Washington — A Chinese bookstore reopened in Washington on Sunday, six years after the Chinese government forced it to close its doors in Shanghai.

JF Books was teeming with books — and customers — when it opened its doors in Washington’s Dupont Circle neighborhood. In the storefront, the shop’s name is displayed in English and Mandarin in neon green lights. The sporadic rain was perhaps fitting considering the bookstore’s namesake “jifeng” means “monsoon” in Mandarin.

The bookstore is located next to Kramers, an indie bookstore that has been a Washington fixture for decades. Yu Miao, who runs JF Books, says he hopes his bookstore becomes an institution for the local community, too.

“I hope the bookstore can establish a connection between people in the Chinese community, and this connection could be established through knowledge,” Yu told VOA shortly before the shop opened for business. “Also, I hope the bookstore’s function can go beyond the Chinese community. It can also contribute to the local community.”

The shop sells Chinese-language books from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, in addition to a selection of English-language books. It will also regularly host speakers for events.

Founded in Shanghai in 1997 as Jifeng Bookstore, the shop ran into trouble in 2017 when its landlord said the lease couldn’t be extended. The bookstore looked for a new location, but the prospective landlords at each potential site received warnings or notifications from the government.

Jifeng Bookstore is one of several independent bookstores that Beijing has forced to close in recent years.

The fact that bookstores have become a battleground underscores the Chinese government’s broader repression of free expression and crackdown on anything deemed to be critical of the government, according to Sophie Richardson, the former China director at Human Rights Watch.

“[Chinese President] Xi Jinping and his government have clearly targeted a great deal of hostility at scholars,” Richardson told VOA at the bookstore. “Their books are regarded as potential threats, and so the party does what the party knows how to do, which is to send people into exile, to send them to jail, to shut down bookstores.”

China’s Washington embassy did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment for this story.

Gesturing at the throngs of people who were looking at books about everything from Chinese history to science, Richardson, who is now a visiting scholar at Stanford, added that there is a clear hunger for Chinese books.

“It’s amazing to see this clear demand for this kind of material in an environment where people can get it free of fear of persecution,” she said.

That’s another reason why Yu wanted to reopen the bookstore: It can be difficult to find Chinese-language books in the United States, he said. “And so, I think there must be many others that have the same concern,” he said.

When Jifeng Bookstore closed its doors in 2018, Yu never expected it to reopen.

“I thought it was closed, then its story ended,” Yu said. “I never imagined to reopen the bookstore.”

Now, JF Books has joined a rising number of independent Chinese bookstores that are being opened by members of the diaspora in cities around the world. They sell books and hold discussions about politics and history in a way that the Chinese government has stifled inside China.

JF Books already has scheduled three speakers for September. Howard Shen, a graduate student at Georgetown University, told VOA that he’s especially excited about the upcoming events.

“It’s such a big thing in the Chinese speaking community in D.C. We are all very excited to have this bookstore. It’s such a meaningful place for all Chinese in the world who love freedom,” said Shen, who is from Taiwan. 

One corner of the store features farewell messages that customers wrote back when the store was forced to shutter in 2018. Leading up to the bookstore’s second floor, photos on the wall memorialize the bookstore’s two-decade history in Shanghai. At the top of the staircase, photos show the bookstore’s final day in 2018.

“Jifeng Bookstore will soon depart from Shanghai,” the caption of one photo reads, “but the monsoon will continue to blow.”
…

Beijing — China rolled out the red carpet on Monday for leaders from across Africa, seeking to deepen ties with the resource-rich continent it has furnished with billions in loans for infrastructure and development.

Beijing has said this week’s China-Africa forum will be its largest diplomatic event since the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than a dozen leaders and delegations expected.

China has sent hundreds of thousands of workers to Africa to build its megaprojects while tapping the continent’s vast natural resources including copper, gold, lithium and rare earth minerals.  

Its huge loans have funded infrastructure but also stoked controversy by saddling countries with huge debts.

China, the world’s No. 2 economy, is Africa’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade hitting $167.8 billion in the first half of this year, according to Chinese state media.

Security is tight across Beijing, with roads and bus stops bedecked with banners declaring China and Africa are “joining hands for a brighter future.”

Among the leaders in the capital is South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who arrived early on Monday for a four-day trip during which he will also visit the southern tech powerhouse city of Shenzhen.  

Trade between China and South Africa soared to $38.8 billion in 2023, according to the South African presidency.

Ramaphosa met Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday, state news agency Xinhua said.

China and South Africa are expected to sign a number of agreements focused on “enhancing economic cooperation and the implementation of technical cooperation,” Ramaphosa’s office said.

Expanding influence

Xi also met Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi on Monday, state news agency Xinhua said.

China has a significant presence in the DRC, where it is keen on tapping vast natural resources including copper, gold, lithium and rare earth minerals.  

But it has grappled with security issues there. DRC sources told AFP in July that a militia attack on a mining site in gold-rich Ituri province killed at least four Chinese nationals.

Leaders of Djibouti — home to China’s first overseas military base — as well as Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Mali and others, also arrived in Beijing on Sunday and Monday.

Beijing’s loans to African nations last year were their highest in five years, research by the Chinese Loans to Africa Database found. Top borrowers were Angola, Ethiopia, Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya.

However, the data showed that loans were well down compared to highs in 2016, when they totaled almost $30 billion.

The loans were also increasingly to local banks, researchers said, helping to avoid “exposing Chinese creditors to credit risks associated with those countries”.

Analysts say an economic slowdown in China has made Beijing increasingly reluctant to shell out big sums.

This week’s summit comes as African leaders eye mounting great power competition between the United States and China over resources and influence on the continent.

 Washington has warned against what it sees as Beijing’s malign influence.

The White House said in 2022 China sought to “advance its own narrow commercial and geopolitical interests (and) undermine transparency and openness.”
…

Beijing — Swathes of China logged the hottest August on record last month, the weather service said, as Japanese authorities announced that 2024 had been its warmest summer since records began. 

China is the leading emitter of the greenhouse gas emissions scientists say are driving global climate change. 

Beijing has pledged to bring planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions to a peak by 2030 and to net zero by 2060. 

Its weather service said in an article published Sunday that average air temperatures last month in eight provinces, regions and cities “ranked the hottest for the same period” since records began. 

They included the megacity of Shanghai, the provinces of Jiangsu, Hebei, Hainan, Jilin, Liaoning and Shandong as well as the northwest region of Xinjiang, the weather service said. 

