Beijing

China has frequently accused the Philippines of acting as a ‘troublemaker’ and ‘saboteur of regional stability’.

The Philippines and Canada have signed a defence pact to expand joint military drills and deepen security cooperation in a move widely seen as a response to China’s growing assertiveness in the region, most notably in the disputed South China Sea.

Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr and Canadian Defence Minister David McGuinty inked the Status of Visiting Forces Agreement (SOVFA) on Sunday after a closed-door meeting in Manila.

McGuinty said the deal would strengthen joint training, information sharing, and coordination during humanitarian crises and natural disasters.

Teodoro described the pact as vital for upholding what he called a rules-based international order in the Asia-Pacific, where he accused China of expansionism. “Who is hegemonic? Who wants to expand their territory in the world? China,” he told reporters.

The agreement provides the legal framework for Canadian troops to take part in military exercises in the Philippines and vice versa. It mirrors similar accords Manila has signed with the United States, Australia, Japan and New Zealand.

China has not yet commented on the deal, but it has frequently accused the Philippines of being a “troublemaker” and “saboteur of regional stability” after joint patrols and military exercises with its Western allies in the South China Sea.

Beijing claims almost the entire waterway, a vital global shipping lane, thereby ignoring a 2016 international tribunal ruling that dismissed its territorial claims as unlawful. Chinese coastguard vessels have repeatedly used water cannon and blocking tactics against Philippine ships, leading to collisions and injuries.

Teodoro used a regional defence ministers meeting in Malaysia over the weekend to condemn China’s declaration of a “nature reserve” around the contested Scarborough Shoal, which Manila also claims.

“This, to us, is a veiled attempt to wield military might and the threat of force, undermining the rights of smaller countries and their citizens who rely on the bounty of these waters,” he said.

Talks are under way by the Philippines for similar defence agreements with France, Singapore, Britain, Germany and India as Manila continues to fortify its defence partnerships amid rising tensions with Beijing.

Top trade negotiators for the U.S. and China said they came to terms on a range of contentious points, setting the table for Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping to finalize a deal and ease trade tensions that have rattled global markets.

After two days of talks in Malaysia wrapped up Sunday, a Chinese official said the two sides reached a preliminary consensus on topics including export controls, fentanyl and shipping levies.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking later in an interview with CBS News, said Trump’s threat of 100% tariffs on Chinese goods “is effectively off the table” and he expected Beijing to make “substantial” soybean purchases as well as offer a deferral on sweeping rare-earth controls. The U.S. wouldn’t change its export controls directed at China, he added.

“So I would expect that the threat of the 100% has gone away, as has the threat of the immediate imposition of the Chinese initiating a worldwide export control regime,” Bessent said. He separately told ABC News he believed China would delay its rare-earth restrictions “for a year while they reexamine it.”

Bessent telegraphed a wide-ranging agreement between Trump and Xi that would extend a tariff truce, resolve differences over the sale of TikTok and keep up the flow of rare-earth magnets necessary for the production of advanced products from semiconductors to jet engines. The two leaders are also planning to discuss a global peace plan, he said, after Trump said publicly he hoped to enlist Xi’s help in ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The encouraging signals from both sides of the negotiations were a marked contrast from recent weeks, when Beijing’s announcement of new export restrictions and Trump’s reciprocal threat of staggering new tariffs threatened to plunge the world’s two largest economies back into an all-out trade war.

Staving off China’s rare-earth restrictions is “one of the major objectives of these talks, and I think we’re progressing toward that goal very well,” U.S .Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Trump predicted a “good deal with China” as he spoke with reporters on the sidelines of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, saying he expected high-level follow-up meetings in China and the U.S.

“They want to make a deal, and we want to make a deal,” Trump said.

Still, markets will be closely watching the details of the ultimate agreement, after nearly a year of head-spinning changes to trade and tariff policies between Washington and Beijing.

Chinese trade envoy Li Chenggang said he believes that the sides had reached consensus on fentanyl — suggesting the U.S. might lift or reduce a 20% tariff it had imposed to pressure Beijing to halt the flow of precursor chemicals used to make the deadly drug. He said the nations would also address actions the Trump administration took to impose port service fees on Chinese vessels, which prompted Beijing to put retaliatory levies on U.S.-owned, -operated, -built or -flagged vessels.

Li, whom Bessent called “unhinged” just days ago, described the talks as intense and the U.S. position as tough, but hailed the signs of progress. Both sides will now brief their leaders ahead of a planned summit between Trump and Xi on Thursday.

“The current turbulences and twists and turns are ones that we do not wish to see,” Li told reporters, adding that a stable China-U.S. trade and economic relationship is good for both countries and the rest of the world.

The reopening of soybean purchases, if realized, could provide a significant political win for Trump.

China imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. farm goods in March, effectively slamming the door shut on American soybeans before the harvest even began. The Asian nation last year purchased $13 billion in U.S. beans — more than 20% of the entire crop — for animal feed and cooking oil, and the freeze has rocked rural farmers who represent a key political base for the president.

Perhaps more important is resolving the the U.S.’ rare-earths tussle with China, which fought back against Trump’s trade offensive earlier this year by cutting off supplies of the materials. Although flows were restored in a truce that saw tariffs lowered from levels exceeding 100%, China this month broadened export curbs on the materials after the U.S. expanded restrictions on Chinese companies.

The negotiations took place at the skyscraper Merdeka 118 as Trump met with Southeast Asian leaders at a nearby convention center, where he discussed a series of other framework trade agreements, seeking to diversify U.S. trade away from China.

The Chinese delegation was led by He, China’s top economic official, and included Vice Finance Minister Liao Min. Greer, the U.S. trade representative, was also part of the talks.

Trump’s meeting with Xi this week will be their first face-to-face sit-down since his return to the White House. The U.S. leader has said direct talks are the best way to resolve issues including tariffs, export curbs, agricultural purchases, fentanyl trafficking and geopolitical tinderboxes such as Taiwan and the war in Ukraine.

“We’ll be talking about a lot of things,” he said. “I think we have a really good chance of making a very comprehensive deal.”

Flatly and Xiao write for Bloomberg. Bloomberg writers Sam Kim and Tony Czuczka contributed to this report.

IF a Chinese bloke had been caught spying for the UK in Beijing, he’d currently be hung up by his toes in a cell, awaiting execution.

That’s how the Chinese sort things out. Nobody in Beijing would be worrying much if the UK is a threat or not.

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Bullet or lethal injection, Wu’s yer uncle.

Or maybe they would be pawed to death by an angry panda.

But it’s more often a bullet between the eyes.

Most countries take spying and espionage very seriously.

Indeed, ensuring we are safe from foreigners who might do us harm is the first duty of a government.

But clearly it is a duty that Sir Keir Starmer does not take remotely seriously.

Last week, two Brits were due to be tried for spying for the Chinese.

They were Christopher Cash, a parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry, a researcher who works in China.

Both deny any wrongdoing.

But suddenly, at the last minute, the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case.

It didn’t bother explaining why — one minute the trial was on, the next it was dead meat.

Industrial secrets

It now transpires that the CPS took advice from British government officials.

It is entirely possible that the UK’s National Security Adviser, Jonathan Powell, a good mate of Keir, was one of the officials involved.

Shortly after their meeting with the CPS, the decision was taken to drop the case.

Why? They apparently told the CPS China couldn’t be called a “threat” to the UK.

Instead, it was just a “geo-political challenge”.

And so the charges against Cash and Berry wouldn’t stick.

In a previous spying case it was decided that charges were relevant only if it involved “a country which represents, at the time of the offence, a threat to the national security of the UK”.

Have you ever heard anything more ridiculous?

If China isn’t a threat to the UK, then who is?

The head of MI5, Sir Ken McCallum, has reported that the Chinese have tried to entice 20,000 Brits to act as spies for them, against our interests.

Did nobody think to ask Sir Ken if he thought China was a threat? I suspect I know the answer that would have been forthcoming

He also claimed that 10,000 UK businesses were at threat from the Chinese trying to nick industrial secrets.

In addition, he said that MI5 had 2,000 current investigations into Chinese spying activity — and that a new case was opened on the Chinese — behaving very deviously indeed — every 12 hours.

Did nobody think to ask Sir Ken if he thought China was a threat?

I suspect I know the answer that would have been forthcoming.

Of course the country is a threat.

It is menacing other nations down in South East Asia.

It has a whole bunch of nukes pointed directly at the West.

It arrests dissidents who want western-style freedoms.

And it does everything it can to undermine the UK’s politics and industry.

Truth be told, anybody who is working secretly for a foreign country in the UK is a threat to this country.

Especially if they are working in the House of Commons.

This seems to me so obvious that it should not need stating.

If their secret outside income involves a vast load of Yuan, some fortune cookies and cans of bubble tea, then we should investigate very seriously.

The truth in this particular case, though, is particularly damning.

It seems almost certain that Whitehall officials intervened at the behest of the Government.

