Mao Zedong

"The global environment was crucial to China's emergence," University of Virginia professor emeritus of foreign affairs Brantly Womack tells Kathimerini, a few hours after the conclusion of the workshop "Recentering Pacific Asia: Regional China and World Order," organized by the Institute of International Relations (IDIS) in Athens.

China urged the United States to play "a constructive role" in the Middle East on Friday after its top diplomat Wang Yi spoke with his U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken over the phone.

"We are ready to see him here. I want to talk to him," Zelensky said in an interview with the AP agency, adding that during 2022 he had no contact with the Chinese leader.

Xi Jinping emerged from October's 20th Party Congress with tighter control over the ruling Communist Party - and, therefore, over China - than any leader since Mao Zedong.

The Chinese government sharply criticized COVID-19 testing requirements imposed on visitors from China and threatened countermeasures against countries involved, which include the U.S. and several European nations.

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.

China is organizing a gigantic military parade in Beijing on October 1 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the communist regime, BTA reported.

A "breathing" Fidel Castro is among several ex-communist leaders gathered in Hong Kong this week, one of the world's centers of capitalism, as part of a cheeky exhibition at Art Basel.

A gargantuan gold-painted statue of Communist China's founding father Mao Zedong has been erected in open countryside by a group of capitalists at a cost of 3 million yuan ($460,000), reports said.

A Chinese court has sentenced a man to 14 months in jail for defacing the giant painting of Communist leader Mao Zedong displayed near Beijing's Tiananmen Square, state media reported.