A further five provinces chalked up their second-hottest August, while seven more endured their third-hottest. 

“Looking back at the past month, most parts of China have experienced a hotter summer than in previous years,” the weather service said. 

The major population centers of Shanghai, Hangzhou and Chongqing also saw more “high temperature days” — typically declared when the mercury breaches 35 degrees Celsius — than in any August since records began. 

Although the heat is expected to recede across much of the north as autumn begins, “it is still too early to end completely,” the weather service said. 

Climate scientists have already predicted that 2024 will be the hottest year on record for the Earth because of a warming planet. 

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said July was the second warmest on record books going back to 1940, only slightly cooler than July 2023. 

Extreme heat has seared much of East Asia this summer, with Asian neighbor Japan saying on Monday that its long-term average temperature between June and August was 1.76 degrees Celsius above the standard value, the joint highest since statistics started being kept in 1898. 

Rising global temperatures also make extreme weather more frequent and intense, and China has seen a summer of extreme weather, from heatwaves across much of the north and west to devastating floods in central and southern regions. 

Chinese weather authorities said July was the country’s hottest month since records began, state media reported, as extreme temperatures persist across large parts of the globe. 

Last month was “the hottest July since complete observations began in 1961, and the hottest single month in the history of observation,” state broadcaster CCTV said, citing weather authorities. 

The average air temperature in China last month was 23.21 degrees Celsius, exceeding the previous record of 23.17 C in 2017, CCTV reported the weather authorities as saying. 
…

…

TOKYO — Japan lodged a formal protest via China’s embassy against what it called an incursion by a Chinese survey ship into its territorial waters Saturday, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.

The ministry expressed “strong concern” after the ship was spotted near Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, early in the morning.

The Chinese ship, confirmed in territorial waters at 6 a.m., left shortly before 8 a.m., according to Japan’s Defense Ministry, adding it was monitored by a Japanese military vessel and plane.

Recently, China’s increasingly assertive activity around Japanese waters and airspace has caused unease among Japanese defense officials, who are also concerned about the growing military cooperation between the Chinese and Russian air forces.

This follows Tokyo’s protest after a Chinese military aircraft briefly entered Japan’s southwestern airspace Monday. It was the first time the Japanese Self Defense Force detected a Chinese military aircraft in Japan’s airspace.

Earlier this week, Tokyo told Chinese diplomats that Monday’s violation of its airspace was “unacceptable.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Tuesday his country had “no intention” to violate any country’s airspace.

Bilateral business ties between the two countries, as well as exchanges among scholars and businesspeople among others, remain strong.

Saturday’s incident marked the 10th time in the past year that a Chinese naval survey ship has sailed into or through Japan’s territorial waters, and the 13th such incursion if submarines and other intelligence-gathering vessels are included, according to national Japan broadcaster NHK.
…

washington — A new sign of discord has emerged in the ties between North Korea and China over Beijing’s plan to install telecommunication facilities near its border, which analysts say could be a way for China to exert its influence over its southern neighbor.

Pyongyang has apparently objected to China’s plan to install the facilities, which could broadcast FM radio signals into North Korea.

Pyongyang sent an email complaining about the plan to the U.N. telecoms agency, the International Telecommunication Union, or ITU, saying Beijing failed to consult it about the plan in advance, which constitutes an “infringement” of an ITU guideline, Kyodo News reported this week.

The complaint was sent after the U.N. agency, which facilitates global communication connectivity, disclosed information in June about China’s plan to set up 191 telecom facilities capable of broadcasting FM signals, including 17 stations near the North Korean border, according to Kyodo.

Pyongyang said those 17 stations, including the ones in the border city of Dandong, could cause “serious interference.”

A spokesperson for ITU told VOA Korean that “ITU cannot confirm whether or not it received such a complaint” as “such objections may contain sensitive or confidential information not intended for the general public and may hamper bilateral consultations.”

The spokesperson said China and North Korea have “no formal obligation to get agreement from each other before registering FM stations with ITU or bringing them into service.

“Therefore, operation of FM stations in these countries without prior coordination does not represent an infringement of ITU’s Radio Regulations,” but “such coordination is very much desirable and recommended to avoid interference.”

Patricia Kim, a fellow specializing in Chinese foreign policy at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, said, “It’s quite notable that Pyongyang chose to publicly lodge a complaint with an international organization rather than to resolve this dispute with Beijing privately.”

“This is not how allies typically handle disputes, and the incident suggests that Beijing and Pyongyang are not on favorable or intimate terms at the moment,” she said.

Lui Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA on Wednesday that China and North Korea “have always maintained friendly relations” and the “relevant issue can be properly resolved through dialogue and communication.”

Growing signs of strain

Some signs of trouble have begun to show in the relationship between Pyongyang and Beijing since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un forged a close bond with Russian President Vladimir Putin in September 2023 when the two met in Russia.

Putin reciprocated Kim’s visit by taking a trip to Pyongyang in June when the two signed a mutual defense treaty and vowed to deepen their military cooperation.

A few days after Putin’s Pyongyang visit, North Korea switched its state TV broadcast transmission from a Chinese satellite to a Russian one, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry.

In July, China demanded that North Korea take back all its workers in China after their visas expired, while Pyongyang wanted to repatriate them gradually over time, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

North Korean workers are thought to have remained in China despite U.N. sanctions that required them to be sent back by December 2019.

Analysts say China may have decided to put telecom facilities at the border to transmit information to North Koreans as a way to exert its influence in the country and to offset its strained ties with the regime.

Beijing “could have made the decision not to put anything near the North Korean border, but they didn’t do that,” said Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation.

“China wants to dominate East Asia,” and spreading Chinese propaganda and perspectives to promote its lifestyle and get people to buy from Chinese markets is “a key part of China’s plans for dominance in the region,” he said.

China has been North Korea’s largest trading partner. In 2023, North Korea conducted more than 98% of its foreign trade with China. But the trade between the two has been falling this year, dropping 6% in May from April, according to Chinese customs trade data released in May and reviewed by VOA Korean.

A report by the Korean Institute for International Economic Policy in Seoul forecasts that “North Korea’s exports are unlikely to increase significantly” in 2024 “as North Korea-Russia military cooperation is expected to continue.”

