China's global policies

President Xi Jinping says Tuesday that China and South Africa were "standing at a new historical starting point" as he met his counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa in Pretoria on a visit to attend a BRICS summit.

"Today, standing at a new historical starting point, inheriting friendship, deepening cooperation, and strengthening coordination are the common aspirations of the two countries, and are also the important tasks entrusted to us by the times," Xi says, according to a readout from state broadcaster CCTV.  — AFP

Chancellor Olaf Scholz hosts Premier Li Qiang for talks on Tuesday, seeking to recalibrate cooperation between Germany and China after Berlin branded Beijing a "systemic rival".

Li is on his first trip abroad since he was named premier in March and tasked with shoring up China's sputtering post-Covid economy.

But unlike previous visits by Chinese dignitaries, when pragmatic German leaders eager to expand business ties with the Asian giant rolled out the red carpet, Li's trip comes as Germany is rushing to diversify its trading partners.

Burned by its reliance on Russian gas and hurt by supply chain disruptions during the pandemic, Germany is intensifying its efforts to "de-risk" from China. — AFP

China's Premier Li Qiang will meet German leaders during a trip to Berlin on Monday, at a time when Beijing's policies on Russia, trade and human rights are receiving an increasingly hostile reception in the West.

Li -- who is making his first trip abroad since being appointed premier in March -- will begin his two-nation tour with so-called "government consultations" involving talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his cabinet, before heading on to France for a financing summit hosted by President Emmanuel Macron. 

Xi Jinping calls on China and Central Asia to "fully unleash" their potential in trade, economic and infrastructure cooperation Friday in a speech to heads of state from the strategically vital region.

The Chinese president says they must "fully unleash the potential of traditional cooperation in economy, trade, industrial capacity, energy and transport," according to a state media readout.

He also stresses the need to develop "new growth drivers... such as finance, agriculture, poverty reduction, low carbon, health, and digital innovation". — AFP

Beijing's ambassador says China has lifted an import ban on Australian timber, as once-frosty ties between the two countries thaw.

Xiao Qian tells reporters in Canberra that China would resume imports of Australian timber as of Thursday after Beijing clamped down on the trade in 2020.

"Yesterday, the Chinese Customs have formally notified the Australian Minister of Agriculture that starting from today, China will resume import of Australian timber," Xiao says at a press conference in Canberra. — AFP

Authorities in China's capital asked several Western embassies this week to remove political signs from their outer walls, diplomatic sources in Beijing tell AFP.

Several Western embassies across Beijing display Ukrainian flags in solidarity with the country's fight against Russia's invasion, some accompanied by messages of support in English and Chinese. 

However, sources in several European missions told AFP they had received a notice from Chinese authorities this week asking them to take down such political signage.

All said they would refuse the request and that they would not change their policies. — AFP

President Xi Jinping will host a two-day summit with the leaders of five Central Asian nations next week, Beijing says, as China moves to increase its influence in the region.

Leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are expected to attend the China-Central Asia Summit from May 18 to 19, said China's foreign ministry.

The summit in the city of Xi'an is the first of its kind, according to Chinese state media, and will focus on strengthening economic and diplomatic ties with Beijing. — AFP

All new artificial intelligence (AI) products developed in China will be required to undergo a "security assessment" before being released to the public, a sweeping new draft law by the country's internet regulator shows.

"Before providing services to the public that use generative AI products, a security assessment shall be applied for through national internet regulatory departments," the draft law, released by the Cyberspace Administration of China, reads.

The draft law -- dubbed "Administrative Measures for Generative Artificial Intelligence Services" -- aims to ensure "the healthy development and standardised application of generative AI technology", it read.

AI-generated content, it continued, must "reflect core socialist values, and must not contain content on subversion of state power". — AFP

China has handed out $240 billion worth of bailout loans to 22 developing countries at risk of default over the past two decades, with the trend accelerating in recent years, a report says.

Almost all the funds went to Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries such as Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Turkey -- mostly low- and middle-income nations that have received Chinese loans for infrastructure development, according to the study.

The 40-page report by the US-based research lab AidData, the World Bank, the Harvard Kennedy School and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy showed bailout loans had accelerated between 2016 and 2021, with Beijing doling out 80 percent of its rescue lending in that period. — AFP

China's Xi Jinping has emphasised the need to strengthen national security, in his first address since being handed a historic third term as the country's president.

Xi, 69, has thanked the thousands of delegates at Beijing's Great Hall of the People for giving him a third term, vowing to "take the needs of the country as my mission, and the interests of the people as my yardstick".

