In this photo released on July 18, 2024, by Xinhua News Agency Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at the third plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee held from July 15 to 18 in Beijing. China’s ruling Communist Party wrapped up a top-level meeting by endorsing policies aimed at advancing the country’s technological power and fortifying its national security.
| Photo Credit: AP

Beijing’s leaders vowed on July 18 to resolve “risks” plaguing China’s economy, but were yet to offer any concrete steps to pull the country out of its financial woes.

The world’s second-largest economy is grappling with a property debt crisis, weakening consumption, and an ageing population.

All eyes were on how this week’s Third Plenum meeting of the Communist Party in Beijing, attended by President Xi Jinping, might tackle that deepening economic malaise.

But few new policies were announced as the meeting wrapped up Thursday.

State news agency Xinhua said they had agreed to “prevent and resolve risks in key areas such as real estate, (and) local government debt”.

They also vowed to “actively expand domestic demand”, state media reported, after data this week showed retail sales — a key gauge of consumption — rose just 2% in June.

Gary Ng, a senior economist at Natixis, said the readout offered “nothing out of expectation as it just confirms existing policies.”

‘Market failures’

But Hoo Tiang Boon at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore told AFP the statement “acknowledges certain risks and obstacles to the Chinese economy”.

“It’s a sign that Beijing recognises the problems, but I’m not sure if they know what are the effective measures to address them,” he said.

The Third Plenum has for decades been an occasion for the 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.

Echoing past plena, top officials promised Thursday to “give fuller play to the role of market mechanisms”.

But they also said they would “make up for market failures” and “smooth the circulation of the national economy”.

‘Positive signals’, but few specifics

Lynn Song, ING’s Chief Economist for Greater China, told AFP the readout offered some “positive signals”.

But, he said, the meeting was “not a platform for pushing specific new stimulus measures”.

“Those who were looking for new signals on the property market will likely be disappointed,” Song said.

“While real estate was mentioned as one of the three key risks China prioritises resolving, there was no further mention of expanding affordable housing nor further specifics on efforts to stabilise the property market,” he pointed out.

The meeting comes just days after China posted official statistics showing the economy grew by just 4.7% in the second quarter of the year.

It represented the slowest rate of expansion since early 2023, when China was emerging from a crippling zero-COVID policy that strangled growth.

Analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected 5.1%.

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.

The economic uncertainty is also fuelling a vicious cycle that has kept consumption stubbornly low.

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

With the country facing those headwinds, this week’s meeting resolved to “strengthen guidance of public opinion and effectively prevent and resolve ideological risks”, according to state media.

Officials also formally removed ex-foreign minister Qin Gang from the ruling Communist Party’s highest decision-making body, and “confirmed” the party’s move to expel former defence minister Li Shangfu.

Both officials disappeared from the public eye last year after just a few months on the job.

Beijing:

A fire at a shopping centre in southwestern China killed at least six people on Wednesday, state media reported, with 30 others rescued from the blaze.

“Six people have been killed at the moment. The rescue teams are continuing search and rescue,” state broadcaster CCTV said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Beijing:

A fire that broke out Wednesday in a shopping centre in southwestern China was extinguished but some people were still trapped inside, state broadcaster CCTV said.

Footage broadcast by the channel and shared on social media showed thick black smoke rising from a building in the city.

About 17 people were rescued from the building in the city of Zigong in Sichuan province, the channel said.

“By 8:20 pm (1220 GMT), the fire had been extinguished,” CCTV said, adding “some people are still trapped and rescue operations are continuing”.

The fire started in the early evening in a shopping centre at the foot of a 14-storey building, the channel said.

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.

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.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A man scooters past security fencing outside Walter E. Washington Convention Center before the start of the NATO summit in Washington, on July 9, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

China lashed out at NATO’s “smears and attacks” on July 9 after the defence alliance’s chief accused it of supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine on the eve of a summit in Washington.

U.S. President Joe Biden is hosting leaders of the 32-nation transatlantic alliance for three days from Tuesday, as well as the leaders of Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference ahead of the 75th anniversary summit that their inclusion “demonstrates that our security is not regional, our security is global”.

“And that’s clearly demonstrated in the war in Ukraine where Iran, North Korea, China are supporting and enabling Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine,” Mr. Stoltenberg said on Monday, according to a NATO transcript.

China’s Foreign Ministry took aim at the defence group, which was founded in 1949 to provide collective security against the Soviet Union.

“NATO’s so-called security is at the expense of other countries’ security and its actions have brought extremely high security risks to the world and the region,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a regular news conference in Beijing.

