sinicize” religion, China’s leader Xi Jinping appears to have altered a Hui mosque in the Yunnan province village of Najiaying.
The goal of the programme is to rid religions of foreign influence and bring them more in line with traditional Chinese culture and the authoritarian leadership of the Communist Party, which is officially atheist.
In recent years, authorities have removed overtly Islamic architecture – destroying domes and tearing down minarets – from more than a thousand Hui mosques across the country, Hui activists say, with the Najiaying mosque being one of the last holdouts.
Now, the “sinicization” campaign is finally coming for Najiaying – a historic home to the Hui and an important hub for Islamic culture in Yunnan, an ethnically diverse province on China’s borders with Southeast Asia.
But the push has faced a fierce backlash from local residents.
Videos posted on social media and geolocated by CNN show residents clashing with lines of police officers in riot gear, who blocked off the entrance to the mosque and pushed back the crowd with shields and batons.
Residents shouted back in anger, with some hurling water bottles and bricks at the police, the videos show.
“This is our last bit of dignity,” a local witness told CNN. “It’s like coming to our house to demolish our home. We can’t allow that to happen.”
The source, who declined to be named over fears for personal safety, said thousands of Hui residents – including men and women, elderly and children – had gathered around the mosque on Saturday, under the close watch of more than 1,000 police officers deployed nearby.
“After arriving at the mosque, we realized that they had driven the cranes into the compound and were ready for the forced demolition,” the source said, adding that scaffolding had already been erected around the mosque.
Tensions escalated around 1 p.m., with worshipers demanding to enter the mosque for noon prayers, the source said. They said they saw police officers hitting the crowd with batons, which prompted some residents to clash with police.
Dozens of protesters were arrested by police at the scene, the source said. Ma Ju, a prominent Hui activist who now lives in the United States and has kept close contact with Najiaying residents, said about 30 people were arrested.
CNN cannot independently verify the claims and has reached out to the local police and government for comment. CNN has also reached out to the Yunnan provincial government and its bureau for religious affairs for comment.
The hours-long standoff on Saturday yielded a temporary win for the protesters, who streamed into the mosque as the police retreated, according to the witness and online videos.
Throughout Saturday night and Sunday, residents took turns to guard the mosque, fearing that authorities would return to demolish its large centerpiece green dome and four minarets, the source said.
But repercussions quickly followed, according to those CNN spoke with.
By Sunday afternoon, word started to spread that authorities were arresting more people, according to the source.
On Sunday evening, law enforcement authorities in Nagu township, where Najiaying is located, issued a stern but vague statement. Without mentioning the protest or the mosque, it said police were investigating an incident that took place on Saturday, which “seriously disrupted social order” and caused “vile social impact.”
The authorities also called on the “organizers and participants” of the incident to turn themselves in before June 6 to receive leniency, and encouraged the public to report on each other.
By Monday, Najiaying was shrouded in a blanket of fear, the source said.
The internet has been cut off in many neighborhoods. Drones buzzed overhead and surveilled the village. Public loudspeakers blasted the authorities’ message on repeat, urging protesters to turn themselves in, according to the source and Ma, the US-based activist.
“It feels like our nightmare is only starting now,” the source told CNN. “Everyone is in fear…We don’t know what’s going to happen next.”
Other local residents appeared fearful to speak out.
One shop owner reached by CNN on the phone said: “You journalists should come here to report on what’s happening to us.” When asked by CNN to explain what happened, he replied he “didn’t know” and hung up.
This is not the first time that Hui Muslims have engaged in a tense standoff with authorities to protect a mosque.
In 2018, thousands of Hui residents in Ningxia, in the country’s northwest, staged a sit-in protest for three days to prevent authorities from demolishing a newly constructed mosque.
The local government held off on the demolition, but later replaced the mosque’s domes and minarets with traditional Chinese-style pagodas.
The architectural overhaul of mosques has come with allegations of shrinking religious freedoms for the Hui, a 11 million-strong ethnic minority that live in scattered pockets throughout China from the northwest to the coastal cities in the east, including an officially designated “autonomous region,” Ningxia.
Believed to be distant descendants of Arab and Persian traders, the Hui have been well assimilated into broader Chinese society dominated by the ethnic Han majority.
Most speak Mandarin, live alongside the Han, and in recent decades had been given more space to practice their faith than other ethnic groups.
But Hui activists say their ethnic group has become the latest target in the Communist Party’s crackdown on Islam, which began in the western region of Xinjiang.
Since at least 2017, the Chinese government has been accused of detaining more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in internment camps in Xinjiang and conducting forceful assimilation to suppress their cultural and religious identity.
A United Nations report last year accused the Chinese government of serious human rights violations against Uyghurs that may amount to “crime against humanity.”
China has repeatedly denied these accusations and insisted that the massive camps are voluntary “vocational training centers.”
Hui activists and rights groups claim authorities have stepped up efforts in recent years to restrict religious practices of Hui Muslims across China, including the shuttering of Islamic schools, Arabic classes and barring children from learning and practicing Islam.
The implementation of the “sinicization” campaign has “had the effect of expunging communities of their connections to Hui culture, religion, and each other so thoroughly that some leaders view the erasure of a meaningful Hui identity within another generation as being a likely possibility,” according to a report submitted to a UN treaty body in January by the Chinese Human Rights Defenders and the Hope Umbrella International Foundation.
Ma, the US-based Hui activist who founded the Hope Umbrella International foundation, said Hui in China are now living in a constant state of fear.
Over two hundred mosques in Yunnan have already lost their domes and minarets, according to Ma, adding to the more than a thousand mosques in the country’s northwest.
CNN is unable to independently verify the number of mosques affected, and has reached out to the Chinese government for comment on the accusations made by Hui activists.
“At first, people thought it was only a question of architectural style…but it soon became apparent that (the government) is not only removing the domes from the mosques, but also removing their religious and social functionality,” Ma said.
Under a raft of restrictions imposed by the government, many Hui are now afraid to go to the mosque, which has long been a center of religious and social life for their communities, Ma said.
The end goal of the party is to implement a policy of “cultural and religious genocide,” just as it did in Xinjiang, he said. The Chinese government has denied accusations of genocide.
For the resident in Najiaying, the government’s plan to change the design of the mosque is only the harbinger of a harsher crackdown to come.
“This is only the first step. What we worry about is after that, (the authorities) will ban our children from going to (religious) classes, bar minors from entering mosques and forbid us from studying the Quran,” they said, referring to the alleged restrictions that have been imposed on Hui communities across China.
“After they trampled on your dignity, they will suppress you step by step, and assimilate the Hui ethnic group completely into the Han, generation by generation. Because we know, this is what they did to Xinjiang,” he said.
Despite the permeating culture of fear, he has vowed to “fight till the end” for the freedom of belief and the dignity of the Hui ethnicity.
“We commoners don’t ask for much. We just want to have our own religious freedom. We just want to live in peace,” he said.
“I want the world to know what we’re going through right now, and what we’re fearing next.”
The first communication between the two leaders since the start of Russia’s conflict, according to Ukraine’s Volodymr Zelensky, was a “long and meaningful” phone chat.
In addition to the nomination of an ambassador to Beijing, Zelenksy said on Twitter that the call would “give a powerful impetus to the development of our bilateral relations.”
China confirmed the call and said that it “always stood on the side of peace”.
I had a long and meaningful phone call with 🇨🇳 President Xi Jinping. I believe that this call, as well as the appointment of Ukraine's ambassador to China, will give a powerful impetus to the development of our bilateral relations.
Unlike the West, Beijing has sought to appear neutral on the Russian invasion.
But it has never hidden its close ties to Moscow, or condemned the invasion, and last month President Xi paid a two-day state visit to Russia.
He referred to President Vladimir Putin as his “dear friend”, proposed a vague 12-point peace plan and insisted that China stood on the right side of history.
However, he made no commitment to providing Russia with weapons.
