Washington — Beijing has adopted a conciliatory tone in its reporting on this week’s visit by White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, emphasizing cooperation and open communication channels while claiming that Washington remains “incorrect” on its China policies.

Sullivan’s tightly scheduled three-day trip to Beijing ended Thursday after he met with Chinese officials, including the country’s top leader, Xi Jinping.

In a readout of Sullivan’s meeting with Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, the Foreign Ministry of China on Wednesday called the conversation “candid, substantive and constructive,” a phrase that was echoed by a White House statement regarding the meeting.

Sullivan was the first White House national security adviser to visit China in eight years, a period that saw contacts between the countries grow increasingly contentious over issues that included military-to-military relations, cybersecurity, espionage and the war in Ukraine.

It was Sullivan’s fifth in-person meeting with Wang since May 2023. The two had previously held talks in Bangkok, Vienna, Washington and Malta. But Wednesday’s meeting marks the first time in this series of talks that Beijing included some of the U.S. side’s views in its readout.

“The U.S. and China will coexist peacefully on this planet for a long time,” Sullivan was quoted as saying in the Chinese readout. “The goal of U.S. policies is to find a way that allows for a sustainable development of the U.S.-China relations.”

According to Beijing’s readout, Sullivan defined the two countries’ ties as a mixture of cooperation and competition, a characterization that’s been the core principle of the Biden administration’s China strategy.

Some experts say the fact that China allowed space in its readout for U.S. talking points signals Beijing’s increased openness to working with Washington.

Dali Yang, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, told VOA Mandarin Service that China used to reject the Biden administration’s characterization of the U.S.-China relationship.

“But it looks like the China side is now relatively more accepting of the U.S. side’s view,” Yang said. “Or at least Beijing has accepted that this is the kind of U.S. position that China must deal with.”

After Wang, Sullivan met separately with Xi and senior military official Zhang Youxia. These meetings focused on topics that included Taiwan, the South China Sea, trade policies, U.S. sanctions on Chinese businesses and entities, conflicts in Gaza and the war in Ukraine.

The meetings appeared to be cordial. Photos and footage released by Chinese state media show Sullivan shaking hands with a smiling Xi and a smiling Zhang.

US ‘incorrect’ in Beijing’s narrative

Smiling faces and words of cooperation aside, however, Beijing continues to paint the U.S. as the one that needs to adjust its policies and move closer to Beijing’s positions on issues.

Xi told Sullivan the U.S. should “work with China in the same direction, view China and its development in a positive and rational light, see each other’s development as an opportunity rather than a challenge, and work with China to find a right way for two major countries to get along.”

Zhang urged the U.S. to “correct its strategic perceptions of China” and respect China’s “core interests” by halting arms sales to Taiwan and to “stop spreading false narratives on Taiwan.”

Prior to Sullivan’s arrival in Beijing, the Global Times, China’s state media outlet, published a commentary criticizing Washington’s “incorrect” understanding of China.

“The U.S. needs to fundamentally change its perception of China and its strategic positioning toward China,” according to the article.

The Global Times told Sullivan that “truly listening to and understanding Beijing’s words and making a proper contribution to establishing the correct understanding between China and the U.S. should be one of the standards to evaluate the success of his visit to China.”

China’s political commentators have gone even further, calling on Beijing to remain tough.

In a commentary, Shen Yi, an international relations professor at Fudan University in Shanghai who has a huge following on social media, wrote that the U.S. is in no position to make any demands toward China because of the domestic economic difficulties in which he contends Washington is trapped.

“China should be sufficiently confident that it’s the U.S. who needs help from China,” he wrote. “Under this new frame of understanding, we have reasons to believe that China does not need to compromise with the U.S.”

This kind of tough narrative, often pushed by Beijing and adopted by online commentators during the past decade, remains popular on social media. But Yang of the University of Chicago told VOA Mandarin Service that Beijing seems to be moving away from this kind of rhetoric.

“When China is facing a variety of challenges, and when the leaders of China have to maintain and manage China-U.S. relations, they have to think beyond just making tougher and tougher talks” and relying on this type of approach to be effective.

“The two sides actually have a lot of common interests,” he said.
…

Bangkok — In the shadow of Myanmar’s brutal and bloody civil war, a rebel army with close ties to China and the illicit drug trade is spreading out and bulking up without a fight.

Since the start of the year, the United Wa State Army, the largest and most powerful of Myanmar’s many ethnic armed groups, has been moving hundreds of its soldiers into new positions across the central part of Shan State, in the country’s east next to China, Laos and Thailand.

Officially, the UWSA says it is only trying to contain the fighting that has been spreading across Shan between the Myanmar military and other rebel groups since last year, and to shield its own properties and satellite offices. A spokesman for the group did not reply to VOA’s request for an interview.