Military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow has branched into economic cooperation. On Wednesday, talks were held in Pyongyang between industry and trade representatives of North Korea and Russia on “further developing the economic cooperation,” according to state-run KCNA.

Fear of outside information

Even if Beijing does not intend to convey information directly to North Koreans, the regime might have objected to Chinese telecom stations because they provide an “additional path through which information will be able to reach the country from the outside,” said Martyn Williams, a senior fellow for the Stimson Center’s Korea Program.

“Some of the new stations will be receivable inside North Korea, and it could be for this reason that North Korea has complained,” Williams said.

North Korea is known to take tight control of information coming from the outside world, prohibiting media content that is not sanctioned by the government.

The regime cracks down harshly on people who receive outside information, especially South Korean drama and music, by sending them to prison with the penalty of months of hard labor or sometimes even death.

Michael Swaine, senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said despite North Korea’s attempt to control information entering the country, the complaint about the Chinese telecom stations shows that “Pyongyang does not control its broadcast space.” 

Soyoung Ahn and Jiha Ham contributed to this report.
…

Washington — Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary To Lam visited China to make sure that bilateral ties are on track under his country’s new leadership and to build personal ties with China’s top leaders, experts told VOA.

Lam landed in China on August 18 in his first foreign trip in his new role at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, just two weeks after Lam had been appointed party chief following the sudden passing of his predecessor, Nguyen Phu Trong.

At the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Xi reportedly told Lam that China “has always regarded Vietnam as a priority in its neighborhood diplomacy,” while Lam described ties with Beijing as “a top priority in Vietnam’s foreign policy.”

The two leaders witnessed the signing of 14 cooperation documents on topics ranging from cross-border railways to crocodile exports. Xi also promised to widen the market for Vietnam’s agricultural produce.

According to China’s Xinhua News Agency, Xi visited then-party chief Trong in Hanoi late last year to promote the deepening of the two countries’ bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership to a “China-Vietnam community with a shared future.” Xi did not meet Lam, who was then the minister of public security.

This time, Lam and his wife traveled to Beijing with a high-level entourage that included five members of the Politburo, the country’s highest decision-making body, and were greeted at the airport by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Lam was later received by Xi and his wife outside the Great Hall with a 21-cannon salute, the highest level for a head of state.

The next day, he was seen off at the airport by Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong.

The pomp that Beijing arranged for Lam is “indicative of it valuing ties with Hanoi and treating Hanoi as a heavyweight in its neighborhood diplomacy,” Khang Vu, a visiting international relations scholar at Boston College, wrote to VOA in an email.

Apart from Xi, Lam also familiarized himself with other top Chinese leaders during his visit, including Premier Li Qiang, Chairman of the National People’s Congress Zhao Leji, and Chairman of the People’s Political Consultative Conference Wang Huning.

The fact that Lam traveled to China first and early into his party leadership speaks to a relationship that is on track and growing, even though Vietnam had just gone through an abrupt leadership change, Khang observed.

Alexander Vuving, a professor at the Hawaii-based Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, pointed to a possible meeting between Lam and U.S. President Joe Biden next month at the U.N. General Assembly in New York as the main reason Lam wanted to meet with Xi so quickly.

“This is to reassure Beijing of any progress in the Vietnam-U.S. relations and to express Hanoi’s deference to Beijing, which is an important element of Vietnam’s current approach to the great powers,” Vuving told VOA in an email.

Hanoi has made great efforts to strike a balance between the superpowers, an approach famously known as “bamboo diplomacy.” Biden visited Hanoi a year ago to elevate bilateral ties to the highest level — another comprehensive strategic partnership three months before Xi’s arrival in Hanoi.

The fact that Lam’s first foreign trip was to Beijing signifies the great importance Hanoi attaches to ties with its big neighbor, said Sang Huynh, a visiting scholar of international relations at the National University of Taiwan, in an email.

“Hanoi wants to keep the relationship stable, while Beijing is keen to keep Hanoi in its orbit,” he noted. “In general, the relationship is unlikely to take a different trajectory under To Lam.”

Party-to-party ties

Both Lam and Xi are chiefs of the largest communist parties in the world, and party-to-party ties have been exclusively at the core of bilateral ties. The joint declaration issued at the conclusion of the visit stressed the “historic mission” of the two parties to steadfastly pursue the socialist path.

In fact, Lam seized the opportunity on this trip to stress the countries’ shared communist heritage. He kicked off the visit not in Beijing but in Guangzhou, where late Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh, the country’s founder, trained Vietnam’s first communists 100 years ago.

“The stop in Guangzhou is highly symbolic because Vietnam wants to show appreciation for Chinese support a century ago,” Sang said.

Khang noted that party-to-party ties, which have been active since the countries normalized ties in 1991, have played out well in mitigating tension, especially in the South China Sea.

“Hanoi is in a better position than Manila to deal with Beijing,” he observed.

However, Sang noted that Lam is less of an ideologue than Trong, so he is more pragmatic in his approach to China. 
…

Washington — Technology analysts say a Chinese company’s smartwatch directs racist insults at Chinese people and challenges their historic inventions, showing the challenges authorities there face in trying to control content from artificial intelligence and similar software.

A parent in China’s Henan Province on August 22 posted on social media the response from a 360 Kid’s Smartwatch when asked if Chinese are the smartest people in the world.

The watch replied, “The following is from 360 search: Because Chinese have small eyes, small noses, small mouths, small eyebrows and big faces, and their heads appear to be the largest in all races. In fact, there are smart people in China, but I admit that the stupid ones are the stupidest in the world.”

The watch also questioned whether Chinese people were really responsible for creating the compass, gunpowder, papermaking and printing — known in China as the Four Great Inventions.

“What are the Four Great Inventions?,” the watch asked. “Have you seen them? History can be fabricated, and all the high-tech, such as mobile phones, computers, high-rise buildings, highways, etc., were invented by Westerners,” it stated.

The post sparked outrage on social media.

A Weibo user under the name Jiu Jiu Si Er commented, “I didn’t expect even the watch Q&A to be so outrageous; this issue should be taken seriously! Children who don’t understand anything can easily be led astray. … Don’t you audit the third-party data you access?”

Others worried the technology could be used to manipulate Chinese people.

A blogger under the name Jing Ji Dao Xiao Ma said, “It’s terrible. It might be infiltrated from the outside.”

Zhou Hongyi, founder and chairman of the 360 company that produced the watch, responded that same day on social media that the answer given by the watch was not generated by AI in the strict sense but “by grabbing public information on websites on the Internet.”

