China

(Reuters) --- The Philippines and China held "friendly and candid" talks on the South China Sea, the Philippines' foreign ministry said on Saturday, days after the minister ordered Chinese vessels out of the disputed waterway in an expletive-laced tweet.

The presence of hundreds Chinese vessels inside the Philippines 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) has been the latest source of tensions between the two countries in the South China Sea, through which $3 trillion worth of goods pass every year.

(Reuters) --- China will uphold the leadership of the Communist Party in Tibet to further its economic development, and guide Tibetan society in accordance to socialism, the region's top official said on Saturday.

Chinese troops entered Tibet in 1950, and a year later, the Chinese government formally gained control over the region and its devoutly Buddhist Tibetans. The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 following a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

BEIJING (AP) — A strong, shallow quake shook southwestern China near the border with Myanmar, killing at least three people and injuring more than two dozen, while a separate 7.3-magnitute quake early Saturday collapsed a bridge and caused other damage in central China.

The second quake hit the southern part of Qinghai province, about 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) north of the first quake in Yunnan province.

U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Jonathan Tytell said the two quakes were not related.

BEIJING (AP) — China’s first Mars rover has driven down from its landing platform and is now roaming the surface of the red planet, China’s space administration said Saturday.

The solar-powered rover touched Martian soil at 10:40 a.m. Saturday Beijing time (0240 GMT), the China National Space Administration said.

China landed the spacecraft carrying the rover on Mars last Saturday, a technically challenging feat more difficult than a moon landing, in a first for the country. It is the second country to do so, after the United States.

BEIJING, May 21 (APP): China on Friday said it attached great importance to its relations with Pakistan and was willing to take the opportunity of the 70th anniversary of diplomatic ties to strengthen strategic communication, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, expand people-to-people and cultural exchanges and build a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era.

(Reuters) --- The top political leader of Tibet's government in exile said on Friday that there is an urgent threat of "cultural genocide" in Tibet, and the international community must stand up to China ahead of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Penpa Tsering, who was this month elected president of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), told Reuters that they are committed to a peaceful resolution with China, but Beijing's current policies threaten the future of Tibetan culture.

BEIJING, May 21 (Xinhua) -- China will provide emergency humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian government at the earliest possible date, a spokesperson with the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) said on Friday.

CIDCA spokesperson Tian Lin said that in order to help the Palestinian government and people cope with the emergency humanitarian crisis and demonstrate the international humanitarian spirit, the Chinese government had launched a humanitarian assistance response mechanism.

(Reuters) --- PetroChina International Singapore Pte Ltd sold a cargo of jet fuel into Myanmar in April, according to government import data reviewed by Reuters, the first such shipment since before the military seized power in a coup in February.

Industry sources say suppliers have been particularly wary of selling jet fuel because it could be used in planes to bomb ethnic armed groups that have been supporting anti-junta protesters, as well as in civilian airliners.

URUMQI, China (AP) — China has highlighted an unlikely series of videos this year in which Uyghur men and women deny U.S. charges that Beijing is committing human rights violations against their ethnic group. In fact, a text obtained by the AP shows that the videos are part of a government campaign that raises questions about the willingness of those filmed.

(Reuters) --- China accused the United States on Wednesday of threatening the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait after a U.S. warship again sailed through the sensitive waterway that separates Taiwan from its giant neighbour.

The U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet said the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur conducted a "routine Taiwan Strait transit" on Tuesday in accordance with international law.