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China handed over to Cambodia a $150 million stadium in Phnom Penh, with officials saying Sunday it is the result of Beijing’s biggest ever infrastructure grant to the country. The 60,000-capacity venue is the latest project under China’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road initiative, a plan to fund infrastructure projects and increase its sway overseas. The presentation of the arena, intended as the main venue when Cambodia hosts the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in 2023, was […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping told his American counterpart that US policies towards Beijing have caused “serious difficulties” and that putting ties back on track was critical “to the destiny of the world”, state media reported Friday. Ties between Beijing and Washington have been strained in recent years by a bruising trade war and America’s tough stand on China’s human rights track record — while competition over tech dominance and disputes over […]
by Sebastian Smith WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) –US President Joe Biden talked with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for the first time in seven months Thursday, urging they ensure that “competition” between the two powers does not become “conflict,” the White House said. During the call, Biden’s message was that the United States wants to ensure “the dynamic remains competitive and that we don’t have any situation in the future where we veer into unintended […]
by Michel COMTE OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Hundreds of supporters of two Canadian men being held in China on what Ottawa says are specious charges marched 7,000 steps through the Canadian capital on Sunday to mark the pair’s 1,000th day of “unjust” detention. Similar events in support of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were held elsewhere in Canada and across the world in cities including Brussels, New York, Washington, Seoul and Singapore. “These are unjust […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — China’s embassy in Washington Friday accused the US intelligence community of “political manipulation” after a report in which Beijing was accused of withholding key information about the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. “The report by the US intelligence community shows that the US is bent on going down the wrong path of political manipulation,” the embassy said in a statement. “The report by the intelligence community is based on the […]
by Issam AHMED WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Joe Biden said Friday that China was withholding “critical information” on the origins of Covid-19 after the US intelligence community said it did not believe the virus was a bioweapon — but remained split on whether it escaped from a lab. The United States, however, does not believe Chinese officials had foreknowledge of the virus before the initial outbreak of the pandemic that has now claimed […]
by Natalie HANDEL PARIS, France (AFP) — The search for the origins of the Covid pandemic that has killed millions and crippled economies is at a standstill even as time is running out, scientists charged with the task by the UN warned Wednesday. An initial report by the team of independent, international experts sent to China by the World Health Organization in January concluded that it was most likely that the SARS-CoV-2 virus jumped from […]
US Vice President Kamala Harris accused Beijing on Tuesday of coercion and intimidation in the hotly disputed South China Sea, as she sought to rally allies against an increasingly assertive China. “Beijing continues to coerce, to intimidate and to make claims to the vast majority of the South China Sea,” she said in a speech in Singapore, laying out her administration’s foreign policy goals for Asia. “Beijing’s actions continue to undermine the rules-based order and […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China reported no new domestic coronavirus cases Monday, and Beijing appears poised to bring to heel the pandemic’s most serious resurgence in months — driven by the highly contagious Delta variant — with mass testing and targeted lockdowns. The latest outbreak, which began in mid-July when cleaners at a Nanjing airport tested positive, is the most severe since Covid-19 first surfaced in the central city of Wuhan. Over a thousand people […]
The Taliban now hold the keys to an untouched trillion-dollar trove of minerals including some that could power the world’s transition to renewable energies, but Afghanistan has long struggled to tap its vast deposits. The Taliban are already in a financial bind since they returned to power 20 years after their ouster, as major aid donors halted their support for Afghanistan. Endless wars and poor infrastructure have prevented the country from getting its hands on […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Chinese astronauts edged into space on Friday to add the finishing touches to a robotic arm on the Tiangong space station. The foray, the second spacewalk in two months and relayed on state television, is part of China’s heavily promoted space programme which has already seen the nation land a rover on Mars and send probes to the moon. In June, three crew arrived at the station, where they are set […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — At least 21 people died as heavy downpours struck central China’s Hubei province, authorities said Friday, weeks after record floods wreaked havoc and killed hundreds in a neighbouring province. China has been battered by unprecedented rains in recent months, extreme weather that experts say is increasingly common due to global warming. In Hubei, torrential rains caused power cuts and landslides, destroying hundreds of homes and forcing the evacuation of nearly 6,000 […]
