China

Various Asian news outlets revealed on Thursday that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and wife Ri Sol-ju received nearly $400,000 in personal gifts during their visit to Beijing last week. Chinese Communist Party head Xi Jinping reportedly offered the ruling couple expensive liquor, fancy tea cups, and jewelry in gratitude for their secret visit to China, Kim Jong-un’s first trip abroad as dictator of North Korea.South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo, citing Hong Kong’s Apple Daily, reported that Kim received “a large vase [worth] 500,000 yuan, and plates and porcelain teacups at 20,000 yuan and 5,000 yuan each,” according to footage of the gifts that appeared on Chinese television. “The North Korean leader was also given 11 bottles of a prized distilled liquor called Moutai, five of them dating back beyond 1980 and six distilled during the 1990s,” Chosun reports. “That makes the older ones so rare that they retail at an … [Read more...] about Report: Xi Jinping Gave Kim Jong-Un Nearly $400,000 in Gifts During China Visit

President Donald Trump will urge Latin American countries to accept the United States as their trading “partner of choice” instead of China in Peru next week, according to senior administration officials. When attending the Summit of the Americas in Lima, Trump will reportedly harden his rhetoric against China, who his administration has repeatedly accused of using predatory loaning practices in Latin American countries.“President Trump has been very clear … in terms of his economic policies that the Chinese economic aggression in the region has not been productive for the hemisphere and that the United States should remain the partner of choice for them,” an administration official said on a conference call with reporters. As well as predatory trade practices, Chinese officials have also promised to “spread globalization” with a “greater push” to promote trade in the region. Critics argue that China will provide greater support to … [Read more...] about Trump to Urge Latin America to Reject China at Summit of the Americas

On Saturday, Japan activated its first marine combat unit since World War II. China immediately panicked over the relatively small Japanese force, denouncing the revival of “militarism” under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and advising every other Asian nation to go on “high alert” in the state-run Global Times. The Global Times unloaded every criticism it could think of against the Japanese amphibious assault unit: questioning its legality under Japan’s pacifist constitution, portraying it as a threat to regional stability, blasting Japan for its reluctance to “sincerely apologize for war crimes,” ominously noting that Japanese schoolchildren are practicing a martial art called the “way of the bayonet” as part of their phys-ed curriculum, and questioning whether Prime Minister Abe has any business spinning up new military units when his political survival is threatened by a real-estate scandal tied to a “nationalist kindergarten … [Read more...] about China Panics over First Japanese Marine Unit Since World War II

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) confirmed that Beijing has installed military equipment capable of jamming communications and radars on two of its outposts in the South China Sea’s Spratly Islands, reports the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing a satellite image and U.S. officials. “China has deployed military jamming equipment to its Spratly Island outposts,” an anonymous DOD official told the Journal.Citing U.S. officials, WSJ describes the move as “a significant step in [China’s] creeping militarization of the South China Sea.” “While China has maintained that the construction of the [artificial] islands [on the South China Sea] is to ensure safety at sea, navigation assistance, search and rescue, fisheries protection and other nonmilitary functions, electronic-jamming equipment is only for military use,” the DOD official noted.A photo taken by the commercial satellite company DigitalGlobe in March and obtained by the Journal … [Read more...] about Report: U.S. Says ‘China Has Deployed Military Jamming Equipment’ to South China Sea

Register for our free newsletterSCOTLAND and China will inevitably have “different perspectives” on some issues but are also facing “common challenges”, Nicola Sturgeon will say. The First Minister, who has already raised the issue of human rights during her trip to China, will use a speech in Beijing to highlight how both nations are working to tackle poverty and improve life for children. The speech, before an audience of policy makers and academics in Beijing, comes after Ms Sturgeon had a “constructive discussion” with Chinese vice premier Hu Chunhua. The address is part of a joint Scottish Government and Unicef event, hosted by the Chinese Peoples Association for Friendship of Foreign Countries, as part of a five day visit which will also take her to Shanghai and Hong Kong. The First Minister will say: “China and Scotland will inevitably sometimes have different perspectives and different starting points but we … [Read more...] about Scotland and China have ‘different perspectives’ but ‘common challenges’, says Nicola Sturgeon