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.

Reports reveal that the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) was active in breaking up what was probably the largest strike in China in the past 2 years.

Xinhua quoted a statement released by the China Geological Survey's Guangzhou branch on May 2, 2018 which disclosed that China has carried out deep-sea scientific research with two domestically-made deep-sea submersibles, the unmanned submersible Haima (Seahorse) and manned submersible Shenhai Yongshi (Deep Sea Warrior), to explore a cold seep in the South China Sea.

The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) disclosed on April 27, 2018 that MPS personnel had been honoured for "loyalty to the Party' in a ceremony on April 27.

The China Cyberspace Administration disclosed on April 27, 2018 that the Guangdong Internet and Informatization Office had mobilised 5000 police officers and censored 6 million pieces of “harmful information,” shut down 580,000 Internet accounts and had taken down 700 apps in 2018.

Radio Free Asia reported on April 27, 2018 that an unofficial shrine to late supreme leader Mao Zedong and other heroes of the ruling Chinese Communist Party's mythology has been destroyed in Henan province.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's speech at the State Council’s first meeting on clean administration on April 27, 2018 had emphasized that the people should use the Internet and big data to “ oversee the government’s behavior throughout the process. ”

A law to protect the reputation and honor of heroes and martyrs has been passed and will take effect on May 1, 2018.

Tanzania has officially submitted its letter of approval on April 24, 2018 for the Bagamoyo Special Economic Zone venture to China Merchants Port, agreeing and accepting the investor’s comprehensive project proposal.

US Admiral Philip Davidson, tipped to take over the US Pacific Command, said in testimony to a US Senate Committee on April 24, 2014 that he will restructure the 375,000 military and civilian personnel, 200 ships and nearly 1,100 aircraft in the region and “recalibrate” the command in line with the Pentagon’s new national defense strategy.

Meeting the Pakistan Navy Chief Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi in Beijing on April 20, 2018, Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe has said that China is willing to work with Pakistan to focus on building a community of human destiny, consolidate the all-weather friendship and deepen pragmatic cooperation between the two armed forces.

An article posted on April 18, 2018 on the Council on Foreign Relations website showed that even though the RMB is the 7th most widely used in global payments, settling 1.6 percent of transactions, it is only the 20th most “globalized” among major currencies—as measured by adjusting for how much trade each country does.

Diao Weiming, Editor-in-Chief of the prominent Maoist website 'Utopia' died in a crash with 36 other people during a tour to North Korea.

On April 17, 2018, Xinhua reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, his wife Ri Sol Ju and the head of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee's International Department Song Tao watched a performance of the ballet "The Red Detachment of Women" at the East Pyongyang Grand Theater, Pyongyang on April 16. Kim Jong Un "highly praised the Chinese artists' performance" and took a group photo with them on stage along with his wife Ri Sol Ju.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi travbelled to Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, for an "informal" meting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on April 27-28, 2018.

Global Times reported on April 25, 2018 that hundreds of primary school students in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region recently recited classic texts from Chinese ancient philosophical works to promote traditional culture.

Students of Beijing University circulated a letter via email on April 25, 2018 protesting against the "anti-sexual harrassment" of a Peking University student and Yue Yue college students in Shenyang for disclosure of information.

China is creating a giant media outlet called Voice of China, which combines the three state television and radio broadcasters namely China Global Television Network, China Radio International, and China National Radio.

The National Cyber Security and Informationization Conference was held in Beijing on April 20-21, 2018. CCP CC General Secretary, Chairman of the State Council, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, and Director of the Central Cyber ​​Security and Information Technology Committee Xi Jinping attended and delivered an "important" speech.

According to an article the Jing Rong Jie (Financial World) website published on April 14, 2018, during the Tenth Chinese Mulan (Women) Entrepreneur Annual Conference held on April 14 in Beijing, Mao Zhenhua, the Founder and Chairman of China Chengxin Credit Management Company gave a speech in which he stated that, each year, China spends 15 to 17 percent of its GDP to make its interest payments.

South China Morning Post reported (April 14, 2018) that while speaking at a forum in Guangzhou on April 13, 2018, Li Ruogu, the former president of Export-Import Bank of China, said that most of the countries along the route of the “Belt and Road Initiative”, as the plan is known, did not have the money to pay for the projects with which they were involved.

The ossicial Global Times on April 16, 2018 publicised that China's new J-10C fighter jets have been put into service improving the combat capabilities of the PLA Air Force.

45 warships, including two Jin-class nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), along with at least two new Shang-class nuclear attack submarines, participated in the recent PLAN parade.

On April 8, 2018, PB Member and Director of the CCP CC Central Propaganda Department Huang Kunming attended the unveiling ceremony of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism where he emphasised 'the need to adhere to the guidance of socialist ideas with Chinese characteristics in the new era of Xi Jinping'.

An article in the state-run Global Times on April 12, 2018 by Wu Zhenglong, senior research fellow at the China Foundation for International Studies, claimed "Sino-Indian relations have presented a rosy development scenario recently" and "It seems that a new day has dawned for the two countries which were once at odds."

The official Global Times on April 12, 2018 published an article titled 'CPEC can build bridges between India, Pakistan through economic cooperation' in which it claimed "those most qualified to evaluate the impact and realities of the cooperation in the South Asian country are the people of Pakistan" and that "the project is considered by some Indian observers as a strategic tool of China to contain India's rise".

On April 7, 2018 an unidentified Brigade of the PLA Marine Corps participated in the driving training of armored units in accordance with 'real combat requirements', to fully test the combat driving skills of the driver and improve the maneuverability of the troops in environment of a complex terrain.

Chinese media reports indicate that China's second aircraft carrier might undergo its first sea trial on 23rd April, which is China’s Navy Day.

Russia delivered the first regimental set of S-400 Triumf advanced interceptor-based Air Defense Systems (NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler) to China under a 2014 government-to-government contract, an unnamed Russian official told TASS news agency on April 3.

The Global Times on April 4, 2018 reported that, according to Russian news media, voices from the Moscow Economic Forum expressed the expectation that China’s tariff hikes on American food would be very helpful in turning Russia into China’s primary foreign food supplier.

FT reported (April 8, 2018) that IMF Chief Ms Christine Lagarde has warned China on Belt and Road to the risks of burdening recipients of its infrastructure finance with heavy debts.

The Japan Times on April 12, 2018 claimed Xi Jinping "has emerged as one of the protectors of the global trade order."

Chen Zongrong, a senior Chinese religious-affairs official described at a press conference in Beijing on April 3, 2018 as a “former vice administrator” of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, said the Chinese government is making concerted efforts to conclude an agreement with the Pope, which would end a decades long rift.

Writing in the US newspaper 'The Beacon' on April 2, 2018, Bill Gertz claimed that a secret program authorized by the CCP CC's General Office approved a "working plan on strengthening the intensity of United Front Work in the area of science and technology of the United States in 2017."

Wang Zuoan has been promoted as Deputy Director of the CCP CC's powerful United Front Work Department (UFWD) as it takes control of all religious.

Almost 6,000 workers in Zhuhai have been on strike since March 29, 2018 after learning that their employer Flex, a NASDAQ-listed technology company, plans to sell Multek, its Chinese subsidiary, to MFLEX, a subsidiary of Suzhou Dongshan Precision Manufacturing (DSBJ).