And that they did this so as not to p**s off the Chinese — because aside from being a threat to the UK, which China certainly is, we are going cap in hand begging for investment from them.

Other nations don’t have a problem with employing a dual approach.

Make no mistake, we may need to do business with the likes of China, much as we did once with Russia — but they ARE the enemy

They understand that while they all need to do trade with horrible totalitarian countries such as China, they also need to count their spoons, if you get my meaning — and at the slightest sign of devious behaviour, call them out.

The Chinese understand this too.

Yes, being caught with a bunch of spies in our Parliament may be embarrassing for a short while.

But it won’t be allowed to get in the way of China making more money.

It seems that our government was too frit to risk it.

Too scared that the Chinese might react nastily and pull investment.

Or decide not to invest in the future. We mustn’t offend the Chinese.

Strategies like this simply do not work — and the Chinese, just like their big mates the Russians, will continue to spy on our institutions and do everything they can to harm our state.

Enemy is laughing

Make no mistake, we may need to do business with the likes of China, much as we did once with Russia — but they ARE the enemy.

And currently an enemy that is laughing its head off.

The government officials involved will be coming before the House of Commons Joint Committee on National Security Strategy.

If it is discovered that Jonathan Powell did warn off the CPS from pursuing the cases against Cash and Berry, then Powell should resign or be sacked.

Unless, of course, Powell was simply doing the bidding of the Prime Minister or the then Foreign Secretary, the intellectual colossus who is David Lammy.

If that’s the case then THEY should resign.

One way or another, we cannot allow Chinese spies to run amok in this country of ours just because we want to trouser some more wonga down the line, through Chinese investment.

This is a truly important week for Starmer.

The Chinese spygate scandal is the most serious he has faced since taking office last July.

It could yet be the finish of the man.

Which won’t make me lose a terrific amount of sleep, I have to tell you.

THE Man Who Never Sweats is probably feeling a bit moist under the armpits right now.

It has been discovered that Prince Andrew was still sending chummy texts to disgraced paedo Jeffrey Epstein long after the royal said he was.

Andrew is alleged to have messaged him to say: “We are in this together.”

This happened 12 weeks after the point at which Andrew claimed, in that BBC interview, to have cut off all contact with the odious slimeball.

It’s high time King Charles took action and kicked Andrew out of his Royal Lodge home in Windsor Great Park.

I’M sure there must be some people on those pro-Palestinian marches who are not actually dyed-in-the-wool antisemites.

But if so, how do they react to a comrade saying that they “don’t give a f***” about the Jewish community?

Or the protesters in Glasgow who unfurled a banner praising the “martyrs” of Hamas for murdering about 1,200 Israeli civilians and taking 251 hostage on October 7, 2023?

Or the chants about killing the IDF?

Or the demands for Israel to cease to exist?

Or for a global intifada?

It is one thing to have a few doubts about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

It is altogether another to stand alongside rabid, Jew-hating jihadis, chanting their odious slogans.

Isn’t it time these fellow travellers had a Mitchell and Webb moment and asked themselves: “Hey . . . are we the BAD guys?”

A TOP Tory minister has said she fears her hotel room was bugged on a fact-finding trip to Taiwan.

It comes after a case against an accused Chinese spy, Chris Cash, collapsed last month when the Government refused to class Beijing as a threat to national security.

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Chris Cash, 30, and his friend Christopher Berry, 33, were both accused and denied spying for China.

Cash, a parliamentary researcher, received high level briefings from former MI6 spooks, ambassadors and ministers before he was dramatically arrested.

The former teacher, who had lived and worked in China, was accused of passing secrets to Beijing.

The Crown Prosecution Service case against the two alleged spies collapsed with ministers blamed for failing to provide key evidence that China was a national security threat at the time.

Starmer has since claimed that there was nothing he could do about the issue and blamed the former government for not designating China a threat when the offences took place.

The Daily Mail has now revealed that at the same time the Government was refusing to designate Beijing a threat, then foreign secretary David Lammy was doing just that.

He branded China an enemy of Britain during a debate in the commons in an effort to defend Labour’s surrender of the Chagos Islands.

The Shadow National Security Minister, Alicia Kearns, 37, has now revealed that she was a target during the alleged spy operation.

In what is thought to be a spy dossier, details of her hotel room in Taiwan were found.

When the senior Tory minister was on a fact finding trip to the country as chairman of the foreign affairs committee, she fears she was bugged by Beijing.

She told the Daily Mail: “They could have got in that room at any time.

“You can’t be sure that the room hasn’t got a bug or a camera somewhere.

“There could be photos of you walking around your hotel room naked.”

China had threatened that the mother-of-three’s trip would result in “repercussions.”

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She worked alongside Mr Cash for a year and raised concern that others he met through work may have been exposed.

Chinese dissidents, victims of transnational repression and people intimidated in secret Chinese police stations in the UK may have all been laid bare to Mr Cash.

The Shadow National Security Minister continued, saying Mr Cash worked at the heart of government policy on China.

He gained insight from the Foreign Office, Home Office, Treasury and Department for Business and Trade according to Ms Kearns.

Mr Cash worked on key government policy around China including the TikTok ban on government devices and exposing covert Chinese police stations in the UK.

The alleged spy managed to speak to every top China expert in the UK, finding himself in a position to glean information as “valuable as gold dust” to Beijing Ms Kearns believes.

The revelations could raise more questions about why the case against the accused spooks was dropped.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper admitted: “We know China poses threats to the UK national security.”

“I am deeply frustrated about this case, because I, of course, wanted to see it prosecuted.”

Ex-diplomat Charles Parton previously told The Sun that the Government’s refusal to brand Beijing a threat clearly showed “a desire not to offend China.”

Mr Parton, who was due to testify for the prosecution, slammed the CPS for failing to find new witnesses after the Government pulled its national security official at the last minute.

He told The Sun: “They are both to blame. The Government for withdrawing.

“But the CPS should have got some evidence from experts to say, ‘Is China a threat?’

“Then the jury could have said, ‘Yes, national security threat,’ and now we’re going ahead and trying this case.

“That smacks either of interference by the Government or just sheer incompetence.”

Chris Cash and Christopher Berry both deny all charges brought against them under the official secrets act.

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WASHINGTON — President Trump said Friday that he’s placing an additional 100% tax on Chinese imports starting on Nov. 1 or sooner, potentially escalating tariff rates close to levels that in April fanned fears of a steep recession and financial market chaos.

The president said on his social media site that he is imposing these new tariffs because of export controls placed on rare earth elements by China. The new tariffs built on an earlier post Friday on Truth Social in which Trump said that “there seems to be no reason” to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as part of an upcoming trip to South Korea.

Trump said that “starting November 1st, 2025 (or sooner, depending on any further actions or changes taken by China), the United States of America will impose a Tariff of 100% on China, over and above any Tariff that they are currently paying.”

The announcement after financial markets closed on Friday risked throwing the global economy into turmoil. Not only would the global trade war instigated by Trump be rekindled at dangerous levels, but import taxes being heaped on top of the 30% already being levied on Chinese goods could, by the administration’s past statements, cause trade to break down between the U.S. and China.

While Trump’s wording was definitive, he is also famously known for backing down from threats, such that some investors began engaging in what The Financial Times called the “TACO” trade, which stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out.” The prospect of tariffs this large could compound the president’s own political worries inside the U.S., potentially pushing up inflation at a moment when the job market appears fragile and the drags from a government shutdown are starting to compound into layoffs of federal workers.

The president also said that the U.S. government would respond to China by putting its own export controls “on any and all critical software” from American firms.

It’s possible that this could amount to either posturing by the United States for eventual negotiations or a retaliatory step that could foster new fears about the stability of the global economy.

The United States and China have been jostling for advantage in trade talks, after the import taxes announced earlier this year triggered a trade war between the world’s two largest economies. Both nations agreed to ratchet down tariffs after negotiations in Switzerland and the United Kingdom, yet tensions remain as China has continued to restrict America’s access to the difficult-to-mine rare earths needed for a wide array of U.S. technologies.

Trump did not formally cancel the meeting with Xi, so much as indicating that it might not happen as part of a trip at the end of the month in Asia. The trip was scheduled to include a stop in Malaysia, which is hosting the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit; a stop in Japan; and a visit to South Korea, where he was slated to meet with Xi ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

“I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so,” Trump posted.

Trump’s threat shattered a monthslong calm on Wall Street, and the S&P 500 tumbled 2.7% on worries about the rising tensions between the world’s largest economies. It was the market’s worst day since April when the president last bandied about import taxes this high. Still, the stock market closed before the president spelled out the terms of his threat.

China’s new restrictions

On Thursday, the Chinese government restricted access to the rare earths ahead of the scheduled Trump-Xi meeting. Beijing would require foreign companies to get special approval for shipping the metallic elements abroad. It also announced permitting requirements on exports of technologies used in the mining, smelting and recycling of rare earths, adding that any export requests for products used in military goods would be rejected.

