China

29 July 2022; MEMO: China's President Xi Jinping, on Friday, said Beijing will strengthen cooperation with Iran, Anadolu News Agency reports.

"China is willing to strengthen cooperation with Iran within Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and other frameworks," Xi told his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, in a phone call, the Chinese daily, Global Times, reported.

BEIJING, July 29 (APP): Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for efforts to deepen cooperation along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

Wang made the remarks during a meeting with Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent on the sidelines of the foreign ministers’ meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), CGTN reported on Friday.

BEIJING/NEW DELHI, July 29 (Reuters) - China said on Friday it hoped "relevant parties" would refrain from interfering with its legitimate maritime activities, after New Delhi voiced concern over a Chinese military ship's planned visit to a port in India's southern neighbour Sri Lanka.

India worries that the Chinese-built and leased port of Hambantota will be used by China as a military base in India's backyard. The $1.5 billion port is near the main shipping route from Asia to Europe.

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong officials said Friday they would open an investigation into a concert accident in which a giant video screen fell down onto the stage and injured two dancers.

Video clips from the Cantopop group Mirror concert Thursday night show a massive LED screen suspended above the stage crashing down, directly landing on one dancer before toppling over onto another as audience members scream in horror.

The injured performers were both sent to the hospital, with one of the dancers reported to be in “serious condition.”

BEIJING (AP) — President Xi Jinping warned against meddling in China’s dealings with Taiwan during a phone call with his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden, that gave no indication of progress on trade, technology or other irritants, including Beijing’s opposition to a top American lawmaker’s possible visit to the island that the mainland claims as its own territory.

BEIJING, Jul 28 (APP): In a major development, China Machinery Engineering Corp. (CMEC) started assembling heavy mining equipment for the first time in Pakistan to expand coal excavation operations at its Thar Coal Block-II project, an official said on Thursday.

CMEC is the operator and the second largest shareholder in Pakistan’s first open-pit lignite mine and 660MWs integrated mine-mouth power plant in Thar Block-II under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

BEIJING, July 27 (Reuters) - Remnants of a large, newly launched Chinese rocket are expected to streak back through the atmosphere this coming weekend in an uncontrolled re-entry the Beijing government said on Wednesday would be closely tracked but poses little risk to anyone on the ground.

The Long March 5B rocket blasted off Sunday to deliver a laboratory module to the new Chinese space station under construction in orbit, marking the third flight of China's most powerful rocket since its maiden launch in 2020.

HONG KONG, July 28 (Reuters) - A U.S. aircraft carrier and its strike group have returned to the South China Sea after a port call in Singapore, deploying in the disputed region as tensions with China rise over a possible visit to Taiwan by congressional leader Nancy Pelosi.

Officials with the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet confirmed the deployment of the USS Ronald Reagan to the vital trade route but did not comment on questions about tensions over the trip by Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

BEIJING, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The rapidly spreading monkeypox outbreak can be stopped if countries, communities and individuals take the risks seriously and take needed steps to stop transmission and protect vulnerable groups, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.

BEIJING (AP) — Beijing grumbled but swallowed its irritation in 1997 when then-Speaker Newt Gingrich of the U.S. House of Representatives visited Taiwan, the island democracy claimed by the mainland’s ruling Communist Party as its own territory.