“It was really loud, and there was also shaking, it felt like a huge earthquake,” she said.
Videos on social media showed people walking on piles of rubble with snow-covered mountains in the background. I see things like clothes and stuff mixed up with the broken bricks.
The landslide happened in a remote area of mountains, where landslides are common because of the location. The reason for this particular landslide is not known. Floods happen a lot.
The place also has a lot of coal mines.
News China said that a person from the village said that most of the people living there are old or young.
Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Zhang Guoqing is leading a group of workers to the site to help with the rescue efforts.
In January 2013, a landslide in Zhenxiong county killed at least 18 people.
Mr Li is in charge of the government in China and is the second most important person in their political system.
He is a friend of President Xi Jinping and was chosen to be a part of parliament last year. Before that, he was in charge of the Communist Party in Shanghai, which is the largest city in the country.
During the pandemic, he was in charge of making sure that people in Shanghai stayed at home and couldn’t go out. Some people had a hard time getting food and medical help because of this.
“Next year, it will be 45 years since our two countries started having diplomatic relations,” stated Mr.
“China is a very powerful country in the world, both politically and economically. I am happy that Premier Li has chosen to visit Ireland as part of his trip. ”
Common difficulties
The two leaders are going to have lunch at Farmleigh House in Dublin and talk about worldwide issues, issues between their two countries, and how the European Union and China are related.
The leader said China is a big economic partner and a permanent member of the UN Security Council. China also has a big role in solving the world’s problems, like making peace and stopping climate change.
“I am excited for a deep and constructive discussion on topics we agree on, as well as those where we have different views. “
Chinese President Xi Jinping, in his annual New Year’s address, reiterated his assertion that Taiwan “will definitely be reunited” with China.
His message comes ahead of Taiwan’s crucial Jan. 13 election, which will determine the island’s cross-strait policies for the next four years.
He also took a stronger tone than last year, in which he talked about Taiwan being part of “the same family.
” China has stepped up military pressure on Taiwan as the election approaches. They consider the self-governing island of 23 million people a breakaway province that will eventually come under Beijing’s control.
Taiwan considers itself distinct from mainland China, with its own constitution and democratically elected leaders. Separately, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said in her New Year’s speech that the island’s relationship with China should be decided by “the will of the Taiwanese people.
” His government has repeatedly warned that Beijing is trying to interfere in the election, in which a new president and government will be elected.
Taiwan’s Kuomintang (KMT) party has traditionally favored warmer relations with Beijing – although it denies being pro-China.
The KMT’s main rival, Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), has ruled Taiwan for eight years and has taken a tougher line on China, asserting that the country is sovereign and not belongs to China.
Mr Xi’s latest comments are in line with China’s long-standing policy of unification, but the message is harsher in tone than Mr. Xi gave last year, when he called “people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait Loan… is a member of one and the same family.
The Taiwan issue also strained relations between the United States and China, with China subsequently condemning any support from Washington for Taipei.
Beijing said it “reserves the ability to take all necessary measures” against external forces that hinder peaceful unification.
However, the two countries marked the new year with a positive message, with Xi and US President Joe Biden exchanging congratulatory messages on Monday.
Xi noted that “adhering to mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and mutually beneficial cooperation is the correct way for China and the US to interact,” according to Reuters, citing state media CCTV China.
Tuesday saw the abrupt and highly unexpected replacement of China’s foreign ministerQin Gang with his predecessor. This came after Qin Gang had been out of the public sight for a considerable amount of time.
The abrupt action, which China’s rubber-stamp parliament’s top decision-making body approved, comes as uncertainty surrounds Qin’s whereabouts, who was last seen in the open on June 25.
After serving as China’s ambassador to Washington, Qin, a 57-year-old career diplomat and dependable advisor to Chinese President Xi Jinping, was only nominated foreign minister in December.
Qin’s resignation has not yet been explained, but Wang Yi, who took over for Qin, will now resume his duties, according to authorities.
China’s senior diplomat, Wang, who served as foreign minister from 2013 to 2022, is currently in charge of the Communist Party’s division of foreign policy.
Tuesday’s meeting of China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee, which broke with customary written protocol, saw the appointment of the country’s new foreign minister.
The dismissal of Xi comes as China enters a busy and vital diplomatic season after emerging from pandemic isolation earlier this year and attempts to mend strained ties with its allies abroad.
The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Qin on June 18 while the American diplomat was in Beijing as part of the US and China’s efforts to reestablish dialogue.
In his final public outing, a beaming Qin was spotted strolling alongside the deputy foreign minister of Russia, Andrey Rudenko, who had flown to Beijing to meet with Chinese officials following a brief uprising by the Wagner mercenary group in Russia.
The ministry had not provided a comprehensive explanation for Qin’s departure from China’s agenda of foreign affairs, which led to widespread speculation in a nation renowned for its political obscurity.
China’s foreign minister was last seen in the public on this occasion.
When he failed to show up for a diplomatic event earlier this month, the ministry hastily stated “health reasons.” But the statement wasn’t included in the official briefing transcript that the ministry eventually placed online, and when a spokesman was questioned the following week, she said that she had “no information to provide.”
Wang Yi was already seen resuming his duties to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) annual meeting of foreign ministers in Indonesia earlier this month, and again at the BRICS bloc of major developing economies’ crucial meeting this week in South Africa. His absence also appeared to have caused disruptions.
Tuesday evening saw the removal of Qin’s profile from the Foreign Ministry website, and the space where his picture and welcoming greeting had once been had been changed to read “information being updated.”
The mystery surrounding Qin’s removal is increased by his alleged close ties to Xi, who last October achieved a record-breaking third term in office with a new leadership team full of devoted loyalists.
In spite of some surprise among sophisticated Chinese political analysts, Qin’s appointment as foreign minister last year over more qualified candidates was widely regarded as a demonstration of Xi’s confidence in the diplomat. Qin rose quickly to the position of foreign minister.
“Xi was the only one who was able to push Qin Gang up the ranks. Any issues with him will reflect poorly on Xi as well, suggesting that Xi did not pick the best candidate for the position, said Deng Yuwen, a former Communist Party newspaper editor who now resides in the US, to CNN earlier this month.
“If anything unusual happened to a senior official, people will wonder if their relationships with the top leader have soured or whether it is a sign of political instability,” said Deng.
Senior Chinese leaders have in the past vanished from view only to have their detention for investigations revealed months later by the Communist Party’s disciplinary watchdog. Such unexpected disappearances have become a regular occurrence in Xi’s anti-corruption campaign.
It’s unclear if Qin will face any disciplinary action or if any has already been taken.
