Beijing — Firefighters in China pulled six bodies from a shopping centre on Wednesday, state media reported, with an unknown number still trapped after a blaze broke out in a 14-storey building.

Footage broadcast by state broadcaster CCTV and shared on social media showed thick black smoke billowing out of the tower, located in Zigong in southwestern Sichuan province.

The blaze started in the early evening in a shopping center at the foot of the building, the channel said.

Around 30 people were rescued from the shopping complex, with the fire extinguished by rescuers around 8:20 pm (1220 GMT), CCTV said.

Later footage provided by a drone operator to AFP showed firetrucks and other first responders blocking off the road late at night, continuing to spray down the charred building.

“Six people have been killed,” CCTV reported, adding that search and rescue operations were continuing with people still trapped.

Zigong’s emergency services department received news about the fire at around 6:10 pm and immediately dispatched firefighters to extinguish the blaze, the broadcaster said.

Other images shared on social media — which AFP could not immediately verify — show people gathered in front of the burning building.

The emergency department has called on the public to “not to believe or amplify rumours” about the fire.

Zigong, some 1,900 kilometers from the capital Beijing, is home to nearly 2.5 million people.

Lax safety

Fires and other deadly accidents are common in China due to lax safety standards and poor enforcement.

In January, dozens died after a fire broke out at a store in the central city of Xinyu, with state news agency Xinhua reporting the blaze had been caused by the “illegal” use of fire by workers in the store’s basement.

At the time, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for lessons to be learned from the disaster to avoid further tragedies.

The same month, a fire in a residential building killed at least 15 people.

That fire came just days after a late-evening blaze at a school in central China’s Henan province killed 13 schoolchildren as they slept in a dormitory.

In June last year, an explosion at a barbecue restaurant in the northwest of the country left 31 dead and prompted official pledges of a nationwide campaign to promote workplace safety.

And in April 2023, a fire in a Beijing hospital claimed 29 lives and forced desperate patients to jump from windows to escape.

 
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Beijing — China said Wednesday it had suspended negotiations with the United States on nuclear non-proliferation and arms control in response to Washington’s weapons sales to Taiwan.

The U.S. and China in November held rare talks on nuclear arms control, part of a bid to ease mistrust ahead of a summit between leader Joe Biden and Xi Jinping.

Further dialogue had not been publicly announced since, with a White House official in January urging Beijing to respond “to some of our more substantive ideas on risk reduction.”

But China’s foreign ministry on Wednesday said recent U.S. sales of arms to self-ruled Taiwan were “seriously undermining the political atmosphere for continued arms control consultations between the two sides.”

“The U.S. has… continued its arms sales to Taiwan, and taken a series of negative actions that seriously damage China’s core interests and undermine political mutual trust,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.

“For this reason, China has decided to suspend negotiations with the United States on a new round of arms control and non-proliferation consultations,” he added.

The Pentagon in a congressionally mandated report last October said that China was developing its nuclear arsenal more quickly than the United States had earlier anticipated.

China possessed more than 500 operational nuclear warheads as of May 2023 and is likely to have more than 1,000 by 2030, it said.

The United States currently possesses about 3,700 nuclear warheads, trailing Russia’s roughly 4,500, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which counts 410 warheads for China.

“China is willing to maintain communication with the United States on international arms control issues on the basis of mutual respect,” Lin said.

“But the United States must respect China’s core interests and create necessary conditions for dialogue,” he warned.

The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 but it has remained Taiwan’s most important partner and biggest arms supplier, sparking repeated condemnations from China.

Washington in June approved two military sales to Taiwan worth approximately $300 million in total, mostly of spare and repair parts for the island’s F-16 fighter jets.
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Vienna — European experts watching China’s Third Plenum say this week’s high-level meetings are unlikely to touch on political reform but will likely introduce several measures to reverse the nation’s economic downturn.

“Any measures to be announced on China’s key economic problems will be moderate and gradual, like Chinese medicine, as opposed to a shock therapy,” said Alicia Garcia-Herrero, a senior researcher at the Belgian think tank Bruegel.

The Spanish economist listed eight key problems facing the current Chinese economy: stagnation in real estate; tight local government finances; deflationary pressure; sluggish consumer consumption; an aging population; a decline in foreign investment in non-manufacturing industries; increased social security costs, such as pensions and medical care; and the failure to achieve transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry.

The state-run Xinhua News Agency has said decisions on such matters are expected from this week’s Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which is to address policy matters spanning the next decade.

Garcia-Herrero said China’s possible approaches include providing modest subsidies to low- and middle-income households to stimulate consumption; structural measures to slow down the aging of the population; opening up investment access to attract foreign investment; increasing local government taxes to make up for shortfalls caused by falling land prices; delaying retirement; and reducing government administrative costs to achieve fiscal balance.

Chinese policymakers will need to make some hard choices. A lack of social benefits prompts people to save for future emergencies, which reduces private consumption. Stimulating consumption will require greater government spending, including a better social welfare system, but this will hurt an already deteriorating fiscal position.

It remains to be seen to what extent China’s economic decision-makers agree on establishing a social safety net and carrying out consumption-oriented structural reforms.

Garcia-Herrero said that in the long term, the way to solve China’s economic woes is to expand local fiscal autonomy and develop high-end manufacturing, although neither seems likely in the short term.

The plenum is expected to focus on reforming the fiscal and taxation systems, and specific measures may include transferring consumption tax and value-added tax from the central government to local governments.

President Xi Jinping has stressed the importance of vigorously developing “new quality productivity” and promoting China’s industrial upgrading and “high-quality development.”

Alexander Davey, an analyst at MERICS, told VOA, “The past reforms of investments of vast resources and personnel into modernizing China’s industrial system and promoting scientific and technological innovation will continue.”

But he said it is uncertain whether those investments “will negatively impact the extent to which Beijing can allocate resources for local governments to service health care, education, infrastructure, government employee wages, etc.”

Analysts say the Chinese modernization development model, which relies on high-end manufacturing exports to drive the economy, could exacerbate trade disputes between China and its major export destinations. The United States and Europe have recently accused China of “overcapacity” of electric vehicles and have imposed anti-dumping investigations and tariff measures.

Davey said Chinese-style modernization “could be used as pretext for how Beijing decides to retaliate [against] Brussels’ tariffs on Chinese EVs, among other EU de-risking actions towards China. Beijing may target European imports like brandy, wine, and certain types of cars, framing them as unnecessary luxury goods in its march towards common prosperity, imposing tariffs accordingly.”

The China watchers also said specific plans for personnel changes at the top level of the People’s Liberation Army are expected.

Two former Chinese defense ministers, Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu, were expelled last month from the party and the military.