Within days of the visit, President Zelensky invited the Chinese leader to visit Kyiv for talks, noting they had contact before the full-scale war but nothing since it began in February 2022.
In a readout of Wednesday’s phone call, China quoted President Xi as saying that China, “as a responsible majority country”, would “neither watch the fire from the other side, nor add fuel to the fire, let alone take advantage of the crisis to profit”.
That statement appears to be a swipe at China’s biggest international rival, the US, which has provided the most help towards Ukraine’s response to the Russian war.
But the likelihood of China helping to end the war appears remote, not just because Russia has shown no readiness to withdraw its forces from Ukraine’s sovereign territory – a key demand from Kyiv.
Critics have also questioned the idea of Beijing acting as a mediator, citing not only Mr Xi’s firm friendship with Russia’s leader but also China’s soaring trade with Russia and its refusal even to speak of an “invasion”.
But President Zelensky has repeatedly reached out to the Chinese president, an acknowledgement that China’s vast wealth and global influence could swing the outcome of the war.
On Wednesday he appointed a former minister, Pavlo Ryabikin, as ambassador to Beijing.
China’s 12-point plan to end the war was immediately criticised by Ukraine and the West. It included a proposal for unilateral sanctions to be dropped and failed to offer clear plans for Ukraine’s future security or for territory seized by Russia.
However, in its readout on Wednesday, Beijing did announce its willingness to engage directly with Ukraine, by sending a special representative on Eurasian affairs to Kyiv and other capitals for “in-depth communication” on a political settlement.
Xi Jinping has had recent diplomatic success by persuading Iran and Saudi Arabia to restore ties. While it is possible he may have developed a taste for the role of a key international stakeholder, there may also be an economic element to his intervention.
China’s flagging economy is still fragile after years of tight Covid-19 restrictions.
It is dependent on export trade and cannot fully bounce back as the war in Ukraine drags on.
News of the phone call made headline news in China’s carefully controlled state media outlets, which printed China’s interpretation of the call.
On Chinese social media sites, users appeared supportive, with many calling for peaceful dialogue and supporting what they saw as China acting like a responsible country.
“China must break the deadlock and melt the ice!” read one typical comment.
Ghana is facing a severe economic crisis and seeking a $3 billion credit facility from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to avoid a potential collapse.
However, securing the support of its creditors is essential to obtain the IMF loan, and China is a significant creditor of Ghana.
As a result, Ghana’s President Akufo-Addo has appealed to Germany’s Finance Minister Christian Lindner to encourage China’s participation in the country’s economic recovery programmes.
Germany’s Finance Minister Christian Lindner
“We have good relations with China. We would like you to encourage China to participate in these programmes as quickly as possible,” President Akufo-Addo said.
In response, German Ambassador to Ghana, Daniel Krull, advised that Ghana reduces the size of her government to reflect the current economic challenges.
“I can only compare with the other countries like mine and I can come to the conclusion that there is a huge number, the number is much higher than in my country, so that may bring me to the conclusion that there is room for improvement,” he said.
Ghana’s Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta also initiated talks with China in February 2023 to discuss the former’s debt situation and explore possible solutions.
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta
However, some experts are sceptical that Ghana’s engagement with China will be productive due to the country’s unique debt circumstances.
According to Dr. Ishmael Hlovor, an international development expert, Ghana’s debt situation is more complicated than the debt of the 27 countries whose debts China cancelled in 2019.
These debts were getting to maturity, and there was something small left on them, whereas Ghana’s debt has more commercial lending components.
“In 2019 for instance, about 27 countries’ debts were cancelled. But if you scrutinise those loans, they were loans that were getting to maturation and there was something small left on them, but our situation is a little bit complicated because of commercial lending,” he told JoyNews.
Therefore, Ghana should lower its expectations about debt cancellation and seek other ways to restructure its debts, such as extending the repayment period, lowering interest rates, or swapping debts with other creditors.
Moreover, there is another school of thought that believes that Ghana’s stance on the Russia-Ukraine war could further complicate its negotiation with China, given China’s friendly relationship with Russia.
On February 24, 2023, Ghana supported a UN General Assembly resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, along with Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Egypt, and Kenya.
UN General Assembly
President Akufo-Addo emphasized that “great powers trampling on small nations is not something that we welcome,” and Ghana would continue to hold its position. However, China has not directly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or otherwise and called for a cease-fire and peace talks instead.
Prior to this, President Akufo-Addo ratted out Burkina Faso, accusing the neighbouring country inviting in mercenaries from Russian firm Wagner.
“To have them operating on our northern border is particularly distressing for us in Ghana,” he said in December 2022.
China has close ties with Russia, as evidenced by the “no limits” partnership agreement signed between Beijing and Moscow in February 2022. More interesting is Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia and their subsequent signage of another partnership agreement that seeks to deepen China-Russia relations.
Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin
It remains uncertain how China will respond to Ghana’s request for debt relief.
However, Ghana’s engagement with China could provide an opportunity for both countries to strengthen their economic ties and collaborate on infrastructure and development projects.
Ghana could leverage China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to promote trade, investment, and connectivity between China and countries along the ancient Silk Road, to enhance its transport, energy, and communication infrastructure.
Nonetheless, Ghana must balance its engagement with China’s economic interests and its foreign policy objectives and ensure that it pursues sustainable and equitable development.
After a pomp-filled state visit in which the two presidents displayed their “no-limits friendship,” Xi Jinping informed Vladimir Putin that “change is coming” as he left the Kremlin on Tuesday.
“Change is coming that hasn’t happened in 100 years,” Xi declared through an interpreter as they shook hands as the Chinese president exited the imperial palace. Together, we are bringing about this transformation.
Before saying goodbye and adding, “Please take care, dear friend,” Putin said, “I agree.”
On Tuesday, the Russian president briefly stood on the sidewalk and waved as Xi’s limousine departed.
His plane left Moscow’s Vnukovo airport after being seen off by a guard of honour playing the Russian and Chinese national anthems, the RIA Novosti news agency said on Wednesday morning.
After hosting Xi over a seven-course private dinner for more than four hours the previous night, Putin greeted him for talks involving top officials from both countries.
Xi walked slowly up the opulent red-carpeted staircase of the Grand Kremlin Palace as guards in 19th century-style parade uniforms snapped to attention.
Putin was waiting to greet the Chinese leader in St George’s hall where walls are covered by white-marble plaques with gold engravings of the names of military units and soldiers awarded the order of St George, a top military award established by Catherine the Great.
Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping leave after a reception following their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow (Picture: Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)The leaders toast during their dinner at The Palace of the Facets, a building in the Kremlin (Picture: AP)Xi and Putin shake hands as the Chinese President leaves (Picture: AP)
In a tightly choreographed ceremony filled with imperial grandeur, the two leaders entered the huge chandeliered room from opposite sides and shook hands in the middle to the sound of the Russian and Chinese national anthems.
They walked past a line-up of officials from both countries to sit down for talks. Putin and Xi both wore black suits and dark red ties.
The pageantry of the visit, reflected the importance of Xi’s three-day visit to Russia that gave a strong political boost to Putin days after The Hague issued an arrest warrant against him.
The International Criminal Court accuses him of alleged involvement in snatching thousands of children from Ukraine.
Moscow, which doesn’t recognize the court’s jurisdiction, dismissed the move as ‘legally null and void’.
But the warrant further ramped up the pressure on the Russian leader as the fighting in Ukraine has dragged into a second year.
The leaders showcased their ‘no-limits friendship’ (Picture: AP)
After the talks, Putin and Xi issued joint declarations pledging to further bolster their ‘strategic cooperation’, develop cooperation in energy, high-tech industries and other spheres and expand the use of their currencies in mutual trade to reduce dependence on the West.
They said they would develop military cooperation and conduct more joint sea and air patrols, but there was no mention of any prospective Chinese weapons supplies to Russia that the US and other Western allies feared.