With the junta’s control waning, analysts tell VOA the group sees a golden opportunity to build on its already formidable might, and that its growing footprint is likely both to advance China’s interests in Myanmar and give an already booming drug trade a boost.

“Part of what the UWSA strategy is here is to basically expand its power, influence and territorial control at very low cost,” said Jason Tower, Myanmar program director for the United States Institute of Peace, a U.S.-government funded think tank.

The UWSA is by far Myanmar’s biggest and best-equipped rebel army with some 30,000 soldiers. Tucked away in the rugged hills of the eastern part of Shan State, it controls two enclaves on the Chinese and Thai borders over an area greater than that of Belgium, running them much like an independent state for the ethnic minority Wa.

Secure in its remote strongholds, the UWSA has largely stayed out of the civil war that has followed the military’s 2021 coup, even after a trio of ethnic armed groups it allies with joined the fight on the side of those across Myanmar vying to oust the junta.

In January, though, the UWSA quietly took control of two towns recently seized from the junta by its rebel allies north of the Wa’s enclaves. In the last two months, it has moved hundreds more soldiers into other towns to the west, some recently seized by allied rebel groups, others still held by the junta.

The moves give the UWSA valuable new footholds west of the Salween River, which splits Shan in two from north to south.

Having built and nurtured relationships with all sides in the conflict, from business deals with the military to arms trades with other rebels, the UWSA has pulled it all off without having to do any of its own fighting.

“They do not have [to fire] a single shot … and they already occupy two [new] townships at least, and they have more influence in at least three to four,” said Amara Thiha, a Myanmar analyst at the Peace Research Institute Oslo in Norway.

Now, he added, “they can try to use this leverage to extend their influence. And they are playing a role in providing logistics, in providing all these armaments, and they can gain all the economic benefit out of it, so they are probably the biggest winner, without losing anything yet.”

Anthony Davis, a security analyst with the Jane’s intelligence company, says the UWSA has been creeping into south and central Shan since the coup, but in the guise and support of another allied rebel group, the Shan State Progress Party. What is new, he adds, is how big and bold its moves have become.

“The scale of Wa military movement west of the Salween is certainly something new, but perhaps as important is the fact that it’s public, in the open, in their own uniforms,” Davis told VOA.

“They see the [Myanmar military] as in a historically weak position, so I don’t think this is necessarily aimed at putting their finger on the scales, if you like, one way or the other. They’re basically taking advantage of a situation which is to their own benefit while remaining ostensibly neutral,” he said.

The analysts say the UWSA’s growing reach may also end up working to the advantage of China, which has billions of dollars invested in energy and mining projects across the country.

While Beijing has publicly stood by the junta, it is widely believed to be frustrated with its abject failure to end the fighting. It is also known to have long-running political and military ties with some of the armed groups on its border, none closer than with the UWSA.

Given the close ties, Tower said, the UWSA’s recent expansion could help give China more influence over eastern Myanmar, the overlapping Mekong River system, and the notorious Golden Triangle, where the crime-riddled borders of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand meet. He said China could gain especially if the UWSA can realize its longtime goal of linking its two enclaves on the Thai and Chinese borders.

Davis says the growing reach of the UWSA could, for one, help China move forward on planned hydropower dam projects if and when Myanmar is stable enough, a prospect, he adds, is probably some years away.

If a long-stalled Chinese dam project in the far north, the Myitsone, continues to flounder, for example, he said damming the Salween would look that much more attractive, and feasible, with the Wa in a position to help.

“If the UWSA is dominant along both banks of the Salween through much of Shan state, that can hardly be bad for China’s infrastructure objectives in the long term,” said Davis.

The UWSA is also known for playing a major role in the multibillion-dollar illegal drug trade radiating out of the Golden Triangle, which has only grown since the coup, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The UWSA has repeatedly said it abandoned the drug trade long ago.

But in 2008 the U.S. Treasury Department called the group “the largest and most powerful drug trafficking organization in Southeast Asia.”

Davis too says the UWSA has remained deeply involved, with most of its methamphetamine business set up east of the Salween.

“But there are indications that the expansion of Wa influence west of the river via the close relationship with the SSPP [Shan State Progress Party] may already have seen some production outsourced to the west, and in future this is only likely to grow,” he said.

Tower too said the UWSA’s growing reach could serve the crime syndicates it protects.

“The Wa are one of the main players in terms of providing an umbrella and protection to that trade, and so the expansion of Wa power, the expansion of Wa territory would give … individuals involved in that trade new spaces to exploit,” he said.
…

WASHINGTON — Movie ticket sales in China have generated more than $1.5 billion so far this summer, a little more than half of last year’s record total of $2.89 billion, according to China’s Film Data Information Network, an institution directly under the Central Propaganda Department. 

Summer is usually one of three lucrative periods for China’s movie industry, but industry analysts, observers and customers say a slower economy and a lack of creative domestic films are to blame for the decline.