Such informational gaps are frequent in the Chinese political system, which is intentionally opaque regarding the inner workings of a party that dominates all spheres of power and makes decisions in secret.
The Communist Party’s control over the political system and larger society has grown stronger under Xi as the leader has cracked down on dissent and consolidated power in his own hands.
In response to the need to “stabilise” the bilateral relationship between the two superpowers, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated on Monday that the US and China had made “progress” towards reviving relations.
The top US diplomat acknowledged that there are still significant issues between the two countries that need to be resolved but expressed his “hope and expectation that we will have better communications and better engagement going forward” after two days of meetings with senior officials in Beijing, including President Xi Jinping.
Blinken is the first US secretary of state to visit Beijing in five years, and his talks with senior Chinese officials were seen as a key litmus test for whether the two governments could stop relations from continuing to plummet at a time of lingering distrust.
“It was clear coming in that the relationship was at a point of instability,” Blinken said at a news conference in the Chinese capital Monday. “And both sides recognized the need to work to stabilize it.”
“I came to Beijing to strengthen high-level channels of communication, to make clear our positions and intentions in areas of disagreement, and to explore areas where we might work together on our interests, align on shared transnational challenges, and we did all of that,” Blinken said.
“We’re not going to have success on every issue between us on any given day, but in a whole variety of areas, on the terms that we set for this trip, we have made progress and we are moving forward,” he said.
“But again, I want emphasize none of this gets resolved with one visit, one trip, one conversation. It’s a process,” the top US diplomat said.
One of the key issues that did not get resolved was that of restoring military-to-military communications between the US and China. Contacts between the country’s top military officials remain frozen, and two recent incidents have raised concerns that the fraught relationship could veer into conflict.
China recently rebuffed a meeting between Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu, who is under US sanction, in Singapore, although the two did speak briefly.
Blinken said that although he raised the need for such channels of communication “repeatedly” in his meetings, there was “no immediate progress.”
“At this moment, China has not agreed to move forward with that. I think that’s an issue that we have to keep working on. It is very important that we restore those channels,” he said.
The top US diplomat said his conversations touched on the Ukraine war and North Korea, and that he raised US concerns “shared by a growing number of countries about the (People’s Republic of China’s) provocative actions to the Taiwan Strait, as well as in the South and East China Seas.” He said the US position on Taiwan has not changed and pressed China over human rights.
The top US diplomat also repeatedly noted that he sought to clarify the US’ economic stance toward China in his meetings with top Chinese officials and to emphasize that the US is not seeking to “contain” China economically.
“There is a profound difference for the United States, and for many other countries, between ‘de-risking’ and decoupling,” he said.
“We are for de-risking and diversifying. That means investing in our own capacities and in secure, resilient supply chains, pushing for level playing fields for our workers and our companies, defending against harmful trade practices and protecting our critical technologies so that they aren’t used against us,” he said.
Blinken said China assured the US and other countries that it will not provide lethal aid to Russia and “we have not seen any evidence that contradicts that,” though he noted that China’s assurance was in keeping with repeated statements made in recent weeks.
“What we do have ongoing concerns about, though, are Chinese firms, companies that may be providing technology that Russia can use to advance its aggression in Ukraine. And we’ve asked the Chinese government to be very vigilant about that,” Blinken added.
Blinken said he raised human rights in his meetings, including the human rights violations in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. He also said he “specifically raised wrongfully detained US citizens and those facing exit bans.”
The top US diplomat said on areas of potential cooperation, the two sides “agreed to explore setting up a working group effort so that we can shut off the flow of precursor chemicals” for fentanyl. China is one of the top producers of those precursor chemicals that are used to produce the highly deadly synthetic drug that has claimed the lives of thousands.
The top US diplomat described his conversations with top Chinese officials Wang Yi and Qin Gang as “candid, substantive and constructive,” and said his meeting with China’s president was “important.”
However, that meeting was not publicly confirmed until shortly before it took place, and uncertainty around whether Xi and Blinken would meet during the two-day visit further highlighted the fraught US-China relations. A failure to schedule a face-to-face meeting would have been seen by Washington as a slight, breaking with a number of previous visits from top American diplomats.
The meeting, which took place at Beijing’s cavernous Great Hall of the People, was only publicly announced by the US about an hour before it went ahead. It lasted roughly half an hour, beginning at 4:34 p.m. local time and ended at 5:09 p.m., a State Department official said.
“The world needs an overall stable Sino-US relationship, and whether China and the United States can get along has a bearing on the future and destiny of mankind,” Xi told Blinken, according to a Chinese readout of the meeting.
“China respects the interests of the United States and will not challenge or replace the United States. Similarly, the United States must also respect China and not harm China’s legitimate rights and interests,” Xi added. The readout said that Xi told Blinken that the world needs stable China-US relations and that the future of humanity hinges on both getting along.
The two global powers have been increasingly at loggerheads over a host of issues ranging from Beijing’s close ties with Moscow to American efforts to limit the sale of advanced technologies to China.
Earlier this year, a Chinese surveillance balloon that was detected floating across the US and hovering over sensitive military sites before ultimately being shot down by an American fighter plane sent relations plunging to a new low and resulted in Blinken scrapping an earlier Beijing visit.
This time, the diplomatic mission went forward.
A roughly three-hour meeting between Blinken and Wang earlier Monday underscored the deep challenges in overcoming the mistrust and friction that has come to characterize the relationship.
The Chinese government’s growing clout internationally and increasingly authoritarian controls at home have pushed the US to reframe how it manages its relations with the power in recent years.
Repeating Beijing’s typical rhetoric, Wang blamed Washington’s “wrong perception” of China as the “root cause” of the decline in the two sides’ relations and demanded the US stop “suppressing” China’s technological development and hyping the “China threat,” according to a readout from Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
“We must reverse the downward spiral of China-US relations, promote a return to a healthy and stable track, and jointly find the right way for China and the United States to co-exist in the new era,” Wang said, adding that Blinken’s visit came at “a critical juncture in US-China relations, where a choice needs to be made between dialogue or confrontation, cooperation or conflict.”
Wang also reiterated that Taiwan is one of one of China’s “core interests,” over which it “has no room for compromise or backdown.”
The self-ruling democratic island, which China’s ruling Communist Party claims but has never controlled, has increasingly been another flashpoint in the US-China relationship.
During the meeting, Blinken underscored the need for the countries to “responsibly” manage their competition through “open channels of communication” to ensure it “does not veer into conflict,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.
The US would continue to use its diplomacy to “stand up for the interests and values of the American people,” Blinken said, according to the statement, which described the talks as “candid and productive” and said they including discussion of potential cooperation on shared transnational challenges.