Francesco Sisci, an Italian Sinologist, told VOA, “We know the focus will be the PLA and the economy. The domestic economy is not doing well with private consumption shrinking and the military is under immense stress for the unprecedented purge of two ministers of defense. The PLA seems in disarray, which is extremely dangerous.”

Adrianna Zhang  contributed to this report.
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A Pew Research Center survey finds most people recognize China’s economic influence in their country, but are divided on whether that influence is good. The poll also finds more people in the U.S. view China’s economic influence negatively compared to other countries. Michael Baturin reports. Camera: Elizabeth Lee.
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washington — North Korea and China are watching for possible regional impacts from Japan’s recent enhanced security cooperation with Germany.

This weekend, Japan will hold joint drills with Germany around the Chitose Air Base in Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost main island. Spain is slated to join them there, while France will join Japan next week for drills over Hyakuri Air Base in Ibaraki Prefecture bordering the Pacific Ocean.

At a joint press conference in Berlin late last week, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said defense cooperation will be enhanced by the planned visits of German aircraft and frigates to Japan and of a Japanese training fleet to Hamburg this summer.

North Korea slammed the security cooperation as “collusion” that crossed a “red line” and is “reminiscent of the Second World War,” according to North Korea’s state-run KCNA on Monday.

“The defeated war criminal nations are in cahoots to stage a series of war games escalating the regional tensions,” KCNA continued.

Kishida said Japan hopes to work with Germany “to deal with the deepening military cooperation between Russia and North Korea as well as China’s moves related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” according to Nippon.com, a news agency based in Tokyo.

Kishida and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz agreed in Berlin on Friday to boost their security cooperation after attending a NATO summit in Washington. It was Kishida’s first trip to Germany as prime minister.

Pact enters into force

Also on Friday, a military supply-sharing pact that aims to exchange food, fuel, and ammunition between Japan and Germany entered into force. The agreement was signed in January.

Beijing said the cooperation between Japan and Germany should not create tensions in the Asia-Pacific region.

Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA on Monday that “cooperation between countries, including military and security ties, should not target any third party or harm their interests.”

Maki Kobayashi, Japanese cabinet secretary for public affairs, told VOA’s Mandarin Service during the NATO summit that Japan has been working “very closely” with NATO countries on security issues and joint exercises.

“China has been saying there is an attempt at creating NATO in Asia, which is not correct,” she said.

Rather, she said, Japan has been seeking closer ties among like-minded countries “to share situational analyses and also align some policies” in support of an international order based on the rule of law.

In Berlin, Kishida and Scholz also agreed to enhance economic security including safeguarding the resilience of supply chains for key items such as critical minerals and semiconductors.

Cooperation seen two different ways

In Washington last week, the leaders of NATO and four Indo-Pacific countries, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, discussed how to ramp up their combined defense capacity.

“A union of defense industrial bases between NATO and IP4 countries would have significant and positive implications for international peace and stability,” said Matthew Brummer, professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo.

“Japan has recently moved to provide surface-to-air missiles to the United States, which then sends them to Ukraine,” he added.

In December, Tokyo agreed to ship Japanese-made Patriot guided missiles to backfill U.S. inventory after taking a major step away from its pacifist self-defense policies and easing its postwar ban on the export of lethal weapons.

“In general, the NATO-IP4 cooperation is a good thing, since it symbolizes the recognition that both the Indo-Pacific theater and the European theater are linked,” Elli-Katharina Pohlkamp, visiting fellow of the Asia Program at the European Council on Foreign Relations based in Berlin said via email.

However, she continued, “Strengthening NATO-IP4 ties could exacerbate tensions with China and Russia, who may perceive this cooperation as a containment strategy,” and encourage countries like North Korea to align more closely with them.

Adam Xu contributed to this report.
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Taipei, Taiwan — Taiwan hosts a series of military exercises and drills next week that will include preventing attacks on key airports and ports, and testing the ability of troops to respond to scenarios similar to a hypothetical invasion from China.  

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense says the annual Han Kuang and Wan An exercises, between July 22 and July 26, will focus on “unscripted and real combat drills.” They will include drills such as shelter-in-place and air defense drill alerts.  

The exercises come as China increases military pressure on Taiwan, which Beijing views as part of its territory. Beijing has vowed to unify the democratically ruled island with China, by force if necessary. 

When Taiwan President Lai Ching-te took office in May, China conducted a blockade-style military exercise around Taiwan, aimed at testing its ability to “seize power.” Beijing has also increased the number of military aircraft, naval vessels and coast guard vessels operating near Taiwan.  

On July 11, Taiwan’s defense ministry said it detected 66 Chinese military aircraft operating around the island within 24 hours, the most sorties on a single day in 2024. A day before, Taipei said it detected China’s aircraft carrier Shandong sailing through waters near Taiwan to join military exercises in the western Pacific. 

Unscripted drills 

Unlike Han Kuang exercises in the past, some analysts say this year’s exercises will be closer to actual combat as authorities will not announce simulated scenarios before the exercises.  

“This year’s drills are unscripted exercises and the goal is to let the Taiwanese military develop capabilities to respond swiftly in real combats,” Su Tzu-yun, a military expert at the Taipei-based Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told VOA by phone.  

He said another aim of the drills is to boost troop morale and the public’s confidence in the military’s capabilities.  

During the live-fire segment of the exercises, the defense ministry will test the troops’ defense capabilities during nighttime to ensure they can make decisions independently and follow the rules of engagement even after losing contact with central command. 

“As the Chinese military enhances its combat capabilities at night, Taiwanese troops also need to possess the ability to be prepared to fight at any hour of the day,” said Chieh Chung, a military researcher at the National Policy Foundation in Taiwan.  

Since the Chinese military may try to disrupt communication between the Taiwanese troops through large-scale information and electronic warfare, Chieh told VOA that it’s important for Taiwan to ensure its forces “have the capabilities and will to fight independently in combat when they lose contact with central command.”  

To prevent invading Chinese troops from seizing critical infrastructure across Taiwan, the military will conduct anti-landing drills at 12 airports, ports, and beaches near key political and economic centers.  

Apart from Taiwan’s main international airport in Taoyuan, the harbor at the mouth of the Tamsui River in northern Taiwan will be another important location where the Taiwanese military will conduct a river defense exercise, after a Chinese man drove a speedboat into the harbor in June. 

China has increasingly deployed fighter jets and aircraft carrier groups toward eastern Taiwan, an area traditionally used to protect Taiwanese troops and home to two important air bases. In response, this year’s exercise will include runway repair, restoration of combat power, and air force countermeasures.   

Su said the drills aim to ensure the Taiwanese military is capable of conducting “multi-point simultaneous defense” rather than concentrating on defending one particular item of infrastructure. 