In late March 2018, 3000 Sanitary workers went on a six-day strike in Shanghai's Changning District caused by a $110 pay cut.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on April 12, 2018 that fans of a humorous video app shut down by the ruling Chinese Communist Party for "vulgar content" staged traffic-stopping and horn-honking protests around the country on April 12.

China Daily reported on April 12, 2018 that 54-year old Sun Zhengcai, former secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, went on trial in Tianjin on April 12, 2018 on bribery charges.

Chinese state media reported that two days after the Boao Forum (April 11, 2018), Chinese President and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) Xi Jinping reviewed a "spectacular parade" involving 10,000 Naval personnel, China's only operational aircraft carrier, 48 ships and submarines and 76 aircraft.

The Financial Times on April reported that China virtually halted exports of petroleum products, coal and other key materials to North Korea in the months leading to this week’s unprecedented summit between Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

Japan Times on April 2, 2018 disclosed that in a phone call on March 9 with U.S. President Donald Trump last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for setting up a new four-way security framework involving China, North Korea, South Korea and the United States to ensure peace on the Korean Peninsula.

The state-run Global Times, published an article on March 27, 2018 citing former Deputy Commander of the Nanjing Military Region, General Wang Hongguang, as declaring that China could take over Taiwan in three days with “six fighting means.”

Duowei News reported on March 31, 2018 that the CCP CC's Central Discipline Inspection Commission (CDIC) issued a notice that Feng Xinzhu, Deputy Governor of Shaanxi Province, was “expelled from party membership and stripped of his public office title” for violation of political discipline and rules.

As threatened, China's official news agency on April 2, 2018 confirmed that China with the approval of the State Council and the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council decided, starting April 2, 2018, to suspend tariff concession obligations on the seven categories of 128 imported commodities originating in the United States.

China Education Daily reported on April 2, 2018 that the Xinjiang government will pay special attention to preschool education this year, which includes building more public kindergartens and improving kindergarten students' mandarin in preparation for primary school.

On March 25, 2018 China's Ministry of Education notified that commencing this year's gaokao, sports, math and science competition winners nationwide will no longer get bonus points added to their gaokao results.

Xinhua on March 21, 2018 reported that acting in accordance with the new regulation on enhancing and safeguarding the centralized and unified leadership of the Central Committee, for the first time Politburo members submitted annual reports on their work to Xi Jinping and the Central Committee.

Japan’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) issued a statement that China's PLAAF sent four Xian H-6K long-range bombers, one Shaanxi Y-8 electronic countermeasures aircraft, one Tupolev Tu-154MD electronic intelligence plane, and at least two Sukhoi Su-35 multirole fighter jets through international airspace between the Japanese islands of Okinawa and Miyako in the East China Sea on March 23 as part of a military exercise.

Nikkei Asian Review reported on March 26, 2018 that grassroots activists in Thailand's northern Chiang Rai province have successfully lobbied the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), a state power utility, to suspend its decision to purchase electricity from a controversial hydropower dam proposed by China's Datong Corporation on the Lao side of the Mekong river.

Xinhua and Global Times on March 28, 2018 confirmed that North Korean President Kim Jong Un had visited Beijing from March 25-28 and been "warmly received" by Xi Jinping.

Interesting Engineering reported on March 27, 2018 that China is planning to implement a large-scale weather changing project to ensure a consistent rain supply in the Tibetan Plateau.

China's Xiaomi Corp founder Lei Jun disclosed on March 28, 2018 that it has formed an artificial intelligence team with about 500 employees.

Taiwan`s Ministry of Economic Affairs expressed regret March 23 that the US did not give Taiwan immunity from the Trump tariffs (the ``DTs``?) and therefore will face additional levies of 25 percent on steel imported into the US and 10 percent on aluminum.

According to the Nepal Rashtra Bank, Nepal's exports to China rose by 72% to US$ 17 million in the first 7 months of 2018.

The SCMP published an interview with India's Ambassador to China Gautam Bambawale on March 24, 2018 when he said “Political level communication has come back, but more importantly, I think we need to have discussions between the two militaries.

The state-run Global Times on March 21, 2018 published a lengthy article entitled 'Sino-Indian border row a wound from history' the concluding paragraphs offered an insight to China's perception of India's stand on the border issue.

An article in the state-run Global Times on March 22, 2018 captioned 'India shouldn’t make aid to needy neighbors a bargaining chip against China' said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government's generosity "to its neighbors, notably Nepal, is worthy of applause" adding that "Increased Indian pledges of aid can support growth in the recipient countries, thus contributing to the shared prosperity that China, the initiator of the Belt and Road (B&R) initiative, has long advocated".

The state-run Global Times on March 20, 2018 front-paged Iran's invitation to China and Pakistan to participate in construction of the Chabahar Sea Port.

Wang Shumao, a Deputy to the Thirteenth NPC and Deputy Head of the militia at Tanmen, the port township nearest to Nansha in the South China Sea, said to Global Times on the sidelines of the NPC session that China should send more militia missions to safeguard national sovereignty.

On March 23, 2018 the UNHRC passed a resolution that without specifying any immediate action called for “a community of shared future for human beings” and “mutually beneficial cooperation in the field of human rights.”

Bloomberg News cited "numerous sources" as stating on March 26, 2018 that Kim Jong-un is visiting China in what is his first trip outside North Korea since 2011.

Qizhala, Chairman of TAR, said at the NPC that TAR plan to build a modern high altitude economic system. It will focus on supporting key industries that are unique and suitable for its high altitude environment such as tourism, border trade and clean energy.

A People's Daily commentary of March 14. under the pen name “Zhong Sheng” (钟声), which stands for “Voice of China” and authoritatively transmits the official positions of People’s Daily on matters of international affairs, compared China’s Two Sessions with the current political situation in the West.

The People's Daily reported that the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) established 10 Special Committees.

Less than a week after Yi Gang was appointed Governor of PBoC, Beijing unexpectedly placed Guo Shuqing, former head of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, as the Communist Party secretary at the central bank.

The new Cabinet announced by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on March 19 at the NPC, included Wang Yi as Foreign Minister, 1954-born former Commander of the PLA Rocket Force Wei Fenghe as Defence Minister, Han Zheng, Sun Chunlan, Hu Chunhua and Liu He as Vice Premiers, Zhao Kezhi as Minister of Public Security, and US-educated former Vice Governor of the People's Bank of China (PBoC) Yu Gang as Governor of PBoC.

A People's Daily commentary on March 14, 2018 under the byline “Zhong Jiyan” (钟纪言) noted that there are 21 amendments to the constitution, 11 of which are related to reforming the country’s supervision system, including those related to the new National Supervision Commission which has been added to Chapter 3, “National Institutions” (国家机构).

On March 15, 2018 Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in an article captioned Unswervingly taking the path of peaceful development and promoting the establishment of a community of human destiny said China "will surely maintain and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics for the new era and realize "the goal of struggle and the Chinese dream of a great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation" which provide a strong constitutional guarantee of "great practical significance and far-reaching historical significance".

Three CCP CC Politburo members published articles in People’s Daily indicating their support for the “CCP Central Committee Decision on deepening structural reforms of Party and state institutions” (中共中央关于深化党和国家机构改革的决定), after Wang Yong introduced plans for institutional reform at the NPC meeting.

