The top Chinese and US security advisers have held lengthy talks, with both sides describing them as “candid” following days of acrimonious exchanges over Taiwan and other flashpoint issues.

The defence chiefs of China and the United States held face-to-face talks for the first time yesterday, with both sides standing firm on their opposing views over Taiwan’s right to rule itself.

Beijing yesterday warned Australia to “act prudently” or face “serious consequences” after Canberra accused a Chinese fighter jet of dangerously intercepting one of its spy planes over the South China Sea.

China will launch a spacecraft on Sunday carrying three astronauts to the core module of the unfinished Chinese space station, where they will work and live for six months as construction enters advanced stages.

China has insisted it has “no intention to compete” for influence in the South Pacific as foreign minister Wang Yi and his Australian counterpart Penny Wong again jetted around the region yesterday on duelling diplomatic charm offensives.

Shanghai sprung back to life on Wednesday after two months of bitter isolation under a ruthless COVID-19 lockdown, with people driving cars again or cramming into trains and buses to go back to work, hoping to never go through a similar ordeal again.

China has made the second largest incursion into Taiwan’s air defence zone this year with Taipei reporting 30 jets entering the area, including more than 20 fighters.

As China's yuan climbs rapidly to its strongest levels in six years against the currencies of the country's trading partners, a notable absence of concern and intervention by the authorities is unnerving investors.

China has made the second largest incursion into Taiwan’s air defense zone this year with Taipei reporting 30 jets entering the area, including more than 20 fighters.

Ten Pacific island nations yesterday rebuffed China’s push for a wide-ranging regional security pact, amid worries the proposal was designed to pull them into Beijing’s orbit.

A Beijing man has landed thousands of his neighbours in quarantine after he ignored an order to stay at home and later tested positive for Covid, prompting a police investigation.

The UN rights envoy yesterday said her contentious visit to China was “not an investigation”, and insisted she had unsupervised access during meetings in Xinjiang, where Beijing is accused of widespread human rights abuses.

The UN Security Council has failed to agree on a statement aimed at pushing Myanmar’s junta to take steps toward a peaceful solution to the country’s ongoing crisis, diplomats said.

China and Russia on Thursday vetoed a US-led bid at the United Nations to toughen sanctions on North Korea over its missile launches, laying bare divisions that Western envoys fear would be exploited by Pyongyang.

China’s foreign ministry yesterday accused US Secretary of State Antony Blinken of “smearing” the country, after America’s top diplomat delivered a landmark policy speech calling for action to counterbalance Beijing’s influence.

Chinese President Xi Jinping held a video call with UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet yesterday, as she visits Xinjiang during a mission overshadowed by fresh allegations of Uyghur abuses and fears she is being used as a public relations tool.

A leak of thousands of photos and official documents from China’s Xinjiang has shed new light on the violent methods used to enforce mass internment in the region, researchers said yesterday.

A Chinese passenger jet veered off the runway during takeoff and caught fire on Thursday, sending black smoke billowing into the air and injuring more than 30 people.

China’s consumer inflation rose at its quickest pace in nearly half a year, official data showed Wednesday, reflecting the growing costs of the country’s zero-Covid curbs and high commodity prices.

Millions of people in Beijing stayed home yesterday as China’s capital tries to fend off a Covid-19 outbreak with creeping restrictions on movement.