Trump said that China is “becoming very hostile” and that it’s holding the world “captive” by restricting access to the metals and magnets used in electronics, computer chips, lasers, jet engines and other technologies.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment.

Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, said Beijing reacted to U.S. sanctions of Chinese companies this week and the upcoming port fees targeting China-related vessels but said there’s room for deescalation to keep the leaders’ meeting alive. “It is a disproportional reaction,” Sun said. “Beijing feels that deescalation will have to be mutual as well. There is room for maneuver, especially on the implementation.”

The U.S. president said the move on rare earths was “especially inappropriate” given the announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza so that the remaining hostages from Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack can be released. He raised the possibility without evidence that China was trying to steal the moment from him for his role in the ceasefire, saying on social media, “I wonder if that timing was coincidental?”

There is already a backlog of export license applications from Beijing’s previous round of export controls on rare earth elements, and the latest announcements “add further complexity to the global supply chain of rare earth elements,” the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China said in a statement.

Gracelin Baskaran, director of the Critical Minerals Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., said China signaled it is open to negotiations, but it also holds leverage because to dominates the market for rare earths with 70% of the mining and 93% of the production of permanent magnets made from them that are crucial to high-tech products and the military.

“These restrictions undermine our ability to develop our industrial base at a time when we need to. And then second, it’s a powerful negotiating tool,” she said. And these restrictions can hurt efforts to strengthen the U.S. military in the midst of global tensions because rare earths are needed.

Trump’s trade war

The outbreak of a tariff-fueled trade war between the U.S. and China initially caused the world economy to shudder over the possibility of global commerce collapsing. Trump imposed tariffs totaling 145% on Chinese goods, with China responding with import taxes of 125% on American products.

The taxes were so high as to effectively be a blockade on trade between the countries. That led to negotiations that reduced the tariff charged by the U.S. government to 30% and the rate imposed by China to 10% so that further talks could take place. The relief those lower rates provided could now disappear with the new import taxes Trump threatened, likely raising the stakes not only of whether Trump and Xi meet but how any disputes are resolved.

Differences continue over America’s access to rare earths from China, U.S. restrictions on China’s ability to import advanced computer chips, sales of American-grown soybeans and a series of tit-for-tat port fees being levied by both countries starting on Tuesday.

Nebraska Republican Rep. Don Bacon said “China has not been a fair-trade partner for years,” but the Trump administration should have anticipated China’s restrictions on rare earths and refusal to buy American soybeans in response to the tariffs.

How analysts see moves by U.S. and China

Wendy Cutler, senior vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, said Trump’s post shows the fragility of the détente between the two countries and it’s unclear whether the two sides are willing to de-escalate to save the bilateral meeting.

Cole McFaul, a research fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology, said that Trump appeared in his post to be readying for talks on the possibility that China had overplayed its hand. By contrast, China sees itself as having come out ahead when the two countries have engaged in talks.

“From Beijing’s point of view, they’re in a moment where they’re feeling a lot of confidence about their ability to handle the Trump administration,” McFaul said. “Their impression is they’ve come to the negotiating table and extracted key concessions.”

Craig Singleton, senior director of the China program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank, said Trump’s post could “mark the beginning of the end of the tariff truce” that had lowered the tax rates charged by both countries.

It’s still unclear how Trump intends to follow through on his threats and how China plans to respond.

“But the risk is clear: Mutually assured disruption between the two sides is no longer a metaphor,” Singleton said. “Both sides are reaching for their economic weapons at the same time, and neither seems willing to back down.”

Boak and Tang write for the Associated Press. AP writers Stan Choe in New York and Josh Funk in Omaha, Neb., contributed to the report.

WASHINGTON — The State Department said Wednesday that it has fired a U.S. diplomat over a romantic relationship he admitted having with a Chinese woman alleged to have ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

The dismissal is believed to be the first of its kind for violating a ban on such relationships that was introduced late last year under the Biden administration.

The Associated Press reported earlier this year that in the waning days of President Biden’s presidency, the State Department imposed a ban on all American government personnel in China, as well as family members and contractors with security clearances, from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens.

Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesman, said in a statement that the diplomat in question was dismissed from the foreign service after President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio reviewed the case and determined that he had “admitted concealing a romantic relationship with a Chinese national with known ties to the Chinese Communist Party.”

“Under Secretary Rubio’s leadership, we will maintain a zero-tolerance policy for any employee who is caught undermining our country’s national security,” Pigott said.

The statement did not identify the diplomat, but he and his girlfriend had been featured in a surreptitiously filmed video posted online by conservative firebrand James O’Keefe.

In Beijing, a Chinese government spokesperson declined to comment on what he said is a domestic U.S. issue. “But I would like to stress that we oppose drawing lines based on ideological difference and maliciously smearing China,” the Foreign Ministry’s Guo Jiakun said at a daily briefing.

Lee writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed to this report.

A GHOST bridge that has stood unfinished for more than a decade between China and North Korea could finally be nearing completion.

The over pass stood abandoned for so long that farmers used the road to dry crops.

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The bridge – which was completely funded by China – was completed on the Chinese side in 2014, costing the nation $350 million.

China went all out on the project, developing a new city at its end of the road.

Despite Chinese productivity and complete financial aid on the project, the North Korean end remained untouched until 2019, leaving apartment complexes, stores and more lying vacant on the Chinese side.

The cash-strapped nation only needed to build about two miles of road to complete the inter-country link.

The incomplete over pass opened into a paddy field on North Korea’s side of the river, as neither side lifted a finger to complete the project, rendering the link between nations a bridge to nowhere for five more years.

Meanwhile, in downtown Dandong, on the Chinese side, buses and trucks have been forced to wait for hours to get across the original link between the two nations – the Old Friendship Bridge.

The Old Friendship Bridge was constructed in the late 1930s and was originally named the Sino-Korean Friendship bridge.

The US bombed the Friendship Bridge during the Korean War to stop Chinese forces from interfering and aiding North Korea.

The connecting road was patched up after fighting stopped, and still serves as a link between Beijing and Pyongyang to this day.

The narrow road and rail bridge connecting the downtown areas of Sinuiju and Dandong has been the busiest border port between the two nations over recent years, as bilateral trade has increased.

However, the new signs of construction on the New Yalu River Bridge signal that China and North Korea are preparing to boost trade.

North Korea embodied the full meaning of a hermit when it shut its doors to the outside world during the Covid pandemic.

Since the border closure eased in 2023, both nations have kept up appearances and increased trade and business exchanges.

Despite North Korea previously shutting its borders, the work on the bridge had largely been completed.

Construction on the Kim Jong Un’s side began in February 2020, but was halted the following August, after digging work took place across around 111 acres (45 hectares) of land.

Following the border closure, satellite imagery showed farmers making use of the unfrequented road by drying crops on the tar.

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Since hesitantly opening back up, the nation has also shown signs of strengthening its international relationships.

Despite this, uncertainty still bubbles below the surface, as North Korea has openly prioritised strengthening its relationship with Moscow.

Signalling the shift in international relations, tourism into the notoriously closed-off nation resumed with Russia, where it has not with China.

Fresh construction on the bridge is the latest signal of North Korea realigning to its closest neighbour.

Building has resumed on the North Korean side of the New Yalu River Bridge, marking the first movement on the development in five years.

New images from Planet Labs of the notoriously unopened bridge surfaced, showing evidence of new excavation.

Blue-roofed structures also popped up, believed to be related to long-term construction plans on the site.

NK News reported the size of the development could link it to a plan by Chinese company Five Continents International Development Corporation (FCIDC) to construct an economic park in North Korea’s Sinuiju region.

The exact location of this project, however, has not been confirmed.

The new construction on the bridge could be in preparation to connect to a planned large customs complex to match one built on the Chinese side of the bridge.

In 2018, FCIDC suggested that the Sinuiju “Heyuan” International Logistics and Trade City (SILTC) would be located close to a border connection point.

A spokesperson said the economic park would have: “its own customs and border inspection, where transit goods can directly enter … avoiding the congestion of Dandong-Sinuiju Port … and greatly improving cargo flow.”

Wang Ruoming, one of the lead project coordinators based in China, fuelled the rumours earlier in the year with a social media post hinted at the project’s revival.

He reposted a computer rendering of the economic park on his Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) profile in January, saying: “2025 is destined to be a year of good fortune”.

The New Yalu River Bridge features a four-lane road, while China’s sprawling new customs port appears ready to handle dozens of cargo trucks at a time. 

The border between North Korea and China runs in the direct centre of the river.

DONALD Trump has signed an executive order laying the groundwork for China to hand over TikTok to US owners following “very good talks” with Xi Jinping.

Dealmaster Don said he had come to an agreement with the Chinese leader following years of speculation surrounding the fate of the beloved $14billion social media giant.

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In a major U-turn by Beijing – who once slammed the idea of giving TikTok to Washington as “robbery” – Chinese officials have now agreed to hand over the prized platform.