Writing in Hongkong's South China Morning Post on March 24, 2018, its former Editor-in-Chief Wang Xiangwei pointed out that the Party's official newspaper 'People’s Daily' in a front page editorial last week described Xi Jinping as “the helmsman of the nation” and the “guide of the people”, both terms very close to how Mao used to be referred to. It is the first time that Xi Jinping has been publicly referred to as "the helmsman".

Publishing the list of congratulatory messages sent to Chinese President Xi Jinping on his re-election as President, the state-run English-language China Daily mentioned the message from Indian Prime Minister Modi at the end.

Taiwan's Defence Ministry reported that the Chinese aircraft carrier 'Liaoning' entered and sailed through the Taiwan Strait on March 20, 2018.

The United States Congress continued its steady support for Tibet through the provision of approximately $20 million for Tibet programs in the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2018 (H.R. 1625).

During the 2016-17 academic year, the number of Chinese students studying in the US climbed to 350,755, accounting for one-third of the 1.1 million foreign students in U.S. universities, according to the Institute of International Education (IIE).

The US announced on March 22, 2018 that it will propose import tariffs amounting to US$50 billion on products from China as part of President Donald Trump’s effort to fight Beijing’s industrial policy that is meant to strengthen the country’s tech sector and long-standing imbalances in the bilateral trade and investment relationship.

Jin Canrong, Professor and Associate Dean with School of International Studies at Renmin University of China and an influential Chinese commentator on China-US relations, on March 12, 2018 wrote that China should be aware of challenges while advancing its diplomatic agenda and advised that China needs new metrics to evaluate diplomatic risks and needs caution and increased emphasis on regional security.

Hongkong's South China Morning Post reported on March 22, 2018 that Shanghai has become the first mainland city to enforce a ban on its registered citizens from holding permanent residency in other countries – for example the US green card.

The Beijing News reported on March 20, 2018 that 17 PLA personnel who decided they were fed up with their daily duties were blacklisted in China’s social credit system, restricting them from traveling by air and rail and from seeking civil service employment.

The official Chinese newspaper 'The Paper' reported on March 19, 2018 that China's Supreme People's Court and the Ministry of Civil Affairs had signed an agreement to implement sharing of parties' marriage registration information, minimum guarantee information (including household income information), registration information of social organizations, case information concerning marriage and income-related assets of social assistance recipients, and untrustworthy persons Social organizations) list information, etc.

Following Xi Jinping's re-election as President of China, the CCP official newspaper People’s Daily published a number of greeting letters from foreign leaders.

In an article on March 20, 2018 the US-based Chinese online news outlet Duowei News stated that Xi Jinping has changed his focus on China’s foreign affairs effort, thereby elevating it to an important position and that there will be a major reshaping of China’s foreign affairs work to enable it to play a more important role in the party’s governing body.

Bloomberg News service reported that Chinese companies are purchasing cash-strapped US universities and that four universities have already been purchased.

Alex Wong, US Deputy Assistant Secretary in the U.S. State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, arrived in Taipei on March 20, 2018 a 3-day visit.

Yang Wei, Deputy to the Thirteenth National People's Congress (NPC), Vice President of China Aeronautical Academy and Chief Engineer of J-20 Fighter Jets, said in an interview before the closing session of the 13th NPC that the J-20 has made many "breakthroughs" in many aspects such as situational awareness, information confrontation, airborne weapons, and coordinated operations.

Ye Jiangming, Chairman of the Shanghai-based CEFC China Energy Co. is reported to be under investigation and likely to step down as Chairman soon.

Squads of students dressed in camouflage and helmets performed night time drills recently and clamped down on a range of "inappropriate behaviour", including smoking and dropping litter in the Binzhou Vocational College, in eastern Shandong province, according to videos shared on Chinese social media.

RFA’s Uyghur Service on March reported the death of 17-year-old Yaqupjan Naman of Yekshenbe Bazar township, in Kashgar’s Yopurgha (Yuepuhu) county.

According to a statement sent by Shunxi to the Global Times, China is to build its first DNA database from ethnic minorities of Yunnan Province to assist research into diseases and biological traits.

Over the last few years, China has actually been pouring even more resources into domestic security than external security.

On March 13, 2018, a poster captioned “Protest China’s Pseudo-Constitution and Xi Jinping” appeared in the building of the Student Union of the Shanxi University of China, on the campus billboards and other public places in the University.

CMC -The Chairman of the Central Military Commission Xi Jinping nominated Xu Qiliang and Zhang Hexia as candidates for the Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission.

On March 11, 2018, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang proposed broad changes to the existing government structure. The number of ministries under the State Council, China’s cabinet, will be reduced by eight to 26, while seven non-ministerial agencies will also be cut.

On March 2, Daimler made a surprise announcement that Geely's founder and Chairman, Li Shufu, had acquired almost 10 percent of the automaker.

For the first time since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, a United States aircraft carrier, the Carl Vinson, will make a port call in Danang, Vietnam on March 5, 2018.

Voice of America (VoA) reported on March 5, 2018 that China has allegedly detained dozens of Muslim women in its restive Xinjiang province for marrying men of the Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) region.

A Global Times article of March 6, 2018 quoted a Chinese expert as saying China has the right to build military facilities within its own territory and complaints from New Delhi made "no sense".

The Wall Street Journal on March 6 reported that data from a study by the Center for Global Development, an international think tank, reveals that China is financing as much as $8 trillion in deals as part of its “Belt and Road Initiative” in 68 countries winding through Asia, Africa and Europe.

There is an 8.1% increase in China's defence budget this year bringing the total amount to US$ 175 billion.

The budget proposed by the Ministry of Finance on March 5, 2018 to the first session of the 13th NPC said the Central government will allocate 106.095 billion yuan to subsidize local poverty reduction, an increase of 20 billion yuan, or 23.2 percent over last year.

The constitutional changes including removal of the term limits on the posts of China's President and Vice President were passed by China's National People's Congress on March 11, 2018.

The Australian media reports that China is putting Australia into a diplomatic deep freeze, stalling on ministerial visits, deferring a trip by its top diplomat and putting off a broad range of lower-level ­exchanges to pressure Malcolm Turnbull over the new foreign ­interference laws and naval challenges to disputed Chinese claims in the South China Sea.

The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) Shannan City government announced on March 3 that a new meteorological observation station has been established in the Yumei Township 'frontier well-off model village'.

Unconfirmed reports sourced to Taiwan claim that Ms Hua Chunying, Deputy Director and spokesman for the Information Department of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs(MFA), who has been well known for her style and eloquence has reportedly been found with US$ 5 million in her possession by police prosecutors at her residence.

Domestic media outlet Caixin reported on February 28, 2018 that Ye Jianming, founder and Chairman of the Chinese conglomerate CEFC China Energy Co., has been investigated by government authorities.

Speaking to China Daily on March 3, 2018 Liu Zheng, Chairman of Dalian Shipbuilding Industry in Liaoning province, said his company and its parent, China Shipbuilding Industry Corp, the world's largest shipbuilder, have acquired the ability to design and build aircraft carriers－the most technologically sophisticated of all surface vessels.

An article in Foreign Policy on March 2, 2018 claimed that as part of the campaign to monitor and control the Uighur diaspora, Chinese police are demanding that Uighurs living in France hand over personal information, photos, and identity documents — and in some cases, the personal information of their French spouses.