Overall, Wang’s comments took a more combative tone than those of China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who met with Blinken the previous day. Qin said both sides agreed to “advance dialogue, exchanges and cooperation” and “maintain high-level interactions,” according to a readout from Beijing.
Blinken’s Sunday meeting with Qin, which stretched more than five hours and then wrapped with a working dinner, resulted in progress “on a number of fronts,” with both sides showing a “desire to reduce tensions,” a senior State Department official told reporters Sunday.
“Profound differences” between the US and China, however, were also clear during the meeting, the official added.
While Qin holds the title of Foreign Minister, he wields less power than Wang, who directs the country’s foreign policy through his position among party’s core leadership.
Blinken’s original scheduled visit in early February had been agreed on as a follow-up to an amicable face-to-face between US President Joe Biden and China’s Xi on the sidelines of the G20 in Bali in November.
That meeting – the first in person between the two leaders as presidents – was seen a pivotal step in restoring certain lines of communication, which Beijing last year severed last year following a visit from then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan.
Both the US and China had played down expectations of a major breakthrough during Blinken’s visit.
Ahead of the meeting, Washington was careful to manage expectations, with a senior State Department official last week telling reporters that he does not expect “a long list of deliverables.”
Meanwhile, both sides are also navigating how the meetings play to their respective domestic audiences.
In the US, how strongly to counter China has become the topic of heated political debate – with some lawmakers slamming the Biden administration for sitting down with Beijing.
China views Washington as actively trying to thwart its development, and is also very much aware the US is headed into a presidential election cycle, where hawkish rhetoric against it may intensify further.
Its officials also meet Blinken in an environment where China’s state media and official rhetoric have long portrayed Washington as a bad-faith actor responsible for destabilizing ties.
Following his arrival in Beijing for talks aimed at easing tensions between the two nations, Antony Blinken has made history by becoming the first US secretary of state to visit China in five years.
The sessions, which will last for two days, started today when Mr. Blinken met with Qin Gang, the Chinese foreign minister.
The secretary of state will continue her conversations with Mr. Qin, as well as China’s top diplomat Wang Yi and perhaps President Xi Jinping, tomorrow. A working dinner is scheduled for later in the day.
The negotiations’ ability to bridge the growing gap between the leaders of the two greatest economies in the world is widely doubted.
The list of disagreements is long, with issues such as trade with Taiwan, accusations of genocide against Uyghur Muslims, and Russia’s war in Ukraine all causing splits.
Among the points expected to be raised by Mr Blinken in the discussions are the export of fentanyl precursors that are contributing to the US opioid epidemic and the potential release of American citizens detained in China.
However, neither side has hinted that there is much room for negotiation.
In a recent meeting with US billionaire Bill Gates, Mr Xi did suggest he supported a broad target of improving relations, saying cooperation would ‘benefit our two countries’.
He told Mr Gates: ‘Under the current world situation, we can carry out various activities that benefit our two countries, the people of our countries, and the entire human race.’
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing (Picture: AFP)Mr Blinken’s visit to China was the first by a US secretary of state since 2018 (Picture: AFP)
On Saturday, President Joe Biden told reporters at the White House that he hoped ‘over the next several months, I’ll be meeting with Xi again and talking about legitimate differences we have, but also how… to get along.’
The current visit is the second attempt this year, after talks were cancelled within a day of Mr Blinken flying out in February following the diplomatic tumult caused by the discovery of what the US said was a Chinese spy balloon flying over its land.
The balloon was later shot down off the coast of South Carolina, ending an incident that significantly soured an already tense political relationship.
Since then, some efforts have been made to improve the diplomatic situation, with Mr Biden’s CIA chief William Burns travelling to China last month while the Chinese commerce minister Wang Wentao visited Washington.
The last time a US secretary of state visited Beijing was in October 2018, when Donald Trump’s top diplomat Mike Pompeo received a frosty reception.
Mr Pompeo was later sanctioned by China after leaving office, with Beijing citing high-profile arms sales to Taiwan by the Trump administration.
During the long-anticipated conversation between the two leaders, Xi appealed for Russia and Ukraine to restart peace talks and warned “there is no winner in a nuclear war”, according to state media.
The Chinese government pledged to send a “special representative” to Kyiv for talks about a possible “political settlement”.
Writing on Twitter following the discussion, Mr Zelenskyy said: “I had a long and meaningful phone call with… President Xi Jinping.
“I believe that this call, as well as the appointment of Ukraine’s ambassador to China, will give a powerful impetus to the development of our bilateral relations.”
It comes two months after Beijing said it wanted to act as a peace mediator.
China has tried to appear neutral about the conflict, but has refused to condemn Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
President Xi reportedly said China will send special representatives to Ukraine to hold talks with “all parties” on the “political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis”.
He said China is willing to continue to provide “humanitarian assistance” to Ukraine.
“The two sides should focus on the future, persist in viewing and planning bilateral relations from a long-term perspective, continue the tradition of mutual respect and sincerity between the two sides,” he said.
‘No winner in a nuclear war’
“Negotiation is the only viable way out,” Chinese state TV also quoted Xi as saying in a report about the call.
He added: “There is no winner in a nuclear war.
“All parties concerned should remain calm and restrained in dealing with the nuclear issue and truly look at the future and destiny of themselves and humanity as a whole and work together to manage the crisis.”
Before the February 2022 invasion, the Chinese president and Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a joint statement saying their governments had a “no limits friendship”.
But earlier this year, the Chinese government released a peace proposal and called for a ceasefire and talks.
The phone call between the two leaders was for China another step toward deeper involvement in resolving the ongoing war.
It comes after Mr Zelenskyy said in late March that he had not spoken with Xi since the war began before extending an invitation for him to visit Ukraine.
Why China’s stance matters
An official for China’s foreign ministry added that President Xi’s call with President Zelenskyy “shows China’s objective, impartial position on international affairs”.
They said what the country has done to help resolve the crisis has been “above board”.
Sky’s Asia correspondent Helen-Ann Smith said the phone call between President Zelenskyy and President Xi is “really significant,” adding: “China’s position on this war is really very important, it is presenting itself as a potential peacemaker.”
She added: “It wants to be seen as the power capable of brokering peace because it says it is one of the only mutual parties.
“The West sees that claim with a degree of scepticism. China has never condemned the invasion, but it has providedRussia with finance and technology and significant diplomatic cover.”
During their meeting in Beijing, Xi and Marcos decided to settle their differences regarding theSouth China Sea “through peaceful means.”