Some would-be moviegoers explained why they are staying home this summer.

One posted on social media: “The impact from last year’s economic downturn officially appeared this year. Everyone thinks 40-80 yuan ($5-$11) per ticket is expensive.” 

“Many movies in theaters in July are on streaming services in August,” another posted. “We’d rather watch them at home than go to the theater.”

A moviegoer in Beijing who identified herself as Ms. Yu, told VOA that this year’s film market is sluggish because the themes are plain, and streaming services allow everyone to watch movies at home without spending money.

“Everyone’s life is already miserable,” she said, “so we don’t want to watch sad movies.”

Although the streaming services have become theaters’ biggest competitors, the economic downturn may be the main reason for the ticket sales plunge, said Shenzhen-based film director Zhang, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

“The spending power of young people and parents has decreased,” Zhang told VOA. “One [reason] is that young people don’t date, and parents whose income has been reduced are under great pressure to raise children, so they naturally cut the consumption activities except eating and drinking, not just movies.”

China’s economy has been struggling to stabilize since the pandemic, according to the World Bank, with growth falling to 3% in 2022 before a moderate recovery to 5.2% in 2023. The global lender expects China’s growth rate to drop back below 5% this year, while youth unemployment has surged.

China’s National Bureau of Statistics removed students from its unemployment calculation after China hit a record high 21.3% youth unemployment rate in June 2023, prompting authorities to temporarily suspend publication of the statistic. 

Darson Chiu, director-general of the Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Taiwan, told VOA that China’s controls on film and creativity have also contributed to the lackluster box office figures.

“China has a very strict censorship system,” Chiu said. “Cultural activities need creativity, and it must be bottom-up. But it is obviously a top-down [censorship] mechanism, so it [the Chinese film industry] is not as creative as it is in other more open and free economies.”

Lee Cheng-liang, an assistant professor of communications at National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan, said Chinese cinemas in the summer mainly show domestic movies, which are struggling to find investors.

“The economy is declining; investors are more cautious to minimize risks. So they diversify the movie themes they invest in,” Lee told VOA. “If you focus on the Chinese market, you will not necessarily make money unless you are at the top of the pyramid.”

Director Zhang said the Chinese summer comedies “Successor,” which critiques the Chinese social education system, and “Upstream,” which portrays package deliverers, are movies that do not “empathize with the general public.” 

Commercial movies are often condescending, he said, with hypocritically fabricated plots to show the suffering of people at the bottom. “It is actually a very deformed route,” Zhang added.

Other film critics, however, find “Upstream” a great work with increasing favorable audience feedback, which uncovers China’s immense economic problems and the struggle of its army of gig workers.

China’s state Xinhua News agency said “Successor,” grossing nearly 3.2 billion yuan as of Aug 20, accounted for almost 30% of China’s summer box office sales.

Zhang said the more depressed the social and historical period is, the more popular comedy is because the audience wants to feel “dreamy and painless.”

Despite the poor summer box office showing, not all critics are negative about China’s film industry.  

“The ticket sales are not good this summer, but it does not mean that their [China’s] movies are bad,” Michael Mai, a film critic based in Taipei, told VOA. “Their audience is hard to please. Why? Because their appetite is too big. They have all kinds of movies.”

Mai noted that there are three major periods in the Chinese movie market: the Lunar New Year, in January and February; the summer season, from June to August; and the weeklong National Day season from Oct. 1.  

Movie ticket sales always have seasonal ups and downs, Mai said, so people should be focusing more on long-term trends.      

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
…

STATE DEPARTMENT — The White House says U.S. officials continue to raise concerns about what they describe as unfair trade policies and non-market economic practices by the People’s Republic of China.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is expected to unveil its final implementation plans for substantial tariff increases on selected Chinese imports in the coming days.

Some U.S. manufacturers, however, including those in the electric vehicle and utility equipment sectors, have requested that the higher tariff rates be reduced or delayed, citing concerns about rising cost.

On May 14, the White House announced a significant increase in tariffs on Chinese imports, raising duties on electric vehicles to 100%, doubling tariffs on semiconductors and solar cells to 50%, and introducing new 25% tariffs on lithium-ion batteries and other strategic products such as steel.

The move is seen as an effort to reshore U.S. manufacturing, enhance supply chain resilience, and protect domestic U.S. industries from what officials described as China’s overproduction.

This week, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during their talks near Beijing that Washington will continue to take necessary actions to prevent advanced U.S. technologies from being used to undermine national security, while avoiding undue limitations on trade or investment.

In Beijing, China has vowed to take countermeasures.

Wang this week accused the U.S. of using overcapacity as an excuse for “protectionism.” He urged the U.S. to “stop suppressing China in the economic, trade, and technological fields and to stop undermining China’s legitimate interests.”

