Over the weekend, the party released revised rules for selecting top officials. This is the second revision under Xi Jinping.

The General Office of the CCP CC released a “Notice on Resolving the Outstanding Problems of Formalism to Reduce the Grassroots Burden” and identified 2019 as the “Year of Reducing the Grassroots Burden.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping chaired a Politburo study session on propaganda in the age of the internet in January.

Chinese President Xi Jinping chaired a symposium in Beijing on March 18, of teachers of politics and ideology from around the country where he delivered an "important" speech. Speaking at the symposium, the official news agency quoted Xi Jinping as saying education is all about training good Communists.

China's approx 10,000-word White Paper released on March 18 noted that "some of the most notorious terrorist attacks" that have taken place in the world in the course of which it referred to "the Mumbai attacks on November 26, 2008 that killed 195 and injured close to 300 people in India".

At the conclusion of its annual session on March 15, the National People’s Congress (NPC) passed the Foreign Investment Law (FIL).

The reputed Chinese financial magazine Caixin (March 15) reported that Beijing has announced big tax cuts for businesses. It calculated that half of the proposed RMB 2 trillion in tax cuts will be borne by local governments.

China Central Television reported (March 17) that PLAAF J-10 fighter jets of the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF)'s Bayi Aerobatic Team had arrived in Pakistan to a warm welcome as local children greeted them with bouquets.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to finalise a BRI Memorandum of Understanding during his official visit to Italy on March 22-23. Beijing sees Italy as a priority for its Maritime Silk Road, considered vital to China’s ever-growing wealth maritime strategy, including greater access to Northern European markets.

The official Party paper People’s Daily on March 16, 2019, reported that the CCP theoretical fortnightly journal Qiushi had published an article that Xi Jinping wrote, titled, “Accelerate the Development of Media Integration and Build a Communication Pattern for Omnimedia.”

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CDIC) said in a statement on March 17, that the former former Director of the National Energy Administration and former Governor of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Nur Bekri, who was placed under investigation last September and removed from his post a month later, has been expelled from the CCP because he engaged in “family-style corruption”, illegally accepting property directly or through his relatives.

In the run up to the anniversary of Tibet's 10th March uprising, China’s state-run media, The Tibet Daily, on March 8, began a series of articles on “Recognizing the Reactionary Essence of the 14th Dalai Lama,” directly attacking the Dalai Lama as the “head of the feudal serfdom system of the old Tibet’s joined politics and religion.”

Yin Zhongqing, Deputy Director of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), was quoted by Beijing News as saying that the total amount of all local GDP added together is greater than the national GDP due to data fraud.

The Hong Kong based newspaper Ming Pao published an article by Bruce Lui, a senior lecturer in the Department of Journalism at the Hong Kong Baptist University, claiming that the Chinese government’s “stability maintenance” expenditure last year was 1.37 trillion yuan (US$200 billion).

China's official news agency Xinhua reported on March 16, that China's PLA Air Force Ba Yi Aerobatics Team was invited to participate in the Pakistan National Day aerobatics demonstration to be held on March 23 and flew to Pakistan on March 16, 2019.

Associated Press reported on March 16, that the U.S. Deputy Ambassador Jonathan Cohen told the UN Security Council after the vote that "China held the resolution hostage and insisted on making it about Chinese national political priorities rather than the people of Afghanistan."

The Nikkei Asian Review (March 16) said the European Union will revise its official approach to China in summit meetings here next week, after its executive body named Beijing a "systemic rival" and outlined 10 suggested points of action on China, including ensuring security for the fifth generation of mobile networks and thoroughly screening foreign direct investment in the EU in a memo on March 12.

Quoting Reuters, the Asahi Shimbun on March 16, disclosed that a "technical" delegation from China will visit Argentina this month to discuss construction of a nuclear power plant, reportedly worth up to $8 billion.

The crash of a PLA Navy Aviation JH-7A fighter-bomber aircraft during training in Ledong, Hainan, was announced on March 12, by the Chinese Ministry of National Defense.

The Global Times reported (February 27) that the PLA Navy deployed a new vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) fixed-wing drone on a guided missile destroyer during a three-day exercise in the South China Sea in late February.

The State-owned China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) is preparing to launch the Kuaizhou-11 (KZ-11) a new solid propellant launch vehicle in the first half of the year as part of a multiplatform commercial space strategy.

China's official Science and Technology Daily says the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation hopes to be operating a commercially viable solar space station by 2050. It is working to develop a solar energy plant in space that could one day beam enough power back to Earth to light up an entire city.

The South China Morning Post reported (March 8) that at a press conference on the sidelines of the NPC on March 8, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi claimed Beijing had played a “constructive role” in defusing tensions between India and Pakistan over the terrorist attack on Indian security forces in Pulwama.

Xinhua reported that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, at a press conference on March 8 on the sidelines of the NPC, said China and India should be each other's partner in pursuing their respective dreams and each other's important opportunity for growing respective economies.

According to a report in the Guardian of March 7, 2019, urban planners in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province, have drawn up proposals to pipe water into the chronically parched region from Russia’s Lake Baikal, the deepest freshwater lake on earth.

In a statement issued on March 12, the spokesman for the PRC State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office An Fengshan accused Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen of harming relations between the sides and using the welfare of the Taiwanese people as a "poker chip" for the sake of electoral gains.

Global Times (March 13) said that An Ran, a professor at South China University of Technology in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province, who is also a deputy to the National People's Congress, had proposed that the country allow residents in the border area with India to trade to improve China-India relations, reduce military confrontations and benefit the local inhabitants.

A report published by the China Institute of International Studies in April 2017, stated that since Nepali Prime Minister K.P. Oli’s Beijing visit in March 2016, China and Nepal have accelerated cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative and have strengthened interconnection through trade, transportation, and telecommunications.

China's authoritative Xinhua News Agency said (March 8) that during the ongoing sessions of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Chinese President Xi Jinping told the conference delegates that social science and the works of art and culture relate to the theoretical foundation and propaganda vehicles of the Chinese Communist Party’s ideology.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced on March 8 on the sidelines of the NPC, that Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony of the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) in late April in Beijing and deliver a keynote speech.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, in his report to the NPC on March 5, 2019, stated that "In pursuing development this year, we will face a graver and more complicated environment as well as risks and challenges... that are greater in number and size."

NPC Chairman Li Zhanshu delivered the NPC’s annual work report, which laid out the body’s priorities for the coming year.

Biophysicist Rao Zihe, a CPPCC delegate, said on March 10, that research and development spending would hit 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product in 2019, citing Beijing’s medium and long-term plan for science and technology development for 2006 to 2020.

Hu Haifeng, the 46-year old only son of former President Hu Jintao is tipped to be elevated to Vice Ministerial rank and become the new Communist Party chief of Xian, China’s ancient capital and current capital of Shaanxi Province.

People's Bank of China (PBoC) Governor Yi Gang said China has cut the ratio of cash that banks must hold as reserves five times in the past year, in the face of the weakest economic growth in 28 years amid slowing consumption and the trade conflict with Washington.

Around 1am local time on March 9, Kazakh National Security Services (KNB) in Almaty raided the offices of human rights defender Serikjan Bilash, the founder of the Atajurt Kazakh Human Rights organization.

Data compiled by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) reveals that more than half of the US$ 9.4bn invested in all 16 countries in 2016 and 2017 went to the five non-EU members namely, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.

Asia Nikkei reported on March 6, that Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei Technologies has asked Japanese companies including Murata Manufacturing and Toshiba Memory to increase supplies of smartphone components.

Britain's "Financial Times" published an exclusive interview on March 6, confirming that the Italian government is actively negotiating with Beijing to sign the "One Belt and One Road Project" agreement during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit on March 22, 2019.

A Chinese customs document dated March 1 revoked the registration of Winnipeg-based agricultural handler Richardson International to ship canola seeds to China.

TASS news agency on February 5, quoted a Russian government source as revealing that “About 100 military servicemen from the People’s Liberation Army of China will undergo instruction at a Russian training center in the operation and combat uses of the second regimental set of the S-400 system, to be provided to China in the second half of the year.”

Officers and men of the Daba border defense company "stationed in the hinterland of the Himalayas" at an average height of over 4,500 meters above sea level conducted tactical and physical training on February 18, 2019.

A recent Miami Herald report has sparked a controversy about latest Trump political donor Li Yang, also known as Cindy Yang , a 45-year-old Florida entrepreneur from China who founded a chain of spas and massage parlors that included the one where New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft was busted for soliciting prostitution.

At a news conference on March 8, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi endorsed Huawei and its chief financial officer for filing lawsuits challenging a U.S. ban on purchases of its equipment and the Huawei CFO's arrest by Canada.

China's expenditure on R&D is the world's second highest at 1.7 trillion Yuan.

Wang Jiangping, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology, while speaking o CPPCC delegates at the 'Two sessions' on March 7, disclosed that China has a secret program to support the microchip and software industries.

The Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Group on March 8, 2019, said that Lu Tingge (卢廷阁) is a lawyer based in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province.

Commenting on debts incurred by nations participating in the BRI, China's Vice Minister of commerce, Qian Keming, said at a press conference in Beijing on the sidelines of the NPC on March 9, said the trade and infrastructure strategy was not a “one-way street”.

Speaking at the NPC meetings on March 6, in Beijing, Go Khok, the Mayor and Deputy Party Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) stated that the TAR government had restricted religious activities in Tibet.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's nearly 100-minute speech to the NPC on March 5, very surprisingly omitted any reference to “Made in China 2025,” a government-led industrial program at the center of the contentious U.S.-China trade dispute.

Fox Business News reported (March 8) that China has removed a planned trip to President Trump's Mar-a-Lago, Florida, property planned for late March from Xi Jinping's calendar.

Xinhua reported that on March 1, 2019, Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed 800 mid-level officials who will undergo training at the Central Party School in Beijing for the next four months.

CPPCC Chairman and Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC) member Wang Yang delivered the CPPCC’s annual work report to the 2158 assembled delegates.

Beijing and other cities have initiated stability-maintenance mechanisms for China’s national “Two Conferences” (the National People’s Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference) that commenced in Beijing on March 5 and 3 respectively.

Speaking on March 3, at the first nationwide industry symposium since the Central Propaganda Department took jurisdiction over the National Film Bureau, Wang Xiaohui, Executive Deputy Director of the Central Propaganda Department and director of the National Film Bureau, exhorted filmmakers to turn the country into a “strong film power” like the U.S. by 2035 and called for the production of 100 movies a year that each earn more than RMB100 million ($15 million) as part of a push to increase China’s soft power.

The Central News Agency reported (February 27) that, in the past two months, the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission has closed more than 490,000 illegal accounts and thousands of websites.

Chinese experts announced that they are beginning to develop new types of weapons and plasma guns. Russian experts commented that they are not "revolutionary breakthroughs".

The Boxun site on November 7, 2018, posted a list of corrupt Chinese officials who have disappeared, fled overseas, or committed suicide.

The Chinese Embassy in Turkey announced on February 26 that the Chinese Consulate-General in Izmir, Turkey will be temporarily closed from the next day.

Shwe Kokko, an enclave on the Myanmar side of the Moei river that forms the border with Thailand some 500 kilometers northwest of Bangkok and 420 kilometers east of Yangon, Myanmar’s commercial capital, is fast becoming a Chinese town.

A picture of a Chinese fighter jet was recently publicized on social media featuring key technology systems developed for the American F-35.

An article in the Diplomat newspaper (February 15) said that recent pictures of Jiangnan shipyard have effectively confirmed that construction of China’s third aircraft carrier – 003, a conventionally powered carrier displacing about 80,000 tons full and equipped with electromagnetic catapults – is now underway.

According to a statement issued by the PLA Navy (PLAN) South Sea Fleet several of China’s newest warships including the guided missile destroyer the Hefei, guided missile frigate the Yuncheng, amphibious landing dock Changbaishan and the replenishment oiler Honghu took part in the 34-day long exercises that commenced on January 16, and included 20 drills by joint forces.

Senior Colonel Ren Guoqiang, deputy head and spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense announced on Mach 1, 2019 that China will host a multinational naval activity on April 23 in Qingdao, Shandong province, to honor the 70th birthday of the People's Liberation Army Navy.

China announced two development plans on China’s education on February 23, outlining blueprints for the sector’s modernization and development by 2035.

China's official news agency Xinhua on February 23 reported that Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CCP CC underscored that China should deepen supply-side structural reform in the financial sector and strengthen the sector's ability to serve the real economy.

Xinhua (February 22) reported that the CCP CC Politburo met on February 22, to discuss a draft report on the work of the government and deliberate several other documents.

The official Global Times published an article on March 3, a day prior to commencement of the annual plenum of the National People's Congress (NPC), pitching for an increase in the national defence budget.

The annual plenary meeting of the CPPCC, China's top advisory body, opened in Beijing on March 3 afternoon. The NPC session will commence on March 5. The CPPCC has approx 2200 delegates.

The communique issued after the 16th Russia, India and China (RIC) Foreign Ministerial Meeting held in Wuzhen, East China's Zhejiang Province on February 27, 2019, was the first following its surgical airstrike inside Pakistan on the previous day. The official Global Times reported that the RIC Foreign Ministers had "strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations" and that "they also stressed that terrorist groups cannot be supported and used in political and geopolitical goals." The Global Times observed that the RIC meeting "gave New Delhi an apt platform to explain and engage China which is not only the closest friend of Pakistan but also seen as the world's second most important power." Another Global Times report of February 27, made no reference to the situation between India and Pakistan.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in its report issued on February 27, 2019, said that China has spent nearly $200 million on the Confucius Institutes. These programs have been instated in U.S. schools across the country with the mission of indoctrinating students and painting a sympathetic portrait of the Chinese Communist government. It said there are more than 100 Confucius Institutes currently operating in America—the most of any country—and China has plans to open many more. The report said "As China opened over 100 additional Confucius Institutes in the United States over the last 15 years, the Department of Education remained silent." It aded that the Chinese government also has plans to expand into the kindergarten through 12th grade curriculum. The report disclosed "The Chinese government also funds and provides language instructors for Confucius Classrooms, which offer classes for kindergarten through 12th grade students. Confucius Classrooms are currently in 519 elementary, middle, and high schools in the United States. Continued expansion of the program is a priority for China."

China'National Public Credit Information Centre reported that in 2018 China blocked 23 million “discredited” travellers from buying plane or train tickets last year as part of the country’s controversial “social credit” system aimed at improving the behaviour of citizens. It said 17.5 million people were banned from buying flights and 5.5 million barred from purchasing high-speed train tickets because of social credit offences.

Speaking at a seminar at the University of Hong Kong on February 23, Jin Canrong, Associate Dean of the School of International Studies at Renmin University, said China had made great strides in expanding its military capability, but there was a lot more to come. He also said there would be "something new" at this years October parade, but did not clarify what it might be. Saying that China is gearing up for a possible conflict over Taiwan, he said over the next five or 10 years, Taiwan could provide the “biggest uncertainty” for Beijing, he said, especially if the US decided to “ignite” the situation.

The February 27 issue of the official Party newspaper People's Daily front-paged an article titled Participating in the transformation of the global economic governance system (参与全球经济治理体系变革).

A report released by the China Internet Network Information Center on February 28, revealed the following data of internet usage in China: (i) 829 million users at the end of December; (ii) 648 million short video users, 78.2% of China’s total Internet users; (iii) National Internet availability rate at 59.6%, with 26.7% of internet users or 222 million living in rural areas; (iv) Cumulative mobile internet traffic increased 189.1% to 71.1 billion GB (v) Average time people spent online of 27.6 hours per week; (vi) 610 million online shoppers, 592 million of whom used mobile phones to shop; and (vii) 600 million online payment users.

In a communique issued on February 28, China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) provided data on the demographic challenges for the country. Caixin reported that China's employment population has shrunk for the first time ever.

Xinjiang Daily reported on February 26, 2019, the appointment of Wang Junzheng, former Party Secretary of Changchun, as Party Secretary in charge of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission of Xinjiang. Official media reports state that Wang Junzheng would ensure the Party’s ‘absolute leadership’ in the autonomous region. He will be in charge of law and order and take responsibility for the security crackdown in which a reported 1 million Muslims have been interned.

Hongkong's South China Morning Post reported (Jan 30) that Washington plans to ask Tokyo to host its Homeland Defence Radar unit, which is designed to give the US military an early warning of ICBM launches by China, Russia and North Korea.

Negotiations in Washington were extended on February 23, for another 48 hours as the US and China try to reach a deal to end the tariff war. Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said they have made ‘positive progress’ in areas including the trade imbalance, agriculture, forced technology transfers and financial services.

The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reportedNorth Korean President Kim Jong Un left Beijing by train on February 23, for the Vietnamese capital Hanoi for the second DPRK-U.S. summit.

An article in the US publication Politico on February 8, cited data from the Munich Security Conference stating that China is dominating research into technology that could allow missiles to travel five times the speed of sound and outmaneuver air defense systems.

Xinhua reported (February 1) that China has achieved real-time transmission of deep-sea data at 6,000-meter depth through its self-developed BeiDou satellites for the first time. It described this as essential to more secure, independent, and reliable deep-sea data transmission.

A report in the Diplomat (January 30) claimed that the China Coast Guard (CCG) has shown a lot of initiative in the new year, partly due to its incorporation into the People’s Armed Police Force (PAP) last year and partly associated with its new commander, Wang Zhongcai.

Xinhua reported (February 22, 2019) that among the 300 PLA officers charged with corruption following investigations into Fang Fenghui, former Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the CMC, at least six "military tigers" are under investigation and warned that "the “tiger” in the army has not been cleaned up". Fang Fenghui was sentenced to life imprisonment, deprived of his political rights for life, all his personal property was confiscated and stolen goods recovered. The six senior military officials being investigated are: Xu Linping, He Qingcheng, Ding Guoxin, Wang Xixin, Zhao Yiliang and Pan Changjie. Of them Xu Linping, He Qingcheng, Diao Guoxin and Wang Xixin have been investigated and reduced in rank from a deputy theater level to a military position.

The New York Times reported (February 24) that 53-year old Chen Tianyong, a former judge and lawyer and now a Chinese real estate developer in Shanghai, boarded a flight to Malta last month with no plans to return anytime soon.

An article in the Nikkei Asia Review on February 28, claimed that 'Leftists' in China are angry that China is making concessions to the US in the ongoing tariff negotiations. It said that since they cannot directly attack Xi Jinping, they are focussing criticism against Chinese Vice Premier Liu

Nikkei news quoted Nepal's Transport Minister as saying (February 22) that Nepal will use Chinese gauge standards for a planned nationwide rail network.

An article in China's official Global Times (February 21) cautioned that "India and Pakistan need to avoid engaging in a trade war that will deal a blow to their own economies as well as that of China".