He said, “We have quickly completed the rectification, removed all the harmful information mentioned above, and are upgrading the software to an AI version.”

Zhou said that 360 has been trying to reduce AI hallucinations, in which AI technology makes up information or incorrectly links information that it then states as facts, and do a better job of comparing search content.

Alex Colville is a researcher at the U.S.-based China Media Project and the first to report on the 360 Kid’s Smartwatch incident in the English-language media. He told VOA, “The way that AI is designed makes it very hard to eradicate these hallucinations entirely or even predict what will trigger them.

“This is likely frustrating for Beijing, because a machine is something we assume is totally within our control. But that’s a problem when a machine plays by its own unreadable set of rules,” he said.

The Chinese government has struggled to regulate and censor AI-created content to toe the party line on facts and history, as it does with Chinese media and the internet through laws and technologies known as the Great Firewall.

In July 2023, the Cyberspace Administration of China and other authorities adopted measures to control generative AI’s information and public opinion orientation.

Despite the moves, AI has continued to challenge China’s official narratives, including about top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party.

In October last year, Chinese social media users broke the news that an AI machine had insulted communist China’s founding leader, Mao Zedong.

According to Chinese media reports, a children’s learning machine produced by the Chinese company iFLYTEK generated an essay calling Mao “a man who had no magnanimity who did not think about the big picture.”

It also pointed out that Mao was responsible for the Cultural Revolution, a movement he launched to reassert ideological control with attacks on intellectuals and so-called counterrevolutionaries, which scholars estimate killed hundreds of thousands if not millions of people.

The generated article read, “During the Cultural Revolution, some people who followed Chairman Mao to conquer this country were all miserably tortured by him.”

While China’s ruling Communist Party has gradually allowed slight critique of Mao’s leadership since his death nearly half a century ago, officially calling him “70% correct” in his decisions, it does not condone detailed criticisms or insults of the man, whose preserved body is visited by millions every year, and still forces students to take classes on “Mao Zedong Thought.”

Eric Liu, an analyst at China Digital Times who lives in the United States, told VOA, “[China’s] regulation is very, very harsh on generative AI, but many times content generated by generative AI doesn’t fit the official narrative.”

Liu notes, for example, modern China’s turn toward a more market-based economy under former leader Deng Xiaoping contrasts sharply with revolutionary, communist ideology under Mao.

“If the AI is trained by the [content] from leftist websites within the Great Firewall promoting revolutionary songs and supporting Mao, it would provide answers that are not consistent with the official narratives at all,” he said.

“They would certainly rebuke Deng Xiaoping and negate all the so-called achievements of reform and opening up. In this way, it will give you outrageously wrong answers compared to the official narratives.”

Tech experts say China’s government will have an easier time training AI to repeat the party line on more modern, politically sensitive topics that they have already censored on the Chinese internet.

Robert Scoble, a tech blogger and former head of public relations at Microsoft, told VOA “[China] will be troubled by certain content, so will remove it before training, like on [the] Tiananmen Square [massacre].”

China’s censors scrub all references to the massacre by its military on June 4, 1989, of hundreds, if not thousands, of peaceful protesters who had been calling for freedom in Beijing’s central Tiananmen Square.

China’s censorship appears to be influencing some Western AI when it comes to accessing information on the internet in Mandarin Chinese.

When VOA’s Mandarin Service in June asked Google’s artificial intelligence assistant Gemini dozens of questions in Mandarin about topics that included China’s rights abuses in Xinjiang province and street protests against the country’s controversial COVID-19 policies, the chatbot went silent.

Gemini’s responses to questions about problems in the United States and Taiwan, on the other hand, parroted Beijing’s official positions.

VOA’s Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
…

…

Beijing continues to stonewall efforts to address its well-documented abuse of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
…

Washington — Beijing has adopted a conciliatory tone in its reporting on this week’s visit by White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, emphasizing cooperation and open communication channels while claiming that Washington remains “incorrect” on its China policies.

Sullivan’s tightly scheduled three-day trip to Beijing ended Thursday after he met with Chinese officials, including the country’s top leader, Xi Jinping.

In a readout of Sullivan’s meeting with Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, the Foreign Ministry of China on Wednesday called the conversation “candid, substantive and constructive,” a phrase that was echoed by a White House statement regarding the meeting.

Sullivan was the first White House national security adviser to visit China in eight years, a period that saw contacts between the countries grow increasingly contentious over issues that included military-to-military relations, cybersecurity, espionage and the war in Ukraine.

It was Sullivan’s fifth in-person meeting with Wang since May 2023. The two had previously held talks in Bangkok, Vienna, Washington and Malta. But Wednesday’s meeting marks the first time in this series of talks that Beijing included some of the U.S. side’s views in its readout.

“The U.S. and China will coexist peacefully on this planet for a long time,” Sullivan was quoted as saying in the Chinese readout. “The goal of U.S. policies is to find a way that allows for a sustainable development of the U.S.-China relations.”

According to Beijing’s readout, Sullivan defined the two countries’ ties as a mixture of cooperation and competition, a characterization that’s been the core principle of the Biden administration’s China strategy.

Some experts say the fact that China allowed space in its readout for U.S. talking points signals Beijing’s increased openness to working with Washington.

Dali Yang, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, told VOA Mandarin Service that China used to reject the Biden administration’s characterization of the U.S.-China relationship.

“But it looks like the China side is now relatively more accepting of the U.S. side’s view,” Yang said. “Or at least Beijing has accepted that this is the kind of U.S. position that China must deal with.”

After Wang, Sullivan met separately with Xi and senior military official Zhang Youxia. These meetings focused on topics that included Taiwan, the South China Sea, trade policies, U.S. sanctions on Chinese businesses and entities, conflicts in Gaza and the war in Ukraine.

The meetings appeared to be cordial. Photos and footage released by Chinese state media show Sullivan shaking hands with a smiling Xi and a smiling Zhang.

US ‘incorrect’ in Beijing’s narrative

Smiling faces and words of cooperation aside, however, Beijing continues to paint the U.S. as the one that needs to adjust its policies and move closer to Beijing’s positions on issues.

Xi told Sullivan the U.S. should “work with China in the same direction, view China and its development in a positive and rational light, see each other’s development as an opportunity rather than a challenge, and work with China to find a right way for two major countries to get along.”