Sullivan and Wang have discussed arranging a call between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in the coming weeks. Disputes over trade and tariffs are expected to be among the issues on the agenda.

Former U.S. officials told VOA that the leaders also are likely to have face-to-face talks before Biden leaves office next January.

“The first opportunity is the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) leaders’ summit in November, and the second is the G20 summit in November,” Ryan Haas, a former NSC senior official from 2013 to 2017 and currently a senior fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, told VOA on Wednesday.

Some analysts have downplayed the likelihood of immediate inflation, noting that the tariff increases announced in May target a relatively small portion of products — $18 billion in imports from China, which accounts for only 4.2% of all U.S. imports from China in 2023.

“Because many of the tariffs affect products that are not currently being imported in large quantities, and because they are phased in over two years, the immediate inflationary effect is likely to be small,” wrote William Reinsch, the Scholl Chair in International Business at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in a CSIS analysis earlier this year.

This week, following the Biden administration’s May announcement, Canada said that it will impose a 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicle imports and a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports from China, effective Oct. 1.

In Beijing, China’s Commerce Ministry issued a statement expressing strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to Canada’s planned tariff increases, stating that they would disrupt the stability of global industrial and supply chains, severely impact trade relations, and harm the interests of businesses in both countries.

Some material in this report came from Reuters.
…

Tokyo — Southwestern Japan braced on Wednesday for what officials say could be one of the strongest storms to ever hit the region, as some residents in the path of Typhoon Shanshan were ordered to evacuate and major firms like Toyota closed factories.

Airlines and rail operators canceled some services for the coming days as the typhoon, categorized as “very strong,” barreled towards the main southwestern island of Kyushu with gusts of up 252 km per hour (157 mph). 

The meteorological agency issued an emergency warning saying the typhoon could bring flooding, landslides and wind strong enough to knock down some houses.

“Maximum caution is required given that forecasts are for strong winds, high waves and high tides that have not been seen thus far,” Satoshi Sugimoto, the agency’s chief forecaster, told a news conference.

After striking Kyushu over the next few days the storm is expected to approach central and eastern regions, including the capital Tokyo, around the weekend, the agency said.

Authorities issued evacuation orders for more than 800,000 residents in Kagoshima prefecture in southern Kyushu and central Japan’s Aichi and Shizuoka prefectures.

In Aichi, home to Toyota’s headquarters, two people believed to be residents of a house that collapsed in a landslide during heavy rains were unaccounted for. Three residents of the house had been pulled out, according to public broadcaster NHK.

Toyota will suspend operations at all 14 of its plants in Japan from Wednesday evening through Thursday morning, it said. Nissan  said it would suspend operations at its Kyushu plant on Thursday and Friday morning, while Honda  will also temporarily close its factory in Kumamoto in southwestern Kyushu.

Also, Mazda Motor plans to suspend operations at its Hiroshima and Hofu plants, both in western Japan, from Thursday evening through Friday, the automaker said.

Shanshan is the latest harsh weather system to hit Japan following last week’s Typhoon Ampil, which also led to blackouts and evacuations.

ANA said it would cancel more than 210 domestic flights in total between Wednesday and Friday slated to leave or arrive in southwestern Japan, affecting about 18,400 passengers.

Japan Airlines said it would cancel 402 domestic flights over the same three-day period. A total of 10 international flights operated by both airlines will also be suspended.
…

BEIJING — Air China and China Southern Airlines will become the second and third Chinese carriers to fly China’s homegrown COMAC C919 passenger jet when their first planes are delivered on Wednesday, state-run Chinese Central TV said.

Chinese planemaker COMAC is trying to break into a passenger jet market dominated by Western manufacturers Airbus and Boeing that has been strained by aircraft shortages and a Boeing safety crisis.

The C919 entered domestic service in May last year with China Eastern, which flies seven of the jets domestically.

China’s three big state-owned airlines have each ordered 100 C919s, and COMAC has said more than 1,000 have been ordered overall.

China Southern last week said on social media platform Weibo that the first C919 would be integrated into its fleet by Wednesday.

The C919 seats up to 192 people and is in a similar category as Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus A320neo planes.

COMAC this year has increased sales and production plans and has been marketing the C919 abroad, especially within Southeast Asia and also to growing aviation market Saudi Arabia.

It is also developing a wide-body plane design.

Zhongtai Securities last month said it expects COMAC to be able to produce 100 aircraft a year by around 2030, with total jets produced exceeding 1,000 by 2035.

Airbus delivered 735 commercial aircraft in 2023.

Industry sources caution that COMAC is a long way from making inroads internationally, especially without benchmark certifications from the United States or European Union – which COMAC is pursuing – or more efficient planes.

A forecast from aviation consultancy Cirium in May sees just under 1,700 C919 deliveries by 2042, giving the C919 around a 25% market share compared to Boeing’s 30% and Airbus’s 45%.

