Lieutenant General He Lei, former vice president of the Academy of Military Sciences of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), had a casual talk with Michael Chase, US deputy assistant secretary of defense, on Friday, as the recent momentum of China-US military engagement continues.
The two sides met at a cafe in the Beijing International Convention Center that is hosting the ongoing 11th Beijing Xiangsha Forum, the annual military diplomacy conference with unprecedented participation this year from over 100 countries and organizations.
Chase, who is leading a delegation of US Department of Defense at the Beijing Xiangshan Forum, shook hands with He, while He presented souvenirs to Chase and the US delegation.
According to the reporter's observation at the scene, the conversation between the two sides was relaxed and pleasant.
He also showed a photo between himself and Cynthia Xanthi Carras, China country director in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense, and asked Chase to pass the photo to Carras. Carras attended the 10th Beijing Xiangshan Forum in 2023 and talked with He.
"[I] hope you can have some gains in this event and take them back to the US," He told Chase.
In an interview with the Global Times after meeting with Chase, He said the meeting was a chance encounter, but turned out to be a nice talk.
“During the coffee break of the conference, I happened to meet Chase in the cafe. I began by welcoming him to China,” He said.
“The visit of Chase himself and the Pentagon delegation he is leading is a positive move to help implement the consensus reached between the two heads of state in San Francisco,’’ He said. “It is beneficial to enhancing strategic communication between the senior military officials from the two sides, and to avoid miscalculation and manage risks.”
According to He, Chase has expressed his interest in China’s defense policy.
In response, He said he has shown Chase a badge of the Academy of Military Sciences of the PLA, in which there are images of the Great Wall and an olive branch.
“The Great Wall represents defense, implying that China pursues a national defense policy that is defensive in nature and will not invade any country,” He said. “The olive branch represents peace, which he knows well.”
The PLA is a heroic force of resolutely defending national interests, and also a force of justice in safeguarding regional and world peace, He said.
He expressed hopes that Chinese and US militaries could have more engagement during the forum, so that the US side could have a better understanding of China’s defense policy.
Chase said he plans to visit the Academy of Military Sciences of the PLA in the coming days, to which He replied that it was “a good thing.” He also presented souvenirs of the PLA institute to Chase and other delegation members on site.
He also mentioned that obstacles and problems between the two militaries and two countries cannot be easily solved through one or two talks. H owever, through communication, the two sides can further meet each other halfway and enhance mutual understanding.
“I expressed hope that the US delegation could make more contributions to the relationship between the two militaries and two countries,” He said. “I also hope that the US can make more contributions in terms of maintaining regional and world peace and stability.”
Starting from Friday, drones have been used to deliver food and essential supplies to visitors at the Badaling section of the Great Wall, marking Beijing's first unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) logistics delivery.
The South Ninth Tower of the Badaling section was opened to the public at the end of 2023. To preserve the original appearance of the Great Wall, no commercial facilities have been set up in this area, making it difficult for visitors to replenish supplies such as drinking water and food, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
To address this problem, the Badaling Great Wall Scenic Area partnered with a delivery platform to launch Beijing's first drone logistics delivery route in the area. Visitors can now scan a QR code with their cell phones to log in to the delivery platform, and they can receive items such as medicine, drinking water and food delivered by UAVs in as little as five minutes.
The drone takes off from the rooftop of the Badaling Hotel. When a merchant in the scenic area receives an order from a visitor, a delivery person will quickly collect the order and bring it to the drone takeoff point. The delivery is then weighed, packaged and handed over to ground personnel who secure it to the drone and execute the delivery instructions.
During the initial test flights, there were many orders for items like drinking water and emergency medicines, reports said. The drone delivery service operates from 10 am to 4 pm.
After the delivery hours, these drones switch roles to assist with waste management, a task that has traditionally been labor-intensive.
Using UAVs for delivery improves the visitors' experience by providing quick access to essential supplies like drinking water, food and emergency medicines in remote sections, where traditional commercial facilities are not available. This is particularly important in the South Ninth Tower area, where visitors would otherwise have to endure long walks before obtaining basic necessities.
In the future, UAV logistics delivery might be considered for more scenarios to address delivery challenges in hard-to-reach areas where delivery personnel struggle to arrive quickly, bringing even more convenience, experts said.
