China

BEIJING, June 15 (Xinhua) -- "Today's attack on China is the wrong war," chief economics commentator at the Financial Times (FT) Martin Wolf has said, warning against framing relations with China as a zero-sum conflict.

Many are framing or suggesting an "insoluble conflict" or a "perpetual conflict" between the United States and China, he said, citing as an example U.S. State Department Director of Policy Planning Kiron Skinner's analogy of the unfolding China-U.S. competition to "a fight with a really different civilisation."

BEIJING (AP) — The U.S. government expressed deep concerns to the U.N. about a reported trip by the U.N. counterterrorism chief to the restive Xinjiang region in China’s far west.

Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, in a phone call Friday with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, called the visit “highly inappropriate in view of the unprecedented repression campaign underway in Xinjiang against Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Muslims.”

HONG KONG (AP) — Pressure on Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam was mounting Saturday, with signs emerging that she may delay an unpopular extradition bill that has drawn hundreds of thousands of people into the streets in protest.

Reports said Lam was expected to make an announcement later Saturday. Government officials said they had not yet released plans for a news conference but indicated they might have news soon.

HONG KONG (AP) — Young Hong Kong residents protesting a proposed extradition law that would allow suspects to be sent to China for trial are seeking to safeguard their identities from potential retaliation by authorities employing mass data collection and sophisticated facial recognition technology.

Agnes, a second-year college student who declined to give her surname, said she donned a face mask as soon as she left a subway train in the downtown Admiralty district to join Wednesday’s overnight protest by pro-democracy demonstrators.

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong authorities were bracing Friday for more protests by demonstrators trying to prevent Beijing-appointed Chief Executive Carrie Lam from pushing through a bill that would allow suspects from the territory to be tried in mainland Chinese courts.

As of Friday afternoon, more than 30,000 people had signed a petition protesting the use of force by police during violent clashes with protesters earlier in the week.

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese media say the country’s top trade negotiator has told a forum in Shanghai that “external pressures” can help the economy.

Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post and mainland Chinese media outlets reported Thursday that Vice Premier Liu He described the pressures that China is currently facing as an “inevitable test.”

He said the pressures “will help us improve innovation and self-development, speed up reform and opening up, and push forward with high-quality growth.”

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s legislature suspended meetings Thursday following violent clashes between police and protesters who oppose a bill allowing suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial and that is seen as tightening Beijing’s control over the territory.

The events in the former British colony mark possibly its biggest political crisis since being handed over to Chinese rule in 1997, and they pose a profound challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

BEIJING, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Though faced with trade barriers set up by the United States, China's foreign trade remained steady, showing its ability to handle external headwinds.

As China continues upgrading its industries, its foreign trade structure saw prominent adjustments. China's processing trade declined by 2.4 percent year on year in the first five months, with general trade registering rapid growth and expanding its proportion of the total trade volume.

HONG KONG (AP) — Latest on the protests in Hong Kong over proposed extradition legislation (all times local):

7:40 p.m.

Britain’s foreign secretary has appealed for calm in Hong Kong and urged authorities there to listen to the concerns of protesters.

Jeremy Hunt says large protests Wednesday and in recent days show “a clear sign of significant public concern” about a contentious extradition bill, which has become a lightning rod for worries about the erosion of civil liberties in the semiautonomous Chinese territory.

HONG KONG (AP) — Steps by the Chinese and Hong Kong governments in recent years have raised unease among Hong Kong residents about their future, a concern that burst out in a protest by hundreds of thousands of people last weekend.

Many in the semiautonomous Chinese territory worry the freedoms they enjoy under a “one-country, two-systems” framework are eroding, as both governments use carrots and sticks to draw Hong Kong into China’s orbit.