“China is firmly opposed to NATO’s smears and attacks on China, to its willingness to shift the blame onto others, as well as NATO’s use of China as an excuse to move eastward into the Asia-Pacific and stir up regional tensions,” he said.

NATO’s leaders are gathering in Washington in the shadow of setbacks in Ukraine and electoral headwinds on both sides of the Atlantic.

Mr. Biden is fighting for his political life after a disastrous debate against his Republican presidential rival, NATO sceptic Donald Trump.

The star of the summit is set to be Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is looking for firm signs of support even though NATO will not be extending his country an invitation to join the bloc.

China warned on May 24 of war over Taiwan and said it would ramp up countermeasures until “complete reunification” was achieved, as Chinese forces conducted military drills around the self-ruled island.

Warships and fighter jets encircled Taiwan on the second day of exercises that Beijing said were a test of its ability to seize the island, days after its new president was sworn in.

China’s military kicked off the two-day war games on Thursday morning, surrounding democratic Taiwan with naval vessels and military aircraft as it vowed the blood of “independence forces” on the island would flow.

The exercises were launched three days after Lai Ching-te took office and made an inauguration speech that China denounced as a “confession of independence”.

Beijing’s defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian said on Friday that Lai “has seriously challenged the one-China principle… pushing our compatriots in Taiwan into a perilous situation of war and danger”.

“Every time ‘Taiwan independence’ provokes us, we will push our countermeasures one step further, until the complete reunification of the motherland is achieved,” he said.

The drills are part of an escalating campaign of intimidation by China in which it has carried out a series of large-scale military exercises around Taiwan in recent years.

They are testing the “capability of joint seizure of power, joint strikes and control of key territories”, Li Xi, spokesman for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command, said on Friday.

Fighter jets loaded with live ammunition scrambled towards targets and bombers formed formations to combine with warships to simulate “strikes against important targets”, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

China, which split with Taiwan at the end of a civil war 75 years ago, regards the island as a renegade province with which it must eventually be reunified.

The dispute has long made the Taiwan Strait one of the world’s most dangerous flashpoints, and this week’s events have stoked fears that China may use military force to bring the island under mainland rule.

The United States, Taiwan’s strongest ally and military backer, “strongly” urged China on Thursday to act with restraint. The United Nations called for all sides to avoid escalation.

Common roots

As the drills – Codenamed “Joint Sword-2024A” – got under way, China said they would serve as “strong punishment for the separatist acts of ‘Taiwan independence’ forces”.

Footage published by China’s military showed soldiers streaming out of a building to battle stations and jets taking off to a rousing martial tune.

CCTV reported that Chinese sailors had called out to their Taiwanese counterparts at sea, warning them against “resisting reunification by force”.

An animated graphic published by the Chinese military showed missiles raining down on key targets on the island, declaring it would “cut off the blood vessels for Taiwan independence!”

At a tourist park on Pingtan — a Chinese island situated in the Taiwan Strait — visitors clambered over the rocky landscape to gaze out at the misty horizon as pop music blared from a loudspeaker at nearby tea stalls.

Others posed for pictures in front of a sign proclaiming “the closest distance between the motherland and Taiwan island”, 68 nautical miles (126 kilometres) away.

“We share common roots,” Chen Yan, a 60-year-old woman from Wuhan, told AFP about Taiwan.

“So I think there will definitely be unification,” she added.

Heads broken

China has repeatedly branded Lai a “dangerous separatist” who would bring “war and decline” to the island.

In a speech on Thursday, Lai said he would “stand on the front line” to defend Taiwan, without directly referring to the drills.

Beijing was incensed by his inauguration speech on Monday, in which he hailed a “glorious” era for Taiwan’s democracy.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin delivered a warning on Thursday that included language more commonly used by China’s propaganda outlets.

“Taiwan independence forces will be left with their heads broken and blood flowing after colliding against the great… trend of China achieving complete unification,” Wang told reporters.

Beijing’s Xinhua news agency and ruling party organ the People’s Daily ran editorials hailing the drills on Friday, while slamming Lai’s “treacherous behaviour” and promising a “severe blow”.

The drills are taking place in the Taiwan Strait and to the north, south and east of the island, as well as areas around the Taipei-administered islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu and Dongyin.

Beijing has said the drills will last until Friday but analysts say it could choose to extend the war games or launch missiles near Taiwan, as it did after a visit to the island by then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2022.

Taipei’s defence ministry said the Chinese military had gotten within 24 nautical miles of Taiwan’s main island.

Its coast guard reported on Friday that four Chinese vessels entered the “restricted waters” of two Taiwanese islands as two other vessels nearby provided support.

A man killed eight people and wounded one more with a knife in central China, state media reported on May 24, citing local authorities.