A summer camp was held at the Tianjin University in Tianjin from August 11 to August 24, with the aim to strengthen higher education cooperation and exchanges between the ASEAN and China, and improve student enthusiasm for learning marine science and technology. The Education Counsellor of the Malaysian Embassy in China Muhammad Sallehuddin delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of the Blue Ocean Summer Camp on August 11.
Sallehuddin shared with the students the benefits of participating in the student exchange programs, which are strengthening self-improvement and developing leadership skills to become future leaders.
The summer camp promotes comprehensive cooperation and exchanges between universities in ASEAN member countries and Chinese universities in the fields of talent training, scientific research, and cultural exchanges. A total of 19 ASEAN students participated in the summer camp, including five from Malaysia.
Featuring about 70 sessions, the education cooperation week has developed into a high-end platform and bridge making positive contributions to China-ASEAN relations.
Magdalena Czechonska, director of the Culture Office at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in China visited the "Instant and Eternity," a Polish Amber Culture and Art Exhibition at the Tianjin Museum on August 20.
This is the first international exhibition introduced by the Tianjin Museum in recent years. It is also an important cultural exchange project between Poland and China.
The exhibition features at least 600 artworks made of amber. Artifacts featured in the exhibition include a Fairy Tale Chess set made of silver and amber, a set of art jewelry by Iwona Tamborska, a dress decorated with amber, as well as an amber seal selected from the Han Dynasty (206BC-AD220). Many visitors may not know that three-quarters of global sales of amber come from Poland. Czechonska also met Yao Yang, director of the Tianjin Museum.
The exhibition is open until August 25.
China and Poland boast a long history and profound cultural traditions, and people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two sides have become increasingly active in recent years.
The People's Bank of China (PBC), the country's central bank, has conducted three major monetary policy adjustments to precisely support economic growth this year, and it will continue to strengthen counter-cyclical and cross-cyclical adjustments to consolidate the economic recovery, said PBC Governor Pan Gongsheng.
China's financial system is stable overall, with risks in key sectors being resolved in an orderly fashion, Pan said in an interview with state broadcaster China Central Television on Saturday.
The central bank will make significant efforts in the areas of technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance and digital finance, Pan said, and it will continue to promote financial opening-up by increasing the transparency, stability and predictability of relevant policies.
The third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China pointed to efforts to deepen reform of the financial system. It said that the country will move faster to improve the central bank system and the monetary policy transmission mechanism.
Reforms outlined in the resolution adopted by the third plenum chart the direction of monetary and fiscal policies as well as industrial development policies so as to enhance social expectations, Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin School of Administration, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Amid the trend of interest rate cuts in major economies, it is expected that the PBC may announce cuts to interest rates or the reserve requirement ratio by the end of 2024, Wen Bin, chief economist at China Minsheng Bank, told the Global Times.
Thanks to favorable factors including a low interest rate environment, stable real estate market and policies to boost consumption, consumers' willingness to spend and borrow will gradually recover, he said.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Friday concluded his visit to Belarus, during which Beijing and Minsk pledged to further promote practical cooperation in various fields ranging from trade, finance, security and agriculture to science and technology, and education, according to a joint communique released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday.
Analysts said Premier Li's visit to Belarus demonstrates a high-level political mutual trust and the momentum of close cooperation between the two countries. The expanding China-Belarus cooperation will also inject impetus into the steady development of bilateral relations and also play an exemplary role in the region.
Li arrived in Minsk on Thursday after co-chairing the 29th regular meeting between the Chinese and Russian heads of government in Moscow and a visit to Russia.
During a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday local time, Premier Li said that China stands ready to work with the Belarusian side to push for the high-level development of their all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership to better benefit the two peoples.
Li said that China-Belarus relations, regardless of how the international situation changes, have always shown vigor and vitality since the establishment of diplomatic ties 32 years ago.
Noting that China will continue to firmly support Belarus in pursuing a development path suited to its national conditions, Li said that China stands ready to further synergize development strategies with Belarus, solidly advance cooperation in various fields, steadily expand trade scale.
Lukashenko hailed that Belarus-China relations are enjoying a strong momentum of development and are at an all-time high. He said that Belarus stands ready to maintain close high-level exchanges with China, and to deepen practical cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, agriculture, science and technology.
In meeting with Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko, Li said China stands ready to work with Belarus to firmly support each other in defending core interests and remain each other's true friend and good partner.