In an attempt to bring an end to the ongoing trade war between the US and China, CNBC reported on February 22, that Beijing has agreed to buy up to $1.2 trillion in goods from the United States. US President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping could also meet in late March in Florida. Meanwhile, Trump was scheduled to talk with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on February 22 afternoon, in the hopes of coming closer to a trade deal before March 1, when U.S. tariffs on a variety of goods are set to rise to 25 percent from 10 percent.

Reuters reported (February 22) that China is stepping up its diplomatic outreach over controversial camps in its heavily Muslim region of Xinjiang by inviting foreign diplomats. It said since December, China has taken at least three groups of foreign diplomats to visit the re-education and training facilities. A fourth group is scheduled to visit this month. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said ( February 16) that Geneva-based diplomats from Pakistan, Venezuela, Cuba, Egypt, Cambodia, Russia, Senegal and Belarus were visiting Xinjiang on a trip that ended on February 19.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on February 7, that ethnic Uyghurs held in political “re-education camps” in northwest China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region (XUAR) have been sent to prisons in Heilongjiang, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces and that officials in the XUAR and Heilongjiang had confirmed the reports came in the same month that XUAR chairman Shohrat Zakir confirmed to China’s official Xinhua news agency the existence of the camps, calling them an effective tool to protect the country from terrorism and provide vocational training for Uyghurs.

A Chinese scholar, Shen Yanxin, on April 25, 2017, disclosed that discussions were underway on 'how to ensure that both the strategic military-civilian integration and the “One Belt and One Road” work hand in hand to achieve coordinated progress and mutual reinforcement'.

Hongkong's South China Morning Post reported on February 7, that Japan has lodged another protest with China through diplomatic channels over its continued deployment of a drilling ship at a gas field in a contested area of the East China Sea. Tokyo said that the drilling ship had moved in January to a location a few kilometres northeast of where it was in mid-November.

The Financial Times reported (February 7) that China has started inviting mainland-based Taiwanese businesspeople and students into “brainstorming” sessions on the future of the de facto independent nation.

During his visit to Kathmandu, Nepal in April 2019, Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to sign the Trade and Transit Protocol allowing Nepal the use of the four Chinese seaports of Tianjin, Shenzhen, Lianyungang and Zhanjiang as well as the dry ports of Lhanzin, Lhasa, Xigatsê for third-party trade.

BBC Chinese reported (January 31, 2019) that, entering the year 2019, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is steering into high political risk zones.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on February 8, that residents of the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) had told RFA that officials had invited them to celebratory dinners marking the Lunar New Year at which pork was served, then threatening to send them to a "re-education" camp if they refused to take part.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV released a report on the morning of February 6 summarising the viewership and audience response to the 2019 Spring Festival Gala.

The Department of the United Front Work of the CPC Nangchen County Committee and the County Ethnic and Religious Bureau issued a two-page notice on 25th December of prohibiting any initiation of Tibetan language classes or tuition during the winter vacation in and around the monastery.

Quoting data from China’s General Administration of Customs the Chinese news site Sina reported (January 25), that Russia was China’s largest oil supplier in 2018, reaching 1.49 million barrels.

Hongkong's South China Morning Post quoted Chinese sources as saying that Xi Jinping and Trump will meet in Danang, Vietnam on February 27 and 28.

The Epoch Times (October 17, 2018) reported that Wu Sikang, Director of the Policy Research Office of the Shenzhen Municipal government wrote an 'internal' document after a study visit to the U.S. in August 2018, and that Wang Weizhong, head of the Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee, and Ai Xuefeng, Deputy Mayor, reviewed the document and gave some instructions.

20-year old Zhao Qianli, who says he’s a musicology student from North University of China (Taiyuan, Shaanxi) and was visiting Key West as a tourist after completing a summer exchange program, got caught by Key West police for trespassing onto the high-security Naval Air Station. He later told federal authorities that he lost his way on the tourist trail and did not realise it was a military base.

Data released by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and National Supervision Commission’s (NSC) on their website on the results of the 2018 'Operation Skynet' shows that 1,335 fugitives were arrested and 3.54 billion RMB was retrieved in 2018. Of the arrested fugitives, 307 were Party members and state functionaries, and 5 were on China’s Interpol Red Notice List.

Ren Zhifei, the founder of Huawei, according to a Chinese media report (January 21) issued two letters to Huawei employees in which he warned them not to be too optimistic about the prospects for Huawei and that they should prepare for bitter days. Ren Zhifei stated that, if they assess that certain business units are not providing much value, they should be cut or the work reduced so as to focus on more valuable segments.

The PLA Daily reported on January 30, that the Central Military Commission recently issued the "Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening Force Management", which aimed to "thoroughly implement Xi Jinping's strong military thinking" and strengthen and improve the management of troops in the new era.

China's top economic decision-making body, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) accelerated its review process and approved 27 infrastructure projects with a total expected investment of 1.48 trillion yuan (US$219.43 billion) since the start of 2018. Of these, 16 worth around 1.1 trillion yuan were approved since the start of November. Despite concerns over a return to the debt-fuelled infrastructure investment policy halted in 2017, the new infrastructure projects were necessitated by the need to stabilise the economy and took precedent. Each of the top 10 infrastructure projects costs over 50 billion yuan (US$7.41 billion).

While former Chinese President Hu Jintao has kept low-key, his son Hu Haifeng has appeared in public several times recently. On January 15, the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee’s “Zhejiang Daily” published Hu Haifeng’s “Working hard to build a clean and beautiful water of Haiyan River Qing”. The article said that it is necessary to continue the anti-corruption campaign and officials should live simply. On January 30, Hu Haifeng, who is Secretary of the Lishui Municipal Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, expressed his condolences to the provincial military region.

China's official news agency Xinhua on February 4, publicised that "Overseas Chinese were attentive to the speech of Chinese President Xi Jinping at the festival reception" held in Beijing on February 3, where he spokehighly of China's achievements in the past year and expecting a brighter future. Xi Jinping said "In the past year ... we have made efforts and achieved a lot." It noted that Xi Jinping had extended greetings to Chinese nationals of all ethnic groups, compatriots in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese on behalf of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council.

Executive Vice-Chairman of TAR Party Committee, Party Secretary of TAR CPPCC and President of the TAR Party school, Ding Yexian (Ethnicity: Han) went on an inspection tour to Drepung and Gaden Monasteries in Lhasa.

According to an announcement by the TAR Public Security Bureau, the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa will be opened only on 1st day of Tibetan New Year(Losar), Earth-Pig year (February 05-07) at 7am for a brief period of time for religious rituals and ‘tourists’. On other days of Losar, i.e on 6th -7th, the Jokhang will be closed.

FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress on January 30, that FBI is investigating Chinese economic espionage in nearly all of its 56 field offices around the country.

A White House map that excluded Taiwan from Chinese territory has caught the attention of internet users on the self-ruled island.

National Post (February 1) quoted Yuval Shavitt, an electrical-engineering expert at Tel Aviv University, as saying that China Telecom, a state-owned internet service provider that has two legally operating “points of presence” on Canadian soil had in 2016 secretly diverted Canadian internet traffic to China, particularly from Rogers subscribers in the Ottawa area says an Israeli cybersecurity specialist.

The China Great Wall Industry Corp. signed an agreement with Satellogic, a company based in Argentina and backed by Chinese financing, to launch 90 commercial Earth observation nano-satellites or micro-satellites by the end of 2020, via 5 or 6 dedicated Long March rocket flights. Satellogic has launched 8 satellites till now.

The CCP CC and State Council jointly approved the 2018-2035 master plan for Xiongan New Area, stressing that its creation is significant to high-quality development and the building of the modern economic system.

According to one official PRC estimate, Chinese citizens have US$ 21 trillion stashed overseas.

Human Rights Watch reported on February 1, that Qinghai’s Nangchen county in December 2018, published a ban notice entitled “Urgent notice concerning stopping illegal study classes in monasteries”, which describes informal classes run by monks as “ideological infiltration among the young,” “dangerous,” and “harmful” and calls on local officials and Chinese Communist Party cadres responsible for managing monasteries to “understand the harmful nature of monasteries running open schools,” and to stop them from doing so.

A constitutional law textbook written by Zhang Qianfan, a professor at Peking University known for his advocacy of constitutionalism and judicial reform and one of China's best-known reform-minded legal scholars, has been pulled from book shops.

The People’s Daily and the PLA Daily separately published commentaries praising Xi Jinping’s speech on January 25, on media integration and the Party’s news and public opinion work since the 18th Party Congress.

Han Zheng, PBSC member and Leader of the Leading Group for Promoting the Construction of the "Belt and Road", hosted a meeting of the "One Belt, One Road" Initiative in Beijing on January 31, when he claimed 'the principle of sharing has been highly recognised by countries along the route' and it is necessary to 'effectively respond to the challenges brought about by changes in the external environment'.

Xi Jinping, CCP CC General Secretary, presided over the meeting of the Political Bureau on January 25 to review the Reports of the Standing Committees of the CCP CC Political Bureau and of the National People's Congress.

Xinhua reported (February 1) that China has punished 3,021 people in a crackdown on organised crime and the local “protective umbrellas” that allow it to operate. It said China ordered 10 regions to take action against organised crime following a three-month inspection campaign last year.

The Hongkong based 'Mirror' reported on January 31, that Chinese scientists have launched a rocket from an unmanned submarine for the first time in history.

Wang Yang, PBSC member and Chairman of the CPPCC, chaired the 19th Bi-weekly Consultation Symposium of the 13th National Committee on January 28. Xinhua said the topic was IPR protection.

The South China Morning Post reported (January 29) that Li Chunsheng, head of the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department, disclosed that President Xi Jinping will visit Macau later this year for the 20th anniversary of the city’s reunification with China.

Keeping up the annual tradition, on January 28, Chinese President Xi Jinping met and extended Spring Festival greetings to leaders from non-Communist parties, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and personages without party affiliation.

South China Morning Post reported on January 22, that remarks by Giriraj Singh, India's Minister of State for Small Enterprises, at an investor summit in Gujarat that those countries did not have places where people were able to “gather to protest against the policies of the government” elicited a strong reaction in China after the media picked up on the story a few days later.

The South China Morning Post reported (January 25) that between the start of April and the end of December, 758 foreign aircraft that flew close to Japanese airspace were intercepted, an increase from 736 incidents in the same period a year before and the second-highest total on record.

Australian author Yang Hengjun, an Australian citizen and author, was reportedly seized on January 19 during a visit to China, as he attempted to board a flight from Guangzhuo to Shanghai.

The US financial news news service, Bloomberg reported (January 25) that a Chinese delegation including Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen and Vice Finance Minister Liao Min will arrive in Washington on January 28 to prepare for high-level trade talks led by Vice Premier Liu He.

On January 26, the South China Morning Post publicised that Professor Zhang Yongming from the State Key Laboratory of Controlled Shock Waves at Xian Jiaotong University in Shaanxi province, had released details of a new “energy rod” that China is planning to use to access its massive shale gas reserves in Sichuan province.

Alarmed at the policies of the US and West restricting Chinese companies from purchasing microchips, switches and semi-conductors, the Nikkei Asian Review reported (January 25) that “To address this risk, President Xi Jinping aims to increase China's semiconductor self-sufficiency to 40% in 2020 and 70% in 2025 as part of his ‘Made in China 2025’ initiative to modernize domestic industry.”

Microsoft Corp’s (MSFT.O) Bing search engine has officially been blocked in China on January 23, making it the latest foreign technology service to be shut down behind the country’s Great Firewall.

A document to guide reforms in Xiong’an New Area was issued by central authorities on January 24. The proposed new city of Xiong’an is in Hebei, 100 km south of Beijing.

PBSC member and Chairman of the CPPCC, Wang Yang, addressing the conference on Taiwan affairs on January 23, said the basic policy on Taiwan remains unchanged and called for efforts to promote the peaceful development of cross-Strait ties and the process toward peaceful reunification of the motherland.

An editorial in the Central Party School magazine 'Study Times' on January 23, by top Party theoretician Xin Ming elaborating on Xi Jinping's thinking said that the Party faces numerous risks to its rule on multiple fronts.

Xi Jinping wrote an article titled 'Strive to create a team of high-quality cadres who are loyal and clean', which was published in the January 15, 2019 issue of Qiu Shi (Seeking Truth).

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ended a four-day study session, attended by hundreds of top officials from across the country, on January 25.

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen, who was on a three day visit to Beijing, said Chinese President pledged 4 billion Yuan (US$ 588 million) as aid to be spread over 2019-2021.

Reuters reported that on January 17, Kyrgyz police detained more than a dozen people as they dispersed a hundreds-strong anti-Chinese rally in the capital, Bishkek, the biggest public protest to date in Central Asia against Beijing’s growing influence in the region.

Reacting to Canada's confirmation on January 22, that the US plans to proceed with a formal request to extradite Huawei chief financial officer Sabrina Meng Wanzhou, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China will take action in response to measures taken by the US.

The Party Secretary and President of the Supreme People's Court Zhou Qiang on January 17, attended a meeting of the Presidents of the National High Court and delivered a speech where he stressed that it is necessary to adhere to the spirit of Xi Jinping's socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.

China’s official news agency Xinhua in a feature article reported on January 20, that the Chinese military has significantly boosted its navy, air force and new strategic units and downsized its land-based army as part of a strategic shift designed to transform the People’s Liberation Army into a comprehensive modern force.

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned China's central and provincial leaders who had assembled in Beijing for a meeting on January 20, to be on high alert for “black swan” incidents amid a “complicated and sensitive external environment”.

A new assessment of China’s military power published by the department’s Defense Intelligence Agency suggests that Beijing is building up its military capabilities so that it will have a range of options to attack Taiwan if it decides to—and potentially the United States if it intervenes militarily.

With the completion of the US$ 1.9 billion Colombo Port City Development project, Sri Lanka handed over two-thirds of the new 269-hectare reclamation project, which is envisaged as the site of a new financial district, to China on a 99-year lease.

Mukesh Sharma, described as an editor with the People's Daily-owned Global Times on January 16, published an article recommending close India-China ties at a time when Sino-US ties are strained and "The US has almost declared China an enemy in its national defense strategy by calling it a strategic competitor."

Citing data released by China's Ministry of Commerce on January 14, the 21st Century Business Herald reported that China’s foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2018 hit a record high of US$134.97 billion, an increase of 3% from a year earlier.

Local media and Chinese military analysts were quoted by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (January 2) as saying that in December 2018, at least 38 Senior Colonels were promoted to the rank of Major General.

A specialised US Defence publication on January 8 described the next-generation cell-network technology, popularly called 5G, promises high speed, low latency, and high throughput and is a new frontier of rivalry in U.S.-China relations.

The Jamestown Foundation brief (January 18, 2019) reported on a recent 'key' change in the PLA Academy of Military Science (AMS) as part of Xi Jinping urging (Xinhua, July 19 2017) AMS, and other PLA Institutes, to adapt to the “new requirements of military scientific work” and to build a “world-class military scientific research institution”.

The Chinese military is expected to ramp up training in 2019, a year of rising geopolitical challenges and several key anniversaries.

76-year old Hu Deping, son of the late popular CCP CC General Secretary Hu Yaobang and former member of the CPPCC till 2013, spoke at a seminar in Beijing on January 16, hosted by the Hongfan Institute of Legal and Economic Studies mark the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up to and attended by former economic and policy advisers and academics.

The Asahi Shimbun on January 18, reported that the official website of China's Ministry of Public Security (MPS) reported on January 15, that Public Security Minister Zhao Kezhi had on January 15, cautioned China's police to "stress the prevention and resistance of 'color revolutions' and firmly fight to protect China's political security."

In a one-sentence statement on January 14, the Central Discipline Inspection Commission (CDIC) announced the dismissal and arrest of Zhao Zhengyong, former Party Secretary of Shaanxi province, saying he is the biggest “tiger” to be caught this year.

Reporting Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Tianjin, Xinhua (January 18) reported that he visited a service and administration station for veterans in the community and stressed that setting up institutions for veteran affairs is to enhance the management of veterans and better protect their welfare in order to make military service a publicly respected occupation.

Separately, on January 27, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. government announced it is blocking some of Huawei's exports from its U.S. R&D operations.

The National Cyber and Information Security Agency (Národní úřad pro kybernetickou a informační bezpečnost, NÚKIB) of the Czech Republic on December 17, called the use of software and hardware products of Huawei, ZTE, and their subsidiaries a “threat against information security.”

Polish public broadcaster reported (January 11) that Poland's counter-intelligence service has arrested Weijing Wang, @ Stanislaw Wang, a Chinese Sales Director of tech giant Huawei and a Polish former senior intelligence agent in Warsaw on suspicion of spying.

The U.S. and China deputy-level trade talks that concluded in Beijing on January 27, lasted one day longer than planned with both sides issuing vague but mildly positive official statements about the discussions.

Admiral John Richardson, US Chief of Naval Operations, was on a 3-day (January 13-15, 2019) visit to China.

Reuters, quoting 'policy sources', said China plans to set a lower economic growth target of 6-6.5 percent in 2019 compared with last year’s target of “around” 6.5 percent.”

The official Global Times reported (January 11) that Qizhala, Chairman of the TAR Regional Government said in his government work report to the second session of the 11th People's Congress of the Tibet Autonomous Region on January 10, that TAR's GDP in 2018 was estimated to have exceeded 140 billion yuan (US$ 21 billion).

The CDIC announced on January 12, that Chen Gang, a former Vice Mayor of Beijing in 2006, has been arrested for corruption. He had headed the municipal urban planning committee, which approves and supervises construction projects, since 2002.

Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee and Chinese President and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, while addressing the third plenary session (January 11-12, 2019) of the 19th Central Discipline Inspection Commission Inspection (CDIC) called for consolidating and developing a "sweeping victory" in the fight against corruption.

The Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry press office, in an email response to the Wall Street Journal on January 9, confirmed Kazakh media reports in December that China has agreed to let 2,000-plus ethnic Kazakhs leave. It did not say who could leave or why. It said they will be allowed to apply for Kazakh citizenship or permanent residency after their arrival in Kazakhstan. The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

The CCP's official newspaper People's Daily reported that former Thailand Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was named the Chairwoman of the Shantou International Container Terminal in Guangdong province. The brief article said she was also appointed the firm’s legal representative.

CHINA-TAIWAN: RETIRED PLA GENERAL HE LEI WARNS TAIWAN 'INDEPENDENCE SEPARATISTS' WOULD BE CLASSIFIED AS 'WAR CRIMINALS' IF THEY DON'T PULL BACK
Former Vice President PLA Academy of Military Science and retired General He Lei said at a press conference of the State Council Information Office that "The very few "Taiwan-independence" separatists would be classified as war criminals that must be punished if the Chinese mainland is forced to deal with the Taiwan question by force.

