National security adviser Jake Sullivan held an unscheduled meeting with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi in Malta during the weekend, the White House said. The meeting was part of the Biden administration’s efforts to reopen the high-level communication lines with China’s communist regime and manage bilateral ties that have deteriorated over a slew of issues, from trade to Taiwan. In the past three months, President Joe Biden has dispatched four cabinet-level officials to Beijing: Secretary of State Antony Blinken; Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen; John Kerry, President Joe Biden’s climate envoy; and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. The White House called the recent meeting “candid, substantive, and constructive,” while China’s foreign ministry described the meeting as “frank, substantive, and constructive.”...Read more https://www.theepochtimes.com/china/biden-national-security-adviser-secretly-meets-with-chinas-top-diplomat-in-malta-5492980
Last week’s G20 summit announced the establishment of the “India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor” (IMEC), which was signed by India, the United States, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). According to the project documents, the IMEC is envisioned to consist of two separate corridors: an eastern corridor connecting India and the Arabian Gulf, and a northern corridor connecting the Arabian Gulf and Europe. It’s viewed as an alternative to counter China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative (BRI) that has been criticized for setting a debt trap for and exerting the Chinese communist regime’s political influence on participating countries and is dwindling due to China’s economic decline....
Due to a weakening domestic economy and declining Yuan value, mainland Chinese citizens are increasingly setting up bank accounts in Hong Kong to seek better interest rates and invest in financial products as a hedge. Following new foreign exchange restrictions by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), individuals have engaged in “ant migration,” which involves bypassing official channels through various methods, including informal money exchanges, to funnel money into Hong Kong. Insiders reveal that these unofficial channels often have tacit approval from high-ranking CCP officials. Veteran banker Victor Ng Min-tak asserts that such fund outflows to Hong Kong could not occur without some level of CCP involvement, stating that officials selectively “give the green light” to these transactions....
A neon light exhibit depicting a detained Nobel Peace Prize nominee will be shining in Sydney’s CBD until this year’s prize is announced. Jimmy Lai, the founder of the now-shut pro-democracy Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily, is facing a trial in December on one charge under the British colonial-era sedition law and three charges under the city’s national security law, including collusion with foreign forces. The 75-year-old media tycoon, one of the most prominent Hong Kong critics of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership, including CCP leader Xi Jinping, was arrested in August 2020 for violating the national security law—a law with vaguely defined crimes and often used to stamp out dissent by the Beijing-controlled Hong Kong authorities....