The first C919 delivery to a private airline is expected by year-end.

Shanghai-based Suparna Airlines, a subsidiary of China’s fourth biggest carrier Hainan Airlines 600221.SS which has 60 C919s on order, has said it eventually aims to fly only C919s.

China will more than double its commercial airplane fleet by 2043 and will need 8,830 new planes, Boeing’s annual Commercial Market Outlook said in July.
…

Jakarta, Indonesia — When the wife of Indonesian snack seller Surya asked why he stopped sending money home to his West Java village, he broke down, confessing to a gambling addiction that had cost him more than $12,000.

“When I lost big I was determined to win back what I lost. No matter what — even if I had to borrow money,” the 36-year-old father of two told AFP, declining to use his real name.

While gambling is illegal in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation — with sentences of up to six years in prison — government figures show around 3.7 million Indonesians engaged in it last year, placing more than $20 billion in bets.

The stats prompted President Joko Widodo in June to set up a task force, headed by the country’s security minister, and that month the government ordered telecoms providers to block overseas gambling websites — typically in Cambodia and the Philippines.

Some VPN services, which gamblers use to bypass firewalls on foreign sites, were also blacklisted, but diehard gamblers are still able to bet from their phones or through illegal bookies, and it is easy to borrow money from loan sharks.

Surya was earning up to $250 a month in the West Java capital Bandung, but once he started gambling, he said he was sending home to his family only one-quarter of that.

He would play mobile gambling games until dawn and squander away his hard-earned money.

“Even when you’re winning, the money will be gone instantly. Now, I’d rather give money to my wife,” he said.

‘I want to quit’

Eno Saputra, a 36-year-old vegetable seller in South Sumatra, started buying lottery tickets five years ago but is now addicted to mobile gambling.

He spends at least $6 a day gambling and once won $500, but usually suffers losses.

“From the bottom of my heart, I want to quit, for my children,” the father of three told AFP.

“I know this is wrong and forbidden by my religion.”

There is hope for some in Bogor, south of the capital Jakarta, where a clinic at a psychiatry hospital, since the beginning of the year, has been treating patients struggling to break their gambling addiction.

So far 19 addicts have received counseling and therapy for anxiety, paranoia, sleep disorders and suicidal thoughts, said Nova Riyanti Yusuf, director of the Marzoeki Mahdi Psychiatric Hospital.

But doctors believe there are many more struggling without treatment. 

“I believe this is the tip of the iceberg because not everybody understands that gambling addiction is a disorder,” Nova told AFP.

The hospital is now conducting a study to collect data on how many Indonesians are addicted.

Crime spree

A spate of murders, suicides and divorces linked to illegal online gambling has further cast a spotlight on the surging trade.

In June, an East Java policewoman set her husband on fire because of his gambling, while last year a 48-year-old man in Central Sulawesi robbed and killed his mother to fund his habit, according to local media reports.

Local media have also reported a spike in suicides this year by gambling addicts while Islamic courts on Java island say they are dealing with more divorce requests from women whose husbands won’t stop betting.

“Gambling puts our future at risk … also the future of our family and our children,” President Widodo said when launching the task force.

Experts say, however, that the government’s initiative isn’t enough.

Police say they arrested 467 online gambling operators between April and June, seizing more than $4 million in assets.

But Indonesian judges have been criticized for handing out lenient prison sentences, with operators receiving sentences ranging from seven to 18 months.

“The investigation must be extended to the big names,” said Nailul Huda, an economist from the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios) research group.

“Those operators did not work alone. They answered to someone big.”

Surya, meanwhile, has quit gambling for the past month and says he is committed to stopping long-term.

“Nobody is getting rich from online gambling. Now I’ve learned my lesson,” he said.

But for other addicts like Eno, breaking free from the habit is no easy feat.

“This is a stupid thing to do,” he said, “but I am addicted.”
…

Washington — U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan met Tuesday in Beijing with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in an attempt to manage tensions between Washington and Beijing ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November.

Sullivan’s visit, which ends on Thursday, also aims to set the stage for President Joe Biden to hold his final summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping before Biden leaves office in January, analysts say.

Before holding the closed-door talks, Wang told reporters that China-U.S. relations were “critical,” of great importance to the world, but have taken “twists and turns.” He said he hoped the relationship between the two countries would become healthy and stable. 

Sullivan said the two sides would discuss areas of agreement and disagreement that “need to be managed effectively and substantively.”  

U.S. officials say the main purpose of Sullivan’s visit is to maintain mutual communication that has been severely disrupted over trade tensions, rights concerns and Beijing’s increasingly close relations with Moscow since its invasion of Ukraine.  

At a press briefing last week, a senior administration official said on background that Sullivan and Wang are expected to spend about 10 to 12 hours over two days discussing bilateral, global, regional and cross-strait issues.