The stabbing took place on Thursday morning in the city of Xiaogan in Hubei province, state broadcaster CCTV said.

The 53-year-old attacker surnamed Lu had previously been treated for mental illness, it added.

He is being held by police, who are investigating the attack.

The wounded person’s injuries were not life-threatening, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Mass violent crime is relatively rare in China, which strictly prohibits citizens from owning firearms, but there has been a spate of stabbings in recent years.

On Monday, a woman wielding a fruit knife killed two people and injured four more at a primary school in central Jiangxi province.

Also this month, two people were killed and 21 wounded after a man went on a stabbing spree at a hospital in southwest China’s Yunnan province.

Combination picture of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (left to right). Leaders of South Korea, China and Japan will meet on May 26 in Seoul for their first trilateral talks since 2019
| Photo Credit: AP

Leaders of South Korea, China and Japan will meet next week in Seoul for their first trilateral talks since 2019, South Korea’s presidential office announced Thursday.

The trilateral summit among South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will take place in Seoul on Monday, Yoon’s presidential office said.

The three leaders were scheduled to hold bilateral talks among themselves on Sunday, according to the South Korean presidential office.

Since their inaugural stand-alone trilateral summit in 2008, the three Asian countries were supposed to hold such a meeting among their leaders each year. But the summit has been suspended since they were last held in December 2019 in China.

Efforts to boost cooperation among the Asian neighbors often hit snags because of a mix of issues, including historical disputes stemming from Japan’s wartime aggression and the strategic competition between China and the United States.

Beijing:

China is targeting citizens studying abroad for their political activism, rights group Amnesty International said Monday, with some students reporting harassment of family members back home.

China does not tolerate political dissent and has used sophisticated tech tools as well as intimidation to crack down on domestic protestors and activists.

And Beijing’s curbs on political activism are increasingly expanding abroad in the form of “transnational repression”, Amnesty International said in a report, citing interviews with dozens of students in eight European and North American countries.

Overseas students reported that family members in China received threats after they attended events abroad including commemorations of the bloody 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, according to the group.

“Threats made to family members in mainland China included to revoke their passports, get them fired from their jobs, prevent them from receiving promotions and retirement benefits, or even limiting their physical freedom,” it claimed.

Students also said they had been blocked from posting and surveilled on Chinese social apps — often the only way to communicate with family members due to Beijing’s internet firewall.

One student told Amnesty International that police showed his parents “transcripts of his online WeChat conversations with family members”.

Students said they actively self-censored during classes and social interactions and complained of mental health problems caused by the feeling of pervasive surveillance, “ranging from stress and trauma to paranoia and depression”.

“I would really want to publish my thesis… but I’m worried, so I chose not to,” one student told Amnesty.

Beijing has not yet responded to Monday’s report, but has previously rejected mounting criticism in recent years that it targets citizens living abroad, insisting that it respects other countries’ sovereignty and that any law enforcement operations are conducted in accordance with the law.

 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A Long March rocket carrying a crew of Chinese astronauts in a Shenzhou-18 spaceship blast off at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, on April 25, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

China launched a three-member crew to its orbiting space station on April 25 as part of its ambitious program that aims to put astronauts on the moon by 2030.

The Shenzhou-18 spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northwestern China atop a Long March 2-F rocket at 8:59 p.m. (1259 GMT).

The spacecraft’s three-member crew will relieve the Shenzhou-17 team, which has been staffing China’s Tiangong space station since last October.

The China Manned Space Agency, or CMSA, held a send-off ceremony — complete with flag-waving children and patriotic music — for the Shenzhou-18 crew earlier on Thursday, as the three astronauts prepared to enter the spacecraft.

The trio is made of Commander Ye Guangfu, 43, a veteran astronaut who took part in the Shenzhou-13 mission in 2021, and fighter pilots Li Cong, 34, and Li Guangsu, 36, who are spaceflight rookies.

They are expected to reach the space station about six-and-a-half hours after liftoff.

China built its own space station after being excluded from the International Space Station, largely because of U.S. concerns over the Chinese military’s involvement in the program. This year, the Chinese station is slated for two cargo spacecraft missions and two manned spaceflight missions.

The Shenzhou-18 crew will spend about six months on the space station. They will conduct scientific tests, install space debris protection equipment on the station, carry out payload experiments, and popularize science education, among other things, according to Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the CMSA.

Lin also said China was working toward eventually offering access to its space station to foreign astronauts and space tourists.

“We will accelerate the research and promotion of the participation of foreign astronauts and space tourists on flights on China’s space station,” he said in a press conference Wednesday.