The PRC State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office is being 'readjusted' according to the latest restructuring plan to be approved by the NPC that opens on March 5, 2018. Former PRC Ambassador to the UN, Liu Jieyi is expected to play a key role.

It was announced in Beijing on March 2, that the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's top political advisory body, will open its annual session on Saturday afternoon in Beijing.

The Third Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party was held in Beijing from February 26 to February 28, 2018 where CCP CC General Secretary Xi Jinping made an important speech.

A commentary in the authoritative official Party newspaper 'People's Daily' on March 1, 2018 defended the constitutional change as an "important move."

China's official Global Times on February 26, 2018 reacted sharply to India's 'Milan' Navy Exercises in which 16 nations are participating saying they will "inflame tensions with China, expand potential conflict from land to sea" and has prompted "Chinese observers to warn that Sino-Indian tensions are spreading from the land to the sea and that China should prepare a military response".

China’s overall resources of water are roughly 2,000 cubic meters, but 80 per cent of water resources are in the south. In the north, eight provinces suffer from acute water scarcity, a further four from scarcity.

Liu He, Politburo member, Director of the General Office of the Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs and Harvard trained economist fluent in English, arrived in the US for 5 days (February 28 - March 5, 2018) to exchange views on China-US ties and economic and trade cooperation.

China's Ministry of Environmental Protection notified on February 27, 2018 that more than 1,100 people have been held accountable of which 60 are departmental level cadres and more than 240 are division level cadres.

Zhu Zhengfu suggested that mobile telephones be seqized only in cases of criminal investigation and that since they contain a lot of private personal information there should be strict checks and procedures for seizing mobile phones.

Of the 2980 Deputies elected to the 13th NPC more than 2,200, or nearly 75% , of those elected are new deputies.

Xinhua and South China Morning Post both reported on February 25, 2018 that 65-year Yang Jing, Secretary General of China’s State Council, has been removed from his administrative posts, which decide his perks, and demoted from deputy state to ministerial level, partly because of links to troubled businessman Xiao Jianhua.

According to a commentary published in the huaglad.com on February 25, 2018, Ding Xuexiang, Director of the CCP CC General Office and close aide to Xi Jinping, recently spoke at a meeting attended by departments under the Party Central Committee.

In a statement on WeChat on February 25, 2018 addressed to Beijing’s Deputies to China’s National People's Congress (NPC), Li Datong, a former editor for the state-run China Youth Daily, wrote that lifting term limits would “sow the seeds of chaos.

After news emerged on Feburary 25, 2018 that the Chinese Communist Party had proposed abolishing term limits for China’s President and Vice President from the State Constitution, a long-standing meme comparing President Xi Jinping to Winnie the Pooh quickly resurfaced on Sina Weibo and Tencent’s WeChat, including this image showing the bear dressed as a king.

Argentina's Coast Guard said on February 25, 2018 that it opened fire on a Chinese vessel illegally fishing in its waters. Nobody was reportedly injured and the Chinese fishermen were not detained.

South China Morning Post reported on February 21, 2018 that a move is underway in Macau to amend a law which came into force when Macau returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1999 and bar non-Chinese judges in Macau from presiding at court hearings involving national security issues.

The ethnic Hui minority in Gansu which is Muslim apprehend that the latest restrictions on education are the beginning of more severe measures. In January 2018, education officials from the local government in Guanghe county, which is a heavily Muslim area, banned children from attending religious education during the Lunar New Year break.

Taxpolat Tiyip , Prominent scholar, Geographer and President of Xinjiang University in northwestern China was removed from his post and detained after a meeting of Communist Party cadres on March 31, 2017.

The Hongkong Free Press Journal reported on February 20, 2018 that a Chinese Weibo user ZhuoLawyera6j_ – a former lawyer in Shandong province -- had been fined and detained for 10 days.

63-year General Wei Fenghe, a reputed 'quiet achiever' and the last Commander of the PLA Second Artillery Corps, is tipped to be appointed the next Defence Minister at the upcoming NPC session in March 2018. Wei Fenghe was named as one of the members of the Communist Party’s powerful Central Military Commission (CMC) on October 25.

The Party's official paper, People's Daily on February 15, 2018 front-paged a report highlighting that 'Chinese President Xi Jinping's Spring Festival greetings to all Chinese people with references to hard work and family values on Wednesday have struck a chord with overseas Chinese'.

University of Canterbury Professor Anne-Marie Brady told t he Australian Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee in Canberra of three recent break-ins to her office in December 2017 and at her Upper Riccarton home.

On November 9, 2017 when US President Trump and his team visited Beijing's Great Hall of the People, Chief of Staff John Kelly and a U.S. Secret Service agent skirmished with Chinese security officials over the nuclear football.

The number of Chinese tourists to Antarctica and the Arctic has spiked. Antarctica attracted 5,289 Chinese visitors last year - making up 12 per cent of visitors - overtaking Australians as the second-largest group of travellers there.

China's official Global Times on February 15, 2018 reported that China had "expressed firm opposition" to the visit by Prime Minister Modi "to a disputed area, urging the Indian side not to take action that could complicate the boundary issue". It quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang as saying "China's position on the China-India boundary question is consistent and clear-cut.

UK's Financial Times reported on February 19, 2018 that China has been quietly holding talks with Pakistani tribal separatists for more than five years in an effort to protect the $60bn worth of infrastructure projects in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

There is a lot of focus on the activities of the Chinese Students and Scholars Associations (CSSA) set up by Chinese diplomatic missions in the US and elsewhere including the funding received by them from the Chinese Embassy/Consulates.

A commentary written on January 31, 2018 in the People’s Daily Foreign Edition’s Wang Hailou (望海楼) column, an important column that targets foreign Chinese speakers, discusses the “guiding opinion on pushing forward the reform and development of the Confucius Institute” (关于推进孔子学院改革发展的指导意见) recently passed by the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reform.

PLAAF: J-11 FIGHTER JETS IN MILITARY EXERCISES

There was a fire in Lhasa's famous Tibetan Buddhist Jokhang Temple on February 17, 2018 night but reports say that it did not destroy the whole temple.

Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC) Member and CDIC Chairman Zhao Leji (赵乐际) addressed the Central Inspection Work Mobilization and Deployment Conference held in Beijing on February 2, 2018.

1958-born PLAAF General Yi Xiaoguang was on February 1, 2018 been appointed Commander of the PLA Central Theater Command, becoming the first-ever PLAAF officer to be appointed as head of a Theater Command.

Nikkei reported that Apple is in talks with Yangtze Memory Technologies over a potential deal for purchase of storage chips from the Chinese state-backed semiconductor manufacturer.

Foreign Policy on February 14, 2018 published an article revealing that the Georgetown University Chinese Students and Scholars Association disclosed in September 2011 that the group received $800 each semester that school year from the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C.

In a notice issued on February 15, 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission of the US highlighted various concerns, including whether the deal would allow it to supervise the exchange properly.

Mong Pao reported on February 13, 2018 that the CCP Central Committee and PRC State Council issued a circular in January month urging the entire nation to launch a "special campaign to eliminate the evil in black" and move rapidly around the country.

117 Tibetan intellectuals published a letter on Trimleng, an important forum for discussion particularly on legal and policy issues affecting Tibetans in Tibet, on January 11, 2018.