"Security is the bedrock of development, while stability is a prerequisite for prosperity," Xi tells the assembled delegates at the NPC's closing session.

"We must fully promote the modernisation of national defence and the armed forces, and build the people's armed forces into a Great Wall of steel that effectively safeguards national sovereignty, security and development interests." — AFP

Micronesia's president has accused China of bribery, harassment and "political warfare", in an explosive letter to his country's legislature obtained by AFP Friday.

"Simply put, we are witnessing political warfare in our country," outgoing leader David Panuelo warned leading lawmakers, detailing allegations of Chinese espionage, coercion of government officials and "direct threats" against his personal safety.

Panuelo has previously voiced concerns about Beijing's growing power in the South Pacific, most notably opposing a security deal that could allow Chinese troops to be deployed to the region.

But his letter goes much further, warning the incoming government about a barrage of threats that he believes risk making the sparsely populated island federation a vassal state. — AFP

China announced Wednesday a nationwide loosening of Covid restrictions following protests against the hardline strategy that grew into calls for greater political freedoms.

Under the new guidelines, some asymptomatic and mild cases of Covid-19 can now quarantine at home, ending a requirement that all positive cases be isolated in centralised government facilities. 

The frequency and scope of PCR testing will also be reduced, the National Health Commission (NHC) said.

Mandatory mass testing -- long a tedious mainstay of life in zero-Covid China -- will be restricted to "high-risk" areas and schools. — AFP

Once dominated by doom and gloom coverage of the dangers of the virus and scenes of pandemic chaos abroad, China's tightly controlled media has dramatically shifted tone as the country tentatively moves away from zero-Covid.

Long anchored to a hardline strategy of mass lockdowns, forced quarantine in centralised facilities and mass testing for millions, Beijing is dialling down curbs in the wake of nationwide protests calling for an end to lockdowns and greater political freedoms.

That policy shift has been accompanied by rapid changes in pandemic messaging in both state media and official statements -- which now downplay the risk from the virus and blame local officials for over-zealous implementation of Covid lockdowns.

The prevalent Omicron strain is "not at all like last year's Delta variant", Guangzhou-based medicine professor Chong Yutian said in an article published by the Communist Party-run China Youth Daily.

"After infection with the Omicron variant, the vast majority will have no or light symptoms, and very few will go on to have severe symptoms, this is already widely known," he assured readers. — AFP

China's five-yearly Communist Party Congress wrapped up on Saturday with President Xi Jinping set to emerge from the event as leader for an unprecedented third term.

Xi delivered a speech starting about midday (0400 GMT) in one of the final events of the week-long gathering at Beijing's Great Hall of the People.

"Dare to struggle, dare to win, bury your heads and work hard. Be determined to keep forging ahead," he told the party faithful.

His speech ended a week of largely rubber-stamp meetings among 2,300 party delegates, who were selected by the party to approve a reshuffle of its leadership. — AFP

The United Nations releases a bombshell report into serious human rights abuses in China's Xinjiang region, saying torture allegations were credible and citing possible crimes against humanity.

The report, in the making for around a year, was released in Geneva at 11:47 pm (2147 GMT) on Wednesday -- just 13 minutes before Michelle Bachelet's four-year term as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expired.

"I said that I would publish it before my mandate ended and I have," Bachelet says in an email sent to AFP.

"The issues are serious -- and I raised them with high-level national and regional authorities in the country."

China has been accused for years of detaining more than one million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the far-western Xinjiang region.

Campaigners have accused China of a litany of abuses, while Beijing has vehemently rejected the claims, insisting it is running vocational training centres in Xinjiang designed to counter extremism.

Bachelet eventually decided that a full assessment was needed of the situation inside the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).  — AFP

China is "very likely" to put troops in the Solomon Islands after signing a contentious security deal with the Pacific nation, Australia's home affairs minister said Wednesday.

The deal was announced by Beijing last Tuesday, weeks after a draft version leaked on social media and sparked concern it could open the door to a Chinese military presence in the South Pacific.

Asked how realistic it was that China would request to put troops in the Solomon Islands within the next year, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews told 4BC radio it was "very likely".

"It is likely that will be the path that China will be taking in the Pacific region," she continued. -- AFP

China's birth rate plummeted to a record low last year, official data showed Monday, as analysts warn that faster-than-expected ageing could deepen economic growth concerns.

Beijing has been grappling with a looming demographic crisis as it faces a rapidly ageing workforce, slowing economy and the country's weakest population growth in decades.

The birth rate of the world's second-biggest economy slipped to 7.52 births per 1,000 people, according to National Bureau of Statistics data, down from 8.52 in 2020.