“These exercises are simulated based on a potential Chinese military invasion, during which the Chinese troops may likely focus on seizing airports, seaports, and beaches around Taiwan,” he told VOA.  

Strengthening civil defense 

Apart from strengthening Taiwanese troops’ capabilities in actual combat, Taiwan will also conduct the annual air defense exercise across the island. 

While last year’s drills focused on shelter-in-place and evacuation drills in districts, this year’s air defense exercise will include the dissemination of alerts about missile and rocket attacks. 

According to Taiwan’s Defense Ministry, alerts will be sent to Taiwanese people through text messages. The messages will include links to maps that inform them about the locations of nearby shelters. 

In addition to the regular 30-minute drills, during which people need to shelter in place and vehicles have to stop moving, local governments and civil defense organizations will conduct a separate 30-minute drill setting up wartime disaster relief and shelter stations. 

This year’s exercise will also simulate storing ammunition in strategic, underground places near battlefields as part of the effort to strengthen Taiwanese troops’ sustainability during combat. The ministry said this could reduce the risks of ammunition being damaged during combat while enhancing the troops’ combat sustainability.  

Su said while Taiwan’s air raid shelters are already well-equipped, Taiwanese authorities should consider drawing up plans to transform some shelters into hospitals or spaces to store essential supplies. “These steps can further strengthen Taiwan’s civil defense,” he told VOA.  

Some analysts say that while this year’s exercises reflect Taiwan’s attempt to modernize the training schemes, it’s important for the military to keep adjusting the exercises based on patterns emerging from China’s military activities.  
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BEIJING — China and Russia’s naval forces kicked off a joint exercise Sunday at a military port in southern China, official news agency Xinhua reported, days after NATO allies called Beijing a “decisive enabler” of the war in Ukraine.

The Chinese defense ministry said in a statement that forces from both sides recently patrolled the western and northern Pacific Ocean and that the operation had nothing to do with international and regional situations and didn’t target any third party.

The exercise, which began in Guangdong province Sunday and is expected to last until mid-July, aimed to demonstrate the capabilities of the navies in addressing security threats and preserving peace and stability globally and regionally, state broadcaster CCTV reported Saturday, adding it would include anti-missile exercises, sea strikes and air defense.

Xinhua News Agency reported the Chinese and Russian naval forces carried out on-map military simulation and tactical coordination exercises after the opening ceremony in the city of Zhanjiang.

The joint drills came on the heels of China’s latest tensions with NATO allies last week.

The sternly worded final communiqué, approved by the 32 NATO members at their summit in Washington, made clear that China is becoming a focus of the military alliance, calling Beijing a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The European and North American members and their partners in the Indo-Pacific increasingly see shared security concerns coming from Russia and its Asian supporters, especially China.

In response, China accused NATO of seeking security at the expense of others and told the alliance not to bring the same “chaos” to Asia. Its foreign ministry maintained that China has a fair and objective stance on the war in Ukraine.

Last week, a U.S. Coast Guard cutter on routine patrol in the Bering Sea also came across several Chinese military ships in international waters but within the U.S. exclusive economic zone, American officials said. Its crew detected three vessels approximately 124 miles (200 kilometers) north of the Amchitka Pass in the Aleutian Islands, which mark a separation and linkage between the North Pacific and the Bering Sea.

Later, a fourth ship was spotted approximately 84 miles (135 kilometers) north of the Amukta Pass.

The U.S. side said the Chinese naval vessels operated within international rules and norms.
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WENZHOU, China — At a factory in Zhejiang province on China’s eastern coast, two mounds of discarded cotton clothing and bed linens, loosely separated into dark and light colors, pile up on a workroom floor. Jacket sleeves, collars and brand labels protrude from the stacks as workers feed the garments into shredding machines.

It’s the first stage of a new life for the textiles, part of a recycling effort at the Wenzhou Tiancheng Textile Company, one of the largest cotton recycling plants in China.

Textile waste is an urgent global problem, with only 12% recycled worldwide, according to fashion sustainability nonprofit Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Even less — only 1% — are castoff clothes recycled into new garments; the majority is used for low-value items like insulation or mattress stuffing.

Nowhere is the problem more pressing than in China, the world’s largest textile producer and consumer, where more than 26 million tons of clothes are thrown away each year, according to government statistics. Most of it ends up in landfills.

And factories like this one are barely making a dent in a country whose clothing industry is dominated by “fast fashion” — cheap clothes made from unrecyclable synthetics, not cotton. Produced from petrochemicals that contribute to climate change, air and water pollution, synthetics account for 70% of domestic clothing sales in China.

China’s footprint is worldwide: E-commerce juggernaut brands Shein and Temu make the country one of the world’s largest producers of cheap fashion, selling in more than 150 countries.

To achieve a game-changing impact, what fashion expert Shaway Yeh calls “circular sustainability” is needed among major Chinese clothing brands so waste is avoided entirely.

“You need to start it from recyclable fibers and then all these waste textiles will be put into use again,” she said.

But that is an elusive goal: Only about 20% of China’s textiles are recycled, according to the Chinese government — and almost all of that is cotton.

Chinese cotton is not without a taint of its own, said Claudia Bennett of the nonprofit Human Rights Foundation. Much of it comes from forced labor in Xinjiang province by the country’s ethnic Uyghur minority.

“One in five cotton garments globally is linked to Uyghur forced labor,” Bennett said.

In May, the U.S. blocked imports from 26 Chinese cotton traders and warehouses to avoid goods made with Uyghur forced labor. But because the supply chain is so sketchy, Uyghur cotton is used in garments produced in other countries that don’t bear the “made-in-China” label, Bennett said.

“Many, many, many clothing brands are linked to Uyghur forced labor through the cotton,” she said. They “hide behind the lack of transparency in the supply chain.”

While China is a global leader in the production of electric cars and electric-powered public transit and has set a goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, its efforts in promoting fashion sustainability and recycling textiles have taken a back seat.

According to a report this year from independent fashion watchdog Remake assessing major clothing companies on their environmental, human rights and equitability practices, there’s little accountability among the best-known brands.

The group gave Shein, whose online marketplace groups about 6,000 Chinese clothing factories under its label, just 6 out of a possible 150 points. Temu scored zero.

Also getting zero were U.S. label SKIMS, co-founded by Kim Kardashian, and low-price brand Fashion Nova. U.S. retailer Everlane was the highest-scorer at 40 points, with only half of those for sustainability practices.

China’s domestic policy doesn’t help.

Cotton recycled from used clothing is banned from being used to make new garments inside China. This rule was initially aimed at stamping out fly-by-night Chinese operations recycling dirty or otherwise contaminated material.