Xi appeared more relaxed than Putin in first Moscow meeting, experts say
Western officials will have pored over every detail of the talks between two of the world’s most powerful but secretive leaders.
Body language experts say Chinese President Xi Jinping came across as more relaxed and commanding than his Russian counterpart at Monday’s televised first meeting of Xi’s state visit.
Karen Leong, Managing Director of Singapore-headquartered Influence Solutions, said Xi had pre-empted Putin by a split-second in reaching out for their set-piece handshake, suggesting that ‘even though he is the one visiting Moscow, he is the one who is going to be taking the lead in this relationship’.
Louise Mahler, a body language and leadership behaviour expert based in Melbourne, Australia, took a similar view, noting that Xi had placed his hand on top of Putin’s, something that could also indicate a measure of dominance in the exchange.
When they sat together for polite exchanges through translators, greeting each other as ‘dear friend’, Ms Mahler said Putin had slouched, twitched his leg, clenched his fist and looked at the floor, suggesting underlying agitation.
Xi, meanwhile, appeared ‘settled and confident’.
Ms Leong noticed the same tics in Putin, contrasting with an outwardly relaxed demeanour.
‘If you juxtapose it with Xi, Xi is the composed statesman,’ she said. ‘He has a lot of gravitas, great eye contact, he is looking at Putin as an older brother looks … (at a) more junior, younger partner.’
Putin, 70, is in fact a few months older than Xi, and has been in power more than twice as long.
Ms Leong said Xi had offered a sign that he too had been feeling some pressure, blinking unusually frequently during the sit-down.
Kim Hyung-hee, director of the Korea Body Language Lab, said the tight grip of the handshake and the occasions where the men tried to avoid eye contact showed that there was plenty at stake for both.
‘They have high expectations about the meeting. You can see tension there – and you know there’s no real friends in politics.’
Putin and Xi made long statements after the talks to a selected audience of officials and reporters from their pools. They didn’t take questions.
Xi stayed at a brand-new Chinese-owned Soluxe Hotel set in a lavish riverside park in northern Moscow that features trees and plants from all over China.
He used a Chinese-made Hongqi limousine for driving around Moscow.
In an effort to strengthen its asymmetric warfare capabilities against China’s expanding military threat, Taiwan’s self-ruled island displayed five new varieties of indigenous military drones on Tuesday.
Among the journalists invited to the National Chung-shan Institute of Science and Technology was a CNN team. There, the Taiwanese weapon manufacturer displayed eight different types of locally developed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), including five models that were unveiled to the public for the first time.
The new drones come in different sizes and are equipped with either combat or surveillance capabilities, said Eric Chi, director of the institute’s Aeronautical Systems Research Division, who added that the devices were designed for use by different branches of Taiwan’s military.
“In response to the new global war trends, our military has been actively building asymmetric warfare capabilities,” Chi said.
He added that the institution has been working to develop core technologies “to fully implement the national policy of defense self-sufficiency.”
The new weapons were unveiled as China’s Communist leadership increasingly asserts its territorial claims over Taiwan – an island democracy of 23.5 million people that it has never controlled – and has explicitly refused to rule out the use of force to bring it under control.
On Monday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping vowed to bolster national security and build the military into a “great wall of steel,” in his first speech to a rubber-stamp parliament after he was endorsed as president for a precedent-breaking third term.
China has also increasingly exerted its military pressure on Taiwan by regularly sending aircraft and naval ships across the median line of the Taiwan Strait.
For decades the line had served as an informal but largely respected border of control for the two sides, until Beijing began launching large-scale military drills in response to then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island last year.
Taiwan is heavily reliant on US weapons to maintain its defense capabilities against an increasingly powerful China and has purchased many big tickets items.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration approved an estimated $619 million potential arms sale to Taiwan that included missiles for its F-16 fighter jets.
But the island democracy has also increasingly emphasized accelerating the development of indigenous weapons to boost its military capabilities, particularly cheaper more mobile weapons systems that could be instrumental in holding off any Chinese invasion.
Last October, Taiwan announced it will increase its annual defense spending this year by 13.9%. The conscription period for eligible Taiwanese men will also be extended from four months to a year starting from 2024.
During the media tour at the institute’s aviation research facility Tuesday, reporters were given a rare close-up look at various combat and surveillance drones developed by Taiwanese experts.
One of the new surveillance drones is the Albatross II UAV, which is capable of conducting extended periods of surveillance and tracking naval ships over the sea using artificial intelligence.
It is capable of staying in the air continuously for 16 hours and has a maximum range of over 300 kilometers (186 miles), the institute told reporters.
Another new surveillance drone highlighted to reporters was the portable Cardinal III UAV, which is capable of taking off and landing vertically, and is designed for monitoring activities along the coastline, the institute said.
A key combat drone unveiled to reporters is the Loitering Munition UAV, which can be operated by a single soldier. It is equipped with a warhead and is capable of targeting individuals or vehicles from the sky.
The institute said this is modeled after the US-made Switchblade 300 drones, which have been extensively used by the Ukrainian military to target enemy radar systems in its defense against Russia’s invasion.
Other types of new combat drones are also designed to make use of GPS satellite systems and image tracking technologies to launch attacks, it said.
Several indigenous military drones that are already in use by the Taiwanese military were also on display – including a Medium Altitude Long Endurance UAV that is capable of long-distance surveillance and giving advanced air and sea warning, the institute added.
Reporters were told during the trip that specifics surrounding the drones’ capabilities will not be disclosed as they are considered confidential by the Taiwanese government.
Chi, the institute’s director, said the new drones are being tested by the Taiwanese military and will likely enter mass production as early as the end of this year.
The nation’s rubber-stamp parliament has granted China’s leader Xi Jinping a historic third term as president.
It comes after a consolidation of authority that has elevated Mr. Xi, 69, to the position of China’s most powerful leader in decades.
The president’s duties are primarily ceremonial in the Chinese system of government.
Being the General Secretary of the Communist Party and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission gives Mr. Xi his authority (CMC).
He was handed both posts at a party congress last October.
Confirmation of his third term as president had been widely expected. The naming of a new premier and various ministers in the coming days is considered more important.
The new appointees are mostly expected to be Xi Jinping loyalists. This includes Li Qiang, who is tipped to serve as Mr Xi’s number two.
On Friday, Mr Xi has also gained another term as the chairman of the CMC of the People’s Republic of China. There are two CMCs in the country – one is a party organisation while another is a state institution – but their make-up is usually the same.
Mr Xi has solidified his rule as China reopens from his bruising zero-Covid policy that has fuelled anti-government protests. The country is also facing a falling birth rate that threatens its economic growth engine.
Ties between Beijing and Washington remain testy, recently highlighted by allegations China had been spying on the US with balloons.
“Whether a strengthened Xi and increasing centralisation is sufficient to overcome these problems – or perhaps make them worse – is unknown and perhaps not knowable at present,” Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University Singapore, told the BBC.
“In a sense, Xi is betting that centralisation under the party with him at the helm is a solution to these disparate issues,” he said.Media caption,
WATCH: Why China’s president gets two teacups…in 59 seconds
The so-called Two Sessions of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) this week is closely watched as it provides a glimpse into China’s direction in the coming years.
Since Mao Zedong, leaders in China had been limited to two terms in office. When Mr Xi had this restriction changed in 2018, it transformed him into a figure with a reach not seen since Chairman Mao.
Also on Friday, the national legislature appointed Han Zheng, a 68-year-old former Politburo Standing Committee member, as vice president.
The importance of the position varies since its functions are not fully defined. However, the last vice president, Wang Qishan, fronted Mr Xi’s anti-corruption campaign, Chong said.
Chances are that Mr Han will follow Mr Xi’s direction closely and enforce the president’s policies as necessary, he added.
As lawmakers gather in Beijing to adopt comprehensive changes, Xi Jinping is expected to further consolidate his hold over China’s government and economy.