According to a joint statement from the two nations, China and the Philippines have decided to establish a direct communication channel on the South China Sea to settle disputes over the disputed waterway “through peaceful means”.
The deal was reached on Thursday, a day after Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. The two leaders were trying to patch up their strained relationship as a result of Manila’s decision to request an arbitration ruling in 2016 regarding China’s sweeping claims in the South China Sea.
Beijing has disagreed with the tribunal’s decision that China’s claims are invalid.
Since then, Manila has continued to raise concerns over reported Chinese construction activities on islands in the South China Sea – as well as the transformation of disputed reefs into artificial islands – and “swarming” by Beijing’s vessels in the disputed waters, which are rich in oil, gas and fishery resources.
The joint statement on Thursday said Xi and Marcos had an “in-depth and candid exchange of views on the situation in the South China Sea” and “emphasized that maritime issues do not comprise the sum-total of relations between the two countries”.
The two leaders also “agreed to appropriately manage differences through peaceful means”.
Both countries reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace and stability as well as freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea, and establish “a direct communication mechanism” between their foreign ministries, the statement added.
Marcos’s three-day trip to Beijing, his first official visit to China as president, comes as the country re-emerges from a self-imposed border shutdown since the pandemic started in 2020 which has disrupted trade and hurt its economy.
The Philippine president is the first foreign leader hosted by China in 2023, and this “speaks volumes about the close ties” between the two countries, Xi told Marcos, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency.
In a video address released by his office on Wednesday, Marcos said both sides discussed “what we can do to move forward, to avoid possible mistakes, misunderstandings that could trigger a bigger problem than what we already have”.
Marcos also said he made the case for Filipino fishermen who have been denied access to their traditional areas of operation by China’s navy and coastguard.
“The president promised that we would find a compromise and find a solution that will be beneficial so that our fishermen might be able to fish again in their natural fishing grounds,” he said.
The joint statement added that the coastguards of China and the Philippines would meet “as soon as possible” to discuss “pragmatic cooperation”, and that the two countries will hold an annual dialogue on security.
It said both sides also agreed to resume talks on oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea and discussed cooperation on areas including solar, wind, electric vehicles and nuclear power.
On the economic front, China agreed to import more goods from the Philippines with the aim for bilateral trade to revert to or surpass pre-pandemic levels. The two sides are finalising rules for imports of fruits from the Philippines, which Marcos said would start to balance the trade.
Both sides also promised to boost tourist numbers and flights between both capitals, the statement said. Last year, only about 9,500 Chinese visited the Philippines, down from about 1.6 million before the pandemic.
As the economies of the US, EU, and China slow, 2023 will be “tougher” than last year, according to Kristalina Georgieva.
The global economy is currently being weighed down by the conflict in Ukraine, rising prices, higher interest rates, and the spread of Covid in China.
The IMF revised down its forecast for 2023 global economic growth in October.
“We expect one third of the world economy to be in recession,” Ms Georgieva said on the CBS news programme Face the Nation.
“Even countries that are not in recession, it would feel like they for hundreds of millions of people,” she added.
Katrina Ell, an economist at Moody’s Analytics in Sydney, gave the BBC her assessment of the world economy.
“While our baseline avoids a global recession over the next year, the odds of one are uncomfortably high. Europe, however, will not escape recession, and the US is teetering on the verge,” she said.
The IMF cut its outlook for global economic growth in 2023 in October, due to the war in Ukraine as well as higher interest rates as central banks around the world attempt to rein in rising prices.
Since then, China has scrapped its “zero-COVID” policy and started to reopen its economy, even as coronavirus infections have spread rapidly in the country.
Ms Georgieva warned that China, the world’s second-largest economy, would face a difficult start to 2023.
“For the next couple of months, it would be tough for China, and the impact on Chinese growth would be negative, the impact on the region will be negative, the impact on global growth will be negative,” she said.
The IMF is an international organization with 190 member countries. They work together to try to stabilize the global economy. One of its key roles is to act as an early economic warning system.
Ms Georgieva’s comments will be alarming for people around the world, not least in Asia which endured a difficult year in 2022.
Inflation has been steadily rising across the region, largely because of the war in Ukraine, while higher interest rates have also hit households and business.
Figures released over the weekend pointed to weakness in the Chinese economy at the end of 2022.
The official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for December showed that China’s factory activity shrank for the third month in a row and at the fastest rate in almost three years as coronavirus infections spread in the country’s factories.
In the same month home prices in 100 cities fell for the sixth month in a row, according to a survey by one of the country’s largest independent property research firms, China Index Academy.
On Saturday, in his first public comments since the change in policy, President Xi Jinping called for more effort and unity as China entered what he called a “new phase.”
The downturn in the US also means there is less demand for the products that are made in China and other Asian countries including Thailand and Vietnam.
Higher interest rates also make borrowing more expensive – so for both these reasons companies may choose not to invest in expanding their businesses.
The lack of growth can trigger investors to pull money out of an economy and so countries, especially poorer ones, have less cash to pay for crucial imports like food and energy.
In these kinds of slowdowns, a currency can lose value against those of more prosperous economies, compounding the issue.
The impact of higher interest rates on loans affects economies at the government level too – especially emerging markets, which may struggle to repay their debts.
For decades, the Asia-Pacific region has depended on China as a major trading partner and for economic support in times of crisis.
Now Asian economies are facing the lasting economic effects of howChina has handled the pandemic.
The manufacture of products such as Tesla electric cars and Apple iPhones may get back on track as Beijing ends zero-Covid.
But renewed demand for commodities like oil and iron ore is likely to further increase prices just as inflation appeared to have peaked.
“China’s relaxed domestic Covid restrictions are not a silver bullet. The transition will be bumpy and a source of volatility at least through the March quarter,” Ms Ell said.
Bill Blaine, strategist and head of alternative assets at Shard Capital, described the IMF’s warning as “a good wake up and smell the coffee moment”.
“Even though labour markets around the world are fairly strong, the kind of jobs being created are not necessarily high paying and we’re going to have a recession, we are not going to see interest rates fall as rapidly as the markets think,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“That’s going to create a whole series of consequences that will keep markets on tenterhooks for at least the first half of 2023.”
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinpingwith a glamorous reception in Riyadh on Thursday, as the two countries make preparations for a series of summits that will mark an “epoch-making milestone” in Chinese-Arab relations.
Saudi state television broadcast a grand ceremony in which bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler known as MBS, received the Chinese leader at Al-Yamamah Palace. The premises were adorned with Chinese and Saudi Arabian flags, and members of the Saudi Royal Guard lined up with swords and played music.
In contrast to US President Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia earlier this year, the two leaders smiled warmly and posed for photos.