The landmark deal will separate the popular video-sharing hub from its Chinese parent company ByteDance – in a key step allowing TikTok to keep operating in America.

Trump said the agreement would comply with a bipartisan law that would have forced the app’s shutdown if it was not divested and sold to a US owner.

The US President said: “I spoke with President Xi and he said: ‘Go ahead with it.’

“This is going to be American-operated all the way.”

The groundbreaking plan will see US investors oversee the vast majority of TikTok‘s operations.

A coalition of American owners are expected to take charge of 80 per cent of the app – while Chinese investors will have a 20 per cent stake.

They will also gain a licensed copy of the cutting-edge recommendation algorithm retrained solely with US data.

The controversial digital recipe which shows users content based on their preferences previously stirred alarming concern among US officials.

China hawks warned the ByteDance-crafted algorithm could be weaponised by the CCP to influence content seen by hundreds of millions of Americans every day.

But US officials have failed to present any evidence proving China has ever attempted to do so.

The new US version of the spun off firm will be valued at $14billion, US Vice President JD Vance said.

But the new figure doesn’t compare to ByteDance’s overall valuation, which is estimated to stand at a staggering $330billion.

TikTok’s social media arch nemesis Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is valued at $1.8trillion.

The new investing team will be spearheaded by US software giant Oracle.

The firm will oversee US operations for TikTok, provide cloud service for user data storage and obtain the elusive algorithm license.

The alliance of investors is set to include Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, News Corp owner Rupert Murdoch and Dell CEO Michael Dell.

Trump said of the potential new owners: “Great investors. The biggest. They don’t get bigger.”

Vance said more details about who is involved in the huge deal will be announced over the coming days.

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The deal seemingly puts to bed months of legal limbo for the massively popular app, which is said to host some 180 million US users.

Trump has even credited TikTok with helping him win the 2024 presidential election – as part of his gamechanging social media campaign.

ByteDance and TikTok once faced widespread concerns from US lawmakers over national security and data privacy.

US officials alleged China could use the app to shape messaging and ultimately spread propaganda in an effort to undermine US democracy.

TikTok denied the claims, but Congress collectively agreed to force ByteDance to find a US buyer after a historic vote last year.

The supreme court unanimously upheld the ban in January – before Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office to postpone its removal from the US.

The US President also hinted at TikTok’s secure future last week, writing on Truth Social: “A deal was also reached on a ‘certain’ company that young people in our Country very much want to save.

“They will be very happy!”

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It should matter little to the Chinese that American diplomats and a handful of their western allies will not be attending the Beijing Winter Olympics in February. What truly matters is that the Russians are coming.

The above is not an arbitrary statement. It is supported with facts. According to a survey conducted by China’s Global Times newspaper, the majority of the Chinese people value their country’s relations with Russia more than that of the EU and certainly more than that of the United States. The newspaper reported that such a finding makes it “the first time in 15 years that China-US ties did not top the list of the important bilateral relations in the Global Times annual survey.”

In fact, some kind of an alliance is already forming between China and Russia. The fact that the Chinese people are taking note of this and are supporting their government’s drive towards greater integration – political, economic and geostrategic – between Beijing and Moscow, indicates that the informal and potentially formal alliance is a long-term strategy for both nations.

American hostilities towards China, as seen by the Chinese, have become unbearable, and the Chinese people and government seem to have lost, not only any trust, however modest, of Washington, but of its own political system as well. 66 per cent of all Chinese either disapproved of the US democratic system – or whatever remains of it – or believe that US democracy has sharply declined. Ironically, the vast majority of Americans share such a bleak view of their own country, according to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Centre in 2019 and again by the Michigan Public Policy Survey in 2021.

This leads us to two possible conclusions: First, the Chinese people will not be pushing for an American-style democracy any time soon and, second, the Chinese trust in the US does not hinge on what political party controls the White House or Congress.

OPINION: Turkey’s balancing act between Russia and Ukraine

While the Chinese negative view of the US is unmistakably clear, Beijing remains hopeful that existing divisions with the European Union would allow it to expand economically in a region that is rife with financial and political opportunities, thus strategic growth. This fact offers China and Russia yet another area of potential cooperation, as Russia is also keen to expand into the European markets using its recently completed Nord Stream 2 gas project. Though Europe is already struggling with gas shortages, Europeans are divided on whether Russia should be allowed to claim a massive geostrategic influence by having such sway over the EU energy needs.

Germany, which already receives nearly a third of its gas supplies from Russia – through Nord Stream 1 – is worried that allowing Nord Stream 2 to operate would make it too dependent on Russian gas supplies. Under intense pressure from Washington, Germany is caught between a rock and a hard place:  it needs Russian gas to keep its economy afloat, but is worried about American retaliation. To appease Washington, the German government threatened, on 16 December, to block the new pipeline if Russia invades Ukraine. But is Germany in a position that allows it to make such demands?

Meanwhile, Washington is keeping a close watch on Russia’s and China’s strategic expansion westward, and it views the ‘threat’ posed by both countries with great alarm. In his recent visit to Scotland to take part in the COP26, US President Joe Biden accused China and Russia of “walking away” on “a gigantic issue”, referring to climate change. China has “lost the ability to influence people around the world and here in COP. The same way I would argue with Russia,” Biden said on 3 November.

But will such rhetoric make any difference, or sway traditional US allies to boycott the lucrative deals and massive economic opportunities presented by the two emerging Asian giants?

According to Eurostat, in 2020, China overtook the US as Europe’s largest import and third-largest export partner. Moreover, according to Nature magazine, most European countries largely depend on Russian energy sources, with the European Union estimated to import nearly 40 per cent of its natural gas from Russia.

In the face of these vastly changing realities, the US seems to be running out of options. The Summit for Democracy, orchestrated by Washington last December, seemed like a desperate cry for attention as opposed to celebrating the supposed democratic countries. 111 countries participated in the conference. The participants were handpicked by Washington and included such countries as Israel, Albania and Ukraine. China and Russia were, of course, excluded, not because of their lack of democratic credentials – such notions are often of no relevance to the politicised US definition of ‘democracy’ – but because they, along with others, were meant to be left isolated in the latest US hegemonic move.

READ: Fewer ships sailing to Russia due to possible war in Ukraine, Turkish ship spotter says

The conference, expectedly, turned out to be an exercise in futility. Needless to say, the US is in no position to give democracy lessons to anyone. The attempted coup in Washington by tens of thousands of angry US militants on 6 January, 2021 – coupled with various opinion polls attesting to Americans’ lack of faith in their elected institutions – places the US democracy brand at an all-time low.

As the US grows desperate in its tactics – aside from increasingly ineffectual sanctions, aggressive language and the relentless waving of the democracy card – China and Russia continue to draw closer to one another, on all fronts. In an essay entitled ‘Respecting People’s Democratic Rights’, written jointly by the ambassadors of Beijing and Moscow in Washington, Qin Gang and Anatoly Antonov wrote in the National Interest magazine that the democracy summit was “an evident product of (US’s) Cold-War mentality,” which “will stoke up ideological confrontation and a rift in the world, creating new ‘dividing lines’.”

But there is more than their mutual rejection of American hostilities that is bringing China and Russia closer. The two countries are not motivated by their fear of the American military or some NATO invasion. Russia’s and China’s militaries are moving from strength to strength and neither country is experiencing the anxiety often felt by smaller, weaker and relatively isolated countries that have faced direct or indirect US military threats.

To push back against possible NATO expansion, the Russian military is actively mobilising in various regions at its western borders. For its part, the Chinese military has made it clear that any US-led attempt aimed at altering the balance of power in the Taiwan Strait would provoke an immediate military retaliation. In a virtual meeting with the US President, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Biden on 16 November that the US was “playing with fire”. “Whoever plays with fire will get burnt,” he threatened.

The Chinese-Russian alliance aims largely at defending the two countries’ regional and international interests, which are in constant expansion. In the case of China, the country is now a member of what is considered the world’s largest economic pact. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which was officiated on 1 January, covers a global market that caters to around 30 per cent of the world’s population.

Russia, too, operates based on multiple regional and international alliances. One of these military alliances is the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which is currently involved in ‘peacekeeping’ operations in Kazakhstan. From Syria in the Middle East, to Venezuela in South America to Mali in West Africa and beyond, Russia’s military influence has increased to the extent that, in September 2021, Moscow signed military cooperation agreements with Africa’s two most populous nations, Nigeria and Ethiopia, challenging the traditional dominance of the US and France on the African continent.

Informally, China and Russia are already operating according to a regional and global model that can be compared to that of the now-defunct Warsaw Treaty Organisation (1955-91), a political and military alliance between the Soviet Union and several Eastern European countries that aimed at counter-balancing the US-led NATO alliance. The Warsaw Pact pushed back against US-led western hegemony and laboured to protect the interests of the pact’s members throughout the world. History seems to be repeating itself, though under different designations.

