Hours before Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in the US for a high-stakes summit, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio moved to restrict visas for those who “engage in or facilitate” birth tourism, a practice the Trump administration has increasingly accused China of. “By restricting visa issuance of those who both engage in and profit from this fraud, we are sending a clear message: the United States will not allow foreigners to exploit our immigration system and violate the sanctity of US...

This live article is freely available to our registered users. Please log in or create an account. Unrivalled Xi-Trump summit analysis: get real-time updates and exclusive boots-on-the-ground reporting from our US and China bureaus. Subscribe now with great savings to stay ahead. President Xi Jinping met US President Donald Trump at Maryland’s Joint Base Andrews airbase, in the first face-to-face talks between the Chinese and American leaders since Trump visited Beijing in May. On this first...

China’s ambassador to the United States has hailed President Xi Jinping’s coming state visit as a “historic milestone” for bilateral and international relations. Xie Feng’s remarks came just as Beijing unveiled stringent new regulations on fentanyl, in a clear move to build diplomatic momentum ahead of the Xi-Trump summit in Washington. Under the strategic guidance of both leaders, the “giant ship” of China-US relations would continue to “break waves and sail ahead” along a trajectory of “mutual...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk described Chinese President Xi Jinping as “a great leader” and “very capable” during an interview with China’s state broadcaster on Wednesday, just hours before Xi left China for a summit with US President Donald Trump. “He seems like a great leader. Under his tenure, China has prospered immensely. I’ve seen it first hand,” Musk said in one of a series of videos posted on CCTV’s social media account. “And it’s also obvious to see just walking around the streets, the …...

China’s industry minister is set to lead Anhui province, a key semiconductor hub, in the latest personnel reshuffle within the Communist Party. Li Lecheng, 61, has served as minister of industry and information technology since April 2025. State news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday that Li had been appointed the party secretary of Anhui and a member of its standing committee, taking over both roles from Liang Yanshun. Liang, Anhui party chief since June 2024, retains his role as party...

Beijing has appointed a new party chief in Tibet as the Communist Party shuffles regional leaders ahead of its 21st national congress. Hu Changsheng, 62, will serve as the party secretary of Tibet autonomous region, leaving his post as party secretary of Gansu province to Wu Xiaojun, 60, currently the party chief of Qinghai province. Meanwhile, Luo Dongchuan, 60, Qinghai’s governor, will succeed Wu as party secretary of the province. The 21st party congress is expected to be held next year and...

Reports that Taiwanese officials have been asked to scale back visits to Washington have sparked debate over whether the island’s ties with the United States remain as “rock solid” as Taipei has maintained. The New York Times reported on Monday that some Taiwanese officials travelling to the US had been told by Trump administration officials to “curtail their visits to research groups in Washington”. The report came as US President Donald Trump prepared to host Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a...

When Xi Jinping sits down with US President Donald Trump in Washington on Thursday, the Chinese leader’s side of the table will be filled with senior aides bringing extensive policy expertise. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Monday that Xi would pay a state visit to the United States from Wednesday to Friday. The trip – Xi’s first state visit to Washington since 2015 – will also mark his second face-to-face meeting this year with Trump, as the world’s top two economies seek to...

The Communist Party accused former military leaders Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli of factionalism and disloyalty, expelling them from the party and the armed forces following a Politburo meeting on Monday, state media reported. Zhang was once a vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and the highest-ranking uniformed member of the Chinese military, second only to Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The CMC is China’s top military decision-making body. Zhang was also a member of the party’s...

Nearly half of Taiwanese lack confidence that Washington will continue military aid and arms sales to the island, a new survey shows. The results of the poll were released on Monday, ahead of this week’s summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The poll by Taiwan-based United Daily News found 47 per cent were not confident the United States would continue providing military assistance and selling weapons to Taiwan, slightly exceeding the 44 per cent who remained...

Qin Weizhong, former mayor of the southern technology hub of Shenzhen, is under investigation for corruption, the country’s top watchdog has confirmed. According to a statement by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection on Monday, Qin is “suspected of grave disciplinary and law violations and is currently undergoing review”, which usually means a corruption probe. Qin was appointed deputy party secretary and mayor of Shenzhen in May 2021. On August 24 this year, those positions were...

The Communist Party has set a date for its most important political gathering this autumn, the news coming shortly before Beijing confirmed Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to the US. The fifth plenary session of the party’s 20th Central Committee will be held from October 26 to October 29, according to official news agency Xinhua on Monday. The meeting of political elites is likely to be the most important gathering ahead of next autumn’s national party congress, a five-yearly event...

Zhang Dongdong has been fielding ever more requests for legal advice from jittery entrepreneurs, nervous government officials or their desperate relatives. They usually do not tell him the whole story, and sometimes say it happened “to a friend”, but most want to know the same thing: what to do when they are targeted by China’s corruption busters. “Some had received a tip-off that they were being investigated, some got a call from disciplinary inspectors asking them to cooperate, but in most of...

In a rare development, Taiwanese Labour Minister Hung Sun-han is expected to travel to Nanjing on Sunday, becoming the first cabinet-level official under William Lai Ching-te’s administration to visit mainland China. Hung will attend an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) ministerial meeting on Monday to discuss employment, vocational training, social security and the impact of artificial intelligence on jobs. Hung will be the most senior Taiwanese official to visit the mainland for Apec...

A formal peace deal between Beijing and Taipei should be signed to build trust before discussions on post-reunification political arrangements, a prominent Taiwanese political scientist has argued at a security conference in Beijing. Chang Ya-chung, who heads the Taiwan-based Sun Yat-sen School advocacy group, said the “one country, two systems” formula, which has been applied to Hong Kong and Macau, had so far failed to resonate in Taiwanese society. “If reunification means that one side, with...

A former director of a state-owned museum at the centre of a rare high-profile art scandal was sentenced to three years in prison, Chinese state media said on Wednesday. Xu Huping was found to have abused his position at the Nanjing Museum in eastern Jiangsu province and taken bribes, including money and property, for helping others secure projects and business collaborations. He was sentenced to prison for three years and fined 200,000 yuan (US$29,800), according to state news agency...

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering US-China relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Another Chinese national dies in US immigration custody, raising profiling fears The Chinese-American community expressed anger and concern on September 3 over the death of a Chinese national in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody on US territory. Read the full story here. 2. US...

Police in Guangzhou said on Monday they had apprehended a man in the southern Chinese city’s university town district after receiving reports that he was wielding a knife and injuring pedestrians. Emergency services started receiving calls around 5.20pm local time about multiple stabbings in front of a hotpot restaurant in the Xiaoguwei Island area of Panyu district, according to an alert sent out by the district branch of the Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau. The bureau said in a...