Shortly afterwards, China and Saudi Arabia signed a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement that includes a number of deals and memoranda of understanding, including on hydrogen energy, on coordination between the kingdom’s Vision 2030 and China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and with regards to direct investment, reported the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA), without providing details.
Xi landed in the capital Riyadh on Wednesday, where he was received by Saudi Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz, Governor of Riyadh Region, and Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, Minister of Foreign Affairs. Saudi military jets accompanied the Chinese president’s aircraft, a purple carpet was rolled out upon his arrival and canons were fired.
US President Joe Biden’s welcome is widely perceived to have been less glamorous. The American president was received in July by the governor of Mecca and the Saudi ambassador to the US in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah. Biden met MBS in Jeddah, where they exchanged a fist-bump that made global headlines and defined what ultimately became a frigid visit.
The official welcoming ceremony for the Chinese president at the Palace of Yamamah in Riyadh on Thursday. Royal Court of Saudi Arabia/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Bin Salman welcomes the Chinese leader to Riyadh. Saudi Press Agency/Reuters
Saudi and Chinese state media have this week been keen to promote the close ties shared by their governments. Saudi state TV replayed clips of past meetings between Chinese and Saudi officials, narrating the two countries’ warm relationship, which they say spans more than eight decades.
In a signed article published Thursday in the Saudi newspaper Al Riyadh, Xi said that his visit to the kingdom this week “will usher in a new era in China’s relations with the Arab world, with Arab states of the Gulf and with Saudi Arabia.”
“The Arab world is an important member of the developing world and a key force for upholding international fairness and justice,” Xi wrote, adding that “the Arab people value independence, oppose external interference, stand up to power politics and high-handedness, and always seek to make progress.”
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman fist bumps US President Joe Biden upon his arrival at Al Salman Palace, in Jeddah in July. Bandar Algaloud/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court/Handout/Reuters
In the article titled “Carrying Forward Our Millenia-old Friendship and Jointly Creating a Better Future,” Xi said that China and Arab states will “continue to hold high the banner of non-interference in internal affairs, firmly support each other in safeguarding sovereignty and territorial integrity, and jointly uphold international fairness and justice,” in a nod to US diplomacy, whose ties with the Saudis have crumbled over OPEC’s decision to slash crude oil supply.
Saudi Arabia’s energy minister also stressed that Saudi-Chinese relations are “witnessing a qualitative leap” and that the kingdom “will remain China’s credible and reliable partner” with regards to oil, SPA reported.
The Chinese foreign ministry said Wednesday that the China-Arab States Summit “will be an epoch-making milestone in the history of China-Arab relations,” and that “President Xi’s state visit to Saudi Arabia will elevate the China-Saudi Arabia comprehensive strategic partnership to a new height.”
On Wednesday, Saudi and Chinese companies signed 34 investment deals covering several sectors, reported SPA, including in the fields of green energy, information technology, cloud services, transportation, logistics, medical industries, housing and construction.
No monetary value was announced for the deals, but SPA previously reported that the two countries are expected to sign deals worth more than $29 billion during this week’s visit.
Xi’s visit to Saudi Arabia comes amid frayed ties between the two countries and Washington, which harbors a number of grievances towards the two states over oil production, human rights and other issues.
While China and Saudi Arabia’s friendship has blossomed over the decades, they seem to have become closer as both find themselves in precarious positions in regard to the US.
The White House said it was “not a surprise” that Xi is traveling around the world and to the Middle East. “We’re mindful of the influence that China is trying to grow around the world,” said John Kirby, the strategic communications coordinator at the US National Security Council.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholzsays, the risk of nuclear weapons being used in the Ukraine conflict has decreased “for the time being.”
“In response to the international community drawing a line, Russia has stopped threatening to use nuclear weapons,” Mr Scholz said.
Russia’s Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that nuclear weapons would only be used in retaliation.
However, the United States condemned the remarks as “loose talk.”
Mr Scholz said in an interview on Thursday that his recent trip to China helped “put a stop” to the threat of nuclear escalation.
He stated that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed that “nuclear weapons must not be used,” and that the G20 countries quickly reaffirmed this position.
The German chancellor’s comment came the day after President Putin said that the risk of nuclear war is “growing – it would be wrong to hide it”.
Speaking at a televised meeting of his human rights council, the Russian leader asserted that Russia would “under no circumstances” use the weapons first and would not threaten anyone with its nuclear arsenal.
“We have not gone mad, we are aware of what nuclear weapons are,” he said, adding: “We aren’t about to run around the world brandishing this weapon like a razor.”
In the interview, Mr Scholz also addressed comments made by French President Emmanuel Macron that it would be necessary to provide “guarantees for its own security to Russia, the day it returns to the table” of negotiations.
“The priority now is for Russia to end the war immediately and withdraw its troops,” he said, adding that “of course we are ready to talk with Russia about arms control in Europe. We offered this before the war, and this position has not changed.”
Despite Mr Scholz’s assessment that the risk has been lowered thanks to Western pressure, the US criticised Mr Putin’s comments, which it said amounted to “loose talk” and “nuclear sabre-rattling”.
“It is dangerous and it goes against the spirit of that statement that has been at the core of the nuclear non-proliferation regime since the Cold War,” said a US state department spokesman.
Mr Scholz – who on Thursday marks one year since being elected chancellor – also touched upon the domestic defence issues that have been in the spotlight since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Shortly after Russia invaded the country, he announced a major defence policy shift by committing to spend €100bn (£86.4bn) on the Germany army and ramping up defence spending to above 2% of Germany’s GDP.
Now Mr Scholz has said he hopes to develop a missile defence shield in the next five years and signalled that the German government is already in talks with manufacturers of various defence systems “to get ready for concrete decisions”.
The deadly firein Urumqi – a city on the western Xinjiang region that has been under Covid restrictions since August – was the trigger for the weekend’s protests. Although state media has insisted people in the block of flats where the fire broke out were able to leave their apartments, many people believe Covid measures may have contributed to the deaths.
But anger at the consequences of zero-Covid had already been building for many months, following other deaths and incidences of suffering that people say could have been avoided:
Earlier this month, a family in Zhengzhou said their baby died because her ambulance was delayed by Covid restrictions
In September, Chengdu residents were barred from fleeing their homes during a 6.6 magnitude earthquake which killed 65 people
Also that month in Guizhou, a bus ferrying residents to a mandatory quarantine centre crashed, killing 27 passengers
In October, a 14-year-old girl in Henan forced into quarantine died after she developed a fever and couldn’t get treatment in the centre, her father said
During Shanghai’s lockdown in April, people complained about the lack of food and difficult conditions faced by elderly people who were forcibly taken to quarantine centres
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has insisted zero-Covid is about saving lives and China has officially recorded just over 5,200 deaths from the virus – far fewer than in other countries.