Mr. Xi’s third term as president and the selection of his top team will be confirmed by the National People’s Congress (NPC), a rubber-stamp legislature.
In addition, they will choose a new premier to succeed Li Keqiang as Mr. Xi’s successor.
The meetings, referred to as The Two Sessions, take place once a year.
Yet, this year’s meetings are especially noteworthy since delegates are anticipated to reform a number of important Communist Party and government organizations.
They will also tighten control over bodies overseeing the finance sector and scientific and technology work, while “strengthening party-building work” in private businesses, according to state media.
The moves will likely further blur the lines between the Chinese Communist Party and the government, and consolidate the party’s control of the private sector.
This comes amid an ongoing corruption crackdown which has seen a string of high-profile businessmen disappear in recent years. The latest person to go missing was one of China’s top dealmakers in the tech sector.
This week’s NPC meeting will also formalise Mr Xi’s leadership of the country, as he will be elected president of China and head of the armed forces.
He secured his position in the echelons of Chinese power in October last year, when the Communist Party re-elected him as their leader for a third term.
It was a break from decades-long tradition, as no other party leader besides Communist China’s first leader, Mao Zedong, will have served for this long. In the 2018 NPC meeting, lawmakers had approved the removal of term limits on the presidency, effectively allowing Mr Xi to remain leader for life.
Mr Xi’s appointment comes as he faces domestic pressure to turn around an economy battered by his zero-Covid strategy and crackdowns in various business sectors.
At the start of the meeting, it was announced that China will pursue a reduced economic growth target of about 5% this year, while defence spending is to rise by more than 7%.
Abroad, Mr Xi is navigating worsening ties with the US over the Ukraine war and the recent spy balloon saga, even as he warms his embrace of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
The NPC will also unveil the new Premier, China’s equivalent of a prime minister who traditionally oversees the economy and administrative aspects of governance.
Li Qiang, one of Mr Xi’s most trusted colleagues, is expected to assume the role. As the Shanghai party secretary, he oversaw a prolonged and painful Covid lockdown that angered locals and made international headlines.
Outgoing premier Li Keqiang, who was ousted in the leadership reshuffle at October’s party congress, will deliver his last work report speech.
The political appointments for the rest of the Politburo Standing Committee, the equivalent of Mr Xi’s cabinet, will also be announced.
Many will be watching to see who fills several key positions, such as the commerce minister, head of the national development and reform commission, propaganda chief, and head of state security.
Observers say the team was picked more for their loyalty to Mr Xi and the party, rather than for their expertise.
Hong Kong‘s leader requests Beijing’s assistance in his attempt to prevent foreign lawyers from working on national security cases.
After the territory’s top court rejected the government’s attempt to prevent a British barrister from representing jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong’s leader John Lee has asked Beijing to rule on whether foreign lawyers can work on national security cases.
Lee said at a press conference on Tuesday that he expected China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) to rule on the case “as soon as possible,” but he did not say whether the decision would come before Lai’s trial began on Thursday.
His request for Beijing’s intervention will mark only the sixth instance of China’s top legislative body weighing into legal matters in Hong Kong, a former British colony that, under a “one country, two systems” arrangement, is supposed to have judicial independence from Beijing.
The Court of Final Appeal on Monday dismissed the government’s bid to block British barrister Timothy Owen from the trial and impose a “blanket ban” on foreign lawyers working on national security cases.
But Lee argued that Beijing’s intervention was necessary in part because a foreign lawyer might divulge state secrets or be compromised by a foreign government.
“There is no effective means to ensure that a counsel from overseas will not have a conflict of interest because of his nationality,” Lee told reporters on Monday. “And there is also no means to ensure he has not been coerced, compromised or in any way controlled by foreign governments, associations or persons.”
Beijing imposed the sweeping national security law on Hong Kong in June 2020 after sometimes-violent protests rocked the city for months the year before. The legislation — which punishes acts of secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison — has been widely condemned by Western governments and human rights groups.
National security cases
Lai, one of the most prominent Hong Kong critics of China’s Communist Party leadership, including Xi Jinping, faces two counts of conspiracy to commit collusion with foreign countries, as well as a sedition charge linked to his Apple Daily newspaper that was forced to close in June 2021 after a police raid and a freeze on its assets.
The 74-year-old, who was arrested in December 2020, is already serving a 20-month prison sentence for his role in unauthorised assemblies. He is also expecting a sentencing over his fraud conviction next month.
Owen is a London-based legal veteran who specialises in criminal and human rights law.
Hong Kong uses the same common law jurisdiction as the United Kingdom.
Some legal experts warned the appeal to Beijing would erode public confidence in Hong Kong’s judicial independence.
“What we’ve seen with interpretations is basically, ‘Heads I win, tails you lose,” Alvin Cheung, an assistant law professor at Queen’s University in Canada, told the Reuters news agency.
Cheung was part of a group that drafted a legal analysis in May, signed by Britain’s former Justice Secretary Robert Buckland and retired Australian high court judge Michael Kirby, that identified NPCSC interpretations as one of the main threats to Hong Kong’s rule of law.
“The NPCSC is a political (and undemocratic) body whose proceedings take place behind closed doors, with no participation from the parties at suit. Its decisions are actuated by political considerations rather than legal evaluation and contain little to no reasoning,” the legal opinion read.
Apart from having overseas judges in the city’s courts, lawyers from other common law jurisdictions are allowed to work within Hong Kong’s legal system, especially when their expertise is needed for some cases.
Last month, the lower court granted approval for Owen to represent Lai, saying it was in the public interest to have an eminent overseas specialist involved at the trial. And on Monday, the Court of Final Appeal gave a final ruling on the matter, rejecting the Department of Justice’s application on technical grounds.
The panel of three judges on the top court — Chief Justice Andrew Cheung, Roberto Ribeiro and Joseph Fok — in a written judgement, criticised the Department of Justice for “raising undefined and unsubstantiated issues said to involve national security which were not mentioned or explored in the Courts below”.
But they left open the overarching question of whether barristers from overseas should in principle be excluded from national security cases.
Legal experts and rights groups on Monday expressed concern over Lee’s decision to ask Beijing to intervene.
Lee’s move “is in practice making of a new rule rather than an interpretation of an existing law,” said Professor Johannes Chan Man-mun, the former dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong. “There are far-reaching implications in any such interpretation which may severely compromise Hong Kong as an international city,” he told the South China Morning Post.
Reporters Without Borders also criticised Lee’s move, urging Hong Kong’s government toallow Lai a representation of his own choosing.
President Xi told the Canadian PM, via a translator, this was inappropriate and accused him of lacking “sincerity”.
He was likely referring to reports that Mr Trudeau discussed alleged Chinese espionage and interference in Canadian elections at the sit down.
The talks, which happened behind closed doors, were the pair’s first in years.
In the footage, filmed by journalists at the now finished gathering of world leaders, President Xi and Mr Trudeau can be seen standing close to each other and conversing via a translator.
“Everything we discussed has been leaked to the papers and that is not appropriate,” the Chinese leader told Mr Trudeau in Mandarin.
It captures a rare candid moment of President Xi, whose image is normally carefully curated by Chinese state media.
After smiling and nodding his head, the Canadian PM responded by saying “in Canada we believe in free and open and frank dialogue and that is what we will continue to have”.
“We will continue to look to work constructively together but there will be things we disagree on,” he added.
Before Mr Trudeau could finish, President Xi cut his counterpart off and asked that he first “create the conditions” – eventually shaking Trudeau’s hand and walking away.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson played down the incident, describing it as a normal exchange that should not be interpreted as criticising or blaming anyone.
The spokesperson, Mao Ning, added that Beijing supported having frank exchanges as long as they were held on an equal basis.
The short but revealing exchange highlighted tensions between China and Canada, running high since the detention of Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou in 2018 and Beijing’s subsequent arrest of two Canadians on spying charges. All three were later released.