70-year old Liu Yongtan, a Professor with the Department of Electric and Information Engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology, received China’s top science award from President Xi Jinping at a national ceremony on January 8.

Commodore Zhang Junshe, a member of the Naval Research Institute, was quoted by Japan's Jiji press on January 9 as saying that China needs “at least three aircraft carriers” to protect its extensive coastline and its interests abroad.

China's official Global Times quoted the state--broadcaster CCTV on January 9, as publicising that the 4500-kms range anti-ship ballistic missile the DF-26 has been deployed to Northwest China's plateau and desert areas.

Global Times reported on January 7, 2019 that a notice issued by the public security bureau in Shaoguan, Guangdong province, on December 28, stated that a man, surnamed Zhu, was fined 1,000 yuan ($150) for using a virtual private network — a tool for encrypting online data traffic.

CHINA-INTERNAL: PEKING UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR CALLS FOR CCP TO FADE OUT OF POWER WHILE ANOTHER QUESTIONS XI JINPING'S SPEECH ON TAIWAN
Radio France International reported on January 8, 2019, that Peking University Professor Zheng Yefu, had in a recent article pointed out that the interests of the Communist Party of China are inconsistent with the fundamental interests of the Chinese people in most cases. He said he firmly believes that "the only hope that the leaders of the Communist Party of China can make in the future is to lead the party to decently fade out of the historical arena." Zheng Yefu said to his colleagues: "If we don't make a sound and don't exert pressure, we shouldn't, we don't deserve to see the end of the autocratic regime.

The ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, affiliated with the Singapore government, recently polled 1,008 respondents from all ten nations of the ASEAN grouping across different sections of society to gauge attitudes towards the BRI.

The China-India Yoga College was jointly created by China’s Yunnan Minzu University and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations.

Vice Ministerial level talks between China and the US began today and are being led on the US side by Deputy US Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish.

The official Global Times reported (January 7) that China lodged a protest against the US guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell conducting FONOPS near the Xisha Islands on January 7, 2019.

China's authoritative official news agency Xinhua and official newspaper Global Times on January 8, reported that Kim Jong-un is visiting Beijing from January 7 until January 10, 2019 at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

China Military News on January 4, reported Pakistani spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor announcing on January 2 & 3, that the Pakistan Army had shot down a UAV used by the Indian military for the second time in two days on the Pakistani side of the Satwal area.

The WeChat account of the Chengdu Aircraft Research and Design Institute, a design facility of the Chengdu Aircraft Industrial Co, announced on January 7, 2019 that China's home-grown turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC) engine system has completed its design and development stage and entered the aircraft-engine integration test phase.

The Central Military Commission (CMC) General Office released “Opinions on the Implementation of Further Encouraging Military Cadres to Take on New Responsibilities and take New Actions in a New Era” (关于进一步激励全军广大干部新时代新担当新作为的实施意见).

A People’s Daily editorial on December 30, 2018 on the Central Rural Work Conference said it had concluded that it is necessary to adhere to the development of agriculture and rural areas, deeply implement the rural revitalization strategy, resolutely win the battle against poverty, and earnestly do “three rural issues” (agriculture, rural areas, and farmers) work well.

Following the annual Central Economic Work Conference last month, the government said it will “channel more energy into weak areas, including infrastructure.”

People’s Daily published an editorial on the first day of 2019 that reflected the achievements of 2018 and outlines the challenges of coming year.

In an article in the January 1, 2019 issue of the Party theoretical journal Qiushi (Seeking Truth), Central Propaganda Department Head Huang Kunming (黄坤明) discussed strengthening propaganda and ideological work in the new year, specifically by strengthening the “four forces” (四力) of propaganda work: the foot, the eye, the brain, and the pen.

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at an event commemorating the 40th anniversary of the 1979 “Open Letter to Taiwan Compatriots.”

Xi Jinping chaired a meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC) convened on January 7, 2019, to hear work reports from the Party’s Central Secretariat, as well as Party groups from the: State Council; National People’s Congress ; Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC); Supreme People's Court ; and Supreme People's Procuratorate.

International Department Vice Minister Qian Hongshan on December 8, met a delegation of political parties of western Pakistan led by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) Secretary General and Senate Committee on Religious Affairs and Inter-Faith Harmony Chairman Abdul Ghafoor Haideri.

The People’s Daily used its Zhong Sheng column, which authoritatively transmits the opinions of the People’s Daily on matters of international affairs, on December 9, to denounce Canada’s detention of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou at the behest of the United States.

Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) Party Committee Executive Deputy Secretary Ding Yexian (丁业现) led a CCP delegation to Austria on December 8, 2018, to meet with Austria-China Friendly Association President and former President of Austria Heinz Fischer.

The official Global Times on January 3, published an article by three Mainland Chinese scholars on the best way to realise reunification with Taiwan.

Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) elected Mr Cho Jung-tai, a consensus candidate backed by major party figures, as its new Chairman on Jan 6, thereby choosing a moderate to fill up the post vacated by President Tsai Ing-wen after the party’s disappointing performance in recent polls.

A People’s Daily commentator article on December 10, addressed protests by Chinese veterans this year against the lack of job prospects for retired soldiers and inadequate services.

General Xu Qiliang, CMC Vice Chairman and Executive Deputy Head of the CMC Leading Group for Deepening Reform on National Defense and the Armed Forces, presided over the fourth meeting of the leading group on December 18.

The official Global Times reported on January 6, that China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and 11 other government agencies, have said China will step up its supervision on the rare-earth sector and vows to impose severe penalties on those illegally mine, produce or export rare-earth materials and fully realize the "strategic support" from rare-earth materials.

The annual Central Economic Work Conference was held in Beijing from December 19-21, 2018. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivered important speeches at the conference.

CCP CC General Secretary and Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated the opening of the Academy of Chinese History Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in a letter on January 3, 2019. Huang Kunming, PB member for Propaganda attended.

Global Affairs Canada spokesman Guillaume Bérubé said (January 4) in a statement to The Globe and Mail that the government is aware that 13 Canadians have been detained in China, excluding Hong Kong, since December 1, 2018.

Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeff Gerrish, who will be 50 years old this year, will next week lead a delegation that includes U.S. Treasury Undersecretary for International Affairs David Malpass and other officials to China for the first round of face-to-face talks since President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed on December 1, to a ceasefire in a trade war that has led to tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of U.S. and Chinese goods.

The People's Daily and Xinhua on January 2, 2019 publicised a statement issued by China's Ministry of Natural Resources announcing that China had set up ecological protection facilities on three reefs of the Nansha Islands, namely the Yongshu, Zhubi and Meiji reefs.

An article jointly authored by Dr Zha Daojiong, Professor of International Political Economy at the School of International Studies, Peking University and Dr Dong Ting, Post-Doctoral Fellow at the School of International Studies, Peking University, was published on January 3, 2019 by the South China Morning Post to mark the 15th anniversary of the Asean-China strategic partnership.

Radio Free Asia reported on December 31, 2018 that China has imprisoned 879 'prisoners of conscience' in its jails in 2018.

The South China Morning Post reported on December 31, that the closure of three mosques in the villages of Huihuideng, Sanjia and Mamichang in Weishan County was coordinated by the Weishan County Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee to “protect harmony and stability in the religious domain”.

The South China Morning Post reported (January 2) that the number of children born in China in 2018 is expected to have dropped to the lowest level since 2000 after a year that “will be remembered as a historical turning point for Chinese population”, signalling a “demographic crisis” that threatens already struggling economic growth prospects.

Beyondsoft' is a Beijing-based tech services company that, among other businesses, takes on the censorship burden for other companies.

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) on January 4, announced a 1-percentage-point reduction in the required reserves for commercial banks to stall flagging growth.

Reuters reported that on December 29, 2018, the social network circulated that "China's 100 public intellectuals published "Reform and Open" for 40 years".

The Global Times (January 4) reported that Chinese President and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) Xi Jinping had on January 4, 2019, signed a mobilization order for the training of the armed forces, the CMC's first order in 2019, which demands all PLA units to welcome the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China with "excellent performance."

China's official 'The Paper' on December 28, reported that Xi Jinping chaired a Political Bureau meeting on December 27, and reviewed the “Regulations on the Political and Legal Work of the Party.”

The PRC State Council announced (December 28, 2018) the appointment of 61-year old former Vice Commerce Minister Fu Ziying as Director of the central government’s Liaison Office in Macau.

An article in the Washington Post on December 27, highlighted the efforts of Chris Smith, a Republican, representing New Jersey in the U.S. House of Representatives, to dissuade the Vatican from seeking a form of accommodation with Beijing despite its ongoing anti-religion campaign.

In an article published in the latest issue of World Affairs, a journal controlled by the Chinese foreign ministry, Wang Jisi, President of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies at Peking University, observed that a clash of civilisations was at the heart of the bitter geostrategic competition between the world’s top two economies.

The official Global Times on January 1, 2019, reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump 'exchanged congratulations on the 40th anniversary of the establishment of China-US diplomatic relations' on January 1.

The BBC reported (December 31) that China is set to overtake Japan as the United Nations' second biggest funding country for the next three years and the development is fuelling nationalistic opinions in the media of both countries.

Chinese Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Han Changfu said at a work conference said on December 30, that China will produce at least 600 million tonnes of grain in 2019.

The South China Morning Post reported (December 31) that Chinese President Xi Jinping had on December 18, summoned a grand gathering to mark the 40th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping’s landmark reform and opening up, which was attended by the most important Communist Party cadres, entrepreneurs and Olympic champions.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's New Year message telecast (January 1, 2019) on the state-owned CGTN was devoted to listing China's achievements including the number of counties and people lifted out of poverty.

Asahi Shimbun reported on December 27, that Wang Jianfeng, President of Huawei Technologies Japan KK, in an exclusive interview with The Asahi Shimbun on December 27, disclosed that Huawei Technologies Co. is holding talks with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and is cooperating with the Japanese government and bolstering purchases of parts in Japan to ease concerns that its products could be used in espionage or cyber-attacks by Beijing.

Chinese Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, at a press briefing on December 25, criticised France for siding with its “allies”, as the list of countries calling for the release of two Canadians detained in China continues to grow.

Global Affairs reported on December 29, that Sarah McIver of Alberta who was detained over a work permit issue related to her teaching job has been released and she has returned to Canada.

Korea's JoongAng Daily said on December 29, that Seoul lodged a protest after a Chinese PLA Air Force (PLAAF) Shaanxi Y-9JB electronic warfare and surveillance aircraft flew through South Korea’s air defense identification zone (Kadiz) without notice three times over the course of five hours on December 27.

The official newspaper 'The Paper' reported (December 27) that China has made major breakthroughs in important indicators for measuring overall national strength, namely the scale of social net wealth and GDP.

On November 25, China's official CCTV Channel 9 released a 42-minute documentary captioned "Human, Our Story", publicly acknowledging "Jesus, the process that affects the entire history".

BBC reported on December 25, that the Chinese authorities have issued a notice prohibiting traders from using Christmas decorations and students in many Chinese universities and primary and secondary schools from discussing Christmas-related content on social media.

Qiu Zhanxuan, head of the Peking University Marxist Society, was grabbed and forced into a black car outside the east gate of Peking University by a group of heavy-set men who identified themselves as police, according to students quoted by Reuters on December 28.

Xinhua on December 27, disclosed that China's 25 Politburo members "were asked to conduct criticism and self-criticism in light of work experience" during two sessions of the Politburo on December 25 and 26 both of which were chaired by Xi Jinping.

The state-owned Global Times on December 27, quoted runsky.com, a website run by the Dalian Radio and Television Station which reported that Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, a Canadian citizen, will be put on trial by Liaoning Provincial High People’s Court on drug smuggling charges.

Gallup’s 2018 Most Admired Man list showed that Americans love the Dalai Lama and he ranks eighth on the list of the most admired men in the world.

Taiwan's Central News Agency reported (December 23) that Retired PLA Navy Rear Admiral Luo Yuan, who is presently Deputy Secretary General of the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences, while speaking at a meeting in Shenzhen on December 20 on the current Sino–U.S. relationship, claimed the US-China trade war “is definitely not a simple economic and trade friction” but an “important strategic issue.”

The official Global Times published (December 26, 2018) a year-end roundup of China's foreign policy. It claimed "China went through a warm year in 2018 as there was no crisis-level conflict between China and its neighbouring countries. Those who once had tense relations with China are now moving closer to Beijing."  

The South China Morning Post (December 28) reported that 59-year old Chen Hongtian, a self-made Chinese billionaire, Chairman of the Cheung Kei Group and member of the CPPCC, warned a group of about 150 tycoons mostly based in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, that a winter “colder and longer than expected” is arriving for China’s private business entrepreneurs and Beijing’s supportive rhetoric has yet to translate into concrete policies that will help the private economy.

On December 16, Prof. Xiang Songzuo (向松祚) of Renmin University School of Finance and former Chief Economist of China Agriculture Bank, gave a 25-minute speech during a CEO class at Renmin Business School , which was immediately censored over the Chinese internet.

Xinhua reported on December 23, that a draft law on foreign investment was submitted to a bimonthly session of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee on December 23.

China officially announced (December 27) that after four years in detention, Ma Jian, former Vice Minister of China’s Ministry of State Security and head of China’s counter-espionage operations, was tried on December 27, at Dalian Intermediate Court where he was fined 50.5 million yuan.

China issued a second travel advisory in three months warning tourists against visiting Sweden because of “the security situation in Sweden”.

South China Morning Post reported (December 22) that RoK Foreign Ministry spokesman Noh Kyu-duk had the previous week confirmed that Seoul plans to overhaul its diplomatic focus on China by establishing a separate bureau in its foreign ministry entirely dedicated to China affairs.

Quoting sources the Yomiuri Shimbun on December 23, disclosed that China's Minister of State Security Chen Wenqing visited Japan in late October through early November to meet secretly with senior Japanese officials from the Public Security Intelligence Agency and intelligence authorities, as well as the Foreign Ministry.

Xinhua reported on December 21, that Chinese President Xi Jinping had sent a congratulatory message on the holding of the first meeting of China-India high-level people-to-people exchanges mechanism in India's capital New Delhi.

China’s Central Economic Work Conference (CEWC) concluded on December 21, in Beijing.

On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Mao Zedong’s speeches, the state-run People’s Publishing House decided to republish the collection of speeches that Mao Zedong gave in 1938.

President Xi Jinping’s speech at the grand gathering in Beijing on December 18, to mark China’s 40th anniversary of reform and opening up, belied expectations that he would announce substantive measures to defuse the trade war with the United States and outline plans to overhaul the economy.

The Japanese Nikkei newspaper (December 21) reported that Sharpe, a subsidiary of the Hon Hai Precision Industry and the Zhuhai Municipal Government of China's Guangdong Province are constructing a semi-conductor factory a a 1 trillion yen state-of-the-art semiconductor plant.

The Maritime Executive on December 20, disclosed that in a recent report Kenya's Auditor General had warned that Kenya runs the risk of losing control of the Port of Mombasa if it should default on loans from state financial institution China Exim Bank.

The Asahi Shimbun reported on December 21 that Nippon Express Co., a leading Japanese shipping firm conducted a trial run on December 20 on the exclusive China Railway Express freight train as a pilot program. The train cars used in the trial run are about 12 meters long.

Writing in the New York Times (December 19, 2018) Maria Abi-Habib said that according to the undisclosed proposal drawn up by the Pakistani Air Force and Chinese officials at the start of the year, a special economic zone under CPEC would be created in Pakistan to produce a new generation of fighter jets.

The state-owned Global Times on December 20, castigated the 'Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act of 2018', signed into law by US President Trump on December 19.

The Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman for the Southern District of New York, Director Christopher A. Wray of the FBI, Director Dermot F. O’Reilly of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) of the U.S. Department of Defense, and Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers on December 20, unsealed an indictment charging Zhu Hua (朱华), aka Afwar, aka CVNX, aka Alayos, aka Godkiller; and Zhang Shilong (张士龙), aka Baobeilong, aka Zhang Jianguo, aka Atreexp, both PRC nationals with conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

The Catholic News Service on December 17, reported that a group of Vatican officials led by Pope Francis' chief China negotiator, Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli had recently visited Beijing for talks regarding joint recognition by the Vatican and CCP-run Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association of a group of Vatican-appointed bishops from the so-called underground church.

The Chinese economic journal Caixin reported that the government of Heze , a fourth-tier city in Shandong province, announced on December 18, that that it will relax property controls from the following day.

On December 20, Liu Guoqiang, Deputy Governor of the People's Bank of China (PBoC) and Deputy Director of the Office of the Financial Stability Development Committee of the State Council, presided over symposiums of some commercial banks, securities companies, insurance institutions, trust companies and fund companies to listen to the views on the current capital market reform and development.

China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has ordered authorities in Guangdong province to stop producing a regional Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector as it seeks to control the flow of sensitive economic data.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's wife Qian Wei's application for a visa to Canada was reportedly not accepted by the authorities.

A Global Times editorial on December 16, said "By calling on its allies, the US has gradually formed a collective encirclement and suppression of Chinese high-tech enterprise Huawei" and described it as "a wicked precedent."

Hu Xijin, editor of the Global Times, said in a video posted on December 12, that Canada can expect retaliation “far worse” than the detainment of a former diplomat if Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou isn’t released.

AsiaNews reported on December 13 that Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli went to Beijing as special envoy of Pope Francis to “accept” the resignations of the bishops of the Underground Catholic Church for the dioceses of Mindong, Mgr.

An unconfirmed report from Bowen news claimed (November 30) that the Fourth Plenum of the 19th CCP CC was postponed due to tension in the military. It said Wu Shengli, Cai Yingting and Wang Hongyu were arrested on the same day.

In a statement after its meeting on December 13, the party’s top 25-member decision-making body, the Politburo, said “the fight against corruption has achieved a crushing (overwhelming) victory” since the 19th party congress late last year. At the same time it warned that the situation ahead was still tough and the fight must go on.

Reuters reported (December 12) that on December 12, China purchased Soybean worth at least US$ 180 million. This was the first purchase after US President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a trade war truce at the G-20 at Rio.

Reuters quoted China's premier auto industry association as acknowledging on December 13, that China's automobile sales fell about 14 percent in November from a year earlier, marking the steepest such drop in nearly seven years in the world's largest auto market. The drop in sales to 2.55 million vehicles, a fifth straight decline in monthly numbers, comes against a backdrop of slowing economic growth and a crippling China-U.S. trade war. It was the steepest decline since January 2012, when the timing of the Lunar New Year holiday hurt auto sales.

