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Chinese balloon incident
China's surveillance balloon entered U.S. airspace near Alaska before transiting over Canada and then the continental U.S. -
Chinese balloon Shot Down
A U.S. fighter jet shot down the balloon off the coast of South Carolina. The spy balloon's height was comparable to the Statue of Liberty, about "200 feet tall with a jetliner size payload," Assistant Secretary of Defense Melissa Dalton told senators during a hearing on Feb. 9. -
Blinken Cancelled Trip to Beijing
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken indefinitely postponed what was to be an already tense trip to China on Friday, citing a Chinese reconnaissance balloon moving east across the United States that posed a threat to national security. -
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Macron First Post-Pandemic Visit to China
“Europe cannot blindly follow the United States’ lead and should avoid “getting dragged into crises that are not our own.” “Europeans cannot resolve the crisis in Ukraine; how can we credibly say on Taiwan, ‘watch out, if you do something wrong, we will be there?’” But this is hardly surprising: As part of his broader, ongoing pitch for “strategic autonomy,” Macron simply observed that Europeans would not be credible in Asia if they can’t tend to security issues in their own backyard. -
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G7 2023 Meeting
The Group of Seven industrial powers (the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada)drew together on Tuesday to criticise China's coercion of Taiwan and Russia's threat to station nuclear weapons in Belarus, promising to intensify sanctions on Moscow for its war on neighbouring Ukraine.
The G7 communique highlights how the dual issues of Russian military intervention and fears of similar action by China against Taiwan have been a focus of the three-day meeting. -
China 2023 Q1 GDP
China’s GDP grew 4.5% year-on-year in the first quarter, official data showed Tuesday, beating expectations as the expansion in consumption and industrial production picked up speed after the country scrapped its Covid restrictions. The growth rate topped the average 3.8% estimate from a recent Caixin survey of economists. It also exceeded China’s 2.9% GDP growth in the fourth quarter, through most of which the country was still sticking to its stringent “zero-Covid” policy. -
Remarks by Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen on the U.S. - China Economic Relationship at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
Yellen: 1) National security over economy in China ties. US actions not for competitive edge.2) Prioritize healthy economic relationships to foster growth and innovation. 3) Cooperate on climate, and debt distress.
Yellen said she is planning to travel to China "at an appropriate time" for talks she hopes can help "lay the groundwork for responsibly managing our bilateral relationship and cooperating on areas of shared challenge to our nations and the world." -
China’s foreign minister warns against interference in Taiwan
China’s foreign minister Qin Gang has warned of “dangerous” consequences for countries that intervene in Taiwan, saying “those who play with fire . . . will eventually get burned” amid heightened tensions over the island nation. Qin’s remarks came after South Korea’s president accused Beijing this week of “attempts to change the status quo” on Taiwan “by force” and as the US and Philippines conducted their largest joint military exercises in more than three decades in the region. -
Beijing’s ambassador to France questioned legitimacy of countries formerly in the Soviet Union
European governments have reacted with anger and dismay to comments by a Chinese diplomat questioning the legal status of former Soviet states and Ukraine’s sovereignty over Crimea. “These ex-Soviet Union countries do not have effective status under international law because there is no international accord to concretise their status as a sovereign country,” Lu Shaye said during an interview with French news channel LCI. -
China disowns envoy’s remarks on sovereignty of post-Soviet states
Beijing has been forced to backtrack after its ambassador to France sparked a furore in Europe at the weekend by questioning the legal status of former Soviet states and Ukraine’s sovereignty over Crimea. China’s foreign ministry on Monday contradicted the comments from Lu Shaye, who had infuriated European capitals and fuelled distrust about Beijing’s ambitions to mediate the war in Ukraine by suggesting that former Soviet states lacked “effective status under international law”. -
President Biden Announces 2024 Reelection Campaign
President Joe Biden touted his administration's economic plan hours after launching his reelection campaign while speaking at the North America’s Building Trades Unions 2023 Legislative Conference in Washington, DC, on Tuesday. -
Zelenskyy's call with Xi since the Invasion
China’s president Xi Jinping urged his Ukraine counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy to negotiate with Moscow. Xi told Zelenskyy that he would send a special representative to talk to “all parties” to seek a “political settlement” of the war, according to China’s foreign ministry. “Dialogue and negotiation are the only way forward,” Xi added. Zelenskyy’s office avoided any reference to negotiation and instead “expressed hope for China’s active participation in efforts to restore peace”. -
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Wang Yi and Jake Sullivan Meet in Vienna
Whether this meeting paves the way for a Xi-Biden call, and/or a visit by Secretary of State Blinken, Secretary of Treasury Yellen or Secretary of Commerce Raimondo is unclear. But if the US is hoping that this meeting will lead to other high-level calls and/or meetings then it is unlikely they will announce any new actions against the PRC, or release anything the PRC does not want them to, specifically the FBI spy balloon report. -
Ambassador Burns met with Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao
The face-to-face chat came after Monday’s meeting between Burns and foreign minister Qin Gang – the highest-level engagement between US and Chinese officials since relations soured in February after a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the US prompted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to call off a planned visit to Beijing.