But now it means the huge spools of tightly woven rope-like cotton yarn produced at the Wenzhou Tiancheng factory from used clothing can only be sold for export, mostly to Europe.

Making matters worse, many Chinese consumers are unwilling to buy used items anyway, something the Wenzhou factory sales director, Kowen Tang, attributes to increasing household incomes.

“They want to buy new clothes, the new stuff,” he said of the stigma associated with buying used.

Still, among younger Chinese, a growing awareness of sustainability has contributed to the emergence of fledgling “remade” clothing businesses.

Thirty-year-old designer Da Bao founded Times Remake in 2019, a Shanghai-based brand that takes secondhand clothes and refashions them into new garments. At the company’s work room in Shanghai, tailors work with secondhand denims and sweatshirts, stitching them into funky new fashions.

The venture, which began with Da Bao and his father-in-law posting their one-off designs online, now has a flagship store in Shanghai’s trendy Jing’an District that stocks their remade garments alongside vintage items, such as Levi’s and Carhartt jackets.

The designs are “a combination of the past style and current fashion aesthetic to create something unique,” Bao said.

Zhang Na has a fashion label, Reclothing Bank, that sells clothes, bags and other accessories made from materials such as plastic bottles, fishing nets and flour sacks.

The items’ labels have QR codes that show their composition, how they were made and the provenance of the materials. Zhang draws on well-established production methods, such as textile fibers made from pineapple leaf, a centuries-old tradition originating in the Philippines.

“We can basically develop thousands of new fabrics and new materials,” she said.

Reclothing Bank began in 2010 to give “new life to old things,” Zhang said of her store in a historic Shanghai alley with a mix of Western and Chinese architecture. A large used clothes deposit box sat outside the entrance.

“Old items actually carry a lot of people’s memories and emotions,” she said.

Zhang said she has seen sustainability consciousness grow since she opened her store, with core customers in their 20s and 30s.

Bao Yang, a college student who dropped by the store on a visit to Shanghai, said she was surprised at the feel of the clothes.

“I think it’s amazing, because when I first entered the door, I heard that many of the clothes were actually made of shells or corn (husks), but when I touched the clothes in detail, I had absolutely no idea that they would have this very comfortable feel,” she said.

Still, she conceded that buying sustainable clothing is a hard sell. “People of my age are more addicted to fast fashion, or they do not think about the sustainability of clothes,” she said.

Recycled garments sold at stores like Reclothing Bank have a much higher price tag than fast-fashion brands due to their costly production methods.

And therein lies the real problem, said Sheng Lu, professor of fashion and apparel studies at the University of Delaware.

“Studies repeatedly show consumers are not willing to pay higher for clothing made from recycled materials, and instead they actually expect a lower price because they see such clothing as made of secondhand stuff,” he said.

With higher costs in acquiring, sorting and processing used garments, he doesn’t see sustainable fashion succeeding on a wide scale in China, where clothes are so cheap to make.

“Companies do not have the financial incentive,” he said.

For real change there needs to be “more clear signals from the very top,” he added, referring to government targets like the ones that propelled China’s EV industry.

Still, in China “government can be a friend to any sector,” Lu said, so if China’s communist leaders see economic potential, it could trigger a policy shift that drives new investment in sustainable fashion.

But for now, the plastic-wrapped cones of tightly wound cotton being loaded onto trucks outside the Wenzhou Tiancheng factory were all headed to overseas markets, far from where their recycling journey began.

“Fast fashion definitely is not out of fashion” in China, Lu said.
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The NATO alliance completed its annual summit this week in Washington, celebrating its 75th anniversary and making long-term commitments of military support for Ukraine. It promised the country’s future is in NATO, while calling out China, Iran and North Korea for enabling Russian belligerence. Jeff Custer reports.
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BEIJING — Top Chinese officials gather in Beijing on Monday, with all eyes on how they might kickstart lackluster growth at a key political meeting that has traditionally seen officials unveil big-picture economic policy changes.

The world’s second-largest economy is grappling with a real estate debt crisis, weakening consumption, an aging population and geopolitical tensions overseas.

President Xi Jinping will oversee the ruling Communist Party’s secretive Third Plenum, which usually takes place every five years in October, though Beijing has offered few hints about what might be on the table.

State media in June said the delayed four-day gathering would “primarily examine issues related to further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese modernization,” and Xi last week said the CCP was planning “major” reforms.

Analysts are hoping those pledges will result in badly needed support for the economy.

“There are many hopes that this Third Plenum will provide some new breakthroughs on policy,” Andrew Batson of the Beijing-based consultancy Gavekal Dragonomics told AFP.

“China’s government has struggled to execute a successful economic strategy since emerging from the pandemic,” he added.

But he said he did not expect a “fundamental departure from the course Xi has already laid out,” in which technological self-sufficiency and national security outweigh economic growth.

And the People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, warned on Monday that “reform is not about changing direction and transformation is not about changing color.”

Ting Lu, chief China economist at Nomura, said the meeting was “intended to generate and discuss big, long-term ideas and structural reforms instead of making short-term policy adjustments.”

The Third Plenum has long been an occasion for the Communist Party’s top leadership to unveil major economic policy shifts.

In 1978, then-leader Deng Xiaoping used the meeting to announce market reforms that would put China on the path to dazzling economic growth by opening it to the world.

And more recently following the closed-door meeting in 2013, the leadership pledged to give the free market a “decisive” role in resource allocation as well as other sweeping changes to economic and social policy.

Growth figures expected

This year’s conclave will begin the same day China is due to release its growth figures for the second quarter.

Experts polled by AFP expect China’s economy to have grown, on average, 5.3 percent year-on-year between April and June.

Beijing has said it is aiming for 5% growth this year — enviable for many Western countries but a far cry from the double-digit expansion that for years drove the Chinese economy.

Authorities have been clear they want to reorient the economy away from state-funded investment and instead base growth around high-tech innovation and domestic consumption.

But economic uncertainty is fueling a vicious cycle that has kept consumption stubbornly low.

Among the most urgent issues facing the economy is a persistent crisis in the property sector, which long served as a key engine for growth but is now mired in debt, with several top firms facing liquidation.

Authorities have moved in recent months to ease pressure on developers and restore confidence, such as by encouraging local governments to buy up unsold homes.

Analysts say much more is required for a full rebound as the country’s economy has yet to bounce back more than 18 months after damaging COVID-19 restrictions ended.

“Short-term stimulus is badly needed to boost the teetering economy,” Nomura’s Ting said.

But, he added, “major steps towards market-oriented reforms might be limited this time.”
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washington — A U.S. plan to boost its Pacific air power is seen by analysts as an effort to reinforce deterrence in the Indo-Pacific and counterbalance China’s attempt to gain dominance in the region.