According to figures released by the Ministry of Commerce on December 13, Foreign Investment in China fell sharply in November as concerns over the tariff battle between China and the United States hit investor confidence. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the month fell 27.6 per cent year on year to US$13.6 billion. The slide came despite Beijing making the stabilisation of foreign investment one of its top economic policy priorities. Although even before November, the FDI growth rate had being slowing for the past three months, hitting a four-month low of 7.3 per cent in October.

Indications are that the 'Made in China 2025' plan for upgrading China's technological capabilities is being reworked ahead of the Central Economic Work Conference scheduled for December 19. The US pressure appears to be responsible.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Hao said at the regular press briefing on December 13 that "two Canadian citizens have been subject to compulsory measures by the Chinese side because they are suspected of engaging in activities that endanger China's national security". She said Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor "are suspected of engaging in activities that endanger the national security of the People's Republic of China."

Data released by AI Index on December 12, revealed that more than 87% of the world’s AI research comes from academia, and that new initiatives in China have dramatically increased the amount of research directly affiliated with the Chinese government.

National Interest cited a recent PLA Daily report on November 24, 2018 as saying that Chinese pilots are training for urban warfare. It added this suggests that the People's Liberation Army is reorienting itself toward a different kind of warfare.

The official China Military Online quoted Dai Xu, President of China's Institute of Marine Safety and Cooperation, as saying in a discussion on December 8, during a discussion on the topic 'What Lies ahead for the South China Sea Issue and the Taiwan Question' that, if a US warship illegally enters into Chinese territorial waters again, two Chinese warships should be sent, one to stop it and the other to bump against and sink it, adding, "In China's territorial waters, we won't allow US warships to run amok."

South China Morning Post reported (December 14) that PLA Major General Meng Xiangqing, who specialises in national security at the PLA’s National Defence University, said at at a rare media briefing organised by China's National Defence University (NDU) in Beijing on December 13, that China will not let nationalist sentiment hijack its policymaking as it continues its peaceful rise.

The Global Times (December 12) in another article said while Canada has freed Meng Wanzhou on bail, but the Huawei executive deserves to be given back her freedom by the courts, bringing closure to the fraught legal saga. It pointed out that the Canadian judge had observed that Meng Wanzhou has no criminal record in China and elsewhere adding that her release should depend also on Canada's obligations to China.

The authorities have taken severe action for committing a "serious violent crime" against 10 of the hundreds of People's Liberation Army (PLA) veterans who protested in Pingdu City, Shandong Province during the National Day holiday this year to fight for post-retirement treatment. The official identified the case as a “serious violent crime” and took criminal enforcement measures against ten of them. The official media condemned the veterans involved in affecting social stability.

Li Wei, a professor at the National Defense University, in a report published in the China Youth Daily revealed on November 29, 2018 the first details of China's new armed reconnaissance drone, the GJ-2, following its debut at the Airshow China 2018 earlier this month. Made by the Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute under the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, the GJ-2 is a medium-to-high altitude armed unmanned reconnaissance aerial vehicle intended to to enhance China's border patrol and counter-terrorism efforts. Installed with a turboprop engine, the aircraft can reach a top speed of 370 kilometers an hour at an altitude of 9,000 meters, and can stay in the air for 20 hours.

An article in Epoch Times (December 6) claimed that much of China’s innovation is in areas that it can’t effectively steal or reverse engineer technology. Much of its own breakthroughs have been with rockets and missiles.

The New York Times reported on December 10, that Chinese police on December 9, arrested Wang Yi, a prominent pastor and head of the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu along with 100 members of hIs congregation. (Comment: The Early Rain Covenant Church has about 500 followers. It attracts more than 800 church-goers on a weekly basis and also has about 100 seminary students and a primary school catering to about 40 children.)

A young man in his 20s named Drugkho was reported by Radio Free Asia on December 9, to have self-immolated on December 8 in Ngaba county. The self-immolator belonged to Soruma Village in the same county. (Comment: This is the third instance of self-immolation by a Tibetan in Tibet this year.)

The Office of the Central Commission on Comprehensively Deepening Reform and the CCP CC Propaganda Department have produced a political documentary, the first episode of which ran on December 11 night. It is called 'The Only Path' (必由之路).

Xinhua on December 9, quoted the latest report by Bloomberg Intelligence (BI) saying that China's core AI industry could exceed US$ 145 bn by 2030 with that of AI-enabled industries more than 10 trillion yuan. Titled "China's great tech leap forward", the report said that China's push to commercialize AI technologies, supported by the rollout of the world's biggest 5G network, could position the country as a global leader for technology and innovation. The report said "Based on the growth trajectory in the past decade, China may overtake the U.S. in global technology-patents share by 2025". AI-related industries may exceed 6 percent of China's GDP by 2030. According to Tsinghua University, private funding for Chinese AI-related companies in 2017 totaled 27.7 billion dollars, equivalent to 70 percent of global investments in the industry. Data showed China's cumulative venture-capital investments in AI startups had already caught up with the United States by 2016.

General Wang Ruilin, former Deputy Head of the People’s Liberation Army’s General Political Department, passed away at the PLA’s General Hospital in Beijing on December 8, 2018 morning. He was a close aide of Deng Xiaoping.

An article in the Journal of Higher Education highlighted that by 2016, Hanban, a propaganda arm of the Chinese government, had successfully established Confucius Institutes (CIs) at 15% of the largest institutions of higher education, including some of the most prestigious institutions, and in almost every state across the United States.

China's state-owned Global Times on December 9, observed that the bail hearing of 46-year old Ms Sabrina Meng Wanzhou, Chief Financial Officer of Huawei Technologies and daughter and possible successor of Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei, had been deferred, but cited a source as saying "she has been subjected to rude and degrading treatment", was handcuffed and that the Canadian detention facility is not offering her the necessary health care.

The International Campaign for Tibet reported on December 3, that in a nationwide campaign in China against so-called “illegal content,” Chinese authorities are offering rewards to those who inform on others suspected of reading or speaking about, for instance, foreign newspaper articles or broadcasts about Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

A World Bank report released (December 8) stated that India will retain its position as the world’s top recipient of remittances this year with its diaspora sending $80 billion back home and it is followed by China ($67 billion), Mexico and the Philippines ($34 billion each) and Egypt ($26 billion).

The People's Daily on December 6, publicised on the occasion of the International Anti-Corruption Day, the statement of the International Anti-Corruption Coordination Group's Office of International Pursuit and Recovery, which claimed that the “Skynet” operation, launched since March 2015, has netted more than 4,833 people from more than 120 countries and regions, including 995 national staff and more than 10.3 billion yuan of assets. It also said that China has signed 54 extradition treaties and 63 criminal justice assistance treaties with 71 countries.

According to Duowei News (December 5, 2018), in October 2018, the hometown of the Chinese Communist Marshal Lin Biao put up a statue in his honour in Baiyang Mountain, Huilong Town, Tuanfeng County, Huanggang City, Hubei Province.

The South China Morning Post on November 11, said a referendum is to be held in Taiwan on November 24, asking whether Taiwan should compete in the next Summer Olympics -- 2020 Games in Tokyo -- and other international sporting events under that name, rather than “Chinese Taipei” – a title that has been used since 1981. The referendum is among 10 such votes being held alongside the island’s local government elections on November 24, but is the only one so far condemned by Beijing as a prelude of the island’s attempt to declare independence and change the cross-strait status quo – a move the mainland has said would lead to its attack.

Taiwan police recently arrested eight members of the pro-Beijing China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP). Reports suggest the PRC is channeling significant amounts of money through some fringe organizations such as the China Unification Promotion Party (CCUP), led by former Bamboo Union gagster Chang An-le.

A Haaretz report of November 9, recalled it had reported two months ago that, at a conference with their Israeli counterparts, retired American Admirals warned that Washington was simply astonished at Israel’s decision to award major infrastructure projects, including the construction of a civilian port in Haifa, to Chinese companies. Somebody even suggested that the U.S. Sixth Fleet might steer clear of the Israel Navy base in Haifa because of the Chinese involvement in building a civilian port there.It said based on conversations with ministers and other top officials, it now turns out that the Israelis were amazed at the intensity of their American counterparts’ ire on the matter.

President Donald Trump's daughter and senior advisor, Ivanka Trump, last month won initial approval from the Chinese government for 16 new trademarks, covering a wide range of products that include "voting machines".

Xinhua reported (November 11) that Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan met with former U.S. Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger on November 10, calling on the two nations to properly solve differences and further promote bilateral ties in the future. During their meeting at the Zhongnanhai leadership compound in downtown Beijing, Wang Qishan said the China-U.S. relationship has had its share of ups and downs since the two countries forged diplomatic ties nearly four decades ago, yet it has generally moved forward.

The U.S.-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue (D&SD) is meeting in Washington, D.C. on November 11. U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Secretary of Defense James Mattis are hosting two key diplomats, Yang Jiechi and Wei Fenghe. Yang Jechi is the Director of the Office of Foreign Affairs of the Central Commission of the Communist Party of China and Wei Fenghe is the Minister of National Defense.

Reuters reported on November 12 that at least 12 Chinese labor activists have gone missing in recent days, in what sources close to them believe was a coordinated effort by authorities to silence the vocal group. Most of them are university students or recent graduates. Authorities took away at least nine activists in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen on November 9, and three more activists were taken away on November 11 in the city of Wuhan. At least five are graduates of Peking University.

Lin Rui has been appointed Vice Minister of Public Security. Lin Rui spent most of his career in Fujian, including as police chief and Deputy Mayor in Xiamen, and moved to Beijing in June as an Assistant Minister, a member of the ministry's Communist Party Committee, and head of the Cybersecurity Bureau. Lin Rui is regarded as one of Xi’ Jinpings trusted allies, having worked for many years in southeast China’s Fujian province, where the president spent 17 years during the earlier stages of his political career.

According to a statement issued on its website on November 5, the Fairbank Center of Harvard University said a visiting delegation of leading scholars from the Unirule Institute of Economics — China’s top independent think tank, based in Beijing — which it planned to host for a series of roundtable discussions this week had been prevented from coming.

Alexander Mikheev, director general of Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state arms seller, said it signed three more weapons contracts with China during the Zhuhai Airshow in China’s Guangdong province. He said “Rosoboronexport expects that participation in the exhibition will give further impetus to the positive trend in Russian-Chinese relations in the field of military-technical cooperation".

Ma Jian, a US-based exiled Chinese writer was debarred from giving two lectures at the International Literary Festival in Hongkong on November 8.

A Taiwanese e-sports team competing against a Japanese team in the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2019 was disqualified on November 8, 2018, because they declined to play under the nomenclature "China region".

A 23-year old Tibetan man, Dorbe from Jakorma (Chinese: Xiakunma) village in the pastoral Choejema (Chinese: Qiujima) township of Ngaba county (Chinese: Aba) Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province, set himself on fire on November 4 in Amdo, saying “May the Dalai Lama live long! May we soon behold his golden countenance!” Images that emerged depicted the young Tibetan man beside a nomad tent in traditional Tibetan dress.

The Financial Times published a photograph of Mao Yongqing, Head of the 28th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group, which develops electronic warfare technology for the People’s Liberation Army and Yin Shiming, Vice President of Cloud Computing at Baidu, one of China’s privately owned internet groups at a conference in Nanjing.

The South China Morning Post reported on November 8, that the Beijing Institute of Technology has recruited 31 ‘patriotic’ youngsters straight from high school to begin training as the world’s youngest AI weapons scientists in a new AI weapons development programme.

The Chinese Academy of Cyberspace Studies, an institute affiliated with the Cyberspace Administration of China, said in its second annual World Internet Development Report released on November 8, that China’s comprehensive internet development ranked No 2 in a group of 45 countries. Yang Shuzhen, the head of the academy, said at a press conference on November 8, at the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, China, that China has become a big country in terms of internet development but its development is still imbalanced. the Chinese report said while the US leads the world in innovation, industry development and security, it took eighth place in internet governance, behind countries like the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland.

Professor Gan Li of Chengdu’s Southwestern University of Finance and Economics said a nationwide study on November 9, which is soon to be published, will show roughly 22 percent of China’s urban housing stock is unoccupied. He said that adds up to more than 50 million empty homes. He added “There’s no other single country with such a high vacancy rate.”

China’s Customs data showed (November 8) that crude oil imports rose to all-time high on a daily basis in October, supported by record demand from private refiners and healthy margins. Data from the General Administration of Customs showed that imports in October surged 32 percent from a year earlier to 40.80 million tonnes, or 9.61 million barrels per day (bpd), climbing from 9.05 million bpd in September.

Also on November 8, the State Council General Office released the "Notice on Implementing Policies to Improve the Operating Environment and Focus on the Concerns of Business."

Guo Shuqing, Chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, spoke to the media on November 8 after People's Bank of China (PBoC) Governor Yi Gang did the rounds of the media on November 6. Caixin reported that Guo Shuqing, well known as a firebrand who speaks his mind, outlined an ambitious plan which "suggested a goal that no less than 50% of new corporate loans go to private companies in the next three years"; and "at least a third of big banks’ new corporate loans and at least two-thirds of small and medium-sized banks’ new corporate loans should go to the private sector." Separately, Liu Shiyu, Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, is also trying to step up support and called the chief economists of China’s major brokerages to a meeting and told them to talk favourably about the economy.

With an eye on India's fast growing white goods market expected to grow at an annual rate of 6 percent to 7 percent and reach 700 billion Indian rupees by 2019, Fang Hongbo, the Chairman of China's Midea Group said India is "a key market for our global strategy" and the group will invest 13.5 billion Indian rupees ($185.1 million) in Supa Parner, Pune to set up a 270,000-square-meter technology park there. Once put into production, it will have an annual production capacity of 500,000 units of refrigerators, washing machines, water purifiers and water heaters.

On October 27, 2018, the People's Daily's Zhong Sheng column said on the basis of "mutually partnering with each other and not posing a threat", China and Japan will further tap potential and strengthen cooperation, which will bring more benefits to the two countries and their peoples.

At the first China International Import Expo, which opened in Shanghai on November 2, Sina.com reported that 10 companies affiliated to China Aerospace Science and Technology Group Co., Ltd. and 13 companies from 11 countries and regions around the world signed 16 projects worth nearly 5 billion RMB. The procurement contract or agreement covers a wide range of fields including aviation logistics, new materials, advanced sensing, new energy, and special equipment.

On November 6, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met leaders of six multilateral economic bodies namely, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim; International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde; World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Roberto Azevedo; OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria; Financial Stability Board Chairman Mark Carney; and International Labor Organization Deputy Director-General Deborah Greenfield.

China convened its Fifth World Buddhist Forum Convened in Putian, Fujian on October 29, 2018. CPPCC Chairman and PBSC member Wang Yang sent a letter of congratulations.

People's Daily on November 5, announced that restructuring plans of 29 provinces had been approved by the central authorities. Almost all of China’s 31 provincial governments have announced re-organization plans.

China Digital Times reported on November 7, that Yang Kai and Zhu Shunqing, both members of the unofficial student Marxist group at Nanjing University, were among the leaders of protests on campus which drew a crowd of more than 100 people, according to video footage. Yang Kai, a fourth-year software engineering major at Nanjing University, was shoved and dragged on the ground before being bundled away by unidentified men, according to a classmate and fellow member of Nanjing’s Marxist student society who requested anonymity.

The People's Daily on November 2, reported that the CCP CC released its 2018-2022 plan for National Cadre Education and Training (2018-2022年全国干部教育培训规划). A People’s Daily commentator published an article praising the plan as “being of great and profound significance to thoroughly implementing the Party’s construction and organizational line in the new era, cultivating a team of high-quality and professionalized cadres who are loyal, clean, and responsible, and ensuring the Party has successors to carry on its undertaking.”

South China Morning Post reported on October 30, that 74-year Deng Pufang, the crippled son of Deng Xiaoping and Chairman of the China Disabled Persons Federation, had on September 16, delivered a speech in the presence of all 7 PBSC members where, after praising Xi Jinping, he said “The reform and opening-up policy brought about earth-shaking changes to China – comprehensive changes in politics, economy, society and culture.

The following appointments were announced between October 27 and November 2, 2018: Ma Yongsheng (马永生) was appointed President of Sinopec; Xu Qiang (徐强) was appointed a board member of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation and Deputy Secretary of its Party leadership group; Gong Bo (龚波) was appointed a Deputy General Manager of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation and a member of its Party leadership group; and Shen Yueyue (沈跃跃) was elected chairwoman of the All-China Women’s Federation.

The New York Times reported on November 5, that China, the largest market for Soyabeans, has all but stopped buying soyabean from the US. The Chinese government imposed a tariff on American soybeans in response to the Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese goods. The latest federal data, through mid-October, shows American soybean sales to China have declined by 94 percent from last year’s harvest.

In an article published in Hongkong's South China Morning Post on October 27, Zhou Bo, an honorary fellow at the PLA Academy of Military Science, said "the US believes it is exceptional". He went on to say "If Brexit is costing Europe in no small way, then America’s withdrawal from the international system and its undisguised contempt for the United Nations are far more consequential. In terms of morale and credibility, the US has fallen off the hill. On Trump’s decision to end the Iran nuclear deal and impose trade tariffs on Europe, president of the European Council Donald Tusk put it this way: “With friends like that, who needs enemies?”He said in conclusion that "After all, the US is no more than a member of the international community, like the rest of us. When it admits that, it is the start of its walk down the hill towards the plain, where the weather is certainly less chilly there than on a hill".

America's Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, has on October 29, 2018 severed ties with its Chinese partner institution, Renmin University of China, on the ground that they had punished, surveilled or suppressed students who supported workers’ rights in a labor conflict that erupted this past summer involving workers trying to unionize at Jasic Technology in Shenzhen -- or who have otherwise been supportive of workers’ rights.

The state-run 'The Paper' on October 29, reported that the World's Leading Scientists Forum with the theme of “Science and Technology for the Common Destiny of Mankind”opened in Shanghai on the banks of the Shanghai Lingang Lake. 35 leading scientists of the world including 26 Nobel Prize winners, many world-renowned academic award winners, nearly 40 academics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and outstanding young scientists from China and abroad attended the forum. Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech.

Xinhua reported on November 5, that Chinese President Xi Jinping said on November 5 in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the first China International Import Expo in Shanghai, that China's imported goods and services are estimated to exceed 30 trillion US dollars and 10 trillion US dollars, respectively, in the next 15 years. He said measures announced in April to relax market access have been so far implemented.

An article authored by Xu Lejiang, Executive Vice Minister of the United Front Work Department (UFWD), on Party building in all enterprises was published in the Study Times on November 2, 2018. He said Party building work must be promoted with the goal of administering the party strictly.