But tensions recently resurged following the arrest of Yuesheng Wang, a public utility worker at Hydro-Quebec, who was charged with espionage.
Mr Wang “obtained trade secrets to benefit the People’s Republic of China, to the detriment of Canada’s economic interests,” Canadian police said in a statement.
At the time, Mr Trudeau and President Xi were at the G20 summit on the Indonesian island of Bali.
Rishi Sunak has said he is “hopeful” he will be able to meet with China’s President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Bali as he described how the county posed a “systemic challenge” to the UK.
Speaking to Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby, the prime minister said it was important to “engage” with the Chinese leader to try and tackle “shared challenges”.
He said: “I’m very clear that China poses a systemic challenge to both our values and our interests, and it represents the single biggest threat to our economic security.
“And that’s why it’s right that we take the steps that are necessary to protect ourselves against a threat or a challenge.”
Asked if he would be able to have a collaborative relationship with President Xi, he added: “I think our approach to China is one that is very similar to our allies, whether it’s America or Australia and Canada.
“I think it’s an indisputable fact of the global economy that China is a big part of it.
“And if we want to solve big global challenges like public health, like Russia and Ukraine,fixing the global economy or indeed climate change, it’s important to have a dialogue and to engage with China.”
High-level communication between the two nations was discontinued as a result of disagreements over trade, human rights, and foreign meddling.
Australian PM Anthony Albanese has said he hopes his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping is constructive.
“Dialogue is always a good thing,” he said.
“We enter this discussion with goodwill… [and] no preconditions.”
But Jennifer Hsu, a Research Fellow at the Lowy Institute in Australia, has warned the meeting is unlikely to bring any real progress.
While the talks are a significant step towards stabilising the relationship and are “a small victory” to be celebrated, too many points of conflict remain, Hsu told the BBC.
And many of them are rooted in “fundamental” differences between the countries, like system of governmentor values, she adds.
“It would be wrong for us to have great anticipation of this meeting resolving all those issues that have percolated over the last six years,” Hsu said.
Albanese’s government – elected in May – has toned down Australia’s rhetoric towards China, but has repeatedly said its policy approach is no different to that of the previous government.
We looked at whether the two countries are likely to patch things up earlier this year.
Few leaders can claim the familiarity Biden and Xi have with each other – the first of their many meetings came in 2011, just before then-Vice-President Biden was asked by President Obama to try to establish a rapport with the incoming Chinese leader.
But a great deal has changed since those friendly, exploratory encounters, a time when Biden said the US did not fear but welcomed the rise of China.
Back then differences over human rights and trade could be managed more easily behind the broader consensus over issues like the need to promote economic recovery from the 2008 financial crash and countering terrorism.
Over his ten years in power Xi Jinping has turned out to be a more ruthless, authoritarian and nationalist leader than expected, determined to restore his country’s status as a world power and to resist what he sees as US efforts to contain and encircle China, perhaps eventually even to overthrow its one-party system.
As president Biden’s descriptions of Xi have been much harsher: “He doesn’t have a democratic bone in his body”.
So what hope, in this frosty superpower stand-off, is there for any progress at this first face-to-face meeting of the Biden presidency?
Biden seems to be putting his faith in straight-talking – outlining clearly what the US red lines are over most of all Taiwan, but also the Russian invasion of Ukraine, nuclear weapons and many other disagreements – and in using the residue of their past, easier familiarity to rebuild trust, and in a conviction that both sides need and want to avoid a dangerous escalation.
He is a stronger figure now after the results of the US mid-term elections, though will still be viewed by the Chinese side as a leader with probably only two years left in power. He has insisted that for all his willingness to listen, he will not be offering concessions at this meeting.
And Xi, after entrenching his power indefinitely after last month’s Communist Party Congress? His goals, and readiness to overcome his mistrust of the US are much harder to guess.
Nowhere has Xi Jinping’s assertive foreign policy had a greater impact than in South East Asia, China’s strategic backyard.
But as Beijing’s power has grown, so has Washington’s unease – and now after years of see-sawing, the US is trying engage with the region again.
When he attends the annual summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations or Asean this week in Cambodia, President Joe Biden becomes the first US leader to make that trip since 2017. He was there virtually last year too. And then he goes to Indonesia, another important player in the region, where he is scheduled to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping before they both attend the G20 meeting.
But the US is now operating in a more treacherous diplomatic environment than in the past.
Asean, once considered essential for diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific, has struggled to remain effective in an increasingly polarised world. It has fashioned itself as a zone of peace and neutrality, where its 10 member states seek consensus, avoid criticising each other and feel free to engage different powers. Its small and weak secretariat, and lack of any process for enforcing decisions on members, reflects this mindset.
This worked well while there was a broad, US-led global consensus that championed trade and growth. But China’s arrival on the global market and growing influence from the early 2000s coincided with diminishing US interest, as it focussed on the Middle East.
China embarked on a charm offensive in the region, following former leader Deng Xiaoping’s mantra “hide your strength, bide your time”. But under Mr Xi, now in power for 10 years, China’s strength was no longer hidden.
In the last decade, China’s occupation and military development of reef islands in the South China Sea has brought it into direct conflict with other claimants, particularly Vietnam and the Philippines. Attempts by Asean to get China to agree to a “code of conduct” in the disputed areas have gone nowhere. Beijing has simply stalled negotiations for 20 years. It has also dismissed an international court ruling in 2016 that its claims are invalid.
It has been just as evasive on problems caused by its large-scale damming of the Mekong River.
Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Mr Xi with Mr Biden in 2012, when the latter was the US vice-president
But the countries that make up Asean are in a sticky position. First, China is so important economically, and so powerful militarily, that few dare confront it openly.
Even in Vietnam, which went to war with China only 43 years ago and where anti-China sentiment runs high, the ruling communist party is cautious when dealing with its giant neighbour. They share a long border, China is Vietnam’s largest trading partner, and a vital link in the supply chain that fuels its world-beating exports.
Second, China has effectively destroyed Asean unity by picking off smaller states, such as Laos and Cambodia, which are now so dependent on Beijing’s largesse they are more or less client states. This was clear even in 2012, when Cambodia last took the rotating Asean chair, and blocked a final statement critical of Beijing’s position in the South China Sea.
While wariness of China might sound like good news for the US, the truth is South East Asian countries have also become disenchanted with Washington.
They see it as an unreliable partner, too preoccupied with human rights and democracy. The US forced the region to accept hugely unpopular and tough economic measures after the 1997 Asian financial crash, disengaged almost completely during President George Bush’s war on terror, and has since flipped from President Obama’s much-hyped “pivot” to Asia, to President Trump’s narrow approach to what he called unfair Asian trading practices.
The US focus today on the Quad alliance with Japan, India and Australia has also weakened Asean, leaving it feeling stuck between two powerful sides. And Washington’s willingness to challenge China in Asia frightens them because they have a great deal to lose from a superpower confrontation.
For all its overtures, no US administration has been willing to pursue free trade agreements – and that has certainly soured the deal for what is perhaps the most trade-dependent region in the world.
A relationship with China, on the other hand, has already led to the world’s largest trading bloc linking Asean, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
Even Indonesia, the largest Asean state and with the region’s most China-sceptic foreign policy, has under President Joko Widodo eagerly sought Chinese investment, loans and technology.
The US can draw comfort from the knowledge that Asean will still engage other powers as much as possible – as a counterweight to China. And China is unlikely ever to have close military allies here, in the way the US does in Japan and Australia.
But all Asean countries – to varying degrees – now accept that China will be the dominant power in this region and one that is unwilling to make concessions where its own interests are at stake.
The question for Mr Biden: is it too late for the US to reshape alliances in China’s backyard?
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has met Chinese President Xi Jinping, the first G7 leader to visit Beijing since the Covid-19 pandemic.
But his trip has sparked controversy in Germany and concern elsewhere in Europe.
It follows an extraordinary and bitter row within the Berlin government.