In the joint communique, the two sides also expressed that they will firmly oppose external forces' interference in other countries' internal affairs under any pretext.
The communique said that Belarus reiterates its firm commitment to the one-China principle, firmly opposes any form of "Taiwan independence" and firmly supports the Chinese government in achieving national reunification.
On regional hotspot issues, the two sides expressed support for peaceful resolution of conflicts and constructive bilateral dialogue between countries.
Yang Jin, an associate research fellow with the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that Premier Li's visit to Minsk highlights a high-level political mutual trust and the momentum of close cooperation between China and Belarus, which will continue in the future.
Premier Li's visit is also part of frequent political interactions between the two countries in recent years. President Lukashenko visited China twice in 2023. He also met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, in July 2024.
Zhao Huirong, an Eastern European studies expert from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that exchanges at the government level will effectively implement the strategic plans of the two heads of state, consolidate political trust and provide new impetus for the steady development of bilateral relations.
"China-Belarus relations are a role model of a new type of international relations," Zhao said, "The two countries uphold mutual respect, mutual benefit, and share the same views on the international order and affairs, which is why they have achieved fruitful results in both bilateral and multilateral cooperation."
Expanding scope
In terms of practical cooperation, the China-Belarus joint communique said the two countries will enhance cooperation in industrial supply chains, and cooperation in service trade and e-commerce.
The communique said the two sides will jointly promote the high-quality development of the China-Belarus Industrial Park, and agreed to strengthen cooperation on China-Europe freight trains by promoting infrastructure connectivity, and jointly ensuring the safety of the China-Europe freight train transport corridor.
The two sides have also expressed willingness to strengthen cooperation in agriculture and welcome each other's high-quality agricultural products to enter their markets.
In addition to the traditional cooperative sectors, the communiques said the two countries will carry out mutually beneficial cooperation in the fields of information and communication technology.
The two sides said they will deepen cooperation in biomedicine, culture and tourism, sports, news and communication.
The communique said that the two sides will support practical cooperation between scientific research institutions, universities and enterprises, and encourage the establishment of joint laboratories, joint applied research centers, joint ventures, high-tech parks and other scientific research institutions.
The document said the two countries will expand interbank credit and financial cooperation and expand channels for bilateral financial cooperation. The two sides hope to increase the proportion of local currency used in bilateral trade, investment, credit and other economic transactions and establish an effective local currency settlement system.
According to Yang, the communiques demonstrate three characteristics of China-Belarus cooperation: "rich in content, pragmatic, and high in quality."
China-Belarus cooperation also reflects the concrete measures taken by China to implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which includes further expanding high-standard opening-up and expanding high-quality international cooperation.
"Belarus appreciates the development experience of Chinese modernization and hopes to learn from China's experience in governance," Zhao said, adding that cooperation with China in various fields can also help Belarus effectively maintain national stability and economic development.
On Thursday, the two countries also inked an agreement on trade in services and investments, which will further tap the potential of trade in services and investment cooperation and promote the high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Cui Hongjian, a professor from the Academy of Regional and Global Governance with Beijing Foreign Studies University said that China-Belarus cooperation will play an exemplary role in the region, as Belarus is not only an important partner but also a crucial hub for BRI and China-Europe freight trains.
Through some institutionalized, long-term frameworks, the two sides can further activate the potential for sustainable development in the areas of trade in services and also some emerging industries such as new energy and digital economy, Cui said.
According to data from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, China is the second-largest trading partner of Belarus and its largest trading partner in Asia, with bilateral trade exceeding $8.4 billion in 2023.
The Chinese swim team has faced unprecedented levels of anti-doping scrutiny, undergoing nearly 200 tests administered by the International Testing Agency (ITA) since arriving in France, according to Yu Liang, the national swim team nutritionist.
This intensive testing regime has sparked concerns about the impact on athletes' rest and preparation for the upcoming Paris Olympics. Yu highlighted the disruption caused by the frequent tests.
"We've been in France for 10 days now, and during these 10 days, our 31 athletes have not only been training and adjusting to the time difference but have also been subjected to nearly 200 doping tests by the ITA, averaging almost 20 tests per day," Yu said in a social media post on Sina Weibo.
The Chinese national swim team is now training in Deauville before moving to Paris.