The NPC Standing Committee had a special 'study session' after its bi-monthly session on October 26, when they heard a presentation on artificial intelligence from Tan Tieniu, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Senior Colonel Wu Qian, the Director General of the Information Office of China’s Ministry of National Defense, said China expects the U.S. Navy to send warships through the Taiwan Strait in November, an action Chinese officials say infringes on their national sovereignty.

In an article published in Bloomberg News on October 30, former Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade and presently Chief Expert of the National Institute of International Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and adjunct professor of the Tsinghua University, Ms Fu Ying, acknowledged that "China-U.S. relations have deteriorated faster than almost anyone could have expected" and asserted that "the U.S. is driving this process and should reflect carefully whether it’s in Americans’ best interests to continue down this path".

Xinhua reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump held a telephone conversation on November 2, 2018 when they spoke of bilateral trade and the Korean Peninsula issue while agreeing to meet bilaterally during the upcoming G20 summit in Argentina. It said that during the conversation Trump said he looks forward to meeting Xi Jinping during the G20 summit so that they can have an in-depth discussion about some major issues. The US president added that he hopes their two countries will make joint efforts to prepare for the meeting and that the United States attaches importance to US-China economic and trade cooperation and would like to continue to expand export to China. He said the economic teams from the two sides need to enhance exchanges and consultations.

Figures of the purchasing managers’ index of the National Bureau of Statistics and the China of Logistics and Purchasing -- an industry group -- showed that China’s manufacturing activity fell to a two-year low in October as domestic demand weakened, adding to pressure on Beijing to shore up economic growth amid a tariff war with Washington. The figures fell to 50.2 from September’s 50.8 on a 100-point scale on which numbers above 50 show activity expanding. Export orders weakened but the biggest impact was from cooling domestic demand.

The Politburo meeting on October 31, held a 'study session' on Artificial Intelligence. Observing that the external environment is experiencing "profound changes”, or that the United States is restricting China from buying technology or investing in high-tech companies abroad, Xi Jinping said AI is core to China’s future.

Xinhua reported that Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CCP CC presided over a meeting of the CCP CC Politburo in Beijing on October 31, to analyze and study the current economic situation and deploy current economic work.

Xinhua reported (November 2) that Chinese President Xi Jinping convened an unprecedented “symposium” on November 1, to hear the views of dozens of representatives from the private sector – including Robin Li of Baidu and Pony Ma of Tencent.

On October 22, China and ASEAN held their first joint maritime naval exercise, the “Joint Maritime Exercise-2018” in Zhanjiang city, Guangdong.

Speaking at the Warsaw Security Forum on October 24, Retired US Lt General Ben Hodges said "I think in 15 years --it’s not inevitable – but it is a very strong likelihood that we will be at war with China.” He also said that in Europe, China owns more than 10 per cent of the ports.

Japan's Nomura Holdings will jointly set up an investment fund with Chinese state-run investment fund China Investment Corp., Nikkei learned on October 23, 2018.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, accompanied by approximately 500 Japanese businesspeople arrived in Beijing for a three-day official visit on the first formal bilateral visit by a Japanese leader to China in nearly seven years on October 25, 2018.

Xinhua reported on October 17 that the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security on Monday announced a name list of 6,019 people who had the most points among over 124,000 applicants for a Beijing hukou. in the pilot period, Beijing's quota for new hukou holders is set at 6,000 each year based on the city's development planning and population capacity, according to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security. By the end of 2017, the number of people holding a Beijing hukou reached 13.59 million, while the city's permanent population totalled 21.7 million. Beijing plans to cap its population at 23 million by 2020 and also in the long term, as it seeks to address "big city diseases" such as traffic congestion and pollution.

Caixin Global reported on October 25, 2018 that two central financial committees on October 24 released the new “Comprehensive Report on the Management of State-Owned Assets in 2017.”

The U.S.-China Commission released a contracted report written by SOS International on China’s Internet of Things on October 25, 2018. The Report says that since 2009, China has taken steps to catalyse domestic IoT research and development (R&D) and infrastructure development through robust planning initiatives and extensive financial support.

The 14th China Science and Technology Periodical Development Forum co-sponsored by the China Association for Science and Technology and the National Press and Publication Administration, was held on October 23-24, in Wuhan, Hubei Province. More than 600 experts, scholars and scientific journal workers from all over the country attended the forum.

Yi Lianhong was appointed the new Governor of Jiangxi on October 23. He has been acting governor since August. Yi Lianhong was born in 1959 in Hunan.

Addressing the 17th Congress of the 300-million All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) on October 22, Politburo member Wang Huning said the "country’s worker class should….unswervingly follow the Party’s leadership.”

Chinese President sent a congratulatory letter to China’s annual high-level security eighth 'Xiangshan Forum' being held in Beijing. According to Xinhua, in the letter he said “The global governance system and international order are changing at a faster pace.” Chinese Defence Minister General Wei Fenghe who read out the letter quoted Xi Jinping as expressing in the letter 'China's sincere willingness to increase strategic mutual trust and security cooperation with countries around the world and demonstrated China's resolve to stay on the path of peaceful development and cooperate with other countries to build a community with a shared future for mankind.'

The Washington Post reported (October 26) that meeting Shinzo Abe on October 26, during the first formal visit by a Japanese leader to Beijing in nearly seven years, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that the two countries are “sharing more common interests and concerns".

A report reveals that China is rapidly advancing efforts to acquire factory robots. In 2017, China bought 36% of all factory robots in the world last year, more than any other country including the U.S., and intends to ramp up its own production of them in its attempt to become the pre-eminent technological superpower.

The Vice President of the People's Bank of China (PBoC) and the Director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), Pan Gongsheng, introduced the establishment of a private enterprise bond financing at a briefing on the policy of the State Council at the State Council Information Office held a briefing on the policy of the State Council on October 26, 2018.

China’s banking regulator (CBIRC) released new draft regulations on October 25 inviting comments until November 25 and opening the financial sector wider.

The fourth edition of the UBS/PwC Billionaires Report reveals that China now has a total of 318 billionaires while the U.S. has 563 and Europe 637. It also claims the average age of a Chinese billionaire in 2016 is 55, compared to 66 in Europe and 67 in the U.S.)

A new 2018 Forbes China Rich List released on October 25, showed that some of China's richest entrepreneurs had their wealth shrink substantially over the past year, but also included new faces. According to the summary, more than 75 percent of the 400 richest Chinese people on last year's list saw their fortunes shrink, with 93 of them dropping out of the ranks this year. Of those who reappeared on this year's list, 229 saw their fortunes drop and nearly one third saw a decline of 20 percent or more.

The Deputy Minister of the Organization Department Zhou Yi, Minister of Education Chen Baosheng and the head of the Beijing Municipal Organization Department Wei Xiaodong, announced the appointment of Qiu Shuiping, former Party Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of State Security, as the new Party secretary for BeiDa.

While on a Latin America tour at the end of last week, US Secretary of State Pompeo told reporters during the trip on October 18, in Mexico City that “when China comes calling it’s not always to the good of your citizens.

Pentagon spokesman Colonel Rob Manning confirmed to reporters during a press briefing on October 22, that “in the Taiwan Strait, earlier today, USS Curtis Wilbur and USS Antietam conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit in accordance with international law”.

Global banks including Citigroup, Standard Chartered, BNP Paribas and JPMorgan have asked their private banking staff to postpone or reconsider travel to China after authorities there prevented a UBS banker from leaving the country.

According to the latest Investment Trends Monitor published on October 22, by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), China has become the largest recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first half of 2018, attracting an estimated US$ 70 billion in inflows.

The International Campaign for Tibet reported (October 19) that on October 11 when Chinese work crews arrived in Choeje village in the Tsolho (Chinese: Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture’s Chabcha (Chinese: Gonghe) county, according to a source and reported by Radio Free Asia (October 17), Tibetans were attacked for protesting the intrusion of a Chinese work team into a grassland area of Amdo (Qinghai) to set up a solar panel installation.

South China Morning Post reported (October 20) that as the battle over political ideology intensifies on mainland Chinese campuses where students are being mobilised to monitor and report “radical” political views, in the past three months, several professors and schoolteachers have been sacked or disciplined for “out of line” opinions.

The Chinese media announced on October 15, that the newest long-range strategic bomber will be unveiled during a parade as part of the 70th anniversary celebrations of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) in 2019.

In an unprecedented move, China's Ministry of Finance (MoF) on October 20, announced unveiled draft revisions to the Individual Income Tax Law detailed tax deductions in six different areas.

The State Council's Financial Development and Stability Committee (FSDC) held its 10th special meeting -- the 10th time in two months -- on October 20. The meeting said that financial risks are under control.

Xinhua on October 21 published Chinese President Xi Jinping's 'open' letter to owners of China's private businesses saying Beijing will continue to value and protect them to ensure a "better tomorrow.’”

CCP CC General Secretary Xi Jinping, has called on General Offices of Party committees at all levels to resolutely safeguard the authority of the CCP "Central Committee and its centralized, unified leadership".

In a recent (October 18) interview with FT, the Dean of the Institute of International Strategy, Peking University Wang Jisi commented that 'the trade war is an omen and a manifestation of the deterioration of Sino-US relations.

The New York Times reported (October 19) that US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis tried to lower the temperature on the array of hostilities between Washington and Beijing, saying it is up to the militaries of the two competing global superpowers to act as a stabilizing force amid rising political tensions.

The State Statistical Bureau released monthly economic data for September which shows an economy that continued to decelerate.

There is obvious nervousness about the state of China's economy, indicated also by China's four top economic officials all releasing statements on October 19 apparently in a coordinated attempt to project confidence and calm.

BEIJING, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday called for a stronger sense of mission for deeper military-civilian integration.

A source close to the military revealed that more than 300 military personnel were implicated in the case involving former PLA General Fang Fenghui who, the CDIC said has been stripped of Party membership for corruption.

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported (October 19) that Chinese President Xi Jinping is to soon embark on what he hopes will be a confidence-boosting tour of Guangdong province.

The party’s official mouthpiece 'People's daily' has made an attempt to visually project the Chinese President’s thoughts.

AFP reported that Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic, refused asylum to 41-year old Sayragul Sauytbay, an escaped Chinese national whose court testimony helped expose a secretive network of re-education camps in China’s restive Xinjiang region.

A former Pakistani Ambassador to the US shared a Times article suggesting that authorities "demand" muslims in Xinjiang to eat Pork.

The Global Times (October 10, 2018) 'advised' India not to over react to the sale of 48 Wing Loong-II drones by China to Pakistan and sought to justify it by saying "Combating terrorism is a priority for Pakistan, but it is also a big concern for India.

According to data released on October 14 and compiled by the Pew Research Centre, 73 per cent of Asian respondents – represented by polls taken in Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and Australia – favoured the United States as the leading global power versus 12 per cent for China.

Xinhua published at least 8 responses attacking the speech. The Central Propaganda Department’s Theory Bureau, writing under the pen name "Zhongxuanli 钟轩理," published 2 commentaries attacking Pence's comments in People's Daily in the week ending October 13.

On October 9, China released a new three-year action plan to restructure the transport sector. Briefly, it provides for more investment in railway freight and shipping and less reliance on long-distance road freight.

China's National Statistical Bureau estimates the number of China's middle class at nearly 400 million, less than a third of the population. It defines a middle-class household as one making 25,000 yuan (US$3,640) to 250,000 (US$36,400) yuan a year – a fairly low threshold.

China's National Statistical Bureau released national R&D spending data for 2017 on October 9.

An article in the Taipei Times on October 14 disclosed that 33 Taiwanese are among the 8,000 experts and academics so far recruited under the Recruitment Program of Global Experts -- known as the 'Thousand Talents Programme' till China’s National Natural Science Foundation banned usage of the term -- launched in 2008 to attract overseas talent to boost development in China’s key technologies, the high-tech industry and emerging technologies.

An article in the Diplomat (October 12) reported that the People’s Liberation Army Navy Air Force (PLANAF) has acquired Xian-H-6J anti-ship cruise missile-carrying bombers, according to satellite imagery taken on September 7.

At the 4th Exhibition of High-tech Equipment Development of Military-Civilian Integration and Development held on October 13, in Beijing, 176 Military Units signed 154 High-Tech Product Cooperation Projects valued at an estimated 2 Billion RMBs.

The Central Discipline Inspection Commission (CDIC) said in a statement on its website on October 19, that Lai Xiaomin, former Chairman of China Huarong Asset Management, has been expelled from the Communist Party and will be prosecuted for suspected corruption.

Xinhua (October 14) reported that You Quan, Member of the Secretariat of the CCP Central Committee and Head of the CCP CC United Front Work Department visited Urumqi and Hotan in Xinjiang from October 11 - 14, 2018.

The state-run Global Times on October 9, 2018 claimed that India was learning from China's reform and opening-up. It noted that the US chipmaker Qualcomm has announced plans to build a US$ 400 million plant in Hyderabad, India, which will be its largest facility outside the US.

Responding to the letter addressed on August 31, by US Senators, and publicised on October 12, about Google collaborating with China on sensitive technologies and products like 'Dragonfly', Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote: “We hope to stay at the forefront of technology developments and believe that Google's tools could help to facilitate an exchange of information and learning that would have broad benefits inside and outside of China.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that US President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are likely to hold bilateral meetings during the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Japan's Prime minister Shinzo Abe is scheduled to visit China from October 25-27, 2018.

According to data released by the company Friday, overall sales in China fell 43% in September compared with the same month last year and were down 30% through the first nine months of 2018 compared with the same period in 2017.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met Harald Kruger, Chairman of the board of management of BMW Group, in Beijing on October 10.

The government of Urumqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), vowed on October 8, to launch a campaign against the pan-halal tendency, and require officials and Party members to firmly believe in Marxism and Leninism and speak Putonghua in public.

In an article posted on Urumqi city’s official WeChat social media account on October 8, party cadres were told to post the same oath on their social media accounts, which read: “My belief is Marxism-Leninism… I must fly the flag high and battle (the) ‘pan-halal trend’ to the end, resolute in my beliefs, even to death!”

One month after attending the China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing, Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio, who took office in April, has cancelled a loan agreement signed by his predecessor for China to build a new $400 million international airport at Mamamah on the ground that the project is “uneconomical” given that the only existing international airport is “grossly under-utilized.” The new airport was supposed to be completed by 2022.

The New York Times publicised on October 10, that Yanjun Xu, a Deputy Division Director in a regional office of China’s Ministry of State Security (MoSS) was arrested in Belgium and brought to the United States to face espionage charges.

The bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) on October 10, issued the Commission’s 2018 Annual Report which proposed several new joint initiatives to protect U.S. citizens and residents from intimidation and address possible crimes against humanity occurring in China.

Well-known Chinese news site Sina reported (October 6) that, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the level of U.S. oil exports to China dropped to zero in August. Also in August, U.S. oil exports dropped significantly overall.

Chinese stocks registered a major drop on October 8 as traders returned to work after a weeklong holiday. Losses on major indexes in mainland China were as high as 4.8% in a major market rout, with the China A50, which includes major companies from both the Shenzhen and Shanghai indexes, as the biggest loser.

The online news sites including Phoenix Satellite TV, one of the most influential Chinese-language media based in Hong Kong and the mainland, and 'i.feng' were issued notices on September 26, stating that networks must undergo a shake-up.

On October 8, the CCP's official newspaper People’s Daily's online edition carried an article by two researchers from the Hunan University School of the Communication and Arts of Film and Television, about China’s propaganda practice in the world entitled “Precision Communication is the inevitable choice for International Communication.”

Epoch Times between October 5-8, 2018 published three reports with embedded videos on the suppression of veterans in Pingdu City, Shandong Province. The veterans were protesting that they should receive a fair retirement settlement from the government.

A report in China Digital Times on October 9, 2018 claimed that Muslims in India and Bangladesh have condemned China for its ill-treatment of Muslims and incarcerating almost a million Muslims in 're-education' camps.

Xinhua reported (October 5) that three Chinese nationals were killed on October 4, in the Central African Republic (CAR).

Wu Jinglian, the 88-year-old Dean of pro-market Chinese economists, at a forum last month said to Liu He, China’s economic czar, said that “unharmonious voices” were now condemning private enterprise. Wu Jinglian added “The phenomenon is worth noting.”

China on Sunday announced a big cut in the amount of cash commercial banks have to put aside at the central bank, a move that will make an extra US$110 billion available for lending as Beijing works to shore up confidence in its economy and markets.

Radio Free Asia reported (October 1, 2018) that the Chinese government issued a notice before the October 1 National Day holiday requiring local schools to strengthen their control over elementary and middle school teachers’ travel abroad. The regulation also applies to kindergarten and retired teachers.

A Report released on September 12, 2018 by the Centre for a New American Security stated that China is positioning itself as a powerhouse in quantum science and in the past several years, Chinese researchers had achieved consistent advances in basic research and development of quantum technologies, including quantum cryptography, communications, and computing, as well as reports of progress in quantum radar, sensing, imaging, metrology, and navigation.

In accordance with the guidelines issued by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the PLA Daily disclosed (October 4) that the think-tank of the PLA Rocket Force recently recruited 13 Chinese technicians from private companies.

Michele Geraci, Undersecretary at the Ministry for Economic Development, said in an interview at his Rome office, that Italy’s government is scrapping the previous administration’s efforts to limit Chinese investment in strategic sectors in favor of fostering relations with Beijing.

One of CCTV's main reporters in London, Lin Lin Kong was arrested for assaulting a volunteer at a Conservative Party Conference Fringe event on human rights in Hong Kong on September 30. She was later released without charge on October 2.

US prosecutors on October 3, filed a 32-page document in New York charging former Hong Kong Minister Patrick Ho Chi-ping with bribery and illegally selling weapons to Libya, Qatar and possibly South Sudan in 2015.

In a special 150-page Report prepared by the US DoD on weaknesses in core US industries vital to national security, China represents a “significant and growing risk” to the supply of materials vital to the US military.

US Vice President Mike Pence's speech at the Hudson Institute, Washington, scheduled for October 4, 2018 will had a far tougher line on China than till now.

The Hong Kong authorities have rejected an application to renew the work visa of Victor Mallet, Asia News Editor at the Financial Times and Vice President of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC), after he chaired a controversial talk by an independence activist in August.

64-year Meng Hongwei, head of Interpol and a Vice Minister of China's Ministry of Public Security (MPS), has been reported missing from Paris and, according to Hongkong's South China Morning Post may be under investigation in China and was “taken away” for questioning by discipline authorities “as soon as he landed in China” last week.

Politburo Standing Committee Member and Central Commission for Discipline Inspection head Zhao Leji met Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on September 22 while on an official goodwill visit.

The Arleigh Burke guided-missile destroyer USS Decatur (DDG-73) was approached on September 30, morning in the South China Sea by a PLAN Luyang-class destroyer in what Navy officials are calling an "unsafe and unprofessional maneuver".