It had emerged that a Chinese company was poised to buy a significant stake in a part of the port of Hamburg.
No fewer than six government ministers reacted furiously.
The deal, they argued, would give China significant influence over critical German infrastructure. Germany’ssecurity services also urged caution.
But the German chancellor appeared insistent the deal should go ahead. He reportedly pushed through an agreement, albeit one that limited the size and influence of the stake, reducing it to 24.9%.
No-one is quite sure why he seemed so determined. A former mayor of Hamburg, Mr Scholz remains close to the city authorities who argued that the deal represented vital investment.
But plenty of other commentators suspect an ulterior motive; that Olaf Scholz did not want to turn up in Beijing without a “gift” for Xi Jinping.
That has raised both eyebrows and concerns.
Reuters
We will seek co-operation where it lies in our mutual interest, but we will not ignore controversies… When I travel to Beijing as German chancellor, I do so also as a European
As has the chancellor’s decision to take with him a delegation of German business executives. That was standard practice for his predecessor, Angela Merkel, who pursued a policy of “Change through Trade”, believing that economic ties could influence political relations with countries like China and Russia.
The chancellor’s visit comes hard on the heels of the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, at which President Xi tightened his grip on power and raised concerns in the West about his intentions towards Taiwan.
“The signal that’s being sent is that we want to extend and intensify our economic co-operation – that must be questioned,” says Felix Banazsak, a politician from the Green Party, a partner in Mr Scholz’s coalition government.
The Greens have long sought a tougher line on China. Just a few days ago the party’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, sternly and publicly reminded him that his government came to power promising to readjust its China strategy.
Mr Banazsak says his country must learn from its previous dependence on Russian energy: “We must make ourselves as independent as possible from individual states, particularly if these are states which do not share our values.”
But Olaf Scholz will be painfully aware of the complexity and depth of his country’s ties with China, which remains Germany’s largest trading partner, although Germany imports more than it exports.
More than a million German jobs depend on that relationship. Take as an example car giant Daimler, which sells more than a third of its vehicles in China.
Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption,German company Daimler is expanding its resources in China
In the first half of this year, German businesses invested more in China than ever before. Chemical company BASF has just opened a new plant in south China and expects to invest €10bn (£8.6bn; $9.9bn) in the site by the end of this decade.
On the eve of the visit, the head of the German Automotive Industry Association pointed to Germany’s reliance on China for raw materials and warned that “de-coupling” would be an economic and geo-strategic mistake.
Her counterpart at the Association of Small and Medium Businesses also advised against a sudden change in course, saying “the advice can only be not to smash any Chinese porcelain now”.
Chancellor Scholz will spend less than 12 hours in Beijing. His aim, he said ahead of his journey, was to find out how much co-operation was still possible – because “the world needs China” in the fight against the global pandemic and climate change.
“If China is changing, then our approach to China must change,” he said.
Many in Berlin and beyond will be looking for evidence of that Mr Scholz’s response to a shifting China may yet come to be the defining test of his chancellorship.
During a two-day visit to Beijing, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met with top Chinese leaders.
President Xi Jinping stated that China will continue to assist Pakistan in stabilising its economy while hosting Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for talks.
On Wednesday, the leaders met at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, the final day of Sharif’s two-day visit to China, his first since taking office in April.
Xi said the two neighbours should boost collaboration in the development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $60bn infrastructure project, as well as speed up work on building the Gwadar seaport in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, according to Chinese state media.
For his part, Sharif thanked Xi for China’s “invaluable assistance to Pakistan’s relief and rehabilitation work” in the aftermath of recent floods, which killed more than 1,700 people and affected some 33 million.
A statement released by his office said the leaders spoke about various projectsof “strategic importance”, including work on the CPEC and the construction of a railway line.
Sharif said Pakistan drew inspiration from China’s socioeconomic development and national resolve for progress and prosperity, the statement added, noting that the prime minister had extended an invitation to Xi for a visit to Pakistan, which was accepted.
Later on Wednesday, Sharif also met his Chinese counterpart, Li Keqiang.
The relationship between historical allies Pakistan and China have only grown stronger during the past decade, a period in which Islamabad’s ties with Washington gradually cooled.
Balanced approach
Muhammad Faisal, an Islamabad-based foreign policy analyst and a close observer of Pakistan-China ties, said Sharif’s visit was an important marker for Pakistan as it seeks to maintain a balanced approach in the face of the escalating strategic competition between China and the United States, which has direct implications for the regional order in South Asia.
He said he expected issues related to Afghanistan and India, which has emerged as Pakistan and China’s biggest regional rival, to have topped the agenda in the leaders’ talks.
Andrew Small, the author of The China-Pakistan Axis, says that Islamabad needed to tread carefully while maintaining stable relations with both Beijing and Washington.
“It is trying to reconcile the deepening of ties with China with the opportunity to reset relations with the US after the withdrawal from Afghanistan, all in the context of intensifying Sino-US rivalry. Normally US-Pakistan and China-Pakistan relations have been able to coexist happily – now there are pressures from both sides,” he told Al Jazeera.
Pakistan’s dependence on China for its financial and defence needs has increased over the years – but this has come at a cost.
Pakistan owes nearly $30bn – or 23 percent of its total external debt – to China.
“The visit is taking place at a time when Pakistan is facing serious economic challenges, multiplied by the recent flooding in the country. If Pakistan manages to achieve guarantees of rescheduling of debt and rolling over of deposits, it could be a landmark achievement of this visit,” Fazal ur Rahman, director of the Pakistan Institute of China Studies at the University of Sargodha, told Al Jazeera.
Small also said the issue of debt would be closely watched in the US.
“The real question in Washington [is] about whether Pakistan will fix some of its debt issues directly with China, or expect other actors to do the heavy lifting,” he added.
Security incidents
China’s growing presence in Pakistan has coincided with an increase in the number of attacks against Chinese nationals and installations, especially in the country’s restive southern region.
Many of the Chinese infrastructure projects are situated in the resource-rich province of Balochistan, which is also Pakistan’s most impoverished region and home to a long-running armed campaign by fighters.
Three Chinese citizens were killed in a suicide attack in Karachi in April. Pakistan’s largest city saw another attack in September in which three more Chinese-Pakistani citizens, who worked as dentists and had lived in the country for decades, were killed.
Rahman said a stable and secure Pakistan was in China’s strategic and regional interests.
“However, one should keep in mind that Pakistan will be going for elections, so the Chinese may not agree to any long-term commitments with the incumbent regime,” he added.
Small noted that China was “uncertain about the political landscape in Pakistan – and there’s not much the visit can do on that front.
“The Chinese government likes Shehbaz Sharif and this government generally, but they will be waiting to see whether things settle before making any really major new commitments.”
Xi Jinping has a third term as China’s leader, in a break with recent precedent.
He has also introduced his new top team – which includes former Shanghai party chief Li Qiang as the new premier.
Saturday’s closing ceremony saw Xi’s predecessor Hu Jintao escorted out, apparently unwillingly, with state media later saying he had not been well.
Xi, 69, is arguably the most powerful party chief since the first communist-era leader Mao Zedong who died in 1976.
So far the party congress has proceeded smoothly for Xi. The constitution has been amended to further reflect his authority; most of the Central Committee membership revealed yesterday reflect his allies and their factions.
But Xi’s grip on power comes amid mounting challenges to the Chinese economy.
For the first time in years, China will miss its annual growth target (5.5% this year). Some Chinese have lost their homes amid a property crisis.
Covid lockdowns have also driven many to their limits across the country. Almost all domestic outcry on China’s internet this year has been about the toll of Xi’s flagship zero-Covid policy.
But in his speech as the party congress opened Xi doubled down on zero-COVID. saying it was saving lives, and emphasised ideology rather than coming up with specific solutions.
Many people in China normally don’t pay much attention to these set-piece, long, predictable speeches from their leaders.
However this year they were looking for any indication that the country’s strict Covid amelioration measures might be eased after the Communist Party Congress.