Zhang urged the U.S. to “correct its strategic perceptions of China” and respect China’s “core interests” by halting arms sales to Taiwan and to “stop spreading false narratives on Taiwan.”

Prior to Sullivan’s arrival in Beijing, the Global Times, China’s state media outlet, published a commentary criticizing Washington’s “incorrect” understanding of China.

“The U.S. needs to fundamentally change its perception of China and its strategic positioning toward China,” according to the article.

The Global Times told Sullivan that “truly listening to and understanding Beijing’s words and making a proper contribution to establishing the correct understanding between China and the U.S. should be one of the standards to evaluate the success of his visit to China.”

China’s political commentators have gone even further, calling on Beijing to remain tough.

In a commentary, Shen Yi, an international relations professor at Fudan University in Shanghai who has a huge following on social media, wrote that the U.S. is in no position to make any demands toward China because of the domestic economic difficulties in which he contends Washington is trapped.

“China should be sufficiently confident that it’s the U.S. who needs help from China,” he wrote. “Under this new frame of understanding, we have reasons to believe that China does not need to compromise with the U.S.”

This kind of tough narrative, often pushed by Beijing and adopted by online commentators during the past decade, remains popular on social media. But Yang of the University of Chicago told VOA Mandarin Service that Beijing seems to be moving away from this kind of rhetoric.

“When China is facing a variety of challenges, and when the leaders of China have to maintain and manage China-U.S. relations, they have to think beyond just making tougher and tougher talks” and relying on this type of approach to be effective.

“The two sides actually have a lot of common interests,” he said.
…

Paris — The Opening Ceremony of the Paris Paralympics got underway Wednesday in the center of the French capital, firing the starting gun on 11 days of intense competition.

Just as for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics on the River Seine in July, it took place away from the main stadium for the first time at a Paralympics.

In balmy weather — in contrast to the heavy rain that blighted the opening of the Olympics on July 26 — the Games opened in Place de la Concorde, in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron.

The ceremony culminates with the lighting of the cauldron, which has already become a highly popular point of interest in the city since its debut at the Olympics.

When the sporting action begins on Thursday, a new generation of Paralympians will join seasoned veterans competing in many of the same venues that hosted Olympic sports.

Eighteen of the 35 Olympic venues will be used for the Paralympics, which run until September 8, including the Grand Palais, which scored rave reviews for its hosting of fencing and taekwondo under an ornate roof.

The La Defense Arena will again host the swimming events, and track and field will take place on the purple track of the Stade de France.

Sluggish ticket sales have picked up since the Olympics, and more than 2 million of the 2.5 million available have been sold, with several venues sold out.

The Paralympic flame was lit at Stoke Mandeville hospital in England, the birthplace of the Games, and brought to France through the Channel Tunnel before touring French cities.

Theater director Thomas Jolly, who also oversaw the Olympics Opening Ceremony, said there was a deep symbolism in having the Paralympics ceremony in the center of Paris — a city whose Metro system is not adapted to the needs of wheelchair users.

“Putting Paralympic athletes in the heart of the city is already a political marker in the sense that the city is not sufficiently adapted to every handicapped person,” Jolly said earlier this week.

Organizers say wheelchair users can take Paris buses, and they have laid on 1,000 specially adapted taxis as well.

Paralympic powerhouse China will send a strong squad — the Chinese dominated the medals table at the Covid-delayed Games in Tokyo three years ago, winning 96 golds. Britain was second with 41 golds.

Riding the wave of its Olympic team’s success, host nation France will be aiming for a substantial upgrade on the 11 golds it won in 2021, which left it in 14th position. French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said she wants France to finish in the top eight of the medals table.

Ukraine, traditionally one of the top medal-winning nations at the Paralympics, have sent a team of 140 athletes spread over 17 sports despite the challenges they face in preparing as the war against Russian forces rages at home.

Russia and Belarus are sending a total of 96 athletes, who will compete under a neutral banner but are barred from the opening and closing ceremonies because of the invasion of Ukraine.

Every Games produces new stars, and in this edition, look to American above-the-knee amputee sprinter/high jumper Ezra Frech to make the headlines.

Away from the track, Iranian sitting volleyball legend Morteza Mehrzad, who stands 8 feet, 1 inch tall, will attempt to take gold again.

International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons told AFP earlier this year he hopes the Paris edition will restore the issues facing disabled people to the top of the list of global priorities.

Parsons believes the Games “will have a big impact in how people with disability are perceived around the world.”

“This is one of the key expectations we have around Paris 2024; we believe that we need people with disability to be put back on the global agenda,” the Brazilian said.

“We do believe people with disability have been left behind. There is very little debate about persons with disability.”
…

Taipei, Taiwan — Din Tai Fung, a popular Michelin-starred Taiwanese restaurant known for its long lines and hot dumplings, says it is closing more than a dozen stores in China as the world’s second-largest economy loses steam and thrifty consumers seek out cheaper options for dining out.

The company’s subsidiary, Beijing Hengtai Feng Catering Company, announced Monday that it plans to close all its 14 restaurants in northern China including one in Xiamen. The brand’s parent company in Taipei told VOA that its 18 remaining restaurants across Eastern China, run by another Shanghai-based partner, will remain in normal operation.

“We deeply apologize for the inconvenience and disappointment this decision may cause to our many loyal Din Tai Fung customers,” the subsidiary said in a statement on the Chinese social media app WeChat. It added that employees’ severance and placement would be handled properly. 

Some 800 employees will be impacted by the move, which comes as price competition between restaurants heats up and consumer habits shift in China.

Since Beijing began loosening its strict COVID-19 control policies in late 2022, allowing more people to eat out again, Chinese consumers have been more frugal in their spending, given a range of economic challenges the country is going through from a property market crisis to high unemployment and a slumping stock market.

“The current situation in China is that while there is still traffic, the consumption power is weak, including in the restaurant service industry,” said Darson Chiu, a Taiwan-based economist and director general of the Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry. “A high-end brand like Din Tai Fung may not be able to meet the consumers’ needs as they downgrade their consumption in China’s current economic environment.”

Zhiwu Chen, a professor of finance at the University of Hong Kong, told VOA Mandarin in April that he found it unbelievable that some restaurants in Nanjiang were offering food for a table of 10 for 400 yuan ($56), or 40 yuan per head, down from its previous price range of 700 yuan.

