The Trump administration announced on Wednesday the establishment of a task force to end birth tourism in the latest push to curtail the practice after the Supreme Court recently rejected US President Donald Trump’s attempt to restrict constitutional birthright citizenship. Working alongside the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the US State Department wrote in a fact sheet that it is “using all available tools to defend the integrity of US citizenship, ensure non-immigrant visas are used...

A US congressional advisory body on China said the country is projecting an image of confidence even as concerns about its economy and future growth remain beneath the surface, following a week-long visit to Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou in July. Members of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) discussed their observations during a wide-ranging press briefing on Wednesday, offering new details about meetings with Chinese officials that had not previously been disclosed. “I...

The US-China Board of Investment, one of the key outcomes of the May summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, is unlikely to be among the deliverables for their expected meeting next month in Washington, according to the head of a leading bilateral business group. “I’m not seeing evidence yet that that’s going to be a sizeable deliverable for the next summit,” Sean Stein, the president of the US-China Business Council, told the South China Morning Post. “The US...

For decades, resource-rich African nations operated on a straightforward pit-to-ship model whereby foreign operators extracted raw ore, loaded it onto cargo ships and exported it abroad, leaving producer countries with little to show for it. Today, nations such as Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique, Ghana and Guinea are dismantling that system – by banning exports of raw materials and enforcing local processing rules. These measures force international mining firms, including Chinese companies, to...

The Democratic Party’s ascendant left wing is likely to push American foreign policy further “inward” and away from big-power rivalry, according to a Chinese political scientist. Meng Weizhan, an assistant research professor at Fudan University’s Institute for Advanced Study in Social Sciences in Shanghai, also said it was time for Beijing to move away from the notion that all American political factions took a hard line on China. The remarks come as progressive Democrats are riding a wave of...

China has approved a new Japanese acting consul general in Chongqing, ending an eight-month vacancy at the mission following a bilateral freeze. Shigehiro Nishiumi, who previously served as Japan’s deputy consul general in Hong Kong, assumed the post at the diplomatic mission in the southwestern municipality of Chongqing on August 4, Japanese news agency Kyodo reported, citing an unnamed government source. The Chongqing post had remained unoccupied since December 5, when former head of mission...