The U.S. Air Force plans to upgrade more than 80 fighter jets stationed at Japanese bases over the next several years as part of a $10 billion program to modernize its forces there.

The Defense Department announced the plan last week, saying it aims to enhance the U.S.-Japan alliance and bolster deterrence in the Indo-Pacific.

“This is a necessary upgrade that has been planned for some time. And combined with Japan’s own investments, it will help maintain some degree of air power balance between the allies and China’s progress in air force modernization,” said James Schoff, senior director of the U.S.-Japan NEXT Alliance Initiative at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA.

“Without it, the credibility of U.S. deterrent capacity would be much weaker, which could cause Beijing to doubt U.S. seriousness about protecting the status quo across the Taiwan Strait and prompt more aggressive Chinese behavior,” Schoff said.

The Taiwanese Defense Ministry said it spotted 37 Chinese aircraft near Taiwan on Wednesday as they headed to the Western Pacific for drills with the Shandong aircraft carrier.

Chinese jets and warships have frequently made dangerous maneuvers around the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as a part of its own territory.

Former U.S. Indo-Pacific Commander John Aquilino told the Senate Armed Services Committee in March that China could soon have the world’s largest air force.

China is currently the third-largest air power in the world, behind the United States and Russia.

China’s rapid military modernization efforts have led it to possess more than 3,150 aircraft, of which about 2,400 are combat aircraft, including fighters, strategic and tactical bombers, and attack aircraft, according to the Pentagon’s 2023 report on China’s military power.

Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA on Monday that “U.S.-Japan relations should not target or harm other countries’ interests and should not undermine regional peace and stability.”

Upgrade designed to help defend Japan

In addition to protecting Taiwan, the upgrade — which includes the advanced F-35 jets — also will help U.S. Forces Japan (USFJ) deter North Korea and defend Japan’s Southwest Islands, said James Przystup, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.

Japan has a territorial dispute with China over what it calls the Senkaku Islands and what China calls the Diaoyu Islands.

Japan and Russia also have a dispute over islands off Hokkaido, which Japan calls the Northern Territories and Russia calls the Kuril Islands.

The U.S. aircraft upgrade plan is to modify several deployed F-35B jets stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi prefecture south of Hiroshima.

The Misawa Air Base in Japan’s northern Aomori prefecture will see 36 F-16 aircraft be replaced with 48 F-35A jets.

Aircraft will be rotated

At Kadena Air Base in Japan’s southern island of Okinawa, 48 F-15 C/D jets will be replaced with 36 new F-15EX jets. During the upgrades, fourth- and fifth-generation tactical aircraft will be dispatched on a rotational basis, according to the Pentagon.

“The upgrades will provide qualitative and quantitative boosts to the USFJ inventory, which will also enhance the U.S.-Japan alliance’s readiness against China, North Korea and Russia,” said Ryo Hinata-Yamaguchi, a professor at the University of Tokyo and a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Indo-Pacific Security Initiative.

“Benefits will be seen not only in aerial operations but also guarding U.S. and Japanese capabilities for naval and amphibious operations. The platforms are not simply about technological superiority for combat, but also more advanced electronic warfare capabilities to penetrate weaknesses of China, North Korea and Russia,” he said.

China often conducts joint air drills with Russia over the waters near South Korea and Japan. In December, Chinese and Russian jets entered South Korea’s Air Defense Identification Zone, prompting Seoul to scramble fighter jets in response.

David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy, said, “Russia has been conducting some combined operations with China on a limited basis recently, so if Russia operates in the Indo-Pacific, it will certainly indicate these systems will contribute to the defense of U.S.-allies’ interests.”

Maxwell said U.S. bases in Japan give the U.S. “a lot of operational flexibility to be able to deal with multiple contingencies, either on the Korean Peninsula or in the South China Sea, or really, anywhere in Asia.”

Okinawa is about 740 kilometers (459.8 miles) from Taiwan and 990 kilometers (615.1 miles) from South Korea’s southern port city of Busan. Kadena, which the U.S. calls “the keystone of the Pacific,” is the largest U.S. installation in the Indo-Pacific.

Zack Cooper, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, who served as special assistant to the principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy during the George W. Bush administration, said rotating aircraft presence at Kadena during the upgrade transition helps the U.S. disperse them in case of an attack.

“Kadena Air Base is under greater threat than it’s been in decades,” from a range of Chinese capabilities, both ballistic and cruise missiles, he said. “There are a couple of options for how to deal with that. One is for the U.S. to disperse its forces more so that if there was an attack, there would be less concentration of U.S. forces.”
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washington — The United States and its NATO allies have agreed that Ukraine’s path to  membership in the organization is “irreversible,” according to a communique released by the 32-member bloc during this week’s summit in Washington.

“It’s not a question of if, but when,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters Wednesday.

The United States was once deeply concerned about whether Ukraine was ready for NATO membership but now appears resolved to ensure Kyiv eventually joins the alliance.

“We’re providing that bridge to membership for Ukraine. It’s really a significant deliverable,” Michael Carpenter, the senior director for Europe at the National Security Council, told VOA.

Stoltenberg explained that when fighting stops in Ukraine, NATO will need to ensure that it stops for good.

The way to ensure that, he added, is to secure NATO membership for Ukraine. Otherwise, he said, Russia could continue its aggression.

Unlike the European Union, which began negotiations with Ukraine to join its ranks on June 25, there is no consensus yet about Ukraine joining NATO.

F-16 transfer under way

Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the first American-made F-16 fighter jets were being delivered to Ukraine and were expected to patrol Ukrainian skies in the coming weeks.

“The transfer of F-16s is officially under way, and Ukraine will be flying F-16s this summer,” he said at the summit.

In a statement Wednesday, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and U.S. President Joe Biden announced that the Dutch and Danish governments were providing the F-16s, while Belgium and Norway had committed to send more aircraft to Ukraine.

NATO member heads of state held their first working session of the summit  Wednesday as they sought to boost the alliance’s support for Ukraine and enhance their own defense and deterrence efforts.

At the start of the session, Biden said Russia was ramping up its defense production with the help of China, North Korea and Iran.

To counter them, he said, NATO members must continue to invest more in defense production.

“We cannot allow the alliance to fall behind,” Biden said.

China called out

In the NATO communique, all 32 allies also called on China to cease its support for Russia’s war effort against Kyiv, including its transfer of dual-use materials, such as weapons components, equipment and raw materials that serve as inputs for Russia’s military sector.

China “cannot enable the largest war in Europe in recent history without this negatively impacting its interests and reputation,” the leaders wrote.

Asked by VOA whether the statement was a strong enough message to deter China from continuing to support Russia, Stoltenberg replied in the press conference that Wednesday’s declaration was “the strongest message that NATO allies have ever sent on China’s contributions to Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine.”