Historically, the two countries have had a difficult and, at times, antagonistic relationship, dating back to the 19th century. During the Nikita Khrushchev era, Beijing and Moscow even broke their ties altogether. The Sino-Soviet split of 1960 was earth-shattering to the extent that it transformed the bipolarity of the Cold War, where China operated as an entirely independent party.

Though diplomatic relations between Beijing and Moscow were restored in 1989, it was not until the collapse of the Soviet Union that cooperation between both nations intensified. For example, the decision, in 1997, to coordinate their diplomatic positions in the United Nations gave birth to the Joint Declaration on a Multipolar World and the Establishment of a New International Order. That agreement between Russia and China laid the foundations for the actively evolving multi-polar world that is currently transpiring before our eyes.

Present reality – namely US, NATO, EU pressures – has compelled Russia and China to slowly, but surely cement their relationship, especially on the economic, diplomatic and military fronts. Writing in Carnegie Moscow Centre, Alexander Gabuev explained that, according to data provided by the Russian Federal Customs Service, “China’s share in Russian foreign trade grew from 10.5 per cent in 2013 (before the Ukraine crisis and sanctions) to 16.7 per cent in 2019 and 18.3 per cent in the pandemic-struck 2020.”

READ: US, NATO dispute with Russia does not undermine Turkey Black Sea rights

Moreover, the two countries are holding regular large-scale joint military exercises, aimed at strengthening their growing security and military cooperation.

This already close relation is likely to develop even further in the near future, especially as China finds itself compelled to diversify its energy sources. This became a pressing need following recent tensions between Australia, a NATO member, and China. Currently, Australia is the main natural gas supplier to Beijing.

On its own, Russia cannot conclusively defeat Western designs. China, too, despite its massive economic power, cannot play a geopolitical game of this calibre without solid alliances. Both countries greatly benefit from building an alternative to US-led political, economic and military alliances, starting with NATO. The need for a Russian-Chinese alliance becomes even more beneficial when seen through the various opportunities presenting themselves: growing weakness in the US’s own political system, cracks within US-EU relations and the faltering power of NATO itself. Turkey, for example, though a NATO member, has for years been exploring its own geopolitical alliances outside the NATO paradigm. Turkey is already cementing its ties with both Russia and China, and on various fronts. Other countries, for example Iran and various South American countries, that have been targeted by the US for refusing to toe Washington’s political line, are desperately seeking non-western alliances to protect their interests, their sovereignty and their heavily sanctioned economies.

While it is still too early to claim that China and Russia are anywhere near a full-blown alliance of the Warsaw nature, there is no reason to believe that the cooperation between both countries will be halted or even slow down anytime soon. The question is how far are Beijing and Moscow willing to go to protect their interests.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

WASHINGTON — Early in his first term, President Trump held a modest ceremony directing NASA to return humans to the moon for the first time in 50 years. It was a goalpost set without a road map. Veterans of the space community reflected on the 2017 document, conspicuously silent on budgets and timelines, equivocating between excitement and concern.

Was Trump setting up a giveaway to special interests in the aerospace community? Or was he setting forth a real strategic vision for the coming decade, to secure American leadership in the heavens?

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It was a return to a plan first proposed by President George W. Bush in 2004, then abandoned by President Obama in 2010, asserting the moon as a vital part of American ambitions in space. Whether to return to the lunar surface at all — or skip it to focus on Mars — was a long-standing debate governing the division of resources at NASA, where every project is precious, holding extraordinary promise for the knowledge of mankind, yet requiring consistent, high-dollar funding commitments from a capricious Congress.

Eight years on, the debate is over. Trump’s policy shift has blazed a new American trail in space — and spawned an urgent race with China that is fast approaching the finish line.

Both nations are in a sprint toward manned missions to the lunar surface by the end of this decade, with sights on 2029 as a common deadline — marking the end of Trump’s presidency and, in China, the 80th anniversary of the People’s Republic.

A “What Will 2030 Look Like?” sign behind Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who chairs the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, during a confirmation hearing in April.

(Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

It is a far different race from the original, against the Soviet Union, when U.S. astronauts inspired the world with a televised landing in 1969. This time, Washington would not just plant a flag and return its astronauts home. Instead, the Americans plan to stay, establishing a lunar base that would test humanity’s ability to live beyond Earth.

China has similar plans. And with both countries aiming for the same strategic area of the surface — the south pole of the moon, where peaks of eternal light shine alongside crevices of permanent darkness, believed to store frozen water — the stakes of the race are grounded in national security. Whichever nation establishes a presence there first could lay claim to the region for themselves.

The world’s first full-scale model of the crewed pressurized lunar rover, to be used in the Artemis moon exploration program, is displayed during a press preview in July.

(Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty Images)

Advocates of the U.S. effort, called the Artemis program, increasingly fear that delays at NASA and its private sector partners, coupled with proposed funding cuts to NASA from the Trump administration, could ensure China’s victory in a race with broad consequences for U.S. interests.

So it is a race that Trump started. The question is whether he can finish it.

While U.S. intelligence officials have assessed that Beijing is on track to meet its goals, NASA veterans say that accomplishing a manned mission before the Chinese appears increasingly out of reach.

“It’s a stretch,” said G. Scott Hubbard, a leader in human space exploration for the last half-century who served as NASA’s first “Mars czar” and former director of the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. “Bottom line, yes, it is doable. It’ll take an intense effort by the best engineers, and appropriate funding.

“It’s not inconceivable,” he added.

Visitors take photos of a space suit during an event marking China’s Space Day at the Harbin Institute of Technology in Harbin, capital of northeast China’s Heilongjiang province.

(Wang Jianwei/Xinhua via Getty Images)

The White House said Trump is committed to making “American leadership in space great again,” noting his first-term push to return U.S. astronauts to the moon and his efforts to deregulate the U.S. space industry. But officials declined to comment on a timeline for the mission or on China’s steady progress.

“Being first and beating China to the moon matters because it sets the rules of the road,” Sean Duffy, Transportation secretary and acting NASA administrator, told The Times. “We’re committed to doing this right — safely, peacefully, and ahead of strategic competitors — because American leadership on the moon secures our future in space.”

The success of the Artemis program, Duffy said, is about ensuring the United States leads in space for generations to come. “Those who lead in space lead on Earth,” he added.

NASA officials, granted anonymity to speak candidly, expressed concern that while leadership on the Artemis program has remained relatively stable, talent on robotics and in other key areas has left the agency at a critical time in the race, with potentially less than two years to go before China launches its first robotic mission to the south pole — a scout, of sorts, for a manned landing to follow.

A proposal to cut NASA research funding by roughly 47% has gripped officials there with doubt, jeopardizing a sense of job security at the agency and destabilizing a talent pipeline that could prove critical to success.

In the 1960s, the federal government increased spending on NASA to 4.4% of GDP to secure victory in the first space race.

“There’s too much uncertainty,” one NASA official said, raising the specter of the Trump administration impounding funds for the agency even if Congress continues to fund it.

Inside NASA headquarters, Hubbard said, “the feeling right now is terrified uncertainty — everyone is walking on eggshells.”

“They’re treading water,” he added. “People want to be given clear direction, and they’re not getting it.”

A Chinese Smart Dragon-3 rocket carrying satellites lifts off from sea on Sept. 9.

(VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

China’s long march gets closer

Beijing conducted a series of tests over the last several weeks viewed in Washington as crucial milestones for China on its journey to the moon.

A launch of its Lanyue lander, equipped to carry two taikonauts to the lunar surface, “validated” its landing and takeoff system, state media reported. Two subsequent tests of China’s Long March 10, a super-heavy lift rocket designed to jump-start the mission, were a “complete success,” according to the China Manned Space Agency.

Unlike in the United States, China’s manned space flight program is housed within its military.

“We have seen them steadily progress on all of the various pieces that they are going to need,” said Dean Cheng, senior advisor to the China program at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

“You need a vehicle to launch, because current rockets simply don’t have enough throw-weight. They’re testing the lander to carry astronauts to the surface,” Cheng said. “These are key pieces, and significant advances — this is a brand new rocket and a lunar lander with new technology.”

China initially set a goal for its manned mission by 2035, but has since moved up its plans, an expression of confidence from Beijing and an unusual break from typical party protocol. Now, China aims not only to have completed that mission, but to begin establishing an International Lunar Research Station on its surface, in conjunction with Russia, by 2030.

They are expected to target the south pole.

“There’s room for two powers under schemes of coordination, but there’s not room in an uncoordinated environment. There can easily be a competition for resources,” said Thomas González Roberts, an assistant professor of international affairs and aerospace engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Landing and takeoff of spacecraft on the moon will kick up lunar dust and rocks, risking the safety of astronauts on the ground and sensitive equipment across a base site — considerations that are likely driving Beijing’s strategy to get there first. Those enjoying the benefits of first arrival could set up generous routes for rovers, equipment at dig sites for deposits, telecommunication assets, and even a nuclear reactor to assert a large area of domain.