The country is planning a mission to bring back samples from Mars around 2030 and three lunar probe missions over the next four years. It also wants to put astronauts on the moon by 2030.

China conducted its first crewed space mission in 2003, becoming the third country after the former Soviet Union and the U.S. to put a person into space using its own resources.

The U.S. space program is believed to still hold a significant edge over China’s due to its spending, supply chains and capabilities. However, China has broken out in some areas, bringing samples back from the lunar surface for the first time in decades and landing a rover on the less explored far side of the moon.

The U.S. aims to put a crew back on the lunar surface by the end of 2025 as part of a renewed commitment to crewed missions, aided by private sector players such as SpaceX and Blue Origin.

Zhang Youxia, Vice-Chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission, speaks at the Western Pacific Navy Symposium held in Qingdao in eastern China’s Shandong Province on April 22, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

One of China’s top military leaders took a harsh line on regional territorial disputes, telling an international naval gathering in northeastern China on April 22 that the country would strike back with force if its interests came under threat.

The 19th biennial meeting of the Western Pacific Naval Symposium opened in Qingdao, where China’s northern naval force is based, providing a vivid backdrop to China’s massive military expansion over the past two decades that has seen it build or refurbish three aircraft carriers.

The two-day talks have drawn representatives from partners and competitors including Australia, Cambodia, Chile, France, India and the U.S. and comes amid heightened tensions over China’s assertive actions in the Taiwan Strait and the East and South China seas, and as China’s Navy has grown into the world’s largest by number of hulls.

Zhang Youxia, the Vice-Chairman of the ruling Communist Party’s Central Military Commission, which controls the armed forces, spoke of “common development” and said “decoupling, friction and confrontation will only divide the world into isolated islands guarding against each other with suspicion.”

Then he turned to China’s territorial claims, which have not been recognised under international law and in some cases have been denied. Beijing has ignored rulings not in its favour, particularly in the South China Sea, where it is in dispute with five other parties over islands, waterways and undersea resources.

Japan continues to defend its control over the uninhabited Senkaku island chain, called Diaoyu by China, in the East China Sea, against incursions by the Chinese coast guard.

Taiwan last week reinforced its foothold in the disputed South China Sea by establishing satellite communications between the main island and its garrison on Taiping Island, also known as Itu Aba, the largest land feature in the highly contested Spratly Island chain. China has created seven artificial islands in the area by piling sand and cement on coral reefs and equipping them with airstrips and other military infrastructure.

Mr. Zhang said China’s territorial sovereignty “brooks no infringement and its core interests cannot be challenged. We do not provoke trouble, but we will never flinch in face of provocation. The Chinese military will resolutely defend the reunification and interest of the motherland.”

Mr. Zhang has spoken in the past of Beijing’s determination to take control of the self-governing island republic of Taiwan, which it claims as its own territory, using force if necessary. With its crucial high-tech economy, Taiwan has been building up its defences on its own and with help from the U.S., where Congress this weekend approved $8 billion in military aid for Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific.

Taiwan is also building its own submarines and trainer aircraft and waiting on the delivery of upgraded versions of F-16 fighters, battle tanks and other hardware from the U.S.

Mr. Zhang appeared to press China’s unilateralist approach to foreign relations and military conflicts as espoused by Xi Jinping, the top military commander, Communist Party leader and head-of-state for life, who has eliminated all dissenting views.

China “remains committed to resolving maritime disputes with directly concerned countries through friendly consultations, but we will not allow our good faith to be abused,” Mr. Zhang said. “Particularly over the self-governing island republic of Taiwan that Beijing threatens to use force to bring under its control. We will take justified actions to defend our rights in accordance with the law.”

Mr. Zhang’s comments follow a major shakeup of the Chinese military in recent months that has seen the still-unexplained disappearance of former Defence Minister Li Shangfu and several top officers in the missile corps.

Also due to speak at the gathering was the recently appointed head of the Russian Navy, Adm. Alexander Moiseyev, the Russian Defence Ministry said on April 22, according to the official Interfax news agency.

It said Adm. Moiseyev met with Adm. Hu Zhongming, commander of China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy, in Qingdao on April 21, and they agreed to further cooperation on search and rescue.

“The sides emphasised the importance of further developing cooperation between the two countries’ fleets for supporting security and stability on the world’s oceans,” Interfax said.

China has refused to criticise Russia’s full-on invasion of Ukraine and has held multiple rounds of drills with the Russian Navy and other armed forces branches, part of an alignment of their military and political postures to form a joint front against the prevailing U.S.-led Western liberal order.

Ukraine has developed deadly sea drones that have struck Russian Navy ships in the Black Sea. Those successful strikes have embarrassed the Kremlin.