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) on February 4, 2018, quoted a “senior scientist involved with the programme” as saying there is a project underway to update the computer systems on PLAN nuclear submarines with an AI​ ​decision-support system with “its own thoughts” that would reduce commanding officers’ workload and mental burden.

A Chinese source has been quoted as saying that a new government directive requires the PLA personnel to stop using their phones and buy a new kind. The name of the phone is nt clear but it could be the 'OPPO'.

23 election units, including the Theater Commands, all armed forces, Departments and Commissions of the military authority, the Academy of Military Sciences, the National Defense University, and the National University of Defense Technology, convened a conference of military representatives to elect Deputies to the 13th NPC session by secret ballot.

On February 10, 2018, CCP CC General Secretary and Chairman of the CMC, Xi Jinping visited a base in Sichuan and met the officers and soldiers and extended sincere New Year greetings on behalf of the Central Committee and CMC.

Lu Wei, former Deputy Head of the CCP CC Publicity Department and former Head of the Cyberspace Administration of China, has been expelled from the Party.

Former PBSC member Wang Qishan has been elected on January 29, 2018 as one of 118 Deputies from Hunan Province to the National People's Congress (NPC).

On February 12, 2018 on the eve of Spring Festival -- that commences on February 15 -- the 'People's Daily' and CCTV co-produced the online micro-video "People's Leader."

According to a report dated February 3, 2018, construction of a Chinese data centre for Apple Inc, the U.S. tech giant, is scheduled to begin later this year and the centre is expected to open in 2020.

The official CCP newspaper People's Daily on February 9, 2018, observed that Daimler’s Chairman Dieter Zetsche and Daimler Greater China’s Chairman Hubertus Troika sent a joint letter of apology to the Chinese ambassador in Germany on Wednesday, sincerely apologizing to China for quoting the Dalai Lama in a social media post.

Dutch newspapers on February 7, 2018 reported that during his brief visit to Beijing – on his way to the Winter Olympics – Dutch King Willem-Alexander had dinner with Xi Jinping and raised the issues of human rights in China.

3258 private teachers in Hubei province jointly wrote a letter to PRC Premier Li Keqiang which they posted on a blog on February 9.

Beijing Review on February 9 said that the PRC Ministry of Education had instructed that supervisors of postgraduate students should have ethics and maintain socialist ways of teaching and that offenders will be punished.

The Vice Minister of Justice Xiong Xuanguo released the document on judicial reforms entitled 'Interpretations for Administrative Procedure Law', which is based on the "Opinions on Accelerating the Reform of Judicial Administration" which began being drafted in Match 2017.

The Wall Street Journal on February 7, 2018 reported that Beijing police are using a new addition to their crowd-surveillance toolbox: mobile facial-recognition units mounted on eyeglasses.

Bloomberg News on February 7, 2018 reported that China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) was being overhauled with more authority being given to Ambassadors on matters regarding personnel deployment and budgets.

On January 29, 2018 afternoon a PLAAF aircraft crashed during flight training in Guizhou killing all the crew.

By the beginning of February 2018, the Military Energy Bureau of the Military Logistics Department under the CMC disclosed that 144 border posts of the entire army have been connected to the national power grid, and electric power has been made widely available for application in such fields as combat readiness, equipment support, medical communication in the work and life of the frontier defense units.

In recent months, 12 experts and leaders of PLA Universities and Military Units divided into six groups and went to various units to explain the 'spirit' of the 19th Party Congress and 'Xi Jinping's Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in the New Era'.

The pope has decided to recognize seven government-appointed Chinese bishops, according to a person familiar with the matter, in a major concession to Beijing in pursuit of warmer relations and—in the very long term—possible re-establishment of diplomatic ties broken in 1951.

The Washington Post reported on January 30, 2018 that Japanese retailer Muji has been ordered by Chinese authorities to destroy a catalog with a map that Beijing says mislabels Taiwan and omits disputed islands, joining a string of companies rebuked for commercial materials that fail to reflect China’s territorial claims.

China’s Commerce Ministry said on February 4, 2018 that it had initiated an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation after preliminarily finding that heavy volumes and low prices of American exports of sorghum, bolstered by U.S. government subsidies, hurt Chinese growers.

The Chinese-language Global Times on February 2, 2018 in an editorial praised British Prime Minister Theresa May f or "wisely" resisting calls to publicly challenge Beijing over Hong Kong and human rights during her three-day visit.

Spokesman for the Chinese Cabinet’s Taiwan Affairs Office Ma Xiaoguang said Taiwan's move to cancel 176 flights over the holiday beginning February 16 is creating inconveniences and is “foolish and unpopular.”

RFA on January 31, 2018 cited official Chinese media reports saying that China will begin blocking overseas providers of virtual private networks (VPN) used to circumvent its Great Firewall of government censorship from March 31, 2018.

The Cyberspace Administration of China on January 31, 2018 announced that as of December 2017, the number of netizens in China reached 772 million with a penetration rate of 55.8%, surpassing the global average of 51.7% by 4.1% and surpassing the Asian average of 46.7% by 9.1%.

The Cyberspace Administration of China on February 2, 2018 published new regulations entitled 'Microblogging Information Service Management Regulations' to come into force from March 20, 2018.

China's Ministry of Culture (MOF) on February 2, 2018 publicised that as of January 30, all major internet culture units had 'cleaned up' 3898 videos of spoofs of classic revolutionary songs and of spoofed 165 songs.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on January 31, 2018 that Ngawang Tsomo, 51 , a Tibetan nun and former political prisoner jailed for seven years after calling for an end to Chinese rule in Tibet, has died of complications arising from a chronic ailment.

Following the issue by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CMBPA) at end October last year, of the "Proposal on Pilot Project of Reforming the National Surveillance System across the Country", all 31 provinces and Autonomous Regions have appointed heads of the Supervisory Commissions.

The Dutch media reported that the University of Groningen has cancelled plans to establish an education center in Yantai University because of concerns about academic freedom and independence.

The Yomiuri Shimbun on January 29, 2018 reported that Japan and China are likely to restart their education and training exchanges for defense officials in September, after a six-year hiatus. It said both governments are making arrangements to resume the exchanges.

The China Reform Monitor" on January 8, 2018 reported that Pakistan will now pay for imports from China in yuan rather than in U.S. dollars.

Chinese websites kept a post of the US-based Stratfor, reporting that upgrading work had been carried out at Shigatse military airfield in Tibet between September 2017 and January 2018.

The official Global Times on January 29, 2018 cited Sina Weibo microblog posts, which were subsequently deleted, as saying a mosque in the city of Baoshan opened classes during winter vacation for "left-behind" Muslim children to learn Arabic, study the Koran, Islamic culture and customs.

The Uyghur Human Rights Project reported (January 29, 2018) ) that prominent 82-year old Uyghur scholar Muhammad Salih Hajim died in Chinese police custody 40 days after he was detained in Urumqi. His daughter and other relatives were also detained.

From January 23 to January 27, 2018 the PLA Army organized a collective group study of military cadres on news and public opinion.

The eople's Daily on January 25, 2018 cited a Legal Daily report to say that 60 days after the 19th Party Congress, seven centrally managed cadres (中管干部), including National Energy Administration Deputy Head Wang Xiaolin and former Propaganda Department Deputy Head Lu Wei (鲁炜), had been put under investigation.

Wang Yajun (王亚军) was appointed Deputy Minister of the CCP International Department and Wang Xiaohui (王晓晖) was appointed Executive Deputy Head of the Propaganda Department.