Since his first term, Trump and his aides have sought to avoid a showdown on the lunar surface, drafting a new set of international rules to govern an otherwise untamed frontier. The Artemis Accords “set out a practical set of principles to guide space exploration,” according to the State Department. President Biden embraced and extended the initiative, growing the list of signatories to 56 nations.

But China is not one of them, prohibited by Congress during the Obama era from cooperating with the United States in space after attempting to steal U.S. technology on intercontinental ballistic missiles and thermonuclear weapons. Instead, Beijing has recruited a small list of countries to join its lunar base program, including Russia, Venezuela, Pakistan, Egypt, Nicaragua, Belarus and South Africa.

“I don’t think there will be extreme congestion on the moon, but if you really define an area of interest — and there is that, with these peaks of eternal light next to permanently shadowed regions — you could manufacture congestion,” Roberts added.

“How do you benefit from obfuscation?” he asked. “If you’re the first arrival, you spread yourself out.”

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from launch pad 40 at Cape Canaveral, carrying Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft toward the International Space Station.

(Manuel Mazzanti/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The promise and burden of Musk’s Starship

Last month, Duffy warned NASA staff that the Trump administration suspects Beijing is planning to deliver a nuclear reactor to power a long-term presence at its lunar base by 2029.

The move, Duffy said, could allow China to “declare a keep-out zone, which would significantly inhibit the United States from establishing a planned Artemis presence if not there first.” He ordered the agency to collect proposals by October on delivering a U.S. reactor to the surface no later than that year.

The administration’s success relies on a man whose relationship with Trump has crashed spectacularly to Earth.

Starship, a super heavy-lift launch vehicle produced by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is the rocket Trump is relying on to accomplish the Artemis mission. Yet repeated setbacks in the Starship program have raised alarm at NASA over its fundamental constitution. A concerning series of tests have already delayed the U.S. manned launch, known as Artemis III, toward the end of Trump’s term.

Last month, in its 10th test flight, the rocket finally succeeded in a suborbital mission. But “Starship has yet to reach orbit,” Hubbard said, “and once it reaches orbit, they’ve got to demonstrate microgravity transfer of cryogenic propellant.”

“That’s something that’s never been done before,” he added. “So to say that they’ll be ready to do all of that in two years is a real stretch.”

Setbacks are common course in the history of the U.S. space program. But the success of China’s recent tests has shown the Trump administration that NASA and its partners have run out of time for further delays.

Duffy said that Artemis II, a manned mission to orbit the moon, will take place early next year, overcoming a separate set of design flaws that faced Lockheed Martin’s Orion spacecraft. Artemis III would keep astronauts on the surface for more than a week and deliver payloads to help begin the foundation of a base.

Whether the Trump administration will commit to the funding and leadership necessary for the mission is an open question. The White House declined to say who within the West Wing is leading the effort. Trump has not named a permanent NASA administrator for Senate confirmation.

Success on the moon is meant to provide a testing ground and a launching pad for more ambitious, challenging manned missions to Mars. But Trump’s commitment to those ventures are equally in doubt. The administration has proposed canceling funds for a landmark program decades in the making to return samples from the red planet, despite a NASA announcement last week revealed it had discovered signs of ancient Martian life.

“I’ve been on the inside of it — you waste enormous amounts of time just trying to find workarounds to get funding in to stay on schedule,” Hubbard said. “If you really, really want to beat the Chinese, give NASA the funding and some stability — because you’re not going to beat them if every day, week or month, there’s a different direction, a different budget, a different administrator.

“And China may still win,” he said, adding: “It would be another claim that they’re the dominant power in the world.”

TOKYO — The leaders of China, North Korea and Russia stood shoulder to shoulder Wednesday as high-tech military hardware and thousands of marching soldiers filled the streets of Beijing.

Two days earlier, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping huddled together, smiling broadly and clasping hands at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

The gatherings in China this week could be read as a striking, maybe even defiant, message to the United States and its allies. At the very least, they offered yet more evidence of a burgeoning shift away from a U.S.-dominated, Western-led world order, as President Trump withdraws America from many of its historic roles and roils economic relationships with tariffs.

Trump himself indicated he was the leaders’ target in a message on social media to Xi: “Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America.”

But China’s military parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, and the earlier economic gathering, is also simply more of the self-interested, diplomatic jockeying that has marked regional power politics for decades.

Each of these leaders, in other words, is out for himself.

Xi needs cheap Russian energy and a stable border with North Korea, his nuclear-armed wildcard neighbor. Putin is hoping to escape Western sanctions and isolation over his war in Ukraine. Kim wants money, legitimacy and to one-up archrival South Korea. Modi is trying to manage his relationship with regional heavyweights Putin and Xi, at a moment when ties with Washington are troubled.

The events highlight China’s regional aspirations

China is beset with serious domestic problems — stark economic and gender inequalities, to name two — and a tense standoff with Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing claims as its own. But Xi has tried to position China as a leader of countries that feel disadvantaged by the post-World War II order.

“This parade showcases the ascendancy of China propelled by Trump’s inept diplomacy and President Xi’s astute statecraft,” said Jeff Kingston, a professor of Asian studies at Temple University Japan. “The Washington consensus has unraveled, and Xi is rallying support for an alternative.”

Some analysts caution against reading too much into Russia-China-North Korea ties. China remains deeply wary of growing North Korean nuclear power, and has long sought to temper its support — even agreeing at times to international sanctions — to try to influence Pyongyang’s pursuit of weapons.

“Though the Russia-North Korea tie has resumed to a military alliance, China refuses to return to the year of 1950,” when Beijing sent soldiers to support North Korea’s invasion of the South and the USSR provided crucial military aid, said Zhu Feng, dean of the School of International Relations of Nanjing University. “It is wrong to believe that China, Russia and North Korea are reinforcing bloc-building.”

Russia looks to China to help ease its isolation

For the Kremlin, Putin’s appearance in Beijing alongside major world leaders is another way to shrug off the isolation imposed by the West on Russia in the wake of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

It has allowed Putin to take to the world stage as a statesman, meeting a host of world leaders, including Modi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. And Putin’s reception by Xi is a reminder that Russia still has major trading partners, despite Western sanctions that have cut off access to many markets.

At the same time, Russia does not want to anger Trump, who has been more receptive than his predecessor, particularly in hearing out Moscow’s terms for ending its war with Ukraine.

“I want to say that no one has been plotting anything; no one was weaving any conspiracies,” Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said about Trump’s social media message. “None of the three leaders had even thought about such a thing.”

Kim Jong Un walks a diplomatic tightrope in Beijing

The North Korean leader’s trip to Beijing will deepen new ties with Russia while also focusing on the shaky relationship with his nation’s most crucial ally, and main economic lifeline, China.

Kim has sent thousands of troops and huge supplies of military equipment to help Russian forces to repel a Ukrainian incursion on their territory.

Without specifically mentioning the Ukraine war, Kim told Putin on Wednesday that “if there’s anything I can do for you and the people of Russia, if there is more that needs to be done, I will consider it as a brotherly obligation, an obligation that we surely need to bear.”

The Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank affiliated with South Korea’s spy agency, said in a report this week that Kim’s trip, his first appearance at a multilateral diplomatic event since taking power in 2011, is meant to strengthen ties with friendly countries ahead of any potential resumption of talks about its nuclear program with Trump. The two leaders’ nuclear diplomacy collapsed in 2019.

“Kim can also claim a diplomatic victory as North Korea has gone from unanimously sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council for its illegal nuclear and missile programs to being embraced by UNSC permanent members Russia and China,” said Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

India’s Modi is playing a nuanced game

Modi is on his first visit to China since relations between the two countries deteriorated after Chinese and Indian soldiers engaged in deadly border clashes in 2020.

But the tentative rapprochement has its limits. Praveen Donthi, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the Indian leader did not participate in Beijing’s military parade because the “distrust with China still exists.”

“India is carefully walking this tightrope between the West and the rest, especially when it comes to the U.S., Russia and China,” he said. “Because India does not believe in formal alliances, its approach has been to strengthen its relationship with the U.S., maintain it with Russia, and manage it with China.”

Even as he takes some steps toward China, the United States is also on Modi’s mind.

India and Washington were negotiating a free trade agreement when the Trump administration imposed 25% tariffs for New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil, bringing the combined tariffs to 50%.

Trade talks have since stalled and relations have significantly declined. Modi’s administration has vowed to not to yield to U.S. pressure and signaled it is willing to move closer to China and Russia.

But Donthi said India would still like to keep a window open for Washington.

“If Modi can shake hands with Xi five years after the India-China border clash, it could be far easier for him to shake hands with Trump and get back to strengthening ties, because they are natural allies,” he said.

Klug writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Kim Tong-hyung and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea; Ken Moritsugu in Beijing; Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi; and Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, contributed to this report.

Sept. 3 (UPI) — Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stood shoulder-to-shoulder on Wednesday for a display of Chinese military might in Beijing, including its latest nuclear-capable missiles, laser weapons and a new stealth fighter-jet.

The massive parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square was the first time the three leaders had been seen together publicly.

