China

In order to ensure that its economic and political interests in the Korean Peninsula region are not threatened by the West, China wants North Korea to avoid sabre-rattling, especially during the National Congress, where Chinese President Xi Jinping will be declared President for an unprecedented third term, media reports said.

The United States has announced new export controls aimed at restricting China's ability to buy and manufacture high-end chips with military applications, stepping up tensions between the countries.

President Xi Jinping is using his first trip abroad since the start of the pandemic to promote China's strategic ambitions at a summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin and other leaders of a Central Asian security group.

State support for China's economy this year is now greater than it was in 2020, Beijing's premier has said, surpassing help given at the height of the coronavirus pandemic as the country grapples with the impacts of its zero-COVID policy and a property sector crisis.

China's slowing economy has left millions of young people fiercely competing for an ever-slimming raft of jobs and facing an increasingly uncertain future.    

Official data released this month showed one in five young people in Chinese cities was out of work in July - more than three times the national average and the highest recorded since January 2018.    

China says it will try to protect its grain harvest from record-setting drought by using chemicals to generate rain, while factories in the southwest waited Sunday to see whether they would be shut down for another week due to shortages of water to generate hydropower.

As long as the Sino-CEE relationship was ruled by pragmatism, relations continued to develop during regular negotiations. Washington was sceptical and the EU was just an observer in the process, while some Western European diplomats expressed concern about a potential Chinese Trojan horse emerging in the region, but this has not materialised.

Australia and China's defence ministers met for the first time in three years on Sunday, with the talks described as "an important first step" following a period of strained ties.

Global stock markets and Wall Street futures advanced yesterday after the downturn in China's service industries eased and news reports said the Biden administration might lift U.S. tariffs on some Chinese imports.

London and Frankfurt opened higher. Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong advanced. Oil prices gained to stay close to $120 per barrel.

Known for shrewd diplomatic moves, China is exploiting the Russia-Ukraine situation and increasing its aluminium exports which outstrips its imports manifold and these new dynamics have spurred criticism by both the United States and Europe.