The Cyberspace Administration of China on January 27, 2018 ordered Sina Weibo, one of the country's largest social media platforms, to temporarily shut down several portals for spreading content that allegedly contradicts Chinese values.

Website navy.81.cn, affiliated to PLA Daily, reported on January 25, 2018, that six landing ships were taking part in an exercise in the South China Sea on January 22, 2018.

Peole's Daily on January 24, 2018 reported that China deployed its new electronic-warfare aircraft in its recent combat maneuvers in a move which, it said, many military experts believe will help boost Chinese naval power in the disputed South China Sea.

Xinhua reported on January 28, 2018 that the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and centrally administered Tianjin Municipality revised down their 2016 GDP numbers. Inner Mongolia adjusted down its public budget revenue by 26.3 percent, or 53 billion yuan (US$8.5 billion) and industrial added value down by 40 percent, or 290 billion yuan (US$46 billion).

BBC on January 26, 2018 reported that China's smartphone market has fallen for the first time since 2009, with annual shipments down by 4% in 2017, according to data from research firm Canalys.

China News Agency on January 26, 2018 reported that since 2016, in accordance with the overall plan of the Central Government's precise poverty alleviation strategy, the Office of the Overseas Chinese Affairs of the State Council has taken advantage of its resources and solidly promoted poverty alleviation work for overseas Chinese.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, there were 17.23 million babies born in China in 2017, a drop of 630,000 from a year earlier.

The first session of the Eleventh Tibet Committee of the CPPCC (hereinafter referred to as the CPPCC National Committee) was held in Lhasa on January 23, 2018.

An article in the New York Times on January 28, 2018 said China was using the WEF meeting to further extend its influence. President Michel Temer of Brazil received an unexpected offer from Beijing for Latin American nations to work closely with a Chinese initiative, known as the Belt and Road.

On January 25, 2018, Beijing confirmed it will participate in the summer’s Rim of the Pacific Exercise off Hawaii June 27 to August 2, 2018.

The official Party paper People's Daily reported on January 10, 2018 that the US company Apple had announced that, starting on February 28, it will hand over its iCloud service for Chinese customers to the Guizhou Provincial government-owned 'Guizhou Cloud Big Data (GCBD)'. GCBD will be responsible for the iCloud operations serving customers in China and also responsible for legal and financial relations with those customers.

The official WeChat account of the Jiangsu Provincial People's Procuratorate said on January 28, 2018 that Liu Hua, People's Procurator the People's Procuratorate of Jiangsu Province, informed a People's Congressional meeting that the Suzhou Municipal Procuratorate had initiated prosecution of Ma Liangliang and Liang Xin for providing major espionage cases for military intelligence to overseas organizations.

In a three-page letter to the Interior Minister, Governor Yun Min warned that the Chinese influx had "created opportunities for Chinese mafia to come in and commit various crimes and kidnap Chinese investors, causing insecurity in the province".

Zhang Xin Source:Global Times Published: 2018/1/25 21:18:39

The Catholic News Agency on January 23, 2018, reported that 88-year-old Bishop Peter Zhuang Jianjian of Shantou in southern Guangdong province refused a request made by the Holy See in December to retire.

The Wall Street Journal reported on January 23, 2018 that last Fall a U.S. intelligence-community contest sought algorithms that could identify surveillance images of people out of a database of millions of photos.

Ex-World Health Organisation head 70-year old Dr Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun, Hongkong's first Chief Executive 80-year old Tung Chee-hwa, previous Food and Health Minister Dr Ko Wing-man; ex-Security Chief Lai Tung-kwok; and former Police Commissioner Andy Tsang Wai-hung are among those recommended for membership to CPPCC.

The State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China published a white paper titled "China's Arctic Policy" which it released on January 26, 2018. With this China joins other non-Arctic states including Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan in presenting an Arctic policy document.

Liu He, Politburo member and Director of the General Office of the Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs, told Global Times on January -- that China is prepared to "further open up in four aspects," including the financial, manufacturing and services sectors as well as strengthen intellectual property protection and expand imports.

To promote its effort to recruit Tibetans in the CCP and expand Party surveillance in the Tibet Autonomous Region, the Chamdo City Party organisation in December 2017 began utilising 'unemployed' Party members in the pastoral areas to play the role of propagandist and 'participate in the Party’s internal work.

The Tibet Daily publicised on December 23, 2017 that in order to enhance the overall capacity of volunteers in TAR and upgrade the management and systematization of volunteer service, the Tibet Autonomous Region Culture Bureau held a training class for volunteers in Lhasa that day.

A meeting on January 23, 2018 of the National Bureau of Letters and Visits disclosed that the number of online petitions in China increased in 2017 by 79.4%.

The Central Political and Legal Work Conference held its meeting in Beijing on January 22, which was addressed over by Politburo member Guo Shengkun.

59-year old Ms Tsui yi Ying, a woman of Tibetan origin, was appointed Party Secretary of Fujian province on Janary 21, 2018.

Beijing University (Beida), also known as Peking University (PKU), announced on January 23, 2018, the opening of a new department to study "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era".

China's official newsagency Xinhua reported that on January 23, 2018 Xi Jinping General Secretary and chairman of the CCP CC, Chairman of the Central Military Commission and Chairman of the Leading Group for Deepening the Reform of the Central Government, presided over the second meeting of the leading group and delivered an important speech.

Hongkong's South China Morning Post reported on January 22, 2018 that the Chinese Academy of Sciences had this month disclosed that it has planted two powerful cutting-edge acoustic sensors – some of which have a listening range of more than 1,000km – for scientific research such as studying earthquakes, typhoons and whales near Guam, America’s biggest military base in the Western Pacific.

The New York Times reported on January 22, 2018 that 53-year old Gui Minhai, a Hongkong bookseller who was one of five Hong Kong booksellers who disappeared in 2015, 'disappeared' yet again when in dramatic fashion when he was snatched from a train bound for Beijing by ten plainclothes police officers under the eyes of two Swedish diplomats.

Almost 800,000 Chinese students studying in overseas universities are not yet under the Party’s control.

According to an article published by Xinhua on January 15, 2018, only 11 Chinese companies made the Fortune Global 500 list in 2002, but, in 2017, 115 Chinese companies made the list compared to 132 U.S. companies.

On January 16, 2018, China's Ministry of Education issued directions for the further study and implementation of the spirit of the 19th Party Congress and to "further promote Xi Jinping's new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics into the classroom into the brain, and constantly improve the quality and level of ideological and political course construction."

Al Jazeera reported on January 17, 2018 that Chinese government authorities have banned Muslim children from attending religious events during winter break in Linxia county in Gansu province where there are many members of the Muslim Hui ethnic minority.

A meeting for the heads of the united front work departments nationwide was held in Beijing on January 1, 2018. United Front Work Department head and CCP Secretariat member You Quan presided over the meeting and emphasiSed the reinforcement of Party building, especially political construction, in the united front work system.

At least three article in the CDIC magazine “China Disciplinary Inspection and Supervision” made specific critical mention of the now incarcerated former Politburo member Sun Zhengcai.

The official China Daily on January 11, 2018 quoted the official news agency Xinhua as saying at the second plenary session of the 19th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection that on January 5, 2018 General Secretary of the CCP Xi Jinping asked Chinese Communist Party officials to remain loyal to the Party "at any time, and under any circumstance."