A special clause in the new US-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement gives Washington a near-veto over any attempt by Canada or Mexico to agree to a free-trade deal with a “non-market economy”.

The Deputy Head of the CMC Office for International Military Cooperation Huang Xueping on September 22, 2018, “lodged solemn representations and expressed opposition” to the Acting US Defense Attache David Menser in China and said that the United States’ action is a “flagrant violation of the principles of international relations and a full demonstration of hegemonism which seriously damaged the relationships between the two countries and the two militaries.”

The CCP's authoritative official newspaper 'People’s Daily' under its “Zhong Sheng” column criticised the US decision to impose sanctions on the military department.

China's state media reported on October 3, that 37-year old Fan Bingbing, one of the world's highest paid actresses, has been ordered to pay nearly 892 million yuan (about $130 million) in fines and back taxes.

Xi Jinping presided over the Eighth Politburo Collective Study Session in Beijing on September 21, where he pointed out that “without modernization for agriculture and rural areas, there will be no modernization for the whole country.”

Xi Jinping presided over a Politburo meeting on September 21 on reviewing trial regulations for CCP branch work and a 2018-2022 plan for national cadre education and training.

On September 9, 2018 Myanmar and China signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for establishing the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), as part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The European Commission, the executive body of the EU, in the last week of September set out the Europe-Asia Connectivity plan providing for the construction of transport links, as well as development of human, energy and digital networks. It needs to be approved by the EU Parliament and the European Council.

The South China Morning Post reported that flight bookings from China to the U.S. for the upcoming golden week holiday are down by a dramatic 42 per cent compared with last year’s holiday week.

Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi met Dr Henry Kissinger in New York on September 25, when he urged the US to stop viewing China with a cold war mentality to keep the Sino-US bilateral ties on a healthy track.

Chinese students are forming study groups to study Chinese communist ideology and discuss the progress of socialism.

The state-run China Daily reported (September 27) that Chinese President Xi Jinping was on tour in Heilongjiang province since September 26, where he stressed the importance of self-reliance in food security, the real economy and manufacturing.

A new edition of eighth grade Chinese history textbooks printed by the Government-owned People's Education Press carries an amended version of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution.

The official Global Times on September 25, 2018 quoted experts as saying the ongoing Sino-US trade dispute will provide a chance for China and India to strengthen their agricultural trade, which will help to address the trade imbalance between the two countries.

27-year old Ji Chaoqun, a Chinese citizen living in Chicago was arrested on September 25, 2018 for allegedly spying, including by helping with the recruitment of U.S. engineers, defense contractors and scientists for intelligence services in China.

The Chinese Consulate in Hong Kong in a statement on September 26, 2018 stated: “The Chinese government did not approve a request for a port visit to Hong Kong by the USS Wasp.

People's Daily reported on September 25, 2018 that the Nanjing Research Institute of Electronics Technology in Jiangsu province, a major State-owned defense contractor, has designed and built a cutting-edge quantum radar which will eventually be able to detect stealth aircraft from great distances.

The CCP CC and and the State Council issued a top-level policy document on September 24,, called “Opinions on Comprehensive Implementation of Budget Performance Management.”

On September 5, 2018, Dorje Rabten, aged about 23 and a monk of Kirti Monastery in Tibet, was arrested by police for staging a public protest in Ngaba (Chinese: Aba) county town, shouting pro-Tibet slogans, according to Kanyag Tsering and Lobsang Yeshe, from the Kirti Monastery in Dharamsala, India. Dorjee Rabten is from Me’uruma township.

Newly revised regulations on Party disciplinary action that will take effect in October, stipulate that members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will be expelled from the Party if they openly adhere to bourgeois liberalization online.

Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC) member and Vice Premier Han Zheng visited Russia and met Russian President Vladimir Putin. Han Zheng said that “China is willing to work with Russia on … implementing the important consensus reached by the two countries’ leaders in all respects and promoting bilateral investment and energy cooperation.”

The official Party newspaper 'People’s Daily' on September 15, 2018, under its “Zhong Sheng” column, which authoritatively transmits the official positions of the People’s Daily on matters of international affairs, praised Sino-Russian regional cooperation. It observed "in 2017, China’s trade with the Russian Far East Federal District exceeded US$7.7 billion.

South China Morning Post on September 22 reported that stocks of major surveillance equipment suppliers to the Chinese government have tumbled since the start of the trade war earlier this year.

China's State Council Information Office issued a White Paper on China-US trade in September 2018, which was released on September 24. The 68-page White Paper criticised the US for flouting WTO provisions and instead of "free trade" advocating "fair trade".

The China Economic Daily on September 16, quoted the State Grain and Reserves Administration in conjunction with eight other departments jointly issuing a notice on conducting well the acquisition of grains in autumn 2018 and requiring local governments to organize and guide market transition from policy-based purchases and storage to market-based acquisitions and purchases.

China Economic Daily reported on September 15, that the spokesman of the National Bureau of Statistics, Mao Shengyong said that throughout this year China’s macroeconomic indicators have remained “stable” and there is no danger of stagflation.

The PLA Daily on September 18, 2018 reported that the Propaganda Department of the CCP CC, Retired Military Affairs Department of the CCP CC and Department of Veterans Affairs issued a "Notice on Carrying out the "The Most Beautiful Retired Soldiers" Learning and Publicity Activities" stressing study and propaganda activities to "fully implement the spirit of the Party's 19th and 19th Central Committees and the 3rd Plenary Session, and take the approach of Xi Jinping's new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics as the guide, implement the spirit of the National Propaganda and Ideological Work Conference" to fully demonstrate "the excellent quality and good spirit of retired military veterans".

The People’s Daily published four more commentaries between September 15 and 19, 2018, on Xi Jinping’s speech at the National Education Conference held in Beijing on September 10, 2018 where Xi Jinping stressed that “our education must treat cultivating the builders and successors of socialism as its fundamental mission” and “lead the students to love and support the CCP and to be determined in listening to and following the Party.”

South China Morning Post reported on September 22, that China and the Vatican have reached a historic agreement on the appointment of Chinese bishops, with Pope Francis recognising seven clerics ordained by Beijing without the approval of the Holy See.

In an interview with China’s state news agency Xinhua published September 19, the Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.executive chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Jack Ma backed out of his commitment to then President-elect Donald Trump in January 2017 to create 1 million jobs in the US.

The Pakistani newspaper 'Nation' on September 20, reported that Pakistan Federal Minister Pir Noorul Haq Qadri while meeting Chinese Ambassador Yao Jing demanded that China soften restrictions on Chinese Muslims living in Xinjiang province.

China’s Ministry of Justice recently held a National Party Development Work Conference in Kunming on September 17, to promote the Party’s development work among all lawyers across the nation.

Zhuang Rongwen, the new Director of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) wrote an article in the latest issue of Qiushi on the need to deepen controls over the internet, following Xi jinping's directions at the Aug. 21–22 National Conference on Publicity and Ideological Work.

Xinhua reported on September 20, that Chinese President and General Secretary of the CCP Central Committee Xi Jinping chaired the fourth meeting of the Central Committee for Deepening Overall Reform, which he heads, on September 20.

The Central Discipline Inspection Commission (CDIC) said in a brief statement September 21, Nur Bekri, Deputy Chief of the National Economic Planning Agency, has been placed under investigation for “serious violations of discipline and law.”

A signed People's Daily commentary, under the pen name “Zhong Sheng”, on September 9, 2018 stated that PBSC Member Li Zhanshu’s visit to North Korea as Xi Jinping’s special representative “fully demonstrated the great importance China attached to China-North Korean relationship under a new situation,” and that this arrangement “is helpful in safeguarding the region’s peace and stability.”

The state news outlet 'The Paper' reported (August 30, 2018) that an unmanned aerial vehicle base, the first compound in which the country officially allows drones to carry out multi-scenario testing and applications, officially opened in Shanghai's Jinshan Industrial Zone.

In keeping with Chinese President Xi Jinping's directives, 4,038 patents were declassified in April to aid military-civilian integration.

The annual China World Economic Forum meeting opened in Tianjin on September 18, 2018. Speaking at a session on 'China's financial opening', Liu Shijin, Vice Chairman of the China Development Research Foundation and Member of the Central Bank's Monetary Policy Committee, implied a loosening of monetary policy to further support economic growth by saying that the central bank will provide a reasonable and sufficient supply of funds for the economy.

PBSC Member and Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee Wang Yang attended the 3rd collective study session of the CPPCC Party leadership group in Beijing on September 10.

The People's Daily reported (September 11) that Chinese President Xi Jinping attended a National Education Conference on 10 September in Beijing.

A report in an Israeli newspaper claimed The Shanghai International Port Group's management of the newly expanded Haifa port is due to be inaugurated in 2021.

The latest diplomatic incident between China and Sweden that erupted in the media related to a Chinese tourist, Zeng, travelling with his parents and who were denied admission to a Generator Hotel in Stockholm.

At the launch of its new new model of iPhones in California on September 12, the background screen prepared for the event showed the individual flags of Hong Kong and Taiwan, and used the flag of the Republic of China for the latter.

The US Justice Department ordered Xinhua News Agency and China Global Television Network—known as CGTN now and earlier as CCTV -- to register as foreign agents.

According to a report, a variety of sources reported that Chinese authorities sent out an urgent notice on September 14 to work units, companies, government departments, universities and more, across the country, demanding that they watch the September 15 nightly Network News Broadcast on CCTV, as well as CCTV’s September 15 and 16 “Focus Talk” programs, and also study the detailed reports due to be published on September 16 on Global Times online, as well as its the September 17 print edition.

Pakistan’s Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa began a three-day visit to China on September 16, 2018, days after a Pakistani Minister stirred unease about Chinese Silk Road projects in the South Asian nation.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s top economic adviser, Vice Premier Liu He attended the 20th anniversary conference of the Chinese Economists 50 Forum, a club he helped co-found when he was a government adviser, on September 16, and met a group of pro-reform economists in a show of support for a liberal vision of the country’s economic future.

A major convocation of overseas Chinese, overseas Chinese returnees and their families, was held in Beijing from August 29 to September 1. All seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC) attended the opening ceremony.

A high-level delegation from CWE Investment Corporation, a subsidiary of China Three Gorges Corporation which had in 2012 undertaken to execute the project in a memorandum of understanding (MOU), told the Nepalese authorities in the last week of August 2018 that the 750-megawatt West Seti hydropower project is financially unfeasible because of the steep resettlement and rehabilitation costs.

Russia's Vostok-2018 military exercises in the Far East and Siberia is the largest military drill in post-Soviet history. Beijing has sent a contingent of 3,200 troops, 30 aircraft, 900 tanks and armored vehicles.

Citing official figures Asia times reported on September 15, that the total length of China’s railway network reached 127,000km by the end of last year.

Writing in the Washington Post on August 23, 2018, China's Tsinghua University Professor Yan Xuetong observed that U.S.-China trade tensions this year have bolstered protectionist forces in both countries that support a tit-for-tat trade war, posing a serious threat to China’s development.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on September 13, that nearly 3,000 Uyghur children from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), whose parents have been taken to political re-education camps, are being held in so-called 'Little Angel Schools', where they take classes.

Chinese diplomat traveled to Lhasa on August 21 to attend a meeting on promoting the Party’s talking points on Tibet through China’s global influence operations.

In his keynote address at the opening of the Forum on China-African Cooperation (FOCAC) on September 3, 2018 Chinese President Xi Jinping promised that China’s aid to Africa comes with no strings attached.

The state-owned Global Times on September 5, publicised that the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) announced on its WeChat account on September 4, that it has started building a Type S26T submarine for the Royal Thai Navy.

Reacting to India's proposed US$ 60 billion plan to build 100 airports in the next 10-15 years, China's state-owned Global Times on September 5, again recommended that India "embrace the China-proposed Belt and Road (B&R) initiative as it would help the South Asian country's massive airport plan."

National People’s Congress (NPC) Chairman and PBSC Member Li Zhanshu will represent Chinese President Xi Jinping at the DPRK’s 70th anniversary celebrations on September 9, 2018.

Reacting to reports that the US is poised to impose previously announced tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods as early as september 7, Gao Feng spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) warned on September 6 that China will take necessary countermeasures to protect its own economic interests if the US imposes new tariffs on Chinese goods.

The official news agency Xinhua reported on September 5, 2018, that China installed its first independently-developed atmosphere observation system known as APSOS in the Tibet Autonomous Region.

The People's Daily reported on September 4, 2018 that China has now signed an information sharing agreement with 100 other countries to makes sure that Chinese citizens are paying their taxes abroad, as well. The agreement is called the Common Reporting Standard (CRS).

The Wall Street Journal (September 3) reported that 'Zhang Ming, an economist with state-run Institute of World Economics and Politics, estimates that “hidden debt” totaled 23.57 trillion yuan ($3.45 trillion) at the end of 2017, greater than the 18.58 trillion yuan of local government debt acknowledged in official data.

People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Commander Vice Admiral Shen Jinlong plans to visit the US in the middle and end of September 2018.

Japan's Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera on September 3, warned that Japan faces a tough security environment, with China and Russia stepping up military activity and North Korea posing "imminent threats".

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Sankei Shimbun in September that “Premier Li Keqiang visited Japan in May and the Japan-China relationship has completely returned to a normal track,”and he hoped to visit Beijing in October 2018.

Xinhua on September 2 publicised that the PLAN had successfully carried out a submarine rescue drill in the East China Sea the previous day. It added that Chinese military experts had described it a "worldwide challenge." The drill involved frigates, submarines, rescue vessels and anti-submarine aircraft from multiple PLA Navy forces.

PLAA Major General Zhang Xuejie was recently promoted as Political Commissar of the Tibet Military Region. The appointment was revealed on August 3, 2018. He was earlier the Deputy Director of the Political Work Department of the PLA Eastern Theater Command.

On August 26, 2018 the CCP CC issued new revised 'Regulations on Disciplinary Actions of the Communist Party of China'.

Xinhua reported (August 26) that PBSC Member and CPPCC Chairman Wang Yang 'inspected' Tibet from August 24 to 26, 2018 and visited Changdu and Lhasa.

China's official news agency Xinhua reported on August 24, that CCP CC General Secretary Xi Jinping, who is also the Director of the Central Committee for Comprehensive Ruling by Law, hosted its first meeting and delivered an important speech.

CCP CC General Secretary Xi Jinping addressed the National Conference on Propaganda and Ideological Work held in Beijing on August 21-22, 2018. Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC) and Central Committee (CC) Secretariat member Wang Huning presided over the conference.

As Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed arrives in Beijing for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which starts on September 3, 2018, China’s mission to the African Union in Addis Ababa said on its website in July that “The intensifying repayment risks from the Ethiopian government’s debt reaching 59 percent of GDP is worrying investors.”

In a commentary in the People's Daily on August 26, Long Guoqiang, Vice President of the PRC State Council’s in-house think tank, the Development Research Center, voiced what is quickly becoming the consensus view on American motivations for a trade war.

The South China Morning Post on August 28, 2018 quoted the Afghan Embassy in Beijing as saying that China is helping Afghanistan to set up a mountain brigade in the country’s north to boost counterterrorism efforts.

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) with 170,000 employees and annual revenue hovering around the US$34 billion-mark, is one of China's bigger SoEs and its core is the nation’s space program and missile development and an array of hi-tech defence projects from devastating ‘wave-riders’ to nuclear-powered space shuttles and micro rockets.

As part of the downsizing of the PLA, the staff and circulation of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Daily is also being reduced and restricted.

Since the 2-week long Beidaihe meetings, Chinese President Xi Jinping has held at least 4 high-level Party meetings. He first convened a meeting on August 18 of China's top generals and demanded that the military show absolute loyalty to the party.

Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun on August 24, 2018 reported that an agreement on a Japan-China hotline aimed at averting military clashes between the Self-Defense Forces and the Chinese military in the East China Sea and other areas includes a provision that allows for a moratorium of up to 48 hours from the breakout of a volatile situation to the start of communications.

The Voice of America (VOA) Chinese-language service on August 24, cited a Chinese-American Christian minister Liu Yi as having tweeted online that in parts of Henan Province some Christians are required to renounce their Christian beliefs and to sign a document to that effect.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on August 24, chaired the first session of the Central Commission for Comprehensively Ruling the Country by Law, which was established in March 2018.

Hongkong's South China Morning Post reported on August 24, 2018 that General Wei Liang, Political Commissar of the PLA Southern Theatre Command and General Xu Fenlin, a former deputy chief of the CMC’s Joint Staff Department and former Commander of the now defunct Guangzhou Military Area Command, which was absorbed into the Southern Theatre Command, were demoted to deputy regimental officer as a result of unspecified disciplinary action.

The PLA Daily published a series of commentator articles propagating Xi Jinping’s speech at the CMC Party construction conference. The first article emphasized that “the key to strengthening the military is the Party” and that “the Party leads everything.”

An article in the reputed Chinese financial magazine Caixin on August 24 said new Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in 2016 rejected bids by two Chinese companies in the sale of Australia's largest power grid and as a Cabinet member took a "skeptical view" toward G5 network equipment vendors with ties to foreign governments.

China's PLA Navy’s guided missile corvette 'Huangshan' with a helicopter sailed from Guangdong on August 21 to participate in Australia’s premier multilateral naval war games, Exercise Kakadu.

On August 23, after the US announced tariffs on an additional $16 billion worth of Chinese goods, China's Ministry of commerce announced that China has filed a complaint with the WTO against the US levies.

At a press conference after meeting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on August 20, 2018 on his first visit to Beijing since his election in May, 93-year Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad said he supports free trade as long as it’s fair.

Buzzfeed’s China bureau chief, Megha Rajagopalan has been denied a visa by Chinese authorities.

China's official news agency Xinhua on August 22, 2018 published a report on the opportunities created by the Belt & road Initiative in the Five Years since 2013.

Over the weekend of August 18-20, a post by Chinese blogger Ming Na and headlined “This Generation of Young Chinese, Brace for the Bitter Days Ahead,” by Ming Na, a blogger, received more than 300,000 views on the social media platform WeChat.

51-year old Huang Qun, Deputy Director of CSIC’s No 760 Institute in Dalian, Song Yuecai, 61-year former submarine Captain and Chief Scientist of the Experimental Programme and Jiang Kaibin, its Chief Electromechanical Engineer were confirmed to have drowned off the coast of Dalian on August 20 after being swept out to sea by Typhoon Rumbia.

PRC Premier Li Keqiang chaired a meeting of the State Council Leading Small Group on Development of Western Regions on August 20. Others who attended were: Vice-Premiers Han Zheng, Sun Chunlan and Liu He, State Councilor Wang Yong, Secretary General Xiao Jie, Minister of the National Development and Reform Commission He Lifeng, and Bater, Minister of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission.