The short answer from Chinese leader Xi Jinping: no.
He said that there would be no wavering on zero-Covid because of the need to prioritise saving people’s lives.
The lockdowns, the mass testing, the health code scanning, the quarantine, the travel restrictions are all here to stay for the foreseeable future.
There was not even the slightest acknowledgement of the social and economic pain being caused by the policy.
Other massive challenges being faced by the government but which didn’t get a mention include: soaring youth unemployment and the property crisis.
Instead, this nearly two-hour long speech was heavy on standard Party rhetoric and short on actual solutions to China’s problems.
If you are a university graduate who can’t find a job in the tech sector following government crackdowns on these companies, Xi Jinping urging you to “follow the Party’s guidance… striving to be the new generation, building a modern socialist county” is not going to be much comfort.
The largest applause, no doubt scripted, came when Mr Xi spoke about unification between the mainland and Taiwan.
He said Beijing would encourage economic cooperation with the island, that it would genuinely strive for peaceful unification but that the Party would “never promise to renounce the use of force as an option”.
He also defended the much-criticised state security law in Hong Kong which he said had restored order to the city.
Likewise, he justified the demolition and alterations to many mosques in the northern Chinese provinces of Ningxia and Xinjiang – home to a mostly Muslim population – by saying that religions here must be “Chinese in orientation”.
Structures seen as reflecting an Arab image of Islam have been replaced by those with a more Chinese aesthetic.
There were a few other elements that did not go unmissed.
Former leader Jiang Zemin was not present but he is now 96 and perhaps too frail to attend. Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao from the former administration were on stage with Mr Xi.
Also in attendance, seated at the front row of the podium, was former Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli – his first public appearance since Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai accused him of sexual assault last year.
The 75-year-old has not publicly commented on the accusation.
Zhang Gaoli (C) was seated at the front row of the congress
However, Mr Xi’s administration does have a good story to tell in terms of climate change and other environmental initiatives.
The congress opened in Beijing under a clear blue sky. There was a time when this was unusual in the capital. Now it’s the other way around; the bad pollution days are the ones that stand out.
China’s leader said: “We’ll boost low carbon industries and promote low carbon ways of life. We’ll intensify pollution control. We’ll work to eliminate all serious pollution”.
But coal fired power won’t be phased out until the new sources of power are in place. “We’re building the new before discarding the old,” he said.
There may still be a massive income disparity here between the richest Chinese people and those less well-off but, in poverty alleviation, there have also been improvements and Xi Jinping referred to this.
Yet, if you watched this speech and had no idea what is actually going on in China right now, you would have a distorted picture of reality.
The overall message from the speech was that China is charging ahead in leaps and bounds under the Communist Party’s guidance – but the economic uncertainty swirling around here right now is of a kind not seen in the country for decades.
At the 20thCommunist Party Congresslater this month, Xi Jinping will begin a historic third term.
Given that China’s leaders opted in 2018 to remove the two-term limit in place since the 1990s, Mr. Xi will basically be able to stay in power indefinitely.
Under Mr Xi’s rule since 2012, China has become more authoritarian at home, cracking down on dissent, critics, and even influential billionaires and businesses. Some have described him as “the most authoritarian leader since Chairman Mao”.
Under his rule, China has established “re-education” camps in Xinjiang that have been accused of human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other minority ethnic groups. It has tightened its grip on Hong Kong and vowed to “reunite” with Taiwan, by force if necessary.
In a clear sign of his influence, the Communist Party voted in 2017 to write his philosophy – called “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era” – into its constitution. Only party founders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, the leader who introduced economic reforms in the 1980s, have made it into the all-important fundamental law of the land.
Princeling, peasant, president
Born in Beijing in 1953, Xi Jinping is the son of revolutionary veteran Xi Zhongxun, one of the Communist Party’s founding fathers and a former vice-premier.
Because of his illustrious roots, Mr Xi is considered a “princeling” – a child of elite senior officials who have risen up the ranks.
But his family’s fortunes took a dramatic turn when his father was imprisoned in 1962. A deeply suspicious Mao, fearing a rebellion in party ranks, ordered a purge of potential rivals. Then in 1966 came the so-called Cultural Revolution when millions were branded as enemies of Chinese culture, sparking violent attacks across the country.
Mr Xi’s family suffered too. His half-sister – his father’s first daughter through an earlier marriage – was persecuted to death, according to official accounts, though a historian familiar with the party elite said she had probably taken her own life under duress, according to a New York Times report.
A young Xi was pulled out of a school attended by children of the political elite. Eventually, at 15, he left Beijing and was sent to the countryside for “re-education” and hard labour in the remote and poor north-eastern village of Liangjiahe for seven years.
But far from turning against the Communist Party, Mr Xi embraced it. He tried to join several times but was rebuffed because of his father’s standing.
He was finally accepted in 1974, starting out in Hebei province, then occupying ever more senior roles as he slowly made his way to the top.
In 1989, at the age of 35, he was party chief in the city of Ningde in southern Fujian province when protests demanding greater political freedom began in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
The province was far from the capital but Mr Xi, along with other party officials, reportedly scrambled to contain local offshoots of the massive demonstrations underway in Beijing.
The protests – an echo of a rift within Communist Party ranks – and the bloody crackdown that ended them have effectively now been scrubbed from the country’s history books and public record. China even lost the bid to host the 2000 Olympics because of the abuses in Tiananmen Square. Estimates of the number killed range from hundreds to many thousands.
Almost two decades later, however, Mr Xi was put in charge of the 2008 Summer Olympicsin Beijing. China was keen to show it had moved on and was a worthy host – and it appeared to be working, with the Games symbolising China’s rise as a growing power.
As for Mr Xi, his increasing profile in the party propelled him to its top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee, and in 2012 he was picked as China’s president.
IMAGE SOURCE, REUTERS Image caption, Mr Xi’s wife, Peng Liyuan (right), is a famous folk singer in China
Mr Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, a famous singer, have been heavily featured in state media as China’s First Couple.
This is a contrast from previous presidential couples, where the first lady has traditionally kept a lower profile.
The couple has a daughter, Xi Mingze, but not much is known about her apart from the fact that she studied at Harvard University.
Other family members and their overseas business dealings have been the subject of scrutiny in the international press.
China Dream
Mr Xi has vigorously pursued what he has called a “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” with his China Dream vision.
Under him, the world’s second-largest economy has enacted reform to combat slowing growth, such as cutting down bloated state-owned industries and reducing pollution, as well as the multi-billion dollar One Belt One Road infrastructure project aimed at expanding China’s global trade links.
The country has become more assertive on the global stage, from its growing forcefulness in the South China Sea to its exercise of soft power by pumping billions of dollars into Asian and African investments.
Some of this economic growth, however, which in past decades has increased meteorically – has now slowed substantially, worsened by the Chinese leader’s uncompromising “zero-Covid” strategy that has locked out the rest of the world since the pandemic.
The country’s once-booming property market is in a deep slump and the outlook for the global economy has weakened sharply in recent months.
A bitter and damaging trade war with the US shows no sign of ending.
‘Most authoritarian leader since Mao’
Since reaching top office, Mr Xi has overseen a wide-reaching corruption crackdown extending to the highest echelons of the party. Critics have portrayed it as a political purge.
Under his rule, China has also seen increasing clampdowns on freedoms.
In Xinjiang province, human rights groups believe the government has detained more than a million Muslim Uyghurs over the past few years in what the state defines as “re-education” camps. China denies accusations from the US and others that it is committing genocide there.
Beijing’s grip over Hong Kong, too, has grown under Mr Xi.
IMAGE SOURCE, EPA Image caption, Thousands turned out in Hong Kong to take part in protests against a planned extradition law
Mr Xi put an end to pro-democracy protests in 2020 by signing the National Security Law, a sweeping edict that gives Beijing powers to reshape life in the former British colony, criminalizing what it calls secession, subversion, and collusion with foreign forces, with the maximum sentence of life in prison.