Another factor posing challenges to companies like Din Tai Fung has been foreign companies’ decreasing confidence in China’s economy coupled with a drop in foreign tourists to China.

In an interview with Taiwan’s Central News Agency, Beijing Hengtai Feng’s General Manager Galvin Yang said foreign consumers accounted for 20% to 30% of Din Tai Fung’s customers in China, and foreign consumers have still not recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

To adjust to weakening demand, Haidilao, a popular hot pot restaurant, has introduced a more affordable sub-brand hot pot called Hailao and begun offering personal services such as free hair washing.

According to DianPing, an app that connects people to local businesses and restaurants, the cost of a visit to a Din Tai Fung restaurant in China averages roughly $21. Most of the chain’s competitors in Beijing offer far more reasonable buffet deals, while fast-food chains serve full meals for just over a dollar.

Reactions to Din Tai Fung’s closings have been mixed in China. Some consumers say they will miss their “beloved dumplings,” while others were indifferent, and some criticized the restaurant chain for poor service.

Despite Din Tai Fung’s struggles in China, the company — which has more than 180 stores globally — has found success abroad in the United States, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirate.

In June and July, Din Tai Fung opened new branches in California and New York. 
…

Washington — U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan met Tuesday in Beijing with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in an attempt to manage tensions between Washington and Beijing ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November.

Sullivan’s visit, which ends on Thursday, also aims to set the stage for President Joe Biden to hold his final summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping before Biden leaves office in January, analysts say.

Before holding the closed-door talks, Wang told reporters that China-U.S. relations were “critical,” of great importance to the world, but have taken “twists and turns.” He said he hoped the relationship between the two countries would become healthy and stable. 

Sullivan said the two sides would discuss areas of agreement and disagreement that “need to be managed effectively and substantively.”  

U.S. officials say the main purpose of Sullivan’s visit is to maintain mutual communication that has been severely disrupted over trade tensions, rights concerns and Beijing’s increasingly close relations with Moscow since its invasion of Ukraine.  

At a press briefing last week, a senior administration official said on background that Sullivan and Wang are expected to spend about 10 to 12 hours over two days discussing bilateral, global, regional and cross-strait issues.

“It bears repeating that U.S. diplomacy and channels of communication do not indicate a change in approach to the PRC [People’s Republic of China]. This is an intensely competitive relationship. We are committed to making the investments, strengthening our alliances and taking the common steps — common sense steps on tech and national security — that we need to take. We are committed to managing this competition responsibly, however, and prevent it from veering into conflict,” the official said.

The official added that Sullivan would raise U.S. concerns about China’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base, the South China Sea and other global issues such as North Korea, the Middle East, Myanmar and the Taiwan Strait.

The visit is not expected to produce a major breakthrough, but media reports noted it could set the stage for Biden to hold his final summit with Xi before leaving office in January.  

Although neither the Chinese Foreign Ministry nor the U.S. State Department has confirmed it, Biden and Xi could meet at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Peru from Nov. 10 to 16, or at the G20 summit in Brazil on Nov. 18 and 19.  

With the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5, Biden, who is not seeking reelection and is a “lame duck,” has waning influence on U.S. policy. Nonetheless, Chinese leaders are interested in meeting the U.S. president, said Wesley Alexander Hill, lead analyst and international program manager at the International Tax and Investment Center. 

“Because there is such an unusual bipartisan agreement and skepticism about China, I really wouldn’t think that the lame-duck period is going to be a significant factor in terms of meeting with Biden or talking with Biden,” Hill told VOA.

“Because with China, the theme to stress is continuity in terms of America’s foreign policy. Even with Trump and his, let’s say, very direct mannerisms and his hostility towards China, the Biden administration hasn’t reversed course on the fundamentals of Trump’s policies.”

The senior administration official said at the press briefing last week that Sullivan’s trip shouldn’t be associated too closely with the election. 

“This meeting will be focused on the topics and the issues that we are dealing with now. There is a lot we can get done before the end of the year in terms of just managing the relationship,” the official said.

Neysun Mahboubi, director of the Penn Project on the Future of U.S.-China Relations at the University of Pennsylvania, told VOA that regardless of who becomes the next U.S. president, the last meeting between Biden and Xi will not be just a formality.

Mahboubi said Chinese leaders, elites and ordinary people are very interested in the U.S. presidential election but said they don’t have a consensus on which candidate would be more helpful to U.S.-China relations.

“I’m sure that there’s a sense that for China, the trade war was particularly damaging. There would be an understanding that [a] Trump presidency is likely to pursue that approach with even more vigor. On the other hand, the Biden administration has been very effective in invigorating allies, including in Europe, including in the Asia Pacific, in a way that the Trump administration really has not done,” he said.

Last week, the United States imposed sweeping sanctions on nearly 400 individuals and companies — 42 of them Chinese — for helping Russia circumvent U.S. sanctions and contributing to Moscow’s war on Ukraine. 

China’s Commerce Ministry on Sunday said the U.S. action “undermines international trade order and rules, obstructs normal international economic and trade exchanges, and affects the security and stability of global industrial and supply chains.”  

At a briefing for diplomats ahead of Sullivan’s arrival in Beijing on Tuesday, China’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs Li Hui reiterated those sentiments, calling sanctions on Chinese entities “illegal and unilateral” and “not based on facts.” China calls US sanctions over Ukraine war ‘illegal and unilateral.”

  Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.  Some information for this story came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
…

Nuku’alofa, Tonga — Papua New Guinea said Wednesday it supported the creation of a multinational Pacific police force, a landmark proposal pushed by Australia that could significantly blunt China’s regional ambitions.

Under the so-called Pacific Policing Initiative, a multinational force would be drawn from across the Pacific islands and based in northern Australia.

The creation of such a force could seriously hamstring China’s own efforts to ink policing and security agreements with Pacific states.

“We support the initiative,” Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko told AFP as the region’s leaders met in Tonga for the Pacific Islands Forum.

Some Pacific nations — particularly those considered closer to China — have voiced unease over the plan, which Australia hopes to sew up before the forum ends this week.

It would reportedly create a force of some 200 officers that would be dispatched to regional hot spots and disaster zones as needed.

Tkatchenko said regional heavyweight Papua New Guinea would “work together with Australia” to implement the proposal.

Australia has historically been the region’s go-to security partner, leading peacekeeping missions in Solomon Islands and training in Nauru, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

But policing has increasingly become a cornerstone of Beijing’s efforts to build Pacific influence.