"Each athlete has been tested 5-7 times on average. The tests come early in the morning before we're even awake, during midday rest periods, forcing us to rest on hotel lobby sofas, and even late at night, keeping us up past midnight."
Yu's Sina Weibo post was later deleted for unspecified reasons, but it has already been widely circulated on social media.
An unnamed official within the ITA acknowledged the high frequency of testing but insisted it was part of the mandated plan.
"The number of tests is indeed excessive, but we can't do anything about it - it's all part of the plan given to us from above," the unnamed official said as quoted by Yu.
"I can't imagine the cooperation level you and the Chinese athletes have shown. If it were another team, they would have been complaining loudly and filing complaints all over the place by now."
The increased scrutiny of Chinese swimmers is set against a backdrop of ongoing tensions between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the US.
Former senior International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound warned that the US' legal overreach, specifically through the Rodchenkov Act, could jeopardize the US' status as a future Olympic host. This Act, which extends US jurisdiction over international sporting events, is seen as non-compliant with WADA's anti-doping code.
Pound suggested that WADA might review US compliance, potentially affecting Los Angeles' hosting of the 2028 Summer Olympics and Salt Lake City's bid for the 2034 Winter Olympics.
"The Rodchenkov Act is problematic," Pound said in an interview with the Reuters news agency published on Wednesday.
"It's out of step with the international anti-doping code and could lead to the US being declared non-compliant."
Chinese swimmers have been subjected to far more tests than their US counterparts. Data from the Aquatics Integrity Unit shows that top Chinese swimmers like Zhang Yufei, Qin Haiyang, and Li Bingjie each underwent over 40 anti-doping tests in 2023. In contrast, leading US swimmers such as Lilly King, Caeleb Dressel, and Katie Ledecky were tested around 10 times.
The scrutiny intensified following positive tests for the banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ) by 23 Chinese swimmers during a 2021 domestic competition. Subsequent investigations attributed the results to contaminated food, a conclusion accepted by both WADA and World Aquatics.
Despite this, the ITA has mandated that Chinese athletes be tested at least eight times from January 1, 2024, to the start of the Paris Olympics, double the frequency of athletes from other countries.
Additionally, these tests are to be conducted by non-Chinese authorities, and samples analyzed outside of China to ensure impartiality, according to swimming's governing body World Aquatics.
The swimming events at the Paris Olympics are set to begin on July 27, a day after the opening ceremony.
The electric vehicle division of China's embattled real estate developer Evergrande Group saw its shares fall by over 7 percent on Monday morning, as the unit announced on Sunday that the creditors of its two subsidiaries had asked a court to start bankruptcy proceedings.
Evergrande New Energy Vehicle (Guangdong) Co and Evergrande Smart Automotive (Guangdong) Co have received a notice from local court on Friday saying that creditors of the two companies have applied for court-ordered bankruptcy and reorganization, China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group said in a filing with the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd.
"The notice has a material impact on the production and operating activities of the company and its relevant subsidiaries," the EV auto said in the statement.
Following the announcement, China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group saw its share drop by 7.46 percent to as low as HK$0.31 ($0.04) by noon on Monday.
The development adds growing pressure on the cash-strapped carmaker. The EV business had racked up a total loss of 110 billion yuan as of the end of last year, according to the company's financial report. And it only had 129 million yuan left in its bank accounts.
China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group said in January that its Vice Chairman Liu Yongzhuo was detained and is put under criminal investigation, adding more chaos to the troubled firm.
In May, China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group said liquidators had agreed on behalf of the key shareholders to sell a stake of 29 percent of the EV unit, and may also extend a new line of credit to support car production.
In May, the China Securities Regulatory Commission fined Evergrande 4.175 billion yuan for fraudulent bond issuance and information disclosure violations, while imposing a lifetime ban on Hui Ka Yan, also known as Xu Jiayin, the founder of the real estate developer, from the securities market. Hui Ka Yan was also fined 47 million yuan.
The penalty marked "the strictest law enforcement" since 2019, when China's financial sector regulators set up a unified law enforcement mechanism of the country's bond market.