“It bears repeating that U.S. diplomacy and channels of communication do not indicate a change in approach to the PRC [People’s Republic of China]. This is an intensely competitive relationship. We are committed to making the investments, strengthening our alliances and taking the common steps — common sense steps on tech and national security — that we need to take. We are committed to managing this competition responsibly, however, and prevent it from veering into conflict,” the official said.

The official added that Sullivan would raise U.S. concerns about China’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base, the South China Sea and other global issues such as North Korea, the Middle East, Myanmar and the Taiwan Strait.

The visit is not expected to produce a major breakthrough, but media reports noted it could set the stage for Biden to hold his final summit with Xi before leaving office in January.  

Although neither the Chinese Foreign Ministry nor the U.S. State Department has confirmed it, Biden and Xi could meet at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Peru from Nov. 10 to 16, or at the G20 summit in Brazil on Nov. 18 and 19.  

With the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5, Biden, who is not seeking reelection and is a “lame duck,” has waning influence on U.S. policy. Nonetheless, Chinese leaders are interested in meeting the U.S. president, said Wesley Alexander Hill, lead analyst and international program manager at the International Tax and Investment Center. 

“Because there is such an unusual bipartisan agreement and skepticism about China, I really wouldn’t think that the lame-duck period is going to be a significant factor in terms of meeting with Biden or talking with Biden,” Hill told VOA.

“Because with China, the theme to stress is continuity in terms of America’s foreign policy. Even with Trump and his, let’s say, very direct mannerisms and his hostility towards China, the Biden administration hasn’t reversed course on the fundamentals of Trump’s policies.”

The senior administration official said at the press briefing last week that Sullivan’s trip shouldn’t be associated too closely with the election. 

“This meeting will be focused on the topics and the issues that we are dealing with now. There is a lot we can get done before the end of the year in terms of just managing the relationship,” the official said.

Neysun Mahboubi, director of the Penn Project on the Future of U.S.-China Relations at the University of Pennsylvania, told VOA that regardless of who becomes the next U.S. president, the last meeting between Biden and Xi will not be just a formality.

Mahboubi said Chinese leaders, elites and ordinary people are very interested in the U.S. presidential election but said they don’t have a consensus on which candidate would be more helpful to U.S.-China relations.

“I’m sure that there’s a sense that for China, the trade war was particularly damaging. There would be an understanding that [a] Trump presidency is likely to pursue that approach with even more vigor. On the other hand, the Biden administration has been very effective in invigorating allies, including in Europe, including in the Asia Pacific, in a way that the Trump administration really has not done,” he said.

Last week, the United States imposed sweeping sanctions on nearly 400 individuals and companies — 42 of them Chinese — for helping Russia circumvent U.S. sanctions and contributing to Moscow’s war on Ukraine. 

China’s Commerce Ministry on Sunday said the U.S. action “undermines international trade order and rules, obstructs normal international economic and trade exchanges, and affects the security and stability of global industrial and supply chains.”  

At a briefing for diplomats ahead of Sullivan’s arrival in Beijing on Tuesday, China’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs Li Hui reiterated those sentiments, calling sanctions on Chinese entities “illegal and unilateral” and “not based on facts.” China calls US sanctions over Ukraine war ‘illegal and unilateral.”

  Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.  Some information for this story came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
…

MANILA — The U.S. military is open to consultations about escorting Philippine ships in the disputed South China Sea, the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said Tuesday amid a spike in hostilities between Beijing and Manila in the disputed waters.

Adm. Samuel Paparo’s remarks, which he made in response to a question during a news conference in Manila with Philippine Armed Forces chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., provided a glimpse of the mindset of one of the highest American military commanders outside the U.S. mainland on a prospective operation that would risk putting U.S. Navy ships in direct collisions with those of China.

Chinese coast guard, navy and suspected militia ships regularly clash with Philippine vessels during attempts to resupply Filipino sailors stationed in parts of the South China Sea claimed by both countries. As these clashes grow increasingly hostile, resulting in injuries to Filipino sailors and damage to their ships, the Philippine government has faced questions about invoking a treaty alliance with Washington.

Paparo and Brawner spoke to reporters after an international military conference in Manila organized by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, at which China’s increasingly assertive actions in the South China Sea were spotlighted. Military and defense officials and diplomats from the U.S. and allied countries attended but there were no Chinese representatives.

Asked if the U.S. military would consider escorting Philippine ships delivering food and other supplies to Filipino forces in the South China Sea, Paparo replied, “Certainly, within the context of consultations.”

“Every option between the two sovereign nations in terms of our mutual defense, escort of one vessel to the other, is an entirely reasonable option within our Mutual Defense Treaty, among this close alliance between the two of us,” Paparo said without elaborating.

Brawner responded cautiously to the suggestion, which could run afoul of Philippine laws including a constitutional ban on foreign forces directly joining local combat operations.