The World Cup has received a lot of attention in Chinese state media this week, but the matches are fueling frustrations that people in the country are being left out of the festivities.
Aside from China’s men’s national team failing to qualify, scenes of maskless celebrations and raucous gatherings in Qatar have irritated viewers, who have been discouraged from gathering to watch the games.
Many people have used the World Cup to express their displeasure with China’s current policies. To prevent the virus from spreading, the country maintains a zero-Covid policy, in which entire communities are shut down over single cases of the virus.
China is currently experiencing its worst outbreak in six months, and localised lockdowns have surged over the last couple of weeks. In the past 24 hours, China has recorded more than 28,000 new cases; these are in every single provincial-level region.
Football is very popular in China. President Xi Jinping is known for being a lover of the sport, and he has spoken previously of it being a dream for the country to win the World Cup .
As a result, matches are being shown on national broadcaster CCTV, and state media have sought to amplify China’s “presence”. The Global Times has reported on how China-made products “ranging from buses to the [Lusail] stadium, and even air conditioning units are well represented at the event”.
Leading outlets such as CCTV have also promoted the presence of Chinese flagbearers at the opening ceremony, and how two giant pandas arrived in Qatar to “meet” visitors arriving for the event.
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption, A child plays with one of the Chinese giant pandas given to Qatar to mark the start of the World Cup
But it is evident that Covid-19 has put a damper on the celebrations. In major cities, outbreaks have resulted in non-essential businesses once again closing, and people being urged to limit their movements.
With no bars to go to, the Global Times newspaper says some fans are “choosing to watch the games at home with their families”. Others have also reportedly taken to camping sites.
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption, This was the scene in a sparsely filled pub in Shanghai while the World Cup was being shown
Many are feeling acute isolation watching this year’s event.
An open letter questioning the country’s continued zero-Covid policies and asking if China was “on the same planet” as Qatar quickly spread on mobile messenger WeChat on Tuesday, before being censored.
Comments on the Twitter-like Weibo social network are rife from viewers who speak about how watching this year’s matches is making them feel divided from the rest of the world.
Some speak of their perception that it is “weird” to see hundreds of thousands of people gathering, without wearing masks or needing to show evidence of a recent Covid-19 test. “There are no separate seats so people can maintain social distance, and there is nobody dressed in white and blue [medical] garb on the sidelines. This planet has become really divided.”
“On one side of the world, there is the carnival that is the World Cup, on the other are rules not to visit public places for five days,” one says.
Some say they have had difficulty explaining to their children why the scenes from the World Cup are so different to those people face at home.
There are many in China, though, who have been critical of countries overseas opening up while the World Health Organization still calls the Covid-19 virus an “acute global emergency”.
However, there is no end in sight to China’s existing measures. This week, the National Health Commission spokesman “warned against any slacking in epidemic prevention and control” and urged “more resolute and decisive measures” to bring cases under control.
Local governments in major cities have reintroduced mass testing and travel restrictions and ultimately delivered a message that people should try to stay at home.
But after three years of such measures, people are frustrated, resulting in protests in the last month in both the cities of Guangzhou and Zhengzhou.
Foreign leaders expressed condolences over the deadly crowd surge in Seoul’s Itaewon district, with at least 20 foreign nationals from as many as a dozen countries among those killed in the crush in a popular nightspot.
South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol declared a period of national mourning on Sunday after the Halloween crush on Saturday night killed some 153 people.
South Korea’s Ministry of Interior and Safety put the total at 20 foreign nationals killed. A ministry official told Reuters that among the dead were people from China, Iran, Russia, the United States, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Australia, Sri Lanka, and Norway, with several people still unidentified.
Two Japanese nationals, a woman in her twenties and another woman between the age of 10 and 19, were confirmed to have died in the crush, an official at Japan’s foreign ministry said.
“I am greatly shocked and deeply saddened by the loss of many precious lives, including young people with a bright future, as a result of the very tragic accident,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in a statement.
At least four Chinese nationals were among those killed, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the Chinese embassy in Seoul.
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“On behalf of the Chinese government and people, I would like to express deep condolences to the victims and extend sincere condolences to their families and the injured,” President Xi Jinping said in a letter, according to Xinhua.
Xi said some Chinese citizens were also injured, and hoped South Korea “will make every effort to cure and deal with the aftermath.”
Four Russian citizens died, the RIA news agency reported, citing the Russian embassy in South Korea.
“Please convey words of sincere sympathy and support to the families and friends of the victims, and also wishes for the swift recovery of all the injured,” President Vladimir Putin said in a Telegram to Yoon.
U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden sent their condolences, writing: “We grieve with the people of the Republic of Korea and send our best wishes for a quick recovery to all those who were injured.”
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak tweeted: “All our thoughts are with those currently responding and all South Koreans at this very distressing time.”
One Norwegian citizen was confirmed to have died in the crush, a spokesperson for Norway’s foreign ministry said, declining to provide any details.
“I am devastated by news of the terrible incident in connection with Halloween celebrations in Seoul,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said in a statement. “My deepest condolences to families and friends who lost their loved ones. My thoughts are with those affected by this tragedy.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted: “I’m thinking of everyone affected by this tragedy, and wishing a fast and full recovery to those who were injured.”
Pope Francis, addressing the faithful in St Peter’s Square on Sunday, said “we also pray … for those, especially young people, who died overnight in Seoul due to the tragic consequences of a sudden stampede.”
“Italy is close to the Korean people in this moment of great sorrow and profound sadness,” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Twitter.
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Reporting by Josh Smith and Reuters bureaus Editing by William Mallard and Frances Kerry
Xi Jinping has a third term as China’s leader, in a break with recent precedent.
He has also introduced his new top team – which includes former Shanghai party chief Li Qiang as the new premier.
Saturday’s closing ceremony saw Xi’s predecessor Hu Jintao escorted out, apparently unwillingly, with state media later saying he had not been well.
Xi, 69, is arguably the most powerful party chief since the first communist-era leader Mao Zedong who died in 1976.
So far the party congress has proceeded smoothly for Xi. The constitution has been amended to further reflect his authority; most of the Central Committee membership revealed yesterday reflect his allies and their factions.
But Xi’s grip on power comes amid mounting challenges to the Chinese economy.
For the first time in years, China will miss its annual growth target (5.5% this year). Some Chinese have lost their homes amid a property crisis.