Xinhua on January 8, 2018 reported that Full and Alternate members of the 19th CCP CC as well as provincial and ministerial-level officials attended a 4-day workshop at the CCP's Central Party School where they were urged to "resolutely defend General Secretary Xi Jinping's core status in the CPC Central Committee and the whole Party."

The Chinese Embassy website announced that on January 18, PRC Ambassador Luo Zhaohui met and hosted a banquet for Professor Anita Sharma, Chairperson of the Department of East Asian Studies at Delhi University, her husband and Professor Ye Shujun, to exchange views on academic exchange and cooperation.

Responding to recent observations by Indian Army Chief General Rawat and satellite photographs published by the Indian newspaper The Print, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang at the routine weekly press briefing in Beijing on January 18, 2018 asserted "China's position on the Donglang (Doklam) area is quite clear.

The state-owned Global Times on January 11, 2018, said the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has been fully executing military training instructions issued by President Xi Jinping on January 3 by conducting drills at home and abroad involving its ground forces, navy, air force, rocket force and armed police, as the PLA's news media cautioned the troops on January 11 of imminent threats and to avoid complacency.

Associated Press on January 17, 2018 reported Chen Xiaoping, a New York-based editor at Chinese-language Mirror Media Group, as saying that his wife has been kidnapped and held for months by Chinese security forces after he extensively interviewed New York-based exiled businessman Guo Wengui.

Reuters reported on January 18, 2018 that US Congressmen are urging AT&T Inc., the No. 2 wireless carrier in the US, to cut all commercial ties to Chinese phone maker Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. They are also opposing plans by China Mobile Ltd to enter the US market because of national security concerns.

A bipartisan group of US Senators is urging the US Justice Department to examine why Chinese state media outlets operating in the United States have not registered as foreign agents. In a letter to US Attorney General Jeff Sessions on January 16, seven senators led by Sens.

Mingpao on January 18, 2018 reported that at least two young Maoists had been detained for organising reading groups and talking about 'June Fourth'.

The official newspaper 'The Paper' on January 16, 2018 reported the decisions taken at the Ministerial Meeting of the CCP CC's United Front Work Department (UFWD) the same day.

Xinhua announced that in the communique issued after its second plenary session on January 13, 2018, the Central Discipline Inspection Commission (CDIC) listed its priorities for this year.

China's official news agency Xinhua reported that at a meeting of the Politburo in Beijing on January 12 it was agreed that the proposal to amend the country's Constitution should only include "changes to part of it, not revision on a large scale."

The CCP CC held its second plenary session on January 18-19, 2018 when, according to China's official news agency Xinhua, it passed a resolution approving amendment of China's constitution to incorporate 'Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era' in view of it having generated "national fervour".

People were not permitted to commemorate former ousted CCP CC General Secretary Zhao Ziyang on his thirteenth death anniversary at his former home in Beijing on January 18, 2018.

Southern Weekend, a Chinese media headquartered in Guangzhou of Guang Dong Province, published an article on December 7, 2017 detailing how China’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) carry out the (Communist) Party’s activities in their overseas operations.

Radio Free Asia reported on January 5, 2018 that the Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region authorities had after seven months disclosed the arrest in Kashi city, Kashgar of Xinjiang's four wealthiest men for acts of “religious extremism”.

According to Xinhua, China on January 9, 2018 launched a pair of 0.5-meter high-resolution remote sensing satellites from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi Province.

Quoting the official news agency Xinhua, the state-owned China Daily on January 6, 2018 reported that a new 10,000- metric ton Chinese-built naval destroyer entered the water in June and is now being outfitted.

Citing Taiwan military experts, a report in China's social media said China's latest aircraft carrier 002 will conduct its first maritime navigation trial in the near future around the Spring Festival and will be delivered to the Navy in 2020.

According to Xinhua on January 9, 2018 former General Fang Fenghui, member of China's Central Military Commission (CMC) and former chief of staff of the CMC Joint Staff Department, has been transferred to the military prosecution authority on suspicion of offering and accepting bribery.

On January 3, 2018 Xi Jinping addressed via video 7000 PLA personnel at the Baoding Training Centre in Hebei Province and PLA troops at another 4000 bases across the country. Wearing camouflage battle fatigues, Xi Jinping In his 3 minute speech, asked the PLA to prepare for war and not fear fighting.

Reuters reported on January 3, 2018 that Chinese company Ant Financial’s plan to acquire U.S. money transfer company MoneyGram was denied by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

Deng Yuwen, a researcher at China's Charhar Institute think-tank and who formerly worked in the Study Times, a newspaper of the Central Party School when Xi Jinping was its President but was removed and penalised after advocating a rethink of China’s policy towards N Korea as Xi Jinping became General Secretary, wrote in Hongkong's South China Morning Post on January 3, 2018.

Data published on January 1, 2018 by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television showed gross box office in China expanding from RMB45.7 billion in 2016 to RMB55.9 billion in 2017.

In an article published in Tibet Daily on December 20, 2017, Dawa Tsering, member of the Shannan Municipal CPPCC Standing, Vice Chairman of the Tibet Branch of the Buddhist Association of China and President of the Buddhist Association of Nan Shan, Samye Monastery monks, disclosed that 'guided by the Spirit' of the 19th Party Congress religious circles in Shannan City "organized propaganda groups to conduct propaganda activities in various temples and monasteries and monasteries, setting off a wave of studying the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the Ninth National Committee of the CPC Central Committee and the CPC Central Committee".

The International Campaign for Tibet on January 3 2018 reported that Tibetan shopkeeper Tashi Wangchuk, who has been in prison since January 2016 after giving an interview to New York Times in 2015 that was critical of Chinese cultural and educational policies on Tibetans, is due to be tried.

40-year old Shonu Palden, a former Tibetan political prisoner, was summoned by police in Gansu province’s Machu (in Chinese, Maqu) county on December 27 and was questioned for hours about a report published by the Dharamsala-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) earlier in the month.

China is plans for lunar exploration are proceeding rapidly and in 2018, China will launch a pair of missions known collectively as Chang’e 4. These are the fourth mission in a series named after the Chinese moon goddess.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on January 4, 2018 that online Chinese news platform Toutiao is recruiting some 2,000 editors to oversee content delivered to its smartphone app, after being admonished last week for alleged breaches of regulations and for spreading "pornographic and vulgar content."

The state-owned Global Times quoted China's official news agency Xinhua as reporting on January 4, 2018 that China's underwater glider Haiyi, which means "sea wings" in Chinese, successfully ended its mission to the Indian Ocean and South China Sea.

Pengpai News reported on January 1, 2018, that it had learned from authoritative sources that Lt General Xu Anxiang, former Deputy Commander of the Southern Theatre Command and Commander of the Theater Command Air Force, and Major General Yu Qingjiang, former Chief of the Air Command Academy, have become members of the PLA Air Force Party Standing Committee.

Addresssing 7000 PLA personnel during a parade in Hebei, Xi Jinping asked them to fear “neither hardship nor death” as they implemented the Communist party’s orders.

China's official newsagency Xinhua on December 31, 2017 front-paged CCP CC General Secretary Xi Jinping's 1161-word New Year message, which was also repeated by China Radio International, China National Radio, China Central Television, China International Television (China Globo) and the Internet published Er 〇 Yi Ba New Year address.