“The attitude of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, as dictated by the Philippine laws, is for us to first rely on ourselves,” Brawner said. “We are going to try all options, all avenues that are available to us in order for us to achieve the mission… in this case, the resupply and rotation of our troops.”

“We will then seek for other options when we are already constrained from doing it ourselves,” Brawner said.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has said there has been no situation so far that would warrant activating the treaty, which requires the allies to come to each other’s aid if they come under external attack.

President Joe Biden and his administration have repeatedly renewed their “ironclad” commitment to help defend the Philippines under the 1951 treaty if Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.

Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr said at the conference that China is “the biggest disruptor” of peace in Southeast Asia and called for stronger international censure over its aggression in the South China Sea, a day after China blocked Philippine vessels from delivering food to a coast guard ship at the disputed Sabina Shoal in the contested waters.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said that “the label of undermining peace can never be pinned on China,” blaming unspecified other actors for “making infringements and provocations in the South China Sea and introducing external forces to undermine the large picture of regional peace and stability.”

Teodoro later told reporters on the sidelines of the conference that international statements of concern against China’s increasingly assertive actions in the disputed waters and elsewhere were “not enough.”

“The antidote is a stronger collective multilateral action against China,” Teodoro said, adding that a U.N. Security Council resolution would be a strong step, but unlikely given China’s security council veto.

He also called for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to do more. The 10-nation Southeast Asian bloc includes the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, which have South China Sea claims that overlap with each other, as well as China’s and Taiwan’s.

“ASEAN, to remain relevant and credible, cannot continue to ignore what China is doing in the South China Sea,” Teodoro said.

In the latest incident in the South China Sea, Philippine officials said China deployed “an excessive force” of 40 ships that blocked two Philippine vessels from delivering food and other supplies to Manila’s largest coast guard ship in Sabina Shoal on Monday.

China and the Philippines blamed each other for the confrontation in Sabina, an uninhabited atoll claimed by both countries that has become the latest flashpoint in the Spratlys, the most hotly disputed region of the South China Sea.

China and the Philippines have separately deployed coast guard ships to Sabina in recent months on suspicion the other may act to take control of and build structures in the fishing atoll.

The Philippine coast guard said Chinese coast guard and navy ships, along with 31 suspected militia vessels, obstructed the delivery, which included an ice cream treat for the personnel aboard the BRP Teresa Magbanua as the Philippines marked National Heroes’ Day on Monday.

In Beijing, China’s coast guard said that it took control measures against two Philippine coast guard ships that “intruded” into waters near the Sabina Shoal. It said in a statement that the Philippine ships escalated the situation by repeatedly approaching a Chinese coast guard ship.

China has rapidly expanded its military and has become increasingly assertive in pursuing its territorial claims in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety. The tensions have led to more frequent confrontations, primarily with the Philippines, though the longtime territorial disputes also involve other claimants, including Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei.

Japan’s government separately protested to Beijing on Tuesday, saying that a Chinese reconnaissance plane violated its airspace and forced it to scramble fighter jets.
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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Former Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was charged Tuesday with sedition over a speech he made that allegedly questioned the integrity of the country’s previous king.

Muhyiddin, who led Malaysia from March 2020 until August 2021, pleaded not guilty in a court in northeast Kelantan state. According to the charge sheet, Muhyiddin made the seditious remarks last month during a by-election campaign in Kelantan.

Nine ethnic Malay state rulers take turns as Malaysia’s king for five-year terms under the country’s rotating monarchy, which began when Malaysia gained independence from Britain in 1957. The monarchy plays a largely ceremonial role, but are revered by the nation’s majority Muslims.

In his speech on Aug. 14, Muhyiddin had questioned why then-King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah didn’t invite him to be prime minister following a hung Parliament in November 2022. Muhyiddin had claimed he had the backing of majority lawmakers.

Muhyiddin’s Islamic nationalistic bloc received stronger-than-expected support from Malays, who account for two-thirds of Malaysia’s 34 million people. Sultan Abdullah appointed then-opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim as prime minister after Anwar cobbled up support from rival parties to form a unity government.

Sultan Abdullah from central Pahang state, who ended his reign on Jan. 30 this year, didn’t comment on the case. But his son issued a strong rebuke to Muhyiddin, saying his remarks were dangerous and could divide the people and undermine the royal institution.

Muhyiddin was questioned by police following complaints against him. He had denied insulting the royalty, saying his remarks were factual and that he had handed in sworn oath of support by 115 lawmakers in the 222-member parliament.

Zaid Malek from Lawyers for Liberty, a human rights and law reform group, slammed the use of the colonial-era Sedition Act against Muhyiddin. He said questioning or criticizing the exercise of constitutional power by the king wasn’t seditious.

