China

HONG KONG, Oct 9 (Reuters) - A submarine arms race is intensifying as China embarks on production of a new generation of nuclear-armed submarines that for the first time are expected to pose a challenge to growing U.S. and allied efforts to track them.

Analysts and regional defence attaches say evidence is mounting that China is on track to have its Type 096 ballistic missile submarine operational before the end of the decade, with breakthroughs in its quietness aided in part by Russian technology.

BEIJING (AP) — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Schumer said Monday he was grateful for a strengthened statement from China condemning the killing and kidnapping of Israeli and foreign civilians by Hamas, issued during a bipartisan Congressional visit to Beijing that included a lengthy meeting with President Xi Jinping.

Schumer had said earlier in the day that he was very disappointed by China’s failure to strongly condemn the attack on Israel and show sympathy for the country and its people.

BEIJING, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Israel expected to see a "stronger condemnation" of Hamas from China, a country it views as its friend, Yuval Waks, a senior official at the Israeli embassy in Beijing, said on Sunday.

"When people are being murdered, slaughtered in the streets, this is not the time to call for a two-state solution," Waks told reporters.

BEIJING (AP) — American mountaineer Anna Gutu and a Nepalese guide Mingmar Sherpa were confirmed Sunday dead after avalanches struck the slopes of a Tibetan mountain, while two others remained missing, according to Chinese media reports.

The avalanches struck Tibet’s Mount Shishapangma on Saturday afternoon at 7,600 (about 25,000 ft) and 8,000 meters (about 26,000 ft) in altitude, according to state-owned Xinhua News Agency.

SHANGHAI (AP) — A senior American lawmaker, leading the first congressional trip to China in four years, said Saturday that the U.S. does not want to cut economic ties with the world’s second-largest economy but seeks a level playing field so that American companies can compete freely.

BEIJING, Oct 6 (APP): China and Pakistan are all-weather strategic cooperative partners and ironclad brothers, senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi said on Thursday, adding that bilateral relations have withstood the test of time and continued to maintain a sound momentum of development.

BEIJING/MANILA, Oct 5 (Reuters) - China has condemned a mission by four Philippine ships to re-supply Philippine troops on a disputed South China Sea atoll, saying the vessels had entered its waters in the Spratly Islands without its permission.

The Philippines said on Wednesday it had successfully sent supplies to its troops stationed on a World War Two-era transport ship-turned-military outpost on the atoll despite attempts by China's coast guard to block it.

Sept 28 (Reuters) - Beijing and Washington are paving the way for Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Both sides are discussing a trip to Washington by Xi’s top economic-policy aide, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, the report said citing people briefed on the matter.

BEIJING, Sept 28 (Reuters) - China launched its first high-speed rail line that will travel across several bays and skim along the coast of the southeastern province of Fujian near the Taiwan Strait, state media reported on Thursday.

A bullet train departed from Fuzhou, the capital of east China's Fujian province Thursday morning, setting up the opening of the 277-km (172-mile) Fuzhou-Xiamen-Zhangzhou railway, Xinhua reported.

HOHHOT, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Erenhot, the largest land port on the China-Mongolia border, has handled more than 1 million inbound and outbound travelers so far this year, with a single-day high of over 8,800 people, local authorities said on Thursday.

Customs clearance services for passenger traffic at the Erenhot highway port, located on the border of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, resumed on Jan. 8, and China-Mongolia international passenger train services resumed on Aug. 30.