1963-born Xu Lin, head of China Cyberspace Administration from July 2016 to July 2018 has been appointed head of the State Council Information Office.

Speaking in Beijing on August 19, 2018 at a conference on Party building in the PLA (August 17-19,2018) Chinese President Xi Jinping called for efforts to 'comprehensively strengthen the leadership' of the CCP and Party building in the country's armed forces 'to ensure a solid political guarantee for the building of a strong military'.

Addressing a 2-day National Propaganda and Ideology Work Conference in Beijing that ended on August 22, 2018 CCP CC General Secretary and Chinese President Xi Jinping started by addressing criticism that propaganda has gotten out of control recently.

El Salvador on August 7, 2018 officially established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China after severing ties with Taiwan.

Pakistan's new Prime Minister Imran Khan in his first speech to the nation after his swearing-in as Prime Minister admitted that Pakistan's finances are in dire straits and it needs to take a loan to pay the interest on loans it had taken.

Recipients of BRI projects and loans are increasingly finding it difficult to repay their loans.

China's Economic Daily reported (August 22) ) that as of June 2018, the number of Internet users in China reached 802 million, with a penetration rate of 57.7%.

“The separation of government and religion must be upheld.” Wang Zuoan made no direct reference to any religion or the talks with the Vatican.

Quoting a US media report, an official Chinese news outlet on August 15, 2018 listed the five big projects of the Chinese Navy in the next five years.

China's National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee announced on August 18, that it will hold its next session from August 27-31.

The CCP CC Politburo and China's State Council on June 1, released guidelines on winning the battle against poverty over the next three years.

Xinhua reported (July 16) that Chinese President and CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over and delivered an important speech at a Politburo Standing Committee meeting on July 16, 2018 on the Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology Company defective vaccine case.

According to a Jamestown Foundation Brief, in early August 2017, 'Malhama Tactical', a militant group operating in Syria and sometimes labelled the “Blackwater of jihad,” issued a statement in which it hinted at a planned expansion into China and alluded to the experiences of China’s Uighur population in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang.

Exchanging congratulatory messages on August 12 to mark the 40th anniversary of the signing of the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Beijing is willing to join hands with Tokyo to work for the long-term healthy and stable development of bilateral ties.

Chinese authorities detained a Voice of America Mandarin Service correspondent Yibing Feng and a multimedia journalist on contract with VoA, Allen Ai for at least six hours ON August 13 evening i n Jinan, Shandong province .

Three pro-Taiwan U.S. House representatives in California including Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, the committee’s Asia and Pacific subcommittee ranking member Brad Sherman and Congresswoman Judy Chu, joined Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen during her stopover in Los Angeles.

In the aftermath of the US ban initially and later punitive fines on China's telecom company ZTE, top Chinese leaders are concerned about their vulnerability to potentially “neck-choking” technologies. especially dependence on foreign semiconductors.

On August 6, 2018, the People’s Daily Foreign Edition launched an attack against US President Donald Trump’s trade policy using a Wang Hailou (望海楼) column, an important column directed at members of the Chinese diaspora, written by a senior editor for the newspaper, Hu Jihong (胡继鸿).

A Global Times article published (August 15, 2018) on "the anniversary of the country's independence from the British Empire in 1947" said while in the subsequent decades India lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, "but it has long been beset by a failure to achieve its manufacturing ambitions".

China's official Xinhua News Agency reported that PBSC member and Vice Premier Han Zheng presided over the first meeting of the State Council Leading Small Group for Developing the Greater Bay Area in Beijing on August 15.

At a meeting of a United Nations human rights panel in Geneva on August 13, a Chinese delegation categorically denied there was no such thing as 're-education centers' in Xinjiang or that there was any subjugation of religious freedom in the Muslim-majority region.

In an unprecedented development the Sixth Division of the Xinjiang Production & Construction Corps [XPCC] borrowed RMB 500 million as a 270-day loan at a punitive 5.89% rate of interest to make a bond payment that defaulted on August 13.

Ding Xuexiang, Director of the CCP CC General Office delivered a lecture to staff of the Party’s General Office on July 1, the anniversary of the founding of the CCP.

The Global Times reacted on August 7 to an article in Russia's daily newspaper 'Nezavisimaya Gazeta' which said "the more Beijing invests in promoting BRI for Central Asia, the more local people oppose China".

Speaking at the University of New South Wales on August 7, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in a departure from his previous speeches said Australia and China had prospered by deepening collaboration.

At a press conference on August 10, Gu Xiaohong, Deputy Director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), said that as of July 25, among the 44 airlines, 40 completed the rectification (depiction of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) and the remaining four submitted a rectification report to the CAAC on July 25.

Asahi Shimbun on August 11 reported that Gay McDougall, a member of the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, cited estimates on August 10 at the start of a two-day regular review of China's record including Hong Kong and Macao, and said that 2 million Uyghurs and Muslim minorities were forced into "political camps for indoctrination" in the western Xinjiang autonomous region. A Chinese delegation of some 50 officials made no comment on her remarks at the Geneva session.

A speech delivered by Liu Yadong (刘亚东), Editor-in-Chief of the Science and Technology Daily, has been circulating extensively on China's social media.

A 2000-character article published in the People's Daily on August 10, 2018 acknowledged that "there are also some plausible views circulating on the Internet.

According to Xinhua, recently Chinese government awarded three PLA researchers. Professor Xiao Fei, Director of a research institute at the Naval Engineering University, was awarded the ‘First Class’.

The State Council’s Leading Small Group for Migrant Workers has been reshuffled.

62 expert academicians arrived in Beidaihe from Beijing on August 3 for a vacation at the invitation of the Party Central Committee and the State Council.

At a dinner on August 7, 2018, US President Trump "expressed concern that some foreign students were acting as foreign agents, particularly from China".

At a dinner on August 7, 2018, US President Trump "expressed concern that some foreign students were acting as foreign agents, particularly from China".

Japan's Nikkei Asian Review on August 9, 2018 said that the ruling party's annual conclave in Beidaihe, a seaside resort in Hebei Province, has begun.

The Customs Bureau released trade date for July on August 8, 2018.

The People's Bank of China (PBoC) released the official Foreign Exchange reserve data on August 7, 2018.

Over the past month, bodies for collecting national and local taxes, which had thus far been separate, have been merged. Leading Party groups (党组) within tax authorities at all levels have been changed to Party committees (党委).

On August 8, 2018 the State Council has decided to change the name of the National Science, Technology and Education Leading Group to the National Science and Technology Leading Group [NSTLG].”

Release of the new stamps on August 9 to mark the Year of the Pig sparked speculation of a loosening of the two-child policy as the stamps depicted a family of pigs with three little pigs.

The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP CC) and State Council between August 3 and 8, 2018 invited outstanding experts from the scientific research and production departments across the country to Beidaihe for vacation.

Reuters reported on August 3, 2018 that China's Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi, said on August 3 that cooperation between China and the US is the only right choice and "China is willing to resolve differences on a principle of equal footing".

In September 2017 just prior to the 19th Party Congress, Luo Jianbo, Head of the China Foreign Policy Center at the Central Party School, Beijing had cautioned against over-estimating China's strength and said the people need to guard against "arrogance" and "conceit".

A Chinese blog recently cited foreign media reports that China is developing an artificial intelligence (AI) submarine to attack enemy aircraft carrier battle groups.

The PLAN inducted its thirteenth Type 052 (Aegis) Destroyer, named 'Nanjing', into service on August 1, 2018. The destroyer was described as deployed with an unidentified “full shield” destroyer detachment of the PLA Eastern Theatre Command Navy.

On the eve of the PLA's 91st Founding anniversary a fighter jet of the PLA Navy conducted its maiden take-off, landing and firing drills from China's first aircraft carrier, Liaoning, at an unidentified distant sea, under simulated real-combat conditions.

On August 1, Xinhua reported that a high-level meeting coordinated jointly by the office of the Central Commission for Integrated Military and Civilian Development, the Standardization Administration, the Equipment Development Department under the Central Military Commission, the State Administration of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense had been held in Beijing on July 31.

On the occasion of the PLA's 90th Founding Anniversary on August 1, 2018 China's official news agency Xinhua published an article reviewing Xi Jinping’s military reforms over the past three years.

The PLA organised a ceremony on August 1 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to celebrate the 91st Founding Anniversary of the PLA.

Premier Li Keqiang visited the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) from July 25-27, 2018 to inspect work on the Sichuan-Tibet Railway.

Speculation in Beijing that the senior, veteran Party leaders and members of the Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC) are at Beidaihe for the annual confabulations was confirmed on August 8 with China's official media reporting that Chinese Premier Li Keqiang received newly-elected President of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces there on August 8, 2018.

Bloomberg News reported on July 28, 2018 that at the instance of the German authorities the State-owned investment bank KfW will temporarily acquire a 20 percent holding in 50Hertz Transmission GmbH, one of Germany's largest power-grid operators.

The Wall Street Journal reported on August 1, that to ratchet up pressure on Beijing the US is considering more than doubling its proposed tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25%.

Chinese Ambassador to the US, Cui Tiankai, disclosed on July 30 at an embassy event in Washington celebrating the anniversary of the PLA’s founding, that PLA Navy Commander Vice Admiral Shen Jinlong, will accompany Defence Minister Wei Fenghe on the latter's visit to the US later this year.

The International Campaign for Tibet reported on July 30, that the former home of the parents of the Dalai Lama, 'one of the largest and most important of the few remaining historic buildings in Lhasa', has been demolished and a new concrete structure is being built in its place.

57-year old Zhuang Rongwen was named on August 1, to head the Cyberspace Administration of China.

On July 24, Unirule (天则), the liberal economic think tank in Beijing, published a 10,000-character essay by Tsinghua University legal scholar Xu Zhangrun (许章润) which has sparked wide interest inside China and among observers abroad.

The Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Economic Daily Zhang Lei (张磊) wrote an article in the PLA Daily stressing that the core of “Xi Jinping’s Thought on News” is to “reinforce and improve the Party’s leadership on the work of news and public opinion.”

Xinhua on July 31 publicised a directive jointly issued by the CCP CC Organisation Department and CCP CC Propaganda (Publicity) Department on June 29, 2018 urging members of the Party, Military, Government, intellectuals and others to "carry forward the patriotic spirit of struggle, to make contributions to a new era" campaign.

57-year old Zhuang Rongwen was named on August 1, to head the Cyberspace Administration of China. He had been a Deputy Director since 2015. Zhuang Rongwen succeeds Xu Lin, a propaganda official who had held the job since June 2016.

On July 5, the People’s Daily reported a speech Xi Jinping made to a national work conference on Party appointments, known as “organization work,” or zuzhi gongzuo (组织工作), that was held in Beijing from July 3-4.

A Brigade of PLAAF Airborne troops were reported on July 11 to have carried out 'live-fire' exercises in the high-altitude plateau region in west Sichuan province.

An Unidentified Reccee Regiment of the Tibet Military Region Frontier Defense conducted a Confrontation drill " at the southern Tibetan plateau" at an altitude of 4700 meters.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on 26 July that the authorities in Sichuan’s Serthar county are refusing to issue drivers’ licenses to Tibetan nomads.

A number of Officers from the PLA Army (PLAA), PLA Air Force (PLAAF), PLA Navy (PLAN) and PLA Rocket Force (PLARF) have been promoted to the rank of Major General and Lt General since June 19, 2018.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived in Lhasa's Gonggar airport on July 26 on an inspection of the Gala mountain tunnel, which is at an altitude of 3500 metres, on the Sichuan-Tibet Railway. PRC Premier Li Keqiang also visited Linzhi.

Foreign Policy (July 24) said Chinese security technology companies are present in many parts of Africa and that many countries in Africa are reliant on Chinese companies for their telecoms and digital services.

Taiwan Defense Department sources reportedly disclosed that on June 20 and 21, 2018 a total of 50 PLA Navy ships including the "Chinese Shendun 中华神盾" destroyer passed through the Taiwan Strait.

Since the US first decided to impose tarrifs on US$ 34 billion worth of Chinese exports on 6 July, the CCP's official newspaper published 7 commentaries on the 'Trade War'.

The PLA Daily on June 20 published an article stressing that “the application of big data to national defense mobilization is a trend; only by following the trend, reinforcing big data infrastructure building, and enhancing the ability to utilize big data in national defense mobilization can one have the initiative in future warfare mobilization.”

The official 'The Paper' on July 8, reported that eight students graduated from Shandong University with degrees in “United Front Studies.”

A commentary titled 'Straighten Out The Communist Party’s Spiritual Backbone' was published by the CCP CC theoretical fortnightly journal on June 15 under the pen-name “Qiu Shi” (秋石).

The CPPCC Daily on June 16, reported that the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee’s Ethnic and Religious Committee Director

The CPC News released several graphs in late June 2018 reviewing the demographic changes and other information on the development of the CCP in 2017.

240-hectares of a 4,800 hectare US$ 3.5 billion initiative Free Trade Zone, the largest in Africa, was inaugurated in Djibouti on July 5, 2018.

The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on July 6 that Chinese agents were using fake social media profiles — already networked with several members of the German parliament — to contact German MPs and offer them money in exchange for expertise and insider knowledge.

On July 6, 2018 China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, said China’s tit-for-tat measures “had taken effect immediately after the implementation of the US tariffs.”

An open-church priest who serves in Luoyang Diocese of Sanmenxia City, Henan province claims that local officials visited his church on July 1 and handed him a circular titled "Special Office Emergency Notice", ordering clergy to follow the instructions laid out therein.

On July 4th morning a young woman live-streamed herself splashing ink on an image of Xi Jinping in front of a Shanghai office building while speaking out against one-party rule in China.

The US Department of Justice disclosed on June 21, 2018 that 41-year old Shuren Qin, a Chinese national residing in Wellesley, Mass., was arrested on June 21 and will appear in federal court in Boston on June 22, 2018.

According to a report of June 22, Jiangxi province issued guidelines the previous week stipulating that women more than 14 weeks pregnant must have signed approval from three medical professionals confirming an abortion is medically necessary before any procedure.

The bimonthly session of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress on June 22 passed a resolution specifying the authority and responsibilities of the newly reshuffled China Coast Guard.

The PLA Daily on June 23 reported that China has opened the bid to construct its first nuclear-powered icebreaker support ship, which according to Chinese military observers is a move to prepare for the construction of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

Separately, a photo of the meeting, held at CSIC’s China Ship and Vessel Research and Design Institute in the central city of Wuhan, has aroused interest.

57-year Sun Bo, General Manager and second-highest-ranking executive at the state-owned military-industry shipbuilding juggernaut China Shipbuilding Industry Corp (CSIC), has been arrested by the National Supervision Commission and the Communist Party’s Central Discipline Inspection Commission (CDIC) and is under investigation for “gross violation of laws and party discipline.”

To protect U.S. technological discoveries, the US State Department is beginning a new practice from this month which gives consular officers increased discretion to restrict visas for Chinese graduate students in certain important high-tech fields to one year.

The New York-based Rhodium Group reported last week that Chinese foreign direct investment in the U.S. plummeted 92% in the first half of 2018 compared with the same period in 2017.

A report on CNN's website on June 22 stated that Lasers have been used to target US aerial operations in the Pacific and 20 incidents have been recorded since September 2017.

The state-run Global Times on June 21 published an article citing a report in the Indian Express and asserted that "the "China threat" theory is once again being hyped up in India".

A report of May 18 disclosed that China recently established the State Administration for Market Regulation ("SAMR"), which combines the antitrust enforcement responsibilities of the previous Price Supervision and Antimonopoly Bureau of the National Development and Reform Commission ("NDRC"), the Antimonopoly Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce ("MOFCOM"), and the Antimonopoly and Anti-unfair Competition Bureau of the State Administration of Industry and Commerce.

The well-known Chinese news site Tencent News reported on June 14 that Alibaba Group Chairman Jack Ma had recently delivered a speech at the Conference of the Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce.

In an editorial on June 20, China's leading influential financial magazine Caixin commented on the recent emergence of cases of local government employees in China demanding overdue wages and said this has caused widespread concern.

Australia's wine industry which sells approx US$ 644 million worth of wines to China is facing an imminent crisis as wine shipments are now being delayed at major Chinese ports.

The US website americanconservative.com reported that the Chinese Telecom company Zhongxing Telecommunication Equipment (ZTE) Corporation opted for an aggressive, extremely well-paid Chinese influence operation in Washington.

The US Administration on June 15 announced it would move ahead with imposing a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion of Chinese products that are imported into the United States, escalating what had primarily been a war of words between the world’s two largest economies into a full-blown trade war.

China's state-run Global Times Chinese-language edition on June 14 quoted Japan’s Kyodo News as saying on June 14 that 'According to relevant sources of the Japanese government on the 14th, the North Korean Workers’ Party Chairman Kim Jong-un said at the U.S.-DPRK summit meeting that “it is possible to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Be open-minded.'

Civil servants in Leiyang were supposed to receive their wages on May 15, but their pay was only released on June 8.

A report of June 14, 2018 claimed that the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), a privately funded nonprofit organization based in Hong Kong that is dedicated to ‘facilitating open and constructive exchange among policy-makers, business leaders, academics, think-tanks, cultural figures, and educators from the United States and China,' has funded the online news outlet Vox.

Xinhua (June 16, 2018) reported that China's 26 military colleges and academies plan to enroll 30,500 students this year.

China's official news agency Xinhua reported on June 8, that is planning to build three new airports in Tibet.

Reporting Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the PLAN Base HQ under the PLA Northern Theatre Command at Qingdao, China Daily said he urged the PLAN to further strengthen its combat training and enhance its elite forces' capabilities.

Writing in the Washington Post on June 10, 2018 former Chinese Vice Foreign Minister and former member of the Six Party Talks Ms Fu Ying said of the impending Summit talks of June 12 as "an unprecedented opportunity for peaceful resolution has emerged".

The Nikkei Asia Review on June 4 revealed that Thailand is taking the lead in creating a regional fund with its neighbors, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, to back infrastructure and other development projects and to lessen reliance on Chinese investment.

Major Singapore newspaper Sinchew recently reported that the Myanmar government is in the middle of re-evaluating a Chinese investment project to develop a deep-water port at the Port of Kyaukpyu.

Anti-China protests erupted throughout Vietnam on June 11 and more than 100 people were arrested late on June 10 after demonstrators stormed a provincial government building east of Ho Chi Minh City, the local news media reported.

The state-owned Chinese state broadcaster CGTN plans to hire more than 350 London-based journalists in less than 18 months.