The US is once again feeling anxious about supercomputers, a strategic emerging industry. The Wall Street Journal recently published an article stating that China is getting "secretive" about its supercomputers. According to the article, Chinese scientists have become more secretive and have stopped participating in the TOP500 forum, making it harder for the US government to know who has faster supercomputers between China and the US. In the latest TOP500 ranking released in June, the US dominated the top three spots and held half of the top 10, while China's "Sunway TaihuLight" ranked 13th and "Tianhe-2A" ranked 16th. This significant disparity in rankings has made the US suspicious, fearing that China is engaged in a supercomputing "covert war" against it, thus accusing China of hindering international supercomputing exchanges by keeping secrets.
This is not the first time the US media has stirred up this topic. Two years ago, Voice of America published an article asking, "Why is China, which leads in supercomputing, being so secretive?" The US' suspicion and anxiety are not surprising. From 2010 to 2019, China topped the TOP500 list 11 times out of 20 evaluations, and the US started to launch wave after wave of chip bans and entity list sanctions against Chinese supercomputing institutions under the pretext of "national security." As a result, China's presence in the TOP500 rankings has dimmed. Initially, US media were pleased that China had opted out and relinquished the top spot. However, in recent years, speculation about how much strength China is hiding has grown. TOP500 co-founder Jack Dongarra repeatedly stated that China has faster supercomputers, even speculating that China's supercomputer power may exceed all other countries.
Setting aside China's progress in supercomputing, the key issue is that while the TOP500 list increasingly serves as a tool for the US Department of Commerce to sanction and suppress Chinese supercomputers, they still expect Chinese institutions to willingly participate and be targeted. This is unreasonable. Supercomputing was once a field where China and the US had close technological cooperation and exchange. However, now the landscape of international supercomputing exchanges is filled with pitfalls, primarily due to the US' near-terroristic sanction measures to maintain its technological hegemony.
In April 2021, the US Department of Commerce added seven Chinese supercomputing entities to the so-called "Entity List," alleging that they were "destabilizing military modernization." In October 2023, another 13 Chinese entities were added to the "Entity List," on the grounds that their involvement in the development of advanced computing integrated circuits "can be used to provide artificial intelligence capabilities for the further development of weapons of mass destruction, advanced weapons systems, and high-tech surveillance applications that create national security concerns." China's development of supercomputing technology is often labeled as a "threat to US national security" and subjected to unreasonable unilateral sanctions. Therefore, it is quite natural for Chinese scientists to refrain from attending international supercomputing forums, as they need to guard against the possibility of the US engaging in "entrapment" under the guise of long-arm jurisdiction during international technical exchanges.
"Entrapment" is by no means an alarmist term. The global TOP500 supercomputing rankings are updated every six months, and supercomputers from China, Japan, and the US have all claimed the title of "world's fastest supercomputer." However, in recent years, China's leading supercomputing companies have refrained from participating in the TOP500 rankings because companies that perform well on this list risk being blacklisted by the US and facing even harsher sanctions. With Washington wielding a big stick of sanctions at the door, constantly watching whose supercomputing performance threatens the US position and then sanctioning them, it has severely disrupted normal academic exchanges and a healthy competitive environment.
As for The Wall Street Journal's accusation that "Chinese scientists also reduced how much data they shared in other scientific forums," this is a clear double standard. The important fact not mentioned in the article is that the US is even more "secretive" than China regarding supercomputing technology. In addition to sanctioning Chinese supercomputing companies, Washington now even sanctions Chinese supercomputing academic conferences. The US Department of Commerce sends unified emails to foreign companies, warning them not to participate in or support supercomputing conferences held by China. In fact, Chinese experts still participate in some international supercomputing conferences, while many American experts no longer dare to communicate with their Chinese counterparts for fear of being accused of "leaking secrets" or even "espionage." Currently, US administrative orders and regulations that restrict and suppress China's high-tech industry are beginning to produce a McCarthy-era-like chilling effect. This has seriously damaged the atmosphere of China-US technological exchanges and hindered the progress of science and technology for all humanity.
Supercomputing plays an important role in many fields, such as weather forecasting, gene sequencing, materials design, and pharmaceuticals. It should not become "central to the US-China technological Cold War" as described by The Wall Street Journal. Some Western scientists have expressed concern about the potential division, believing it will slow down the development of AI and other technologies. It is important to emphasize that the key to preventing this division is to jointly resist the technological unilateralism and technological terrorism of the US, creating a good atmosphere for global scientific exchange and cooperation. China's supercomputing is not an untouchable "secret," but the key is for the US to abandon its well-known habit of technological intimidation.
