The Taliban are sending a team to China to formally seek membership in the communist power’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The announcement comes after the Taliban’s attendance at an annual BRI forum in Beijing this week attended by teams from Afghanistan and 34 other countries. “We requested China to allow us to be a part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and Belt and Road Initiative… [and] are discussing technical issues today,” said acting Commerce Minister Haji Nooruddin Azizi. “…we have everything they need, such as lithium, copper, and iron. Afghanistan is now, more than ever, ready for investment.” Mr. Azizi said the administration would also send a technical team to China to enable it to “better understand” the issues preventing it from formally joining the initiative....Read more https://www.theepochtimes.com/china/taliban-seek-to-formally-join-chinas-belt-and-road-initiative-5514221
A study by the Faculty of Medicine at CUHK found that a quarter of all adult deaths in Hong Kong were related to sepsis. In the decade from 2009 to 2018, adult sepsis morbidity and mortality both increased steadily. To understand the impact of sepsis on the entire population in Hong Kong, CUHK studied the electronic medical records of more than 13 million adults seeking treatment in public hospitals from 2009 to 2018 and conducted a full-scale data analysis. It was found that the incidence of sepsis increased by 8 percent each year, from 624 cases per 100,000 people in 2009 to 759 cases per 100,000 people in 2018. The mortality rate from sepsis also increases by 9 percent a year. It increased from 142 cases per 100,000 people in 2009 to 156 cases per 100,000 in 2018....
Commentary The decision by the Australian government not to cancel the 99-year lease of the Port of Darwin to a Chinese company is a worrying development. The Port of Darwin was leased to Landbridge Group by the Northern Territory Country Liberal government in 2015. The lease was priced at $506 million (US$320 million). The awarding of the contract to Landbridge came just a few years after the United States posted the first of an ongoing rotation of U.S. marines in Darwin. The U.S. presence in the Northern Territory has increased since then. The Northern Territory, Darwin in particular, is a critical element in Australia’s defence....
In August, foreign holdings of U.S. Treasury securities rose for the third consecutive month to their highest level since December 2021, according to new data from the Treasury Department. But China captured the attention as it continued dumping U.S. assets by vast amounts. Total holdings of U.S. debt increased nearly 3 percent year-over-year to $7.707 trillion. This was also up from July’s total of $7.655 trillion. China reduced its holdings by more than $16 billion to $805.4 billion, down approximately 15 percent from the same time a year ago and the lowest since 2009. Chinese investors also offloaded about $5.1 billion in U.S. stocks in August, the highest on record....