NATO allies invited Indo-Pacific partners from Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand to attend this week’s summit. Officials said their inclusion relayed the importance of these partners amid growing aggression from China, North Korea, Russia and Iran. 

Iulia Iarmolenko contributed to this report.
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MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine senate threatened on Wednesday to arrest a small town mayor for contempt during a hearing investigating her alleged ties with Chinese criminal syndicates, a case that has captivated the nation amid tension between Manila and Bejing.

The arrest threat came after the mayor, Alice Guo, failed to appear for a second consecutive hearing, citing stress.

The case that began in March, when authorities raided a casino in Guo’s sleepy farming town of Bamban, has shed light on criminal activity in the mostly Chinese-backed online casino industry in the Philippines.

It gained national attention after one senator questioned whether Guo might not have been born in the Philippines and could even be a Chinese “asset” an accusation she denied.

She has also denied links to criminals, saying she is a natural-born Philippine citizen. Guo did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment but wrote to the senate that she was the subject of “malicious accusations.”

On Wednesday, the senate cited Guo in contempt for failing to appear and Senator Risa Hontiveros, who is leading the investigation, said she would set in motion steps to get a warrant for her arrest.

“The chair has ruled to cite them in contempt,” said Hontiveros, who told a previous hearing that Guo might have actually been born in China and be a Chinese “asset,” although she gave no proof.

Raid raises questions

The investigation began after a police raid revealed a scam center operating out of a facility built on land partially owned by Guo. It was one of many that have sprung up across Southeast Asia in recent years.

The raid uncovered hundreds of trafficked workers including foreign nationals, spurring a human trafficking complaint against Guo from an agency battling organized crime.

Guo has said she sold her stake in the business before she was elected in 2022 and had no knowledge of criminality.

Officials have turned a searchlight on her background since.

The National Bureau of Investigation said Guo’s fingerprints matched those of a Chinese national who entered the country as a teenager.

The solicitor general is seeking to cancel her birth certificate and she has been suspended from her post during the investigation. The senate committee urged the immigration agency to stop Guo from leaving the Philippines.

Guo’s attorney, Stephen David, told radio station DWPM she had been “traumatized” by previous sessions but had assured him she was still in the Philippines.

“If she gets arrested and detained at the senate, then she will testify,” he said.

Earlier hearings grilled Guo about her background and a lack of records regarding her presence in the Philippines. After she was unable to recall details of her childhood, Hontiveros asked if she was an “asset” for China.

In May, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr told reporters, “No one knows her. We wonder where she came from. That’s why we are investigating this, together with the Bureau of Immigration, because of the questions about her citizenship.”

The mayor has denied she is a spy, saying in a television interview that she was a simple Philippine citizen, the love child of her Chinese father with a maid, and who had grown up “hidden” on a pig farm and homeschooled, with no friends.

Guo’s case comes at a time of growing Philippine suspicion about China’s activities following an increasingly tense dispute over reefs and shoals in the busy waterway of the South China Sea, where both nations have claims.

It has boosted calls for a crackdown on Philippine offshore gambling operators, or POGOs, mostly run by Chinese nationals to serve clients in China, which flourished during the tenure of former President Rodrigo Duterte, but have since drawn scrutiny.
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washington — While the 2024 NATO summit in Washington this week is expected to largely focus on Russia’s war in Ukraine, the alliance is also set to discuss threats posed by China and the security situation in the Indo-Pacific region.

These matters are likely to include China’s aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, sovereignty disputes in the sea between China and its neighbors, Taiwan’s security, and the North Korean nuclear issue.

Here are three key points you need to know about the summit as it relates to China.

Why is NATO’s strategic focus encompassing China? 

U.S. and NATO officials have repeatedly pointed to the deepening relationship between Russia and China, particularly Beijing’s exports to Moscow of goods that can be used for both civilian and military purposes and that enable Russia’s war in Ukraine to continue.

Outgoing NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in Washington last month that “Beijing is sharing high-end technologies like semiconductors and other dual-use items. Last year, Russia imported 90% of its microelectronics from China, used to produce missiles, tanks and aircraft. China is also working to provide Russia with improved satellite capability and imagery. All of this enables Moscow to inflict more deaths and destruction on Ukraine, bolster Russia’s defense industrial base, and evade the impact of sanctions and export controls.”

China has repeatedly denied exporting dual-use items to Russia.

When asked about Stoltenberg’s criticism of Beijing’s support for Russia, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said last week that NATO “has been challenging China, interfering in China’s domestic affairs, misrepresenting and vilifying our domestic and foreign policies, and seriously challenging China’s interests and security.”

China’s militarization in the South China Sea and its recent aggressive confrontation with the Philippines in disputed waters have also aroused NATO’s concern.

“Their main concerns are China’s intimidation towards other nations in its region and NATO allies, its rapid and opaque conventional and nuclear military buildup, and its coercion through economic pressure, cyberattacks and disinformation,” Sean Monaghan, a visiting scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA in an email.

Monaghan said NATO allies are highly dependent on trade through the South China Sea and the Indo-Pacific region, so they have a clear interest in seeing that the area is stable and secure.

“NATO allies do not feel they are going to the Indo-Pacific, but rather that China is coming to them, so they must adapt,” he said.

The NATO military alliance, formed by countries from Europe and North America, was created in 1949 to provide collective security against the Soviet Union. Member states have long failed to agree on whether to include China in its strategic concerns. In a joint statement at the London summit in 2019 after years of adjustment, NATO’s strategic goals mentioned for the first time the security challenges posed by China.

Monaghan also said that China’s “intimidation” against NATO ally Lithuania in recent years has “sounded the alarm” for the alliance. Lithuania has supported the promotion of Taiwan’s international status and deepened political and economic ties with Taipei, resulting in diplomatic and economic retaliation from Beijing.

NATO allies issued a declaration at last year’s summit in Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, that “the People’s Republic of China’s stated ambitions and coercive policies challenge our interests, security and values.”

The wording continues the consensus among NATO member states on security threats related to China since the 2021 summit in Brussels.

What signal will NATO send to China?

The summit is expected to send a tougher signal than ever on China issues. Stoltenberg previously said that China could not support Russia in the war in Ukraine while expecting to maintain good relations with the West.

“Beijing cannot have it both ways. At some point, and unless China changes its course, allies need to impose a cost,” Stoltenberg said.

David Sacks, a researcher on Asia issues at the Council on Foreign Relations, told VOA, “I think this has deterrent power, because it’s showing China that if it tries to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait through aggression, that it’s not just the United States that will respond, but it potentially has to factor in as well NATO’s economic response, which raises the costs to the Chinese leadership.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said during Monday’s regular press briefing, “As a Cold War legacy and the world’s biggest military alliance, NATO claims itself to be a regional defensive alliance on the one hand, but on the other hand keeps breaching its boundary … and stoking confrontation.”