Covid lockdowns have also driven many to their limits across the country. Almost all domestic outcry on China’s internet this year has been about the toll of Xi’s flagship zero-Covid policy.
But in his speech as the party congress opened Xi doubled down on zero-COVID. saying it was saving lives, and emphasised ideology rather than coming up with specific solutions.
Chinese former leader Hu Jintao has been led out of the closing ceremony of the Communist Party Congress.
The frail-looking 79-year-old was sitting beside President Xi Jinping when he was approached and led away by officials. No explanation was given.
After its week-long congress, the party is expected to confirm Mr Xi, 69, for a historic third term.
The event, held in Beijing every five years, cemented his position as China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.
Hu Jintao, who held the presidency between 2003 and 2013, was on stage when two officials approached him. He said something to Xi Jinping, who nodded back.
Then Mr Hu was escorted out of the Great Hall of the People.
Earlier on Saturday, a new Central Committee of about 200 senior party officials was elected. Delegates rubber-stamped amendments to the party’s constitution endorsing Mr Xi’s ideas as guiding principles for China’s future.
In his opening speech at the Congress last Sunday, he hailed the crushing of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong as a move from “chaos to governance”. He also reaffirmed China’s right to use force to seize the self-ruled island of Taiwan.
Mr Xi currently combines the positions of general secretary of the Communist Party, president and head of the armed forces. He is also referred to as Paramount or Supreme leader.
On Sunday he is expected to be officially confirmed for a third term as general secretary and to unveil his new leadership team.
In 2018, he abolished the presidential two-term limit, paving the way for him to rule indefinitely.
A rare and dramatic protest against President Xi Jinpingin Beijing has spurred an internet search for the mystery protester’s identity, as well as appreciation for the action.
The protester had climbed the Sitong bridge in Beijing’s Haidian area and draped two enormous banners asking for an end to China’s draconian zero-Covid policy and Mr Xi’s removal.
While state media have remained silent, photos and videos of Thursday’s event have circulated widely online, prompting a swift crackdown by censors on social media platforms and the WeChat app used by most Chinese.
Thursday’s protest took place on the eve of a historic Communist Party congress, where Mr Xi is due to be handed a third term as party chief, cementing his hold on power.
The person also set what appeared to be car tyres on fire, and could be heard chanting slogans into a loudhailer.
Reports say one person has been arrested in connection to the protest. Pictures of the incident showed police officers surrounding the person, who wore a yellow hard hat and orange clothing.
The BBC has asked local police for comment.
Many have praised the lone protester’s actions, calling them a “hero” and referring to them as the “new Tank Man” – a reference to the unknown Chinese man who stood in front of tanks during the 1989 Tiananmen protests.
IMAGE SOURCE,TWITTER Image caption, The protester is believed to be the man dressed in an orange worksuit
Online sleuths have attempted to track the person down, focusing on a Chinese researcher and physicist hailing from a village in the northern province of Heilongjiang. A BBC check with village officials confirmed that a man with that name used to live there.
He had posted what appeared to be a manifesto on the popular research site ResearchGate. This was later taken down, though others have since uploaded copies of it.
In the 23-page document, he called for a strike and acts of civil disobedience – such as smashing Covid testing stations – on Sunday. This was to stop “the dictator Xi Jinping from illegally continuing in office, so that China can embark on the road to democracy and freedom”.
Some Chinese have congregated on the man’s two Twitter accounts, posting what they claimed were his pictures and writing hundreds of grateful messages.
“You’re a hero and you have my respect,” wrote one person, while another said: “Salute to the hero of the people! Hope you can safely return!”
The man’s name is among the material related to the protestthat has been censored online. No references to the incident could be found on Chinese social media site Weibo as on Friday morning.
Footage and pictures of the protest and related keywords including “Haidian”, “Beijing protester” and “Sitong bridge” were quickly scrubbed. Phrases tangentially related to the protest, including “bridge” and “hero”, also returned limited results.
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS Image caption, By Thursday evening all traces of the protester’s actions had been removed
Although Chinese media have not reported on the incident, former Global Times editor Hu Xijin appeared to refer to it when he tweeted on Thursday evening that the “vast majority” of Chinese people supported Communist Party rule and were “hoping for stability and opposing upheaval”.
Many Chinese have reported that their accounts on social media platformsor WeChat – China’s biggest messaging app – had been temporarily banned after they shared pictures of the protest or posted messages alluding to the protest.
The BBC has reached out to Tencent, WeChat’s parent company, for confirmation.
Such dramatic protest – and public criticism of the government – is rare in China, though China’s tough “zero Covid” policy has fuelled growing public frustration.
In 2018 a woman who defaced a poster of Mr Xi, saying she opposed his “tyranny”, was later admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
The Beijing protester’s actions come at an especially politically sensitive time, with thousands of police officers expected to be mobilised across the capital ahead of the week-long party congress.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the normalizationof diplomatic relations, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese President Xi Jinping had a phone conversation. Relations between the two nations have historically been tense.
Both nations have strong trading connections.
China and Japan’s respective presidents emphasized the need to move relations in a constructive direction on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of established diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida spoke on the phone on Thursday.
Xi told Kishida that he attached “great importance” to the development of China-Japan ties and that he was willing to expand the relationship, reported China’s state channel CCTV.
“Japan and China share a great responsibility to achieve peace and prosperity in the region and world. In view of the next 50 years … I hope to work with you to build constructive and stable Japan-China relations” Kishida told Xi.
There was no formal event to celebrate the occasion. However, messages from both leaders were read out at an event in Tokyo backed by the government and the Chinese embassy.
What have China-Japan ties been like?
China and Japan have had strained relations due to multiple issues, including disputed islands and regional influence.
Japan is concerned by Chinese activity around the disputed Tokyo-controlled Senkaku Islands, which Beijing claims and calls the Diaoyus.
After US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, Beijing launched missiles near Taiwan into Japan’s exclusive economic zone, heightening tensions.
The war in Ukraine also has Japan and China on opposing sides.
However, the world’s second and third largest economies are key trade partners. China is Japan’s largest trading partner and Japan is China’s second-largest partner, after the United States.
“I believe what we decided 50 years ago is that Japan and China do not fight and that we cooperate with each other to build relations of peace and stability,” former Japanese Prime MinisterYasuo Fukuda said at the Tokyo event with 850 business executives and politicians.
“We need to recollect the ties that were agreed upon 50 years ago and pour our full energy into maintaining those relations for another 50, 100 years. There just can be no other way,” he said.
President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping held a lengthy and candid discussion about Taiwan on Thursday as tensions mount between Washington and Beijing, despite Biden’s one-time hope of stabilizing the world’s most important country-to-country relationship.