The law has led to mass arrests of prominent pro-democracy activists and politicians, as well as the closure of prominent news outlets including Apple Daily and Stand News.
Under Mr Xi’s leadership, China has also intensified its focus on the self-ruled island of Taiwan, vowing “reunification” and threatening to use military force to prevent any move towards formal independence there.
Given China’s power and influence, the world will be watching Mr Xi as he embarks on his third term as president. With no heir apparent, the 69-year-old is arguably the most powerful leader China has had since the death of Mao Zedong in the 1970s.
China’s “one country two systems” model of ruling Hong Kong has worked in protecting the city and must continue long term, says Xi Jinping.
The Chinese leader mounted a stern defence of the political system in a speech in Hong Kong, following recent international criticism.
Hong Kong is marking 25 years since Britain returned the city to China.
It is under tight security as it hosts Mr Xi, who is on his first trip outside of the mainland in two years.
Under “one country two systems”, Hong Kong is supposed to be governed in a way that gives it a high degree of autonomy and protects freedom of speech and assembly, and other rights not found in mainland China.
But in recent years China has been criticised for increasing its control of Hong Kong and enacting laws and reforms that stifle free speech and dissent.
The “one, country two systems” principle arose out of an agreement between Britain and China and is enshrined in law in Hong Kong. The protections run out in 2047, a deadline which many in Hong Kong have long been worried about.
But on Friday Mr Xi said it “must be adhered to over the long run” – the clearest sign yet that China intends to preserve the political model, which critics say has already been compromised to suit Beijing.
Flanked by the Chinese and Hong Kong flags on stage, Mr Xi defended the system as having worked in protecting Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability as well as China’s “fundamental interests” in the past 25 years.
“‘One country two systems’ has been tested and proved time and again, and there is no reason to change such a good system,” he said, to applause from the audience comprising mostly of the city’s pro-Beijing elite.
He added the system had the “unanimous endorsement” of residents along with “widespread approval” by the international community, and that Hong Kong’s “true democracy began” when it returned to China.
But over the years Hong Kong has seen huge protests and many, including Western countries, have criticised Beijing’s growing interference in the city.
In 2020, China introduced a controversial national security law that has clamped down on free speech and dissent in Hong Kong. This prompted Britain to accuse China of violating the “one country two systems” principle and their agreement.
“We’re not giving up on Hong Kong,” UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday.
“Twenty-five years ago we made a promise to the territory and its people and we intend to keep it, doing all we can to hold China to its commitments so that Hong Kong is once again run by the people of Hong Kong, for the people of Hong Kong.”
China’s recent electoral reforms designed to ensure only “patriots” can run for office in Hong Kong have also been heavily criticised.
But Mr Xi strongly defended this move on Friday, saying that it was “essential for safeguarding the long-term stability and security of Hong Kong” and that “at no time should this principle be allowed to be compromised”.
“No people in any country or region in the world would ever allow political power to fall into the hands of forces or individuals who do not love, or would even sell out or betray, their own country,” he said.
IMAGE SOURCE,EPA Image caption, Helicopters carrying the flags of China and Hong Kong flew across the city on Friday morning
At the same event, Mr Xi also formally appointed John Lee, a former security chief known for his tough pro-Beijing views, as the new chief executive of Hong Kong.
Mr Lee had got the top job through an uncontested election – a sore point for many Hongkongers who say China has gone back on its promise to make the process fully democratic eventually.
Mr Lee’s new 21-member cabinet was also sworn in. It is heavily staffed by pro-Beijing leaders, including three who have been sanctioned by the US for “undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy and restricting the freedom of expression or assembly” of its people.
Various official events celebrating the handover will be held across the city on Friday, a public holiday. They typically culminate in a firework display over Victoria Harbour.
Mr Xi’s visit this year – the first to Hong Kong since the 20th anniversary celebrations in 2017 – has led to the city deploying plainclothes officers and “special constables” drafted from prison guards and immigration forces, reports BBC Chinese’s Martin Yip.
An Omicron outbreak earlier this year in Hong Kong fuelled doubts over whether Mr Xi, who has personally championed China’s zero Covid policy, would cancel his visit.
But he arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday via a high-speed train and met outgoing chief executive Carrie Lam.
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Security personnel have been deployed across the city for the handover anniversary
Chinese leader Xi Jinping reiterated his support for Moscow on “sovereignty and security” matters in a call with counterpart Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, upholding his backing for the countries’ partnership despite the global backlash against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking on his 69th birthday, Xi also pledged to deepen strategic coordination between the two countries, according to China’s Foreign Ministry.
A separate readout from the Kremlin said the two leaders stressed their countries’ relations were “at an all-time high” and reaffirmed their commitment to “consistently deepen the comprehensive partnership.”
The call is thought to be the second time the two have spoken since Russia invaded Ukraine. They last spoke just days after Moscow launched what it insists on calling a “special military operation.”
China, too, has refrained from referring to Russia’s actions as an invasion and has walked a fine line on the issue. It has portrayed itself as calling for peace and upholding the global order while refusing to denounce Russia’s actions. It has also used its state media apparatus to mimic Kremlin lines blaming the United States and NATO for the crisis.
During Wednesday’s call, Xi stressed China had always “independently assessed the situation” in Ukraine and called for “all parties” to push for a “proper settlement of the Ukraine crisis” echoing language he used in a March call with US President Joe Biden.
China is “willing to continue to play its role” in promoting a “proper solution” to Ukraine, he said.
The Kremlin’s summary of the call took this position a step further, saying: “the President of China noted the legitimacy of Russia’s actions to protect fundamental national interests in the face of challenges to its security created by external forces.”
China’s lack of censure for Russia’s war in Ukraine has further strained Beijing’s tense relationship with the US and its allies.
US officials have repeatedly called on countries to condemn Russia’s actions and warned their Chinese counterparts against aiding Moscow. During the March call between Xi and Biden, the US President spelled out consequences if China gave material support, following US intelligence that Moscow asked Beijing for military assistance a claim both deny.
Trade ties
Wednesday’s call was also a chance for Putin and Xi to check in on a growing trade relationship.
Earlier this year, weeks before the Russian invasion, the two leaders in a face-to-face meeting said their countries had a “no limits” partnership and pledged to boost trade.
“Since the beginning of this year, bilateral relations have maintained a sound development momentum in the face of global turbulence and transformations,” Xi said in the Wednesday call.
“The Chinese side stands ready to work with the Russian side to push for the steady and long-term development of practical bilateral cooperation,” Xi said, pointing to the “steady progress” of their trade ties and the opening last week of the first cross-border highway bridge over the Amur River.
The two agreed to expand cooperation in energy, finance, manufacturing, and other areas, “taking into account the global economic situation that has become more complicated due to the illegitimate sanctions policy pursued by the West,” the Kremlin readout said.
The two countries also pledged to work together to strengthen communication and coordination in international bodies such as the United Nations where the two often vote as a bloc.
“China is also willing to work with Russia to promote solidarity and cooperation among emerging market countries … and push for the development of the international order and global governance towards a more just and reasonable direction,” Xi said, in a comment that hit on the countries’ shared aim of pushing back against what they view as the global hegemony of the United States.
Birthday greetings
The call was not the first time that Xi and Putin two strongmen drawn together by mutual distrust of the West have had engagements on each others’ birthdays.
In 2013, Xi presented Putin with a birthday cake and the two drank vodka together to mark the Russian leader’s 61st birthday during a conference in Indonesia. Xi later celebrated his 66th birthday during a 2019 summit in Tajikistan with Putin, who surprised him with ice cream, cake, and champagne.
Their personal relationship, in which Xi has described Putin as his “best and bosom friend” is also thought to bolster the dynamics of their strengthening rapport on the national level.
In its summary of the two leaders’ latest call, the Kremlin noted the conversation was held in a “traditionally warm and friendly atmosphere.”