Xi engaged in lengthy handshakes first with Kim and then moved on to Putin before the three walked side by side along a red-carpeted route to their viewing position on a rostrum in Tiananmen Square to join 50,000 guests gathered for a march-past of 10,000 troops flanked by the latest military hardware and more than 100 aircraft overflying the square.

Among the equipment on display were new hypersonic and nuclear Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles, including a new DF-5C version of the Dongfeng-5, said to be capable of reaching the United States, the DF-26D and the DF-61, as well as new AI-enabled autonomous weapons.

The military’s new J-20S twin-seater stealth fighter was given its first outing, but in a static display, and did not fly.

The 70-minute-long parade also showcased new branches of the People’s Liberation Army, including Aerospace Force, Cyberspace Force and Information Support Force.

However, Xi sought to present the growing military might on display as a force for peace with helicopters flying banners that read “Justice will prevail. Peace prevails. The people prevail,” and a speech in which he said that in an ever more dangerous world, China would always make a principled stand.

“Today, humanity is again faced with the choice of peace or war, dialogue or confrontation, win-win or zero-sum,” Xi said. China’s people, he added, “firmly stand on the right side of history”.

But at the same time, he stressed that as a great nation, China “is never intimidated by any bullies” and warned that his country was “unstoppable”.

“Strength may prevail for a time, but over the long arc of history, it is reason that wins. Justice, light, and progress will always triumph over evil, darkness, and reaction,” he said.

Only two Western leaders were present and no representatives of any of China’s wartime allies, which included the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and the then-U.S. colony of the Philippines, were invited.

The conspicuous show of unity and muscle-flexing prompted a scathing response from U.S. President Donald Trump, who accused the trio of plotting against the United States and bemoaned the fact that the event ignored America’s contribution in helping defeat the Japanese army in China.

“The big question to be answered is whether or not President Xi of China will mention the massive amount of support and ‘blood’ that the United States of America gave to China in order to help it to secure its FREEDOM from a very unfriendly foreign invader. Many Americans died in China’s quest for Victory and Glory. I hope that they are rightfully Honored and Remembered for their Bravery and Sacrifice!” Trump wrote on his social media platform.

“Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against the United States of America.”

Xi’s speech did nod to the contribution made by allies, saying China would never forget the help it received from “foreign governments and international friends,” in defeating the Japanese army, which formally surrendered to the then-nationalist government on Sept. 3, 1945.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his daughter, Kim Ju Ae, have arrived by train in Beijing to attend China’s largest-ever military parade marking Japan’s surrender in World War II. It will be Kim’s first major multilateral event during his 14-year rule.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that President Trump’s administration is listening to the Kremlin’s justifications for its invasion of neighboring Ukraine and claimed that Moscow and Washington have come to a “mutual understanding” about the conflict.

Putin said during a visit to China that “the [Trump] administration is listening to us,” as he complained that former President Biden paid Moscow’s arguments no heed.

“Now we see this mutual understanding; it’s noticeable,” Putin said at a bilateral meeting with pro-Russian Slovak President Robert Fico after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing. “We are very happy about this and hope this constructive dialogue will continue.”

But Russia faces possible punitive actions by Trump, who has expressed frustration at Putin’s lack of engagement in U.S.-led peace efforts and threatened unspecified “severe consequences.” The American president has made ending the three-year war one of his diplomatic priorities and hosted Putin at a summit in Alaska last month.

Putin attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in the Chinese city of Tianjin with Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who are also facing pressure from Trump. The SCO started out as a security forum viewed as a foil to U.S. influence in Central Asia, but it has grown in influence over the years.

After the summit, the Russian leader held talks with Xi in Beijing, and on Wednesday he was to attend a massive military parade there commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

In Beijing, Putin struck an apparently amenable tone about possible progress in some aspects of the discussions to stop the fighting, although his comments reflected no substantial change in Russia’s position. Western leaders have accused Putin of marking time in peace efforts while Russia’s bigger army seeks to overwhelm Ukrainian defenses.

On the key issue of possible postwar security guarantees for Ukraine to deter another Russian invasion, Putin said: “It seems to me that there is an opportunity to find consensus.” He didn’t elaborate.

While Putin reiterated that Moscow will not accept membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for Ukraine, he also noted that he had never objected to Ukraine joining the European Union.

He also said Russia “can work with our American partners” at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest and one of the 10 biggest atomic power plants in the world. Its fate has been a central concern of the war due to fears of a nuclear accident.

Putin said Russia could also work with Ukraine on the Zaporizhzhia question — “if favorable conditions arise.”

Fico said he planned to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday in the Ukrainian city of Uzhorod, which lies on the border with Slovakia, to talk about Ukraine’s attacks on Russian energy infrastructure.

Slovakia and Hungary, which refuse to provide arms to Ukraine, condemned recent strikes by Ukrainian troops against Russian oil infrastructure, namely the Druzhba oil pipeline. The two countries, as well as the Czech Republic, are exempt from a European Union ban on importing Russian oil, which they rely on.

Fico told Putin he wants to normalize relations and develop business ties with Russia while continuing to import Russian oil and natural gas.

BEIJING — Humanoid robots hip-hop danced, performed martial arts and played keyboard, guitar and drums at the opening ceremony of the first World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on Thursday evening.

The competition begins Friday with more than 500 humanoid robots in 280 teams from 16 countries, including the U.S., Germany and Japan, competing in sports including soccer, running and boxing. It comes as China has stepped up efforts to develop humanoid robots powered by artificial intelligence.

During the opening ceremony, the robots demonstrated soccer and boxing among other sports, with some cheering and backflipping as if at a real sports day.

One robot soccer player scored a goal after a few tries, causing the goalkeeper to fall to the ground. Another player fell but stood up unassisted.

The robots also modeled fashionable hats and clothes alongside human models. One robot model sadly fell and had to be carried off the stage by two human beings.

Teams from robot companies and Chinese universities including Tsinghua University and Peking University are competing in the games. Three middle schools are also participating.

China’s official newspaper People’s Daily quoted a government officer in Beijing as saying “every robot participates is creating history.”

The event will last three days, concluding on Sunday. Tickets sold to the public range from 180 yuan ($25) to 580 ($80).

Ting writes for the Associated Press. Olivia Zhang contributed to this report from Beijing.

Beijing is expected to see its heaviest rainfall on Tuesday, with up to 300mm (11.8 inches) forecast for some areas.

At least 30 people have been killed by severe rainfall and flooding in Beijing as heavy rains drench the Chinese capital, state media report.

The deaths occurred in Beijing’s mountainous northern districts, with 28 killed in Miyun and two in Yanqing, the official Xinhua state news agency reported on Tuesday.

“The latest round of heavy rainstorms has left 30 people dead in Beijing as of midnight Monday,” Xinhua said, citing the city’s municipal flood control headquarters.

Torrential rain started over the weekend and intensified around the Chinese capital and surrounding provinces on Monday, with Beijing recording rainfall of up to 543mm (21.3 inches) in its northern districts, Xinhua said.

Authorities in Beijing have relocated more than 80,000 residents from areas worst hit by flooding, which has damaged dozens of roads and cut power to at least 136 villages, the country’s national broadcaster CCTV reported.

The heaviest rain in Beijing is expected early on Tuesday, with rainfall of up to 300mm (11.8 inches) forecast for some areas.

Authorities ordered the release of water from a reservoir in Beijing’s rural Miyun district, which was at its highest level since it was built in 1959, according to reports, with locals being warned to stay away from rivers downstream as their levels rose and as more heavy rain is forecast.

Chinese President Xi Jinping late on Monday night ordered “all-out” search and rescue efforts to minimise casualties, as authorities ordered people to stay indoors, closed schools, suspended construction work and stopped outdoor tourism and other activities until the emergency warning is lifted.

In the town of Taishitun, about 100km (60 miles) northeast of central Beijing, streets were covered in mud and water on Monday, and uprooted trees lay in piles with their bare roots exposed, the Associated Press news agency reports.

“The flood came rushing in, just like that, so fast and suddenly. In no time at all, the place was filling up,” said local resident Zhuang Zhelin, who was clearing mud with his family from their building materials shop.

Earlier reports on Monday said the torrential rains and flooding had killed four people, with eight others missing, following a landslide in the country’s Hebei province, located south of Beijing.

WASHINGTON — President Trump welcomed Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday at the White House, as the two countries are seeking closer security and economic ties in the face of shifting geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific region.

Marcos, who met Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday, is the first Southeast Asian leader to hold talks with Trump in his second term.

Marcos’ three-day visit shows the importance of the alliance between the treaty partners when China is increasingly assertive in the South China Sea, where Manila and Beijing have clashed over the hotly contested Scarborough Shoal.

As the two leaders sat in the Oval Office in front of reporters on Tuesday, Trump said they would be talking about “war and peace” and trade.

“We’re very close to finishing a trade deal, big trade deal, actually,” Trump said.

