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Amber Wang

Happy Monday!
I’m Amber Wang, a reporter at the South China Morning Post who focuses on diplomacy and defence.
As part of a new series, every Monday we will be catching you up on the biggest news items from the previous week, and what is happening in the week ahead.
Taiwanese officials warned last week that mainland China would have the ability to mount a full-scale invasion of Taiwan by 2025, after Beijing sent almost 150 warplanes in four days to ramp up pressure on the island during their National Day holidays. Meanwhile, US troops were reported to have been in Taiwan for at least a year, training troops in secret.


Coming up this week, President Xi Jinping is expected to attend the 15th meeting of a UN biodiversity convention (COP15) via video link on Tuesday. At the meeting, UN member countries will review a draft framework to reverse loss of animal and plant species by 2030.
In other news ….
Military
Chinese state media has denied reports that about 200 of the country’s border troops had been detained by the Indian Army, but said a routine patrol on the Chinese side of the de facto frontier had been “unreasonably obstructed” late last month.
Science
China’s Chang’e 5 lunar mission has brought back the youngest rock samples ever collected on the moon. The discovery confirms a suspicion that volcanic activity continued on the moon about a billion years later than previously known.
Politics
On Saturday, Xi chose the 110th anniversary of China’s 1911 revolution to say Beijing hoped self-ruled Taiwan could be reunited peacefully with the Chinese mainland. The Taiwanese government described his speech as a distortion of history.


Diplomacy
China’s top diplomat and the US national security adviser sat down in Switzerland to discuss their countries’ fraught relations, and the atmosphere seemed much improved from their previous effort.
On a related note, China pushed the United States to cancel tariffs in a meeting – virtual this time – between Vice-Premier Liu He and US trade representative Katherine Tai.
Environment
China’s power crisis has forced Beijing to order a top coal producer to increase output. The country faces the challenge of keeping the lights and heating on in its homes and factories this winter, while rationing electricity use with coal supplies low and prices high. And it is happening at a time when Chinese provinces are trying to hit the government’s ambitious emissions reduction targets.
Society
Former journalist Luo Changping has been detained over comments about Chinese soldiers portrayed in a blockbuster movie about the Korean war. Luo had posted a comment on social media about The Battle at Lake Changjin, saying troops who died in freezing temperatures in a 1950 battle depicted in the film were “stupid”.
Stat in perspective
China’s railway system handled 8.3 million passengers during the seven-day “golden week” national holiday from October 1 to 7, but this was 19 per cent down from 2019’s pre-pandemic figure and 3 per cent down from 2020, as China continues to pursue its “zero-Covid-19” approach.


Chief of UN intellectual property agency wins re-election as UN faces financial turmoil

James Zimmerman on how the US and China can make 2026 a ‘year of vision’

US, China clash over Peru’s Chancay megaport after court bars regulator oversight

Japan seizes Chinese fishing boat off Nagasaki, arrests skipper

Diplomacy

China update: our reporter’s round-up of the biggest news from the past 7 days

The PLA sent almost 150 warplanes on sorties near Taiwan in four days to ramp up pressure on the island. Photo: Xinhua

How the Chinese military’s show of strength towards Taiwan highlights increased ability to target key bases

A hundred PLA J-16 fighter jets have taken part in recent missions. Photo: AP

Flight paths of PLA aircraft, October 1, 2021. HANDOUT PHOTO

Lawmakers say they were in the dark on US troop deployment to Taiwan

Taiwan special forces personnel walk behind an armoured personnel carrier during an annual military drill in Taichung in January 2017. Photo: AFP

Vietnam to Indonesia: the Asian countries hit hardest by China’s clampdown on new coal-fired power plants overseas

A bird flies past smoke from the chimney of a coal-fired power station. Photo: AP

Greenpeace activists try to block the loading of coal at a power plant in Cirebon, Indonesia. Photo: EPAA

Workers at the construction site of a coal power plant  in the Thar desert, Pakistan. Photo: Bloomberg

The Payra coal power plant in Bangladesh.

News

China

Politics

Military

Science

People & Culture

Environment


In a new series, we round up some of the biggest talking points concerning China from the past few days
This instalment includes moon samples, upping coal production in a power crisis, and relations with Taiwan, India and the US



New series rounding up the biggest China news begins with moon samples, upping coal production in a power crisis, and relations with Taiwan, India and the US.


Xi Jinping

Taiwan

Coronavirus China

Golden week