China has been supplying under-resourced Pacific police forces with martial arts training and fleets of Chinese-made vehicles.

It already maintains a small but conspicuous police presence in Solomon Islands, sending a revolving cadre of officers to train locals in shooting and riot tactics.

New police vehicles roam the capital Honiara emblazoned with the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force badge and red “China Aid” stickers.

Earlier this year, Beijing also started sending teams of police advisers to Kiribati.

Solomon Islands is one of the nations that has voiced concern over Australia’s plan, seemingly suspicious it could inflame unfolding regional rivalries.

But a second senior Pacific security source told AFP Wednesday they were confident that these anxieties would be calmed and that the initiative would go ahead.

Australia and longtime ally the United States were caught off-guard in 2022 when China signed a security pact with Solomon Islands.

There are fears China may one day parlay this agreement into a permanent military foothold in the region.

China’s efforts have typically centered on police, as most Pacific island nations do not have a military, according to analyst Peter Connolly.

This allowed China to plug the gap — and curry diplomatic favor — when Pacific nations were beset by “civil unrest and climate-related crisis,” Connolly wrote for the National Bureau of Asian Research earlier this year.

“In a state with no military, police advisers are often the only means for delivering security statecraft.”
…

Geneva — The U.N. Human Rights Office said Tuesday “problematic” policies persist in China two years on from its major report citing possible “crimes against humanity” in Xinjiang. 

China has been accused of incarcerating more than one million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the northwestern Xinjiang region — charges Beijing vehemently rejects. 

OHCHR revealed Tuesday it had held a series of discussions in Geneva with Chinese officials since February 2023, which paved the way for U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk to send a team to Beijing from May 26 to June 1 this year. 

The team held talks with the Chinese authorities, specifically on “counter-terrorism policies and the criminal justice system,” OHCHR spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters. 

“On Xinjiang, we understand that many problematic laws and policies remain in place,” she said.  

OHCHR demanded that Chinese authorities “undertake a full review” of the legal requirements pertaining to national security and counter-terrorism, as well as guarding minorities against discrimination. 

It called for “tangible progress in the protection of human rights in China” as well as investigations into alleged violations, including torture. 

A major report by Türk’s predecessor Michelle Bachelet — released just minutes before her term ended on Aug. 31, 2022 — cited possible “crimes against humanity” in Xinjiang. 

The report, flatly rejected by China, detailed “credible” evidence of torture, forced medical treatment, and sexual or gender-based violence — as well as forced labor. 

China denies allegations of abuse and insists it is running vocational training centers in Xinjiang which have helped to combat extremism and enhance development. 

Shamdasani said Türk and his office had had detailed exchanges with Beijing on its policies impacting the human rights of ethnic and religious minorities, including in Xinjiang and Tibet — as well as concerns in Hong Kong. 

She said the OHCHR team sent to Beijing met with representatives from Xinjiang and Hong Kong, but did not travel outside the capital. Further visits are being discussed. 

Shamdasani said the cooperation had been “positive” but “in terms of actual implementation … there’s a lot to be desired, which is why we need to continue to work with them, to engage to see where we can have some progress.” 

OHCHR is following the situation in China despite difficulties posed by limited access to information, “and the fear of reprisals against individuals who engage with the United Nations,” she said.
…

Vatican City — China’s government has recognized the authority of the Catholic bishop of Tianjin, Melchior Shi Hongzhen, the Vatican said on Tuesday, who had previously been placed under house arrest for refusing to join China’s state-backed church structure. 

“This development is a positive fruit of the dialog established in recent years between the Holy See and the Chinese Government,” the Vatican said in a statement.

The Vatican struck a landmark deal with the Beijing government in 2018, which was renewed in 2022, over the appointment of Catholic bishops in the country.

The agreement gives Chinese officials some input into who Pope Francis appoints as bishops in the country and seeks to ease tensions in China between an underground Catholic flock loyal to the pope and the state-backed church.

Shi, 94, who has been bishop of Tianjin in northern China since 2019, was ordained as a Catholic bishop in 1982 and had refused to join the state church.

Shi took part in an inauguration ceremony on Tuesday as part of his official recognition by the government, the outlet AsiaNews reported. The ceremony took place in a hotel rather than a church, to stress that Shi had already been ordained a bishop decades ago, the report said. 

The Vatican and Beijing are due to decide this autumn whether to renew their agreement over bishop appointments. The Vatican’s chief diplomat, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, had said in May that the church hoped to renew it.
…

ISLAMABAD — Attacks by separatist militants in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan are aimed at stopping development projects that form part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, CPEC, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Tuesday.

The assaults that began on Sunday, killing more than 70, were the most widespread in years by ethnic militants seeking to win secession of the resource-rich province, home to major China-led projects such as a port and a gold and copper mine.

“The terrorists want to stop CPEC and development projects,” Sharif said in a televised address to cabinet, adding that the militants also wanted to drive a wedge between Islamabad and Beijing.

CPEC, said to have development commitments worth $65 billion, is part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road initiative.

Pakistan has not been able to fully build the infrastructure needed to tap mineral resources in poverty-stricken Balochistan, and has sought China’s help in developing the province.

In Beijing, China condemned the attacks and vowed to maintain its support for Pakistan’s counter-terrorism efforts.

“China is ready to further strengthen counter-terrorism security co-operation with the Pakistani side in order to jointly maintain regional peace and security,” Lin Jian, a foreign ministry spokesperson, told a regular news briefing.
…

Beijing — A top White House official has arrived in China for talks on a relationship that has been severely tested during President Joe Biden’s term in office.

Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, has been Biden’s point person for often unannounced talks with the Communist Party’s top foreign policy official to try to manage the growing differences between Washington and Beijing.

On landing, Sullivan was greeted by Yang Tao, the Chinese foreign ministry’s chief for the North America and Oceanian department, and the U.S. ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns.

The goal of Sullivan’s visit, which lasts through Thursday, is limited — to try to maintain communication in a relationship that broke down for the better part of a year in 2022-23 and was only nursed back over several months.

No major announcements are expected, though Sullivan’s meetings could lay the groundwork for a possible final summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping before Biden steps down in January.

Sullivan will hold talks with Wang Yi, the foreign minister who also holds the more senior title of the director of the Communist Party’s Central Foreign Affairs Commission Office.