Marcos spoke warmly of the relationship between their two nations and said, “This has evolved into as important a relationship as is possible to have.”

Trump, as he does in many of his appearances, veered off topic as he fielded questions from reporters.

In response to a question about his Justice Department’s decision to interview Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend, Trump launched into a long answer repeating falsehoods about his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election and the Russia investigation during his first term, along with comments about targeting his political adversaries, including former President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“After what they did to me, whether it’s right or wrong, it’s time to go after people,” Trump said, with Marcos sitting nearby.

During the two leaders’ meeting before news cameras, they didn’t reveal details or hang-ups of any possible deal, but Trump called Marcos a “tough negotiator.”

When asked by a reporter how he plans to balance his country’s relationships between the U.S. and China, Marcos said there was no need to balance “because our foreign policy is an independent one.”

“Our strongest partner has always been the United States,” he said.

Washington sees Beijing, the world’s No. 2 economy, as its biggest competitor, and consecutive presidential administrations have sought to shift U.S. military and economic focus to the Asia-Pacific in a bid to counter China. Trump, like others before him, has been distracted by efforts to broker peace in a range of conflicts, from Ukraine to Gaza.

On Tuesday, when asked about the U.S. defense commitment to the Philippines, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Guo Jiakun said: “Whatever cooperation the U.S. and the Philippines have, it should not target or harm any third party, still less incite confrontation and heighten tensions in the region.”

Tariffs also are expected to be on the agenda. Trump has threatened to impose 20% tariffs on Filipino goods on Aug. 1 unless the two sides can strike a deal.

On Sunday, before heading to Washington, Marcos said he intended to tell Trump and his administration “that the Philippines is ready to negotiate a bilateral trade deal that will ensure strong, mutually beneficial and future-oriented collaborations that only the United States and the Philippines will be able to take advantage of,” according to his office.

Manila is open to offering zero tariffs on some U.S. goods to strike a deal with Trump, finance chief Ralph Recto told local journalists.

The White House said ahead of the meeting that Trump would discuss with Marcos the shared commitment to upholding a free, open, prosperous and secure Indo-Pacific.

Before a meeting with Marcos at the Pentagon, Hegseth reiterated America’s commitment to “achieving peace through strength” in the region.

Marcos, whose country is one of the oldest U.S. treaty allies in the Pacific region, told Hegseth that the assurance to come to each other’s mutual defense “continues to be the cornerstone of that relationship, especially when it comes to defense and security cooperation.”

He said the cooperation has deepened since Hegseth’s March visit to Manila, including joint exercises and U.S. support in modernizing the Philippines’ armed forces. Marcos thanked the U.S. for support “that we need in the face of the threats that we, our country, is facing.”

China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have been involved in long-unresolved territorial conflicts in the South China Sea, a busy shipping passage for global trade.

The Chinese coast guard has repeatedly used water cannons to hit Filipino boats in the South China Sea. China accused those vessels of entering the waters illegally or encroaching on its territory.

Hegseth told a security forum in Singapore in May that China poses a threat and the U.S. is “reorienting toward deterring aggression by Communist China.”

During Marcos’ meeting Monday with Rubio, the two reaffirmed the alliance “to maintain peace and stability” in the region and discussed closer economic ties, including boosting supply chains, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.

The U.S. has endeavored to keep communication open with Beijing. Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met this month on the sidelines of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations regional forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They agreed to explore “areas of potential cooperation” and stressed the importance of managing differences.

Tang and Price write for the Associated Press. AP writer Chris Megerian contributed to this report.

An estimated 650 companies from 60 countries have gathered at the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has called China’s open-source artificial intelligence a “catalyst for global progress” and says it is “revolutionising” supply chains.

In a speech during Wednesday’s opening ceremony of the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing, Huang – whose firm last week became the first to touch $4 trillion in market value – hailed China’s role in pioneering AI, describing Chinese AI startup DeepSeek as “giving every country and industry a chance to join the AI revolution”.

Huang made the comments a day after Nvidia announced it will resume sales of its H20 AI chips to China after the United States government pledged to remove licensing restrictions that had halted exports.

“AI is transforming every industry from scientific research and healthcare to energy, transportation and logistics,” said Huang, who also praised China’s “super-fast” innovation, powered by its “researchers, developers and entrepreneurs”.

The California-based company produces some of the world’s most advanced semiconductors but cannot ship its most cutting-edge chips to China due to Washington’s concerns that Beijing could use them to enhance its military capabilities.

Nvidia developed the H20 – a less powerful version of its AI processing units – specifically for export to China. However, that plan stalled when US President Donald Trump’s administration tightened export licensing requirements in April.

“Huang says he’s now free to sell to the Chinese market thanks to negotiations with China on trade,” Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu said, reporting from Beijing. “The Trump administration has confirmed that in exchange for rare earths, it will allow the chip to now be sold into China.”

“The US government has assured Nvidia that licenses will be granted, and Nvidia hopes to start deliveries soon,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that it was “filing applications to sell the Nvidia H20 GPU again”.

Nvidia has also announced it is developing a new chip for Chinese clients called the RTX Pro GPU, which would also be compliant with US export restrictions.

The announcement from Nvidia boosted tech firm stocks around the world with Wall Street’s Nasdaq Composite index rising to another record high and stocks in Hong Kong also rallying.

The tightened US export curbs were imposed as China’s economy wavers. Domestic consumers are reluctant to spend, and a prolonged property sector crisis is weighing on growth.

President Xi Jinping has called for greater self-reliance in the face of increasing external uncertainty.

“China is really fashioning itself as a champion for free trade and this global supply chain expo is about positioning China as a crucial part of that global logistic infrastructure,” Yu said. “Beijing is trying to make a statement, and that statement is unlike the Trump administration would have the world believe – China is not replaceable” as evidenced by the roughly 650 companies from 60 countries represented at the expo.

July 15 (UPI) — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met with Chinese President Xi Jinping Tuesday in Beijing as part of a nearly week-long trip intended to strengthen ties between the two nations.

“Australia’s relationship with China is important,” said Albanese in an X post Tuesday. “For our economy, our security, and the stability of our region.”

In a joint press conference, President Xi said Tuesday that “with joint efforts from both sides, the China-Australia relationship has rose from the setback and turned around, bringing tangible benefits to the Chinese and Australian peoples.”

Xi was not specific about what that “setback” was, as the two nations have had strained moments over the past several years, such as issues related to the Chinese company that operates Australia’s Port of Darwin, trade sanctions levied against Canberra starting in 2020 and a live fire exercise held by the Chinese navy off Australia’s east coast earlier this year, among others.

“The Chinese side is ready to work with the Australian side to push the bilateral relationship further and make greater progress so as to bring better benefits to our two peoples,” said Xi before ceding the floor to Albanese.

“Australia values our relationship with China and will continue to approach it in a calm and consistent manner, guided by our national interest, which we regard very much as the relationship being positive, which is just that,” Albanese said. “It is in our national interest, and indeed in the interest of the region as well.”

He also took part in a CEO roundtable Tuesday, which focused on developing business relationships and growth opportunities.

“Free and open trade is good for both the Australian and Chinese economies, businesses and people,” said Albanese in another X post Tuesday.

Albanese, along with a delegation of Australian businesspeople, first arrived in Shanghai on Saturday to firm a variety of ways the two countries can economically help each other.

“One in four of Australian jobs is dependent upon our exports and overwhelmingly by far the largest destination for Australian exports is right here in China,” he said Sunday.

Albanese is next slated to visit the city of Chengdu on Wednesday to focus on ties between Australia and China in regard to sports and medical technology and will also pay a visit to the Great Wall.

The warning from China’s embassy in the Philippines follows criticism from a top EU official about Beijing’s conduct.

China has told the European Union to stop “provoking trouble” in the South China Sea after EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas expressed concerns about Beijing’s coercive activities in the strategically important waterway.

“We urge the EU to genuinely respect China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea and to stop provoking trouble,” a spokesperson for China’s embassy in Manila said in a statement on Thursday.

China said the EU had no right to interfere in regional issues, and advised the Philippines that it should stop “fantasising about relying on external forces” to resolve disputes regarding the sovereignty of the South China Sea.

The warning from China’s embassy follows a meeting between Kallas and the Philippines’ foreign minister, Enrique Manalo, in Manila earlier this week, where they announced a new security and defence dialogue between the EU and the Philippines to counter threats like foreign interference, cyberattacks and misinformation campaigns.

The two sides also expressed concerns about China’s “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive measures” against Philippine vessels and aircraft carrying out lawful maritime operations in the South China Sea.

When asked by reporters about the EU’s red lines towards China in the South China Sea, Kallas said that the EU is committed to upholding peace and a rules-based order.

“We reject any unilateral changes to the status quo, including use of coercion,” Kallas said.

Half a dozen countries, including the Philippines, lay claim to different parts of the South China Sea, but Beijing claims sovereignty over almost all of it.

The conflicting claims extend into the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, leading to frequent altercations between China and its neighbours.