“NATO should stay within its role as a regional defensive alliance, stop creating tensions in the Asia-Pacific, stop peddling Cold War mentality and bloc confrontation. NATO should not try to destabilize the Asia-Pacific after it has done so to Europe,” he said.

Will NATO confront China head-on?

Experts stressed that NATO’s China program still has limitations, and that the allies’ positions on China-related issues are inconsistent. NATO had planned to set up a liaison office in Tokyo, making it a useful platform for NATO to cooperate with Indo-Pacific partners. But because of opposition from some member states, no progress has been made.

A U.S. administration official said last Friday that NATO’s deterrence strategy will still focus on continental Europe and the Atlantic region.

“The effort last year to try to create a liaison office in Tokyo, which was frankly fairly benign — it wasn’t going to cause a big deal — but that probably isn’t the right course of action. It was blocked by France and other European members and is unlikely to get off the ground,” Max Bergmann, director of the Europe, Russia and Eurasia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said at a background briefing on the NATO summit.

U.S. State Department officials said NATO currently has no plans to set up a liaison office in Tokyo.

Douglas Jones, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for European affairs, said there is no active discussion on the subject within NATO now. 

Alicja Bachulska, a policy researcher at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told VOA via email, “The potential for NATO to become a platform for allies and partners to discuss China-related issues has been so far explored only to a limited extent.”

Sacks said not all NATO countries have the strength to confront China.

“I don’t think that most NATO allies necessarily have the capacity to really project power in a significant way into the Indo-Pacific,” he said. “You’ll see some freedom-of-navigation operations from some NATO members, which shows their interest or their stake in preserving freedom of navigation in the Pacific. But I don’t think that really adds to the military deterrence in a meaningful way.”

He said the summit needs to avoid angering China in its wording and make it clear that NATO’s expansion of membership will not include countries in the Indo-Pacific region. 

“That’s how you preempt the Chinese narrative that the United States is trying to create a NATO for Asia or expand NATO into Asia,” Sacks said.

Adrianna Zhang, Nike Ching and Paris Huang contributed to this report.
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Washington — China and Belarus began joint anti-terrorism exercises Monday in Brest, Belarus, that will last for 11 days. 

The two countries will conduct drills in the exercises titled Eagle Assault, and “soldiers from both sides will jointly carry out hostage rescue operations and counterterrorism missions,” China’s state news agency Xinhua said. 

Together, they “will work out the issues of night landing, overcoming water obstacles, and conducting operations in a populated area,” according to a statement from the Belarusian Ministry of Defense. 

China and Belarus have a history of conducting joint military exercises, having conducted four anti-terrorism exercises in territories of both countries from 2011 to 2018. 

Eagle Assault occurs against a backdrop of increasing Chinese-Belarusian cooperation, with Belarus being the newest country to join the Chinese and Russian-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization. In recent days, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi have also met with their Belarusian counterparts.

Monday in Beijing, the foreign ministers of both countries met, and Wang Yi “expressed China’s willingness to deepen high-level exchanges, strengthen strategic synergy and deepen all-round cooperation with Belarus to advance their all-weather, comprehensive strategic partnership,” Chinese state media reported.  

The countries also agreed to “oppose external interference and resist unilateral bullying,” Chinese state media CGTN said. 

Amid tensions in Northern Europe, the exercises will occur 80 miles kilometers (50 miles) north of Ukraine on the Belarusian border with Poland, a NATO member. 

Belarus has remained a close Russian ally throughout the war in Ukraine, supporting the war effort by allowing Russia to store tactical nuclear weapons in the country. 

China has yet to condemn the war and has continued to provide Moscow with economic support to buffer the effects of Western sanctions.
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Washington — The United States plans to broaden oversight of foreigners’ real estate transactions on properties close to military installations, the Treasury Department said Monday, as concerns involving Chinese land purchases grow. 

“President [Joe] Biden and I remain committed to using our strong investment screening tool to defend America’s national security, including actions that protect military installations from external threats,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. 

Under a proposed rule, more than 50 facilities will be added to a list of sites where surrounding property transactions may be reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) — taking the total figure to 227. 

CFIUS’s jurisdiction covers land purchases as well. 

The concern is that a foreigner’s purchase or lease of certain properties could allow them to collect intelligence or “expose national security activities” to foreign surveillance risks, the Treasury noted. 

A senior Treasury official said CFIUS’s jurisdiction was “country-agnostic” and did not specify if the latest rule was aimed at quelling concerns directed at specific countries like China or Russia. 

In May, U.S. authorities announced that a Chinese-owned crypto firm was barred from using land near a strategic U.S. nuclear missile base, over national security concerns. 

MineOne Partners Limited was ordered to divest from land it bought in 2022, which sat less than a mile from Wyoming’s Francis E. Warren Air Force Base — home to Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles. 

CFIUS had also raised concerns about the installation of “specialized” crypto mining equipment on the land which is “potentially capable of facilitating surveillance and espionage activities.” 
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Beijing — Chinese state media on Monday criticized the state grains stockpiler Sinograin after local media reported that its fuel tankers were allegedly also used to transport cooking oil, sparking food safety concerns.

The Beijing News last week reported it was an “open secret” in the transportation industry that Sinograin was using tankers to transport both fuel and food products like cooking oil, soybean oil and syrup, without cleaning the tankers in between.

The report sparked an uproar on social media over worries of food contamination.

Chinese consumers have been increasingly sensitive over food safety, with consumers turning to foreign brands and Beijing stepping up controls, after a series of scandals, including the sale of baby formula containing lethal amounts of the industrial chemical melamine in 2008.

Sinograin, in a Weibo post on Saturday, said it had ordered an investigation into whether transportation carriers leaving and entering its warehouses were compliant with food safety regulations.

Transportation units and carrier vehicles found in violation of the regulations would be terminated immediately and any major problems found would be reported to the relevant regulatory authorities, Sinograin said.

On Monday, state broadcaster CCTV called the operation a cost-saving measure that was “tantamount to poisoning.”

“While Sinograin is trying to make up for its loss, consumers are still confused and stunned,” CCTV said in a post on WeChat.

“Usually, we can avoid poor quality cooking oil by not cutting corners and choosing big brands and well-known manufacturers. But big brands can also have loopholes in the transportation chain where fuel and cooking oils are mixed, which is obviously beyond most people’s knowledge,” it said.