The two leaders did agree to begin arrangements for a face-to-face summit, their first as Xi resists travel amid the Covid-19 pandemic. And certain areas of cooperation, including climate change, were hashed out.
But the Taiwan issue proved among the most contentious. The issue has emerged as a serious point of conflict, as US officials fear a more imminent Chinese move on the self-governing island and as a potential visit by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi prompts warnings from Beijing and a concerted effort by the Biden administration to prevent tensions from spiraling out of control.
The matter was discussed at length in the two-hour-and-17-minute phone call Thursday. Xi offered an ominous warning to Biden, according to China’s version of events.
“Public opinion shall not be violated, and if you play with fire you get burned. I hope the US side can see this clearly,” he told Biden, according to China’s state news agency.
The White House’s account of the call was less specific.
“On Taiwan, President Biden underscored that the United States policy has not changed and that the United States strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” a US readout read.
A senior US administration official called the Taiwan discussion “direct and honest” but downplayed Xi’s warning, suggesting it was standard for the Chinese leader to warn about the risks of “playing with fire.”
The phone call was Biden and Xi’s fifth conversation since February 2021. Ahead of time, US officials said a range of topics — from the tensions surrounding Taiwan to economic competition to the war in Ukraine — were likely to arise.
But hopes for substantially improving ties with Beijing were low. Instead, Biden’s aides hope maintaining a personal connection with Xi can, at most, avoid a miscalculation that might lead to confrontation.
“This is the kind of relationship-tending that President Biden believes strongly in doing, even with nations with which you might have significant differences,” communications coordinator for the National Security Council John Kirby said this week.
As Thursday’s call was concluding, the two leaders made note of how much work they had created for their teams, including arranging the possible in-person meeting. They have yet to meet face-to-face as presidential counterparts.
An opportunity for a summit could arise in November, when a series of summits will occur in Asia — including the Group of 20 in Bali, Indonesia, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in Bangkok, Thailand. People familiar with the matter said US officials are looking to arrange such a meeting on the margins of one of the summits.
Planning for Biden’s phone call with Xi predated the furor over Pelosi’s proposed visit to Taipei. Neither side revealed whether Pelosi’s plans were discussed specifically.
Biden is also currently weighing whether to lift some Trump-era tariffs on China in a bid to ease inflation, though White House officials said he hadn’t yet made up his mind and suggested ahead of time the topic wouldn’t factor heavily into his conversation with Xi.
Instead, it is China’s escalating aggression in the region — including over Taiwan and the South China Sea — at the center of the current tensions. US officials fear without open lines of communication, misunderstandings could spiral into unintended conflict.
That includes how Beijing responds to Pelosi’s potential visit to Taiwan.
US and China are on a knife’s edge over Taiwan ahead of the Xi-Biden phone call.
Administration officials have been working quietly over the past week to convince the House speaker of the risks inherent in visiting the self-governing island.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday he’d spoken to Pelosi to provide his “assessment of the security situation.”
Pelosi has not made any announcements about her plans for a trip, which haven’t been finalized.
“I never talk about my travel. It’s a danger to me,” she said Wednesday.
Yet even unofficial word that the third-in-line to the US presidency was considering a visit to Taiwan prompted an outsized response from Beijing, which considers visits by top-ranking American officials a sign of diplomatic relations with the island.
“If the US insists on taking its own course, the Chinese military will never sit idly by, and it will definitely take strong actions to thwart any external force’s interference and separatist’s schemes for ‘Taiwan independence,’ and resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Ministry of Defense Spokesperson Tan Kefei said Tuesday in response to questions over Pelosi’s reported trip to Taipei.
The White House called those comments “unnecessary” and “unhelpful,” saying the rhetoric only served to escalate tensions “in a completely unnecessary manner.”
They also revealed what US officials have said is a misunderstanding by Chinese officials over the significance of Pelosi’s potential visit. The officials said China may be confusing Pelosi’s visit with an official administration visit since both she and Biden are Democrats. Administration officials are concerned that China doesn’t separate Pelosi from Biden much, if at all.
That adds pressure to Biden’s call with Xi. Officials were circumspect about whether Pelosi’s visit would arise, or how much it would factor into the conversation.
But China’s apparent confusion over the differences between the White House and Congress could inject a level of personal animus into the talks.
Administration officials’ concerns over Pelosi’s trip are rooted partly in its timing. It would come at a particularly tense moment, with the upcoming Chinese Communist Party congress during which Xi is expected to seek an unprecedented third term putting pressure on the leadership in Beijing to show strength.
Chinese party officials are expected to begin laying the groundwork for that conference in the coming weeks.
With China recently reporting its worst economic performance in two years, Xi finds himself in a politically sensitive situation ahead of the important meeting.
Biden and Xi spent many hours in each other’s company when each was his country’s vice president, traveling across China and the United States to form a bond.
Biden last spoke to Xi in March, when he worked to convince the Chinese leader not to support Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine. Officials have been watching closely how Beijing responds to the invasion, hoping the mostly united western response — including a withering set of economic sanctions and billions of dollars in arms shipments — proves to illuminate as China considers its actions toward Taiwan.
US officials believe there’s a small risk China would miscalculate in responding to a potential Pelosi visit.
Biden administration officials are concerned that China could seek to declare a no-fly zone over Taiwan ahead of a possible visit as an effort to upend the trip, potentially raising tensions even further in the region, a US official told CNN.
That remains a remote possibility, officials said. More likely, they say, is the possibility China steps up flights further into Taiwan’s self-declared air defense zone, which could trigger renewed discussions about possible responses from Taiwan and the US, the US official added. They did not detail what those possible responses would entail.
He added: “This has fully displayed that they attach great importance to the epidemic prevention and control work and highly trust the home-grown Covid-19 vaccines.”
Officials are trying to increase vaccination rates, which are considered too low for the country to reopen safely.
China continues to follow a “zero Covid” strategy, including mass testing, strict isolation rules and local lockdowns.
While there have been far fewer deaths than in many other countries, this approach is facing growing opposition as people and businesses continue to face the strain of restrictions.
President Xi has repeatedly said that there is no alternative to zero Covid.
China has seen 2,167,619 cases and 14,647 deaths since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University.
This compares with 23,088,074 cases and 181,398 deaths in the UK.
An outbreak of Covid in Shanghai in April saw the city placed into lockdown for more than two months.
During the outbreak, concerns were raised over low vaccination rates. Officials said just 38% of those over 60 had received a booster, while only 15% of over-80s had been given two doses.
Recent figures show that across the country, 90% of people have now had two jabs.