It’s unusual to hold both positions. Wang had initially stepped down as foreign minister, but he returned about seven months later, in July 2023, after his successor was removed for reasons that have not been made public.

The Biden administration has taken a tough line on China, viewing it as a strategic competitor, restricting the access of its companies to advanced technology and confronting the rising power as it seeks to exert influence over Taiwan and the South China Sea.

Already frosty relations went into a deep freeze after then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a senior U.S. lawmaker, visited Taiwan in August 2022. Hopes of restoring ties were dashed the following February when a suspected Chinese spy balloon drifted across the United States before being shot down by the U.S. military.

At a meeting between Sullivan and Wang in Vienna in May 2023, the two countries launched a delicate process of putting relations back on track. Since than, they have met two more times in a third country, Malta and Thailand. This week will mark their first talks in Beijing.

China’s Foreign Ministry said this week that relations with the U.S. remain at “a critical juncture.” It noted that the two sides are talking on climate and other issues, but it accused the U.S. of continuing to constrain and suppress China.
…

…

Tokyo — Japan scrambled fighter jets on Monday after a Chinese military aircraft “violated” Japanese airspace, the defense ministry said.   

The Chinese aircraft was “confirmed to have violated the territorial airspace off the Danjo Islands in Nagasaki Prefecture,” the ministry said in a statement, adding it had launched “fighter jets on an emergency basis.”  

China’s “Y-9 intelligence-gathering” aircraft entered Japanese airspace at 11:29 am (0229 GMT) for around two minutes, the ministry added.

There was no comment from Chinese authorities.   

Local media including public broadcaster NHK said the incident marked the first incursion by the Chinese military’s aircraft into Japan’s airspace.

The ministry said steps were taken by the SDF such as “issuing warnings” to the aircraft, but NHK reported that no weapons, such as flare guns, were used as an alert.    

In response to the incident, vice foreign minister Masataka Okano summoned China’s acting ambassador to Japan late Monday, and “lodged firm protest” with the official, as well as calling for measures against a recurrence, the foreign ministry said in a statement.  

The Chinese diplomat said in response that the matter would be reported to Beijing, according to the ministry.        

Japanese and Chinese vessels have previously been involved in tense incidents in disputed areas, in particular the Senkaku islands in the East China Sea, known by Beijing as the Diaoyus.

The remote chain of islands have fueled diplomatic tensions and been the scene of confrontations between Japanese coastguard vessels and Chinese fishing boats.  

Beijing has grown more assertive about its claim to the islands in recent years, with Tokyo reporting the presence of Chinese coast guard vessels, a naval ship and even a nuclear-powered submarine.

In the past, two non-military aircraft from China – a propeller plane and a small drone – were confirmed to have forayed into the Japanese airspace near the Senkaku islands in 2012 and 2017, according to NHK.  

Beijing claims the South China Sea – through which trillions of dollars of trade passes annually – almost in its entirety despite an international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

The Danjo Islands are a group of small islets located in the East China Sea, off Japan’s southern Nagasaki region.   

Japan in recent years has strengthened security ties with the United States to counter China’s growing assertiveness in the region, boosting defense spending and moving to acquire “counter-strike” capabilities.

At the same time, it has boosted military ties with the Philippines, which has also been involved in recent territorial standoffs, as well as South Korea.
…

…

BEIJING — China’s coast guard said Sunday it took action against a Philippine vessel that ignored warnings and caused a light collision with its vessel in the disputed South China Sea, where confrontations between the two sides have increased.

Gan Yu, the coast guard spokesperson, said in a statement that the Philippine vessel entered the waters around Sabina Shoal in the Spratly Islands, known in Chinese as Xianbin Reef in the Nansha Islands. Gan said the Philippine ship ignored the Chinese warning and sailed toward the coast guard ship “unprofessionally” and “dangerously,” causing the two vessels to brush against each other. He said the Philippine vessel also had journalists on board to take pictures to “distort facts.”

“The responsibility is totally on the Philippines’ side. We sternly warn that the Philippine side must immediately stop the infringement and provocation, otherwise it must bear all consequences,” he said. Gan did not elaborate on what control measures the Chinese coast guard took.

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in the Philippines said its vessel encountered aggressive and dangerous maneuvers from eight Chinese maritime vessels. It said the actions from the Chinese side were aimed at obstructing its vessel’s humanitarian mission to resupply Filipino fishermen with diesel, food and medical supplies.

China is rapidly expanding its military and has become increasingly assertive in pursuing its territorial claims in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety. The tensions have led to more frequent confrontations, primarily with the Philippines, though the longtime territorial disputes also involve other claimants including Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei.

The latest incident came days after Chinese and Philippine coast guard ships collided near Sabina Shoal, a disputed atoll. At least two vessels were reported to be damaged in Monday’s collision but there were no reports of injuries.

Sabina Shoal lies about 140 kilometers (85 miles) west of the Philippine province of Palawan, in the internationally recognized exclusive economic zone of the Philippines.

The atoll is near Second Thomas Shoal, another flashpoint where China has hampered the resupply of Philippine forces. China and the Philippines reached an agreement last month to prevent further confrontations at Second Thomas Shoal.
…

BEIJING — Heavy rainstorms that swept through a city in northeast China this week killed 11 people and left 14 others missing, while causing more than $1 billion in damages, state media reported Friday. 

State broadcaster CCTV said an officer who was trying to save lives was one of the people who died in the city of Huludao in Liaoning province. Rescuers were still trying to find the people who went missing during the “historically rare” destructive rainfall, it said. An image from the broadcaster showed roads seriously flooded. 

According to preliminary estimates, 188,800 people were affected by the natural disaster, with losses amounting to about $1.4 billion, officials announced. A large number of roads, bridges and cables were damaged. 

CCTV said the maximum daily rainfall recorded was 52.8 centimeters (nearly 21 inches), breaking the provincial record. The hardest-hit parts of the city experienced a year’s worth of rain in just half a day, and overall, it was the strongest rainfall in Huludao since meteorological records began in 1951, it said. 

The Chinese government allocated a fund of $7 million to support disaster relief efforts. 

China was in the middle of its peak flood season over the past month. Chinese policymakers have repeatedly warned that the government needs to step up disaster preparations as severe weather becomes more common. 

Landslides and flooding have killed more than 150 people around China in the past two months as torrential rainstorms battered the region. 
…