Such mixing of products was “not only a blatant provocation to the ‘Food Safety Law’, but also showed an extreme disregard for the life and health of consumers,” CCTV said.
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TAIPEI, Taiwan — Chinese President Xi Jinping called on world powers to help Russia and Ukraine resume direct dialogue during a meeting Monday with Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Orban made a surprise visit to China after similar trips last week to Russia and Ukraine to discuss prospects for a peaceful settlement of more than the two-year war. Hungary assumed the rotating presidency of the European Union this month and Orban has since embarked on a peace mission, which, however, lacks the endorsement of other European leaders.

“China is a key power in creating the conditions for peace in the Russia-Ukraine war,” Orban wrote on the social media platform X. “This is why I came to meet with President Xi in Beijing, just two months after his official visit to Budapest.”

Orban is widely seen as having the warmest relations with Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin among European leaders. His visit to Moscow last week drew condemnation from Kyiv and EU officials, who insisted Orbán was not acting on behalf of the whole European bloc.

Their rebuke failed to deter Orban from extending a similar visit to Beijing, which he called “Peace mission 3.0” in a picture posted on X.

During his meeting with Xi, Orban described China as a stabilizing force amid global turbulence and praised its “constructive and important” peace initiatives.

China has been promoting its own six-point peace plan, which it issued with Brazil in May. Beijing says it is neutral in the conflict, though in practice it supports Moscow through frequent state visits, growing trade and joint military drills.

While hosting Orban, Xi called on Russia and Ukraine to cease fire and on other major powers to create an environment conducive to talks. Only when all major powers project “positive energy rather than negative energy” can a cease-fire occur, Xi said, according to CCTV.

Orban hosted the Chinese leader in Hungary only two months ago as part of a three-country European tour that also included stops in France and Serbia, which unlike the other two is not a member of the EU or NATO.

During the trip, China upgraded its ties with Hungary to an “all-weather, comprehensive strategic partnership,” one of its highest designations for foreign relations that in addition to Hungary applies only to Belarus, Pakistan and Venezuela.

Hungary under Orban has built substantial political and economic ties with China. The European nation hosts a number of Chinese electric vehicle battery facilities, and in December it announced that Chinese EV manufacturing giant BYD will open its first European EV production factory in the south of the country.

The Hungarian prime minister broadly opposes Western military aid to Ukraine and has blocked, delayed or watered down EU efforts to assist Kyiv and impose sanctions on Moscow over its invasion. Orban has long argued for a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine but without outlining what that might mean for the country’s territorial integrity or future security.

That posture has frustrated Hungary’s EU and NATO allies, who have denounced Russia’s invasion as a breach of international law and a threat to the security of Eastern Europe.

Standing alongside Orban last week in Moscow, Putin declared that Russia wouldn’t accept any cease-fire or temporary break in hostilities that would allow Ukraine “to recoup losses, regroup and rearm.”

Putin repeated his demand that Ukraine withdraw its troops from the four regions that Moscow claims to have annexed in 2022 as a condition for any prospective peace talks. Ukraine and its Western allies have rejected that demand, suggesting it is akin to asking Kyiv to withdraw from its own territory.

China meanwhile has spread its influence in Central Asia and Eastern Europe in recent years beyond its “no limits” partnership with Moscow. Over the weekend, China held “anti-terror” military drills with Belarus — a key ally of Russia — near the border with Poland. The drills came after last week Belarus joined a regional security organization led by China and Russia.

Orban will next head to Washington, D.C., where NATO leaders are holding a summit to discuss ways to assure Ukraine of the alliance’s continued support.

“Next stop: Washington,” Orban posted on his social media account Monday. It was not clear whether he would meet separately with President Joe Biden, or Donald Trump, whose presidential candidacy Orban openly supports.
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MANILA, Philippines — Japan and the Philippines signed a key defense pact Monday allowing the deployment of Japanese forces for joint military exercises, including live-fire drills, to the Southeast Asian nation that came under brutal Japanese occupation in World War II but is now building an alliance with Tokyo as they face an increasingly assertive China.

The Reciprocal Access Agreement, which similarly allows Filipino forces to enter Japan for joint combat training, was signed by Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa in a Manila ceremony witnessed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. It would take effect after ratification by the countries’ legislatures, Philippine and Japanese officials said.

Kamikawa called the signing of the defense agreement “a groundbreaking achievement” that should further boost defense cooperation between Japan and the Philippines.

“A free and open international order based on the rule of law is the foundation of regional peace and prosperity,” she said. “We would like to work closely with your country to maintain and strengthen this.”

Kamikawa and Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara later held talks with their Philippine counterparts on ways to further deepen relations.

The defense pact with the Philippines is the first to be forged by Japan in Asia. Japan signed similar accords with Australia in 2022 and with Britain in 2023.

Under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the Japanese government has taken steps to boost its security and defensive firepower, including a counterstrike capability that breaks from Japan’s postwar principle of focusing only on self-defense, amid threats from North Korea and China’s growing assertiveness. It’s doubling defense spending in a five-year period to 2027 in a move to bolster its military power and make Japan the world’s third-biggest military spender after the United States and China.

Many of Japan’s Asian neighbors, including the Philippines, came under Japanese aggression until its defeat in World War II and Japan’s efforts to bolster its military role and spending could be a sensitive issue. Japan and the Philippines, however, have steadily deepened defense and security ties.

Kishida’s moves dovetail with Marcos’ effort to forge security alliances to bolster the Philippine military’s limited ability to defend Manila’s territorial interests in the South China Sea. The busy sea passage is a key global trade route which has been claimed virtually in its entirety by China but also contested in part by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

The United States has also been strengthening an arc of military alliances in the Indo-Pacific to better counter China, including in any future confrontation over Taiwan, and reassure its Asian allies. Japan and the Philippines are treaty allies of the U.S. and their leaders held three-way talks in April at the White House, where President Biden renewed Washington’s “ironclad” commitment to defend Japan and the Philippines.

Japan has had a longstanding territorial dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea. Chinese and Philippine coast guard and navy ships, meanwhile, have been involved in a series of tense confrontations in the South China Sea since last year.

In the worst confrontation so far, Chinese coast guard personnel armed with knives, spears and an axe aboard motorboats repeatedly rammed and destroyed two Philippine navy supply vessels on June 17 in a chaotic faceoff in the disputed Second Thomas Shoal that injured several Filipino sailors. Chinese coast guard personnel seized seven navy rifles.

The Philippines strongly protested the Chinese coast guard’s actions and demanded $1 million for the damage and the return of the rifles. China accused the Philippines of instigating the violence, saying the Filipino sailors strayed into what it called Chinese territorial waters despite warnings.

Japan and the United States were among the first to express alarm over the Chinese actions and call on Beijing to abide by international laws. Washington is obligated to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.
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