The law, introduced by the British in 1948, criminalizes speech or actions with an undefined “seditious tendency,” including that which promotes hatred against the government and monarchy or incites racial discord.

“The king is a constitutional monarch, and not a feudal ruler. His exercise of his power can thus be debated, questioned or criticized. This is the very bedrock of our system of constitutional monarchy,” Zaid said. Anwar had backtracked on his pledge to repeal the Sedition Act, which has long been used to suppress dissenting voices, he added.

Muhyiddin, 77, faces up to three years in prison or a fine or both if found guilty. He is also still battling corruption and money-laundering charges that he claims are politically motivated.

Muhyiddin was the second former leader charged with crimes after ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak, who received multiple charges after losing a 2018 general election. Najib began a 12-year prison term in 2022, with several more graft trials underway.
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WASHINGTON — An Army private who fled to North Korea just over a year ago will plead guilty to desertion and four other charges and take responsibility for his conduct, his lawyer said Monday.

Travis King’s attorney, Franklin D. Rosenblatt, told The Associated Press that King intends to admit guilt to a total of five military offenses, including desertion and assaulting an officer. Nine other offenses, including possession of sexual images of a child, will be withdrawn and dismissed under the terms of the deal.

King will be given an opportunity at a Sept. 20 hearing at Fort Bliss, Texas, to discuss his actions and explain what he did.

“He wants to take responsibility for the things that he did,” Rosenblatt said.

In a separate statement, he added, “Travis is grateful to his friends and family who have supported him, and to all outside his circle who did not pre-judge his case based on the initial allegations.”

He declined to comment on a possible sentence that his client might face. Desertion is a serious charge and can result in imprisonment.

The AP reported last month that the two sides were in plea talks.

King bolted across the heavily fortified border from South Korea in July 2023, and became the first American detained in North Korea in nearly five years.

His run into North Korea came soon after he was released from a South Korean prison where he had served nearly two months on assault charges.

About a week after his release from the prison, military officers took him to the airport so he could return to Fort Bliss to face disciplinary action. He was escorted as far as customs, but instead of getting on the plane, he joined a civilian tour of the Korean border village of Panmunjom. He then ran across the border, which is lined with guards and often crowded with tourists.

He was detained by North Korea, but after about two months, Pyongyang abruptly announced that it would expel him. On Sept. 28, he was flown to back to Texas, and has been in custody there.

The U.S. military in October filed a series of charges against King under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, including desertion, as well as kicking and punching other officers, unlawfully possessing alcohol, making a false statement and possessing a video of a child engaged in sexual activity. Those allegations date back to July 10, the same day he was released from the prison.
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Tokyo — Japan scrambled fighter jets on Monday after a Chinese military aircraft “violated” Japanese airspace, the defense ministry said.   

The Chinese aircraft was “confirmed to have violated the territorial airspace off the Danjo Islands in Nagasaki Prefecture,” the ministry said in a statement, adding it had launched “fighter jets on an emergency basis.”  

China’s “Y-9 intelligence-gathering” aircraft entered Japanese airspace at 11:29 am (0229 GMT) for around two minutes, the ministry added.

There was no comment from Chinese authorities.   

Local media including public broadcaster NHK said the incident marked the first incursion by the Chinese military’s aircraft into Japan’s airspace.

The ministry said steps were taken by the SDF such as “issuing warnings” to the aircraft, but NHK reported that no weapons, such as flare guns, were used as an alert.    

In response to the incident, vice foreign minister Masataka Okano summoned China’s acting ambassador to Japan late Monday, and “lodged firm protest” with the official, as well as calling for measures against a recurrence, the foreign ministry said in a statement.  

The Chinese diplomat said in response that the matter would be reported to Beijing, according to the ministry.        

Japanese and Chinese vessels have previously been involved in tense incidents in disputed areas, in particular the Senkaku islands in the East China Sea, known by Beijing as the Diaoyus.

The remote chain of islands have fueled diplomatic tensions and been the scene of confrontations between Japanese coastguard vessels and Chinese fishing boats.  

Beijing has grown more assertive about its claim to the islands in recent years, with Tokyo reporting the presence of Chinese coast guard vessels, a naval ship and even a nuclear-powered submarine.

In the past, two non-military aircraft from China – a propeller plane and a small drone – were confirmed to have forayed into the Japanese airspace near the Senkaku islands in 2012 and 2017, according to NHK.  

Beijing claims the South China Sea – through which trillions of dollars of trade passes annually – almost in its entirety despite an international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

The Danjo Islands are a group of small islets located in the East China Sea, off Japan’s southern Nagasaki region.   

Japan in recent years has strengthened security ties with the United States to counter China’s growing assertiveness in the region, boosting defense spending and moving to acquire “counter-strike” capabilities.

At the same time, it has boosted military ties with the Philippines, which has also been involved in recent territorial standoffs, as well as South Korea.
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