The figures are the lowest since records began in 1949, when Communist China was founded, according to NBS data.

It also marks the lowest figure logged in China's annual Statistical Yearbook data -- a yearly assessment of the country's economy — dating back to 1978. — AFP

A Chinese court on Monday sentenced the doctor who claimed to be behind the world's first gene-edited babies to three years in prison for illegal medical practice, state media reports.

He Jiankui, who shocked the scientific community last year by announcing the birth of twins whose genes had allegedly been altered to confer immunity to HIV, was also fined 3 million yuan ($430,000), Xinhua news agency says.

He was sentenced by a court in Shenzhen for "illegally carrying out the human embryo gene-editing intended for reproduction," Xinhua says. — AFP

Beijing will lower import tariffs on over 850 products including frozen pork from January next year, China's finance ministry says, which may help ease the pressure on the country's depleted pork supply.

China has been hit by a severe pork shortage after African Swine Fever tore through the country's pig herds. More than a million pigs have been culled due to the disease, according to official statistics, and prices of the staple meat have more than doubled.

Monday's announcement said tariffs on frozen pork will drop from 12 percent to 8 percent from January 1. — AFP

China decries a US decision to restrict visas for Chinese officials linked to the repression of Xinjiang Muslims and calls on Washington to withdraw the measure.

The US is "disregarding the facts, slandering and smearing China on Xinjiang-related issues," foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang says at a regular press conference, where he adds that the US actions were guided by "sinister intentions." — AFP

China voices support for negotiations between the US and Taliban after Chinese officials met the Afghan militants in Beijing, two weeks after US President Donald Trump called off talks on a proposed deal with the insurgents.

Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang says China "hopes that the United States and the Afghan Taliban will maintain the momentum of negotiations."

Geng also says Beijing "supports the internal dialogue and negotiations among the Afghans in order to achieve national reconciliation, peace and stability at an early date."

Taiwan severs ties with the Solomon Islands after learning the Pacific nation had decided to switch diplomatic recognition to China, a decision it described as "extremely regrettable."

"The cabinet of the Solomon Islands government decided to switch diplomatic relations to the People's Republic of China," foreign minister Joseph Wu announces at a press conference in Taipei on Monday.

"The government hereby declares the termination of diplomatic relations with the Solomon Islands with immediate effect," he adds. — AFP 

China denies it was to blame for fentanyl deaths in the United States after President Donald Trump accused Beijing of reneging on its promise to crack down on the opioid.

US authorities have long accused China of being the main source of the potent drug, which caused 32,000 overdose deaths in the United States last year alone.

In an apparent gesture to Washington amid the US-China trade war, Beijing announced a crackdown on fentanyl earlier this year, designating all analogs of the drug as controlled substances from May 1. — AFP

China's national film board orders mainland directors and stars to boycott Asia's top cinema awards in Taiwan, as relations between Beijing and the self-ruled democratic island worsen.

Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards, dubbed the "Chinese Oscars," ran into trouble with mainland authorities last year after a Taiwanese winner called for the island's independence in an acceptance speech.

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting unification, even though the two sides have been ruled separately since the end of a civil war in 1949. But it is unclear whether the speech incident was linked to the latest boycott.

China's central bank says it is "resolutely opposed" to the US labeling Beijing a currency manipulator as trade tensions surge between the world's two biggest economies. 

"The US side disregarded the facts and unreasonably labelled China a 'currency manipulator,'" the central bank says in a statement.

"The Chinese side is resolutely opposed to this," the bank says.

The Chinese currency steadied on Tuesday, August 6, a day after Beijing let the yuan plunge below the key 7.0 per dollar threshold.

The Chinese yuan falls to its lowest level against the dollar since August 2010 in morning trade on Monday, fuelling speculation that Beijing is allowing currency depreciation to counter threatened US tariffs.

The offshore currency weakens to 7.1085 to the dollar, days after US President Donald Trump announced a plan to impose fresh tariffs on another $300 billion in Chinese goods, sharpening trade war tensions between the world's two biggest economies.

The onshore yuan also tumbles, hitting 7.0307 in Monday morning trade to reach its lowest level since 2008. Both the onshore and offshore yuan breached the 7.0 level against the dollar, which investors see as a key threshold in currency value.

China will stop issuing individual travel permits to Taiwan "due to current relations," the tourism ministry says, amid growing tensions between the Communist-led mainland and the self-ruled democratic island.

The program had allowed Chinese citizens in 47 mainland cities to apply for permits to visit Taiwan on their own instead of visiting on group tours.

— AFP

Monitor major updates on Chinese policies that affect the world.