As part of the nationwide "Ten million teachers and students having the same class to study new thoughts" campaign organised by the Ministry of Education and which began on June 8, universities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have begun a lecture series on the thoughts of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Taiwan News reported on June 11, 2018 that mass protests were staged by truck drivers across 9 provinces and municipalities in China to voice their anger over high costs, decreasing wages, excessive highway tolls, changing government policies and police harassment.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will be 65 years old on June 15, 2018.

British Defence Secretary, Gavin Williamson revealed at the Shangri La Dialogue that two British naval ships have taken part in ‘freedom of navigation’ operations in the South China Sea during the past month.

A report in the Wall Street Journal on June 8, claimed that a French warship passing through the Spratly Islands was challenged by a PLA Navy warship According to the news report, the PLAN warship said:‘This is China warship calling.

58-year old Ron Rockwell Hansen of Syracuse, Utah, a former US Defense Intelligence Agency officer, was arrested on June 2, by the FBI and charged with trying to sell U.S. government secrets to Chinese spies and taking at least $800,000 in suspicious funds flowing from China.

China's General Administration of Customs stated on June 8 that imports of US products were up 11.4 per cent to touch US$14.7 billion in May from a year earlier.

The US is going to lift the ban on Chinese telecom company ZTE consequent to its agreeing to pay a fine of US$ 1 billion and agreeing to the deployment of US Enforcement officers inside the company to monitor its activities.

The Japanese and Chinese governments on June 8 officially started operating a bilateral maritime and aerial communication mechanism designed to avert unintended clashes between the Self-Defense Forces and the Chinese military.

Chinese President Xi Jinping awarded the inaugural Friendship Medal of the People's Republic of China to Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 8, 2018 and praised his "contribution and efforts to building a peaceful world."

China's State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) under the UFWD posted a report on its official website of a meeting convened on May 23 to discuss curbs on the construction of large statues.

Zongjiao Zhoukan (宗教周刊), a weekly publication associated with the China Ethnic News (中国民族报) reported that a Leading Small Group on pushing forward the sinicization of Chinese Christianity was established on May 22, during a meeting of the China Christian Council (CCC).

The Chinese government allows its corporate 'champions' nearly unfettered access to the country's 770 million internet users, but as China's tech giants get bigger and richer they realise that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) gets more nervous.

At an executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on May 6, the State Council decided that China will make strenuous efforts to build a more comprehensive and rigorous social credit system to improve the business environment and boost development.

The official Party paper People's Daily on May 26, reported that Central Military Commission (CMC) Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia attended a symposium on inspection work for the armed services and the People’s Armed Police Forces, where he stressed the necessity of deeply comprehending and resolutely carrying out Xi Jinping’s instructions on inspection work.

The CCP CC's United Front Work Department (UFWD) posted on its official website a lengthy Xinhua report dated June 1 that said the Politburo convened a meeting to deliberate the "Guidelines for Rural Revitalization Strategic Planning (2018-2022) (乡村振兴战略规划 (2018-2022年) " and "Guiding Opinions on Three-Year Action on Winning Poverty Alleviation Strategies" (关于打赢脱贫攻坚战三年行动的指导意) .

Nepal’s government on May 29, 2018 said it would build on its own a 750 megawatt hydroelectric plant that was earlier cleared to be developed by China’s state-owned Three Gorges International Corp.

The US newspaper Washington Free Beacon on June 4, 2018 reported that members of the US Congress are moving ahead with legislation seeking curbs on Chinese government influence operations in the United States.

According to an official Chinese government website, since the Chinese government’s Ministry of Education -- the Office of Chinese Languages Council International, better known as the Hanban -- began establishing Confucious Institutes in 2004, there are now 500 "Confucius Institutes" around the world and the aim is to have 1,000 by 2020.

A US report of June 7, 2018 states that Chinese PLA entities have resumed hacking after a hiatus of several years.

The Sydney Morning Herald on May 31, 2018 published a front-page report stating that court documents filed in the US establish that the Chinese telecommunications company ZTE, was established partly as a front for military intelligence and has been linked to corruption in 18 countries.

New analysis from Israeli intelligence firm ImageSat International (ISI) made public on June 6, 2018 indicates that the Chinese missile systems on Woody Island in the Paracel archipelago may have been removed or relocated.

The People's Daily reported on May 30, that Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (SWS) had delivered a 20,000 TEU container vessel to COSCO SHIPPING Lines Co., Ltd after a naming ceremony on May 29.

On May 28, 2018, Chinese President Xi Jinping gave a speech at the 19th Meeting of Academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the 14th Meeting of Academicians from the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

On May 18, the PLAAF announced that the H-6K nuclear bomber, also known as 'God of War', had landed at Yongxing Island in the Xisha Island group in the South China Sea.

On May 26, the Civil Aviation Administration of China stated that 18 airlines out of 44 have made requisite corrections regarding mentioning Taiwan as part of China and the remaining 26 airlines have also promised to correct.

Xinhua in May 23 reported that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his keynote speech at the 17th Asia Security Summit, or the Shangri-la Dialogue, on May 22 "hailed his country's relationship with China, saying that cooperation between New Delhi and Beijing will benefit Asia and the world".

The Global Times reaction (June 1, 2018) to the US decision to rename the US Pacific Command as the US Indo-Pacific Command was short and swift.

Hongkong's South China Morning Post reported on June 2, that Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung will be a council member on a think tank led by Chinese dissident Wang Dan, to be launched on Monday in the United States.

China's authoritative official news agency Xinhua published an article on its WeChat Official Account on May 26, on the lesson learned from the ZTE incident after the U.S. Department of Commerce issued the notice on May 25, 2018, regarding the lifting of the ban on ZTE’s sales.

The major Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily on May 31 published an analysis by senior Chinese journalist Lu Yue on China’s Vice Premier Liu He and his position on trade.

The official People's Daily reported on June 1 that China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) had reported on May 31 that China contributed more than 30 percent to world economic growth during 2017.

Xi Jinping gave an 'important speech' at the National Conference on Eco-environmental Protection held in Beijing from May 18 to 19.

Over the last decade, dozens of Chinese companies have entered the Israeli market as sole or sub-contractors or suppliers in major transportation, infrastructure, agriculture and food projects.

Two ex-DGSE officers are suspected of "extremely serious" treason on behalf of a foreign power according to a French media report of May 25, 2018 quoting the French Defence Ministry.

Canada has blocked a proposed C$1.51 billion (US$ 1.18 billion) takeover of construction company Aecon (ARE.TO) by the overseas investment and financing arm of a Chinese State owned Enterprise 'China Communications Construction Co Ltd' on national security grounds.

China's continued militarization of the South China Sea the US has "disinvited the PLA Navy from the 2018 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) Exercise.

When Burkina Faso switched recognition to China on May 25, Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen reacted angrily.

PLA Lieutenant General He Lei, Vice President of the PLA Academy of Military Science (AMS) will lead the Chinese delegation for the upcoming 2018 Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

According to Russian statistics of China's oil imports in May published in the Global Times (military) in Chinese on May 26, figures showed an overall decrease of oil imports, but a steep rise in imports from Russia.

Pony Ma Huateng, Chairman and Chief Executive of Tencent, said China’s internet giant would consider investing into the research and development of computer chips, as the country must focus on research of core technologies.

Xinhua reported on May 23 that the Air Force “Hong Jian-2018” system large-scale confrontation exercise commenced on May 23 "in the Northwest Wilderness of China (Western Theatre Command)".

An article published in Radio Free Asia (RFA) on May 21, claimed that Wang Xiaoming, the Deputy Secretary General of the Beijing municipal government, committed suicide by jumping off the building. Medical records indicate that Wang Xiaoming had been suffering from depression for a long period of time.

Chinese authorities disclosed that dozens of mainland Maoists headed across the border last week for a demonstration to mark the 52nd anniversary of the start of the Cultural Revolution.

In the recent case of espionage in the US, the affidavit filed by the FBI revealed that Mallory told FBI agents in May that he had been contacted in February on a social media site by a recruiter for a Chinese think tank, the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

At the invitation of the US government, Xi Jinping’s special envoy, leader of the China-US Comprehensive Economic Dialogue (中美全面经济对话), and Vice Premier Liu He (刘鹤) led a delegation to Washington, DC.

The US is beginning to feel that the gap in oversight over Chinese activities in buying up US tech firms has became a more urgent problem in 2015, when China unveiled its “Made in China 2025” strategy of working with private investors to buy overseas tech firms.

Following the directive issued on April 25 by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to 36 airlines to depict Taiwan, Hongkong and Macau as part of China within 30 days or face the consequences including legal sanctions, the Associated Press found on May 22, that 20 carriers, including Air Canada, British Airways and Lufthansa, now refer to Taiwan as a part of China on their global websites.

Tibetan language education activist Tashi Wangchuk was sentenced on May 21, to 5 years imprisonment for “inciting separatism” by the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai province.

In an interview with the Chinese Communist Party's official newspaper on May 22, Chinese military expert Liang Fang said China will certainly build more aircraft carriers.

China's second aircraft carrier returned to dock at the Dalian Shipyard in Liaoning Province on May 18 after its first sea trials.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party has shut down the prominent Maoist website Utopia amid concerns it may boost extreme nationalist sentiment that could undermine Beijing's trade policy with the United States.

Bloomberg News reported on May 21, that China is planning to scrap all limits on the number of children a family can have.

China's Ministry of Civil Affairs published a notification of April 28, 2018 requiring social organizations to add content on Party building and core socialist values to their charters on its website.

Xinhua reported (May 15) that CCP CC General Secretary Xi Jinping who is also Director of the Central Foreign Affairs Working Committee, chaired the first meeting of the Central Foreign Affairs Working Committee on May 15 and delivered an "important" speech.

Xinhua reported (May 21) Wang Qishan’s membership of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission, headed by President Xi Jinping.

The main points in the U.S. briefing paper for the first round of US-China talks on Trade in Beijing recently, were at first leaked on the social-media site Weibo and was deleted by Chinese government censors.

Chinese tourists to Vietnam sporting T-shirts with a map of China showing the 9-dash line arrived in southern Cam Ranh airport on May 13 night and were stopped by security at the Immigration desk.

The accreditation for two Taiwanese journalists to cover the upcoming World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland has been denied.

The South China Morning Post on May 16, 2018 published a report quoting PLAAF spokesman Senior Colonel Shen Jinke talking about the flights going around Taiwan and the missiles the aircraft were carrying.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) recently sent a letter to 36 international air carriers demanding that they remove from their websites references implying that Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau are not part of China. T

A Working Paper by Luis R. Martinez of the University of Chicago, and published recently claims that authoritarian regimes are especially likely to artificially boost their gross domestic product numbers in the years before elections.

On May 21, China plans to launch a satellite with a vital but unglamorous mission. From a vantage point beyond the moon, Queqiao, as the satellite is called, will relay data from Chang'e 4, a lander and rover that is supposed to touch down on the lunar far side before the end of the year.

South China Morning Post (SCMP) May 13.reported on May 16, 2018 that 64-year old PLA General Cai Yingting, a former Nanjing Military Region Commander and rising star who retired prematurely after his appointment as President of the Academy of Military Sciences (AMS) when the five Theater Commands were formed, has been demoted by eight grades to become a battalion commander. )

The official CCTV reported on May 13, 2018 on China’s first domestically made aircraft carrier and mentioned that its Commander was PLAN Senior Captain Lai Yijun.

The FBI Press Release of May 8 provided additional details on the arrest of 53-year old Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a resident of Hong Kong and U.S. citizen who speaks fluent Chinese.

The Washington Post on May 13, 2018 quoted US President Trump as tweeting “President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast.

There are reports to indicate that in the wake of US-China trade tension and Washington’s efforts to scuttle the 'Made in China 2025' initiative, Beijing is using Hong Kong to counter US efforts.

China's state-owned Economic Times reported (May 7, 2018) the release of a Blue Book focusing on the current situation of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) investment security, assessment of investment risks, and impact of cultural differences and climate change on investment.

In a ceremony in Beijing earlier this week, Xu Lin, Director of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), presided over the inauguration of the China Federation of Internet Societies (CFIS), an internet industry grouping whose stated purpose is to “promote the development of Party organizations in the industry.”

The website of the Chinese Tibetan Department of Advanced Buddhist College on May 11, 2018 reported on a conference of Party members held by the College the previous day to convey and study the “Notice on Conducting the Special Work on the Party’s Style and Incorruptible Politics” focusing on the use of the “first form” by the Central United Front Work Department.

In an article in the Party theoretical journal 'Qiu Shi' on May 7, 2018, Zhu Jidong, Deputy Director of the Chinese Academy of Social Security and the National Center for Cultural Studies and Secretary General of the Ideological Construction of Marxism Research, argued against the interpretation that Marxism is a foreign culture.

Xinhua reported on May 7, 2018 that the CCP CC had printed and issued the "Law of the Socialist Core Values ​​into the Legislative Construction of Laws and Regulations" (hereinafter referred to as the "Planning"), and issued a notice requesting all regions and departments to implement the plan in accordance with actual conditions.

Few senior appointments were publicised by the CCP CC Organisation Department in early May.

ABC reported on May 9, 2018 that Lincoln City in Australia's central Queensland region of Rockhampton removed the Taiwanese flag from a children’s art project ahead of a major international beef expo.

The US Commerce Department last month blocked American firms from selling parts or providing services to ZTE until 2025.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on May 9, 2018 that China intends to further tighten the regulation of public religious worship in a bid to prevent "hostile foreign forces" from infiltrating the country.

China is currently discussing the construction of airport and airplane maintenance facilities at Guadalcanal Island (Solomon Islands) in the western Pacific Ocean.

China's official Xinhua News Agency reported on May 10, that a draft amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law was announced on the Chinese People's Congress website to solicit opinions from the public.

The Paper, an official newspaper of China, reported on May 9, 2018 that Han Kun, founder CEO of Yixia Technology had announced at his acceptance speech in Guangzhou on May 8 that he would whole heartedly support the Party and actively cooperate with the authorities to ensure a "clean" internet.

The Cyberspace Administration of China announced on May 9, 2018 that 53-year old Ma Yun (Jack Ma) founder Chairman of Alibaba and 46-year old Ma Huateng, also known as 'Pony' Ma, and founder Chairman of TenCent, are Chairmen of the China Federation of Internet Societies consisting of 300 groups to study and implement Xi Jinping thought and promote “correct political direction”.

Xinhua reported (May 10, 2018) that China is developing a "youth credit system" to encourage young people to take an active part in building a high-trust society.

Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 53, a former C.I.A. officer suspected of helping China unravel the agency’s spy network in China was indicted on May 8 on a charge of conspiring to commit espionage.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Dalian on May 7, when he met Chinese President Xi Jinping. Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported that the official had arrived by North Korea's Air Koryo.

The top ten recipients of China's Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) are strategically or resource rich countries looking for aid.

The National Bureau of Statistics reported on May 9, 2018 that Shanghai retained the top spot on the list of 31 province-level jurisdictions, with residents of the financial hub earning an average of 17,277 yuan (US$2,700) over the January-March period.

More than 200 ex-PLA personnel who had been employed by 4 banks after demobilisation and then ""illegally" laid off without commensurate medical or pensionary benefits, wrote letters on May 8, 2018 to China's newly established Ministry of Veterans Affairs requesting intervention.

China Change reported on May 7, 2018 that a WeChat group named “Changsha tower crane operator federation” posted an "open letter' om April 25 asking construction, crane, and mechanical equipment operators and engineers in China to trigger a wave of simultaneous strikes among crane operators around the country.

Senior military officers from 19 countries in Asia and the Pacific have gathered in Shanghai for a regional workshop on the law of armed conflict at sea to be held from May 8 to11, 2018.

54-year old dismissed Politburo member and former Party Secretary of Chongqing, was found guilty of taking over 170 million yuan ($26.7 million) in bribes, the First Intermediate People’s Court of Tianjin said in a statement on its website.

Chinese media and telecommunication companies in Africa who are there as part of Beijing’s “going out policy”, have increased and diversified their operations.

Tensions between the US and China increased on May 4 as it emerged that US officials had handed Beijing a list of demands including a $200bn cut in its trade deficit and an end to state subsidies on strategic industries.

CNBC reported on May 4, 2018 that China had quietly deployed HQ-9 surface-to-air missiles and YJ-12 supersonic anti-ship missiles onto its outposts in the South China Sea in the past month.

While inpecting Peking University (PKU) on May 2, 2018, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for building world-class universities with Chinese characteristics to nurture people well-prepared to join the socialist cause.

FT on April 18, 2018 reported that since 2010, US weapons exports to Pakistan have plummeted from $1bn to just $21m last year, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Defence News quoted Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White as saying on May 3, 2018 that two U.S. airmen suffered “minor” injuries as a result of the use of Chinese-deployed lasers in Djibouti.

Writing in the FT of May 6, Keyu Jin, daughter of the Director General of AIIB Jin Liqun and an Associate Professor at LSE, argued that , paradoxically, it may be better for China to lose a trade conflict with the US than to win it as China would be the winner in the long run. She said reformers within China are likely to seize on it as an opportunity to hasten domestic reforms which will strengthen the country.

In a document entitled “Balancing the Trade Relationship” that was 'leaked' to Bloomberg News on May 4, the U.S. government made a series of demands from China at the outset of meetings in Beijing on May 4-5, 2018 to resolve a simmering trade dispute.

The New York Times on May 3 reported from Beijing that members of the Trump administration delegation who arrived in Beijing on May 3 for two days of high-level talks found that their Chinese official counterparts had limited experience in trade matters.

Earlier the same week, Xi Jinping visited Peking University (PKU), China’s most prestigious school, and according to Xinhua told students about his "enlightenment" at age 15 when he grasped the truth that is Marxism.

Xinhua reported that at an event in Beijing on May 4, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth, Xi Jinping praised Marx as: "[A]Teacher of revolution for the proletariat and working people all over the world, the main founder of Marxism, creator of Marxist parties, pathfinder for international communism and the greatest thinker of modern times…".

On May 1, 2018 the Dominican Republic switched formal diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China.CCTV on May 1, 2018 showed PRC Vice President Wang Qishan meeting the visiting Foreign Minister of the Dominican Republic.

US President Trump on April 30, raised expectations for his meeting with DPRK President Kim Jong-un, saying he would like to hold the at the Peace House in the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas because “there’s a great celebration to be had on the site” if the negotiations are successful.

After China tested an "invisibility cloak" that would allow ordinary fighter jets to suddenly vanish from radar screens in April, American officials fear China may have gained the technology in part from a Chinese researcher who roused suspicions while working on a similar technology at a Duke University laboratory in 2008.

Sina.com reported on April 22, 2018 that Huanqiu, a subsidiary under People’s Daily, published an article asking the Chinese people not to boycott U.S. goods.