Beijing Official

China's newest nuclear-powered attack submarine sank earlier this year, a senior US defence official said on Thursday, a potential embarrassment for Beijing as it seeks to expand its military capabilities.

India was elected to the 15-member steering committee of the global anti-corruption platform GlobE Network after multi-stage voting in Beijing on Thursday, officials said.

Amid concerns over India's ties with Russia, a top US official on Thursday cautioned New Delhi that a "bet on Russia as a long-term, reliable partner is not a good bet" and Moscow would side with Beijing over New Delhi in case of a conflict.

Beijing will return giant pandas to Washington's National Zoo by the end of the year, US First Lady Jill Biden and officials said Wednesday in a surprise announcement signaling a new era of panda diplomacy between the two superpowers.

North Korea's rare swipe at China this week underscored how Beijing and Pyongyang do not entirely see eye-to-eye on the latter's illicit nuclear weapons arsenal, despite warming ties in other areas, analysts and officials in South Korea said.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing on Sunday, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of Full Self-Driving software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

China tried to meddle in the last two Canadian elections but the results were not impacted and it was "improbable" Beijing preferred any one party over another, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told an official probe on Wednesday.

Xinjiang's top Communist Party official said on Thursday that the "Sinicisation" of Islam in the Muslim-majority region in northwestern China, where Beijing is accused of human rights abuses, is "inevitable".

China's annual political conclave kicks off in Beijing on Monday, with officials saying the flagging economy and youth unemployment are of "great concern" as they lay out plans for the coming year.

China has invited Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for an official visit to the country as Beijing is keen to work with the new government in Dhaka to cement bilateral cooperation in all fields.

Chinese officials have asked their Iranian counterparts to help rein in attacks on ships in the Red Sea by the Iran-backed Houthis, or risk harming business relations with Beijing, four Iranian sources and a diplomat familiar with the matter said.

A Chinese scientist sought to publish the genetic profile of the coronavirus two weeks before Beijing formally released the sequence, as per federal documents shared with a US congressional committee and released on Wednesday.

Recent documents obtained from the US Department of Health and Human Services indicate that a Chinese virologist had isolated and mapped the structure of COVID-19 at least two weeks before Beijing officially acknowledged the virus.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked Beijing to maintain cross-strait stability on Friday during a meeting with a senior Chinese official, a spokesman said, as voters in Taiwan headed to polls to choose a new president.

Beijing has sponsored cut-price trips to China for hundreds of Taiwanese politicians ahead of key elections on the island, according to Taiwan sources and documents, unnerving officials with a broad campaign that one called "election interference".

China's newest nuclear-powered attack submarine sank earlier this year, a senior US defence official said on Thursday, a potential embarrassment for Beijing as it seeks to expand its military capabilities.

India was elected to the 15-member steering committee of the global anti-corruption platform GlobE Network after multi-stage voting in Beijing on Thursday, officials said.

Amid concerns over India's ties with Russia, a top US official on Thursday cautioned New Delhi that a "bet on Russia as a long-term, reliable partner is not a good bet" and Moscow would side with Beijing over New Delhi in case of a conflict.

Beijing will return giant pandas to Washington's National Zoo by the end of the year, US First Lady Jill Biden and officials said Wednesday in a surprise announcement signaling a new era of panda diplomacy between the two superpowers.

North Korea's rare swipe at China this week underscored how Beijing and Pyongyang do not entirely see eye-to-eye on the latter's illicit nuclear weapons arsenal, despite warming ties in other areas, analysts and officials in South Korea said.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing on Sunday, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of Full Self-Driving software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

China tried to meddle in the last two Canadian elections but the results were not impacted and it was "improbable" Beijing preferred any one party over another, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told an official probe on Wednesday.

Xinjiang's top Communist Party official said on Thursday that the "Sinicisation" of Islam in the Muslim-majority region in northwestern China, where Beijing is accused of human rights abuses, is "inevitable".

China's annual political conclave kicks off in Beijing on Monday, with officials saying the flagging economy and youth unemployment are of "great concern" as they lay out plans for the coming year.

China has invited Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for an official visit to the country as Beijing is keen to work with the new government in Dhaka to cement bilateral cooperation in all fields.

Chinese officials have asked their Iranian counterparts to help rein in attacks on ships in the Red Sea by the Iran-backed Houthis, or risk harming business relations with Beijing, four Iranian sources and a diplomat familiar with the matter said.

A Chinese scientist sought to publish the genetic profile of the coronavirus two weeks before Beijing formally released the sequence, as per federal documents shared with a US congressional committee and released on Wednesday.

Recent documents obtained from the US Department of Health and Human Services indicate that a Chinese virologist had isolated and mapped the structure of COVID-19 at least two weeks before Beijing officially acknowledged the virus.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked Beijing to maintain cross-strait stability on Friday during a meeting with a senior Chinese official, a spokesman said, as voters in Taiwan headed to polls to choose a new president.

Beijing has sponsored cut-price trips to China for hundreds of Taiwanese politicians ahead of key elections on the island, according to Taiwan sources and documents, unnerving officials with a broad campaign that one called "election interference".