The New York Times reported on December 28, 2017 that China's Finance Ministry had decided that from January 1, 2018 it would temporarily exempt foreign companies from paying tax on their earnings in a bid to keep American businesses from taking their profits out of China following Washington’s overhaul of the United States tax code.

Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun on December 31, 2017, said that Shinzo Abe's government in Japan is trying to improve relations with China by cooperating on development assistance to African countries with a view to gaining African support for becoming a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.

Controversy about a China-born member of New Zealand's parliament has prompted Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters on December 20, 2017, to call for an investigation of Jian Yang, a National Party MP who previously worked 10 years for Chinese Military Intelligence.

On December 21, 2017, the official Tibet Daily publicised that Jiang Jie,member of the Standing Committee of District Party Committee and Standing Vice Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), led a team to Yumai Township, Longzi County, Shannan City to conduct field research to "guide the construction of a well-off and well-to-do demonstration township at Yumei Township".

China issued a number of documents demanding that the Party, the government organs, the schools, and other organizations prohibit any participation in activities related to Western religious festivals.

Ms Tian Xiangli has been appointed as the Head of the Sichuan Provincial United Front Works Department.

The state-owned Global Times announced on December 29, 2017 that effective January 1, 2018, China will launch a website that allows members of the public to make tip-offs on information suspected of undermining national security and rumors about the military.

Xinhua reported on December 30, 2017, that responsibility for guarding China's national flag and firing salute cannons will be transferred to the PLA starting January 1, 2018.

China's official news agency Xinhua reported on December 27, 2017 that the 1.5 million strong People’s Armed Police Force (PAPF) will be brought under the direct control of the Central Military Commission with effect from January 1, 2018.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on December 28, called on China's diplomats attending the Foreign Ministry's annual meeting at the Great Hall of the People, to remain loyal to the Party and make contributions to the nation.

Addressing a press conference for foreign journalists on December 5, 2017, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Minister Chang Hsiao-Yueh declared that China would “pay a very very high price” if it invaded Taiwan.

Japan’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) said that on December 18, 2017, the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) flew two Xian H-6K long-range heavy bombers, two Sukhoi Su-30 multirole fighter jets, and one Tupolev Tu-154MD electronic intelligence aircraft through the Tsushima Strait, a waterway between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

China State Television was quoted by Hongkong's South China Morning Post as showing live images of the AG600 lifting off from Zhuhai airport in Guangdong province. The official news agency Xinhua described the aircraft as the “protector spirit of the sea, islands and reefs”.

China.com on December 18, 2017 reported that Chinese lawmakers had recently passed The Regulations of The People’s Liberation Army Civilian Personnel.

The official Global Times on December 25, 2017 reported that China's Education Ministry plans to send more than 10,000 experienced teachers to the Tibet Autonomous Region and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to improve education in the regions.

The Southern Mongolia Human Rights Information Centre (SMHRIC) on December 22, 2017, reported that the Bayangol No.3 High School, the last school to provide instruction in the Mongolian language in the Bayangol Prefecture of China’s “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region” was banned from using Mongolian earlier this week.

An article in the state-owned Global Times on December 25, 2017 said that a high priority item for 2018 on the agenda of China's annual central conference on rural work, which will set the tone for next year's agricultural and rural development and is expected to convene in Beijing soon, is revitalising the countryside.

Reuters quoted China's official news agency Xinhua as reporting on December 24, 2017 that China has closed more than 13,000 websites since the beginning of 2015 for breaking the law or other rules and that the vast majority of people support government efforts to clean up cyberspace.

A Spanish court on December 15, 2017, granted China's extradition request for 121 Taiwanese accused of belonging to Spain-based gangs that swindled people in China out of millions of euros by telephone. Interpol told Spain about the scam a year ago, and Spanish and Chinese authorities cooperated in an operation that nabbed a total of 269 people. The National Court ruled there was no impediment to the extradition. Spain has an extradition treaty with China and no diplomatic relations with Taipei.

South China Morning Post reported on December 16, 2017, that at a conference on the crisis in the Korean Peninsula in Beijing recently Shi Yinhong, Professor of International Relations at Renmin University who also advises the State Council, warned “Conditions on the peninsula now make for the biggest risk of a war in decades.”

During a meeting between PLA Navy Commander Shen Jinlong and the Australian Navy Chief Tim Barrett on December 14, 2017, the PLAN Commander is reported to have said “The situation in the South China Sea is positive, but a series of moves by the Australian army this year have compromised the overall trend of peace and stability in the area.

The Dalai Lama, who already has a Twitter account with more than 16 million followers, has launched a mobile app for followers to stay up to date with his travels and teachings.

On December 11, 2017, Yin Shun, a Buddhist monk and Vice President of the Buddhist Association of China and President of the Hainan Buddhist Association, said that "the Communist Party is the living Buddha of the world."

Quoting sources Radio Free Asia (RFA) on December 14, 2017, reported that authorities in Sichuan province have further tightened controls at the Larung Gar Buddhist Academy, setting up checkpoints at which monks, nuns, and visitors must now show permits allowing them to enter.

A new White Paper titled "New Progress in the Legal Protection of Human Rights in China" issued by China's State Council Information Office on December 15, 2017, claimed China has put people first in its judicial system, integrated criminal punishment with human rights protection and pressed ahead with judicial system reform effectively enhancing judicial protection of human rights over the last five years.

On December 15, 2017, Eugene K Chow wrote that in a major breakthrough, China recently unveiled a formidable new high-altitude drone that could give its military a significant advantage.

Chinese President Xi Jinping inspected the PLA's 71st Group Army in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province on December 13, 2017. He urged the army to restructure and enhance its combat capability and asked officers of the Group Army to grasp the spirit of the 19th Party Congress and incorporate the principles into military practice.

Xinhua on December 15, 2017, quoted Russian President Putin as saying at his annual press conference: "I am fully convinced that the development of relations with China enjoys a national consensus in Russia, and irrespectively of the outcome of the (Russian presidential) election campaign, Russia and China will remain strategic partners for an extensive historic perspective."

PLA Major General Jin Yinan was a guest at the military forum “National Defense Space” on The Voice of China {a radio station} on December 7, 2017, talking about the recent North Korean intercontinental missile launch and the US-Korea joint military exercises.

Chinese security guards on December 14, 2017, attacked South Korean reporters travelling with South Korea President Moon Jae-in at a trade fair in Beijing.

An official document jointly issued on December 12, 2017, by China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and State Oceanic Administration said China will advance construction of seawater desalination projects on about 100 islands in coastal provinces including Liaoning, Shandong, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Hainan in the next 3 to 5 years.

Shen Jinke, spokesman for the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force, said at a meeting of senior air force officers that a PLAAF fighter plane took part in a regular patrol exercise on Decemer 11, 2017.

The South China Morning Post reported on December 14, 2017, that in a bid to tighten control of its borders and prepare for any future problems in the region, China is improving its military infrastructure, including new mortar and gun positions, at a site between five and 10km from the site of this summer’s stand-off on the Doklam Plateau.

The China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) on December 11 approved its first corporate lending — a US$ 250 million loan that will allow state-owned Beijing Gas Group to extend gas pipeline infrastructure to roughly 217,000 households around Beijing by 2021.

The Global Times on December 11, 2017, asserted that an increase in security input by Chinese enterprises is more important.