China-Thailand direct train link planned

Beijing and Washington to host official AI dialogue; China conducts live-fire exercise in Japan’s EEZ

Observing China is the essential newsletter to understand the UK-PRC relationship, explained in the context of global developments.

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It has barely been a week since my last newsletter but a lot has happened.

Developments in the South China Sea reached explosive new heights last Sunday, when for the first time, Beijing conducted a live fire drill in Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) – just two weeks after test-firing its first ever dummy warhead from a nuclear submarine into the waters of the Pacific.

On Monday, Andy Burnham officially became the United Kingdom’s (UK) latest Prime Minister, prompting a rather anodyne congratulatory message from Li Qiang, Premier of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), on his appointment. That said, more insightful analysis from Chinese think tankers on what Burnham’s premiership could mean for UK-PRC relations is included in section 4.1 below.

Last Friday, we obtained a clearer idea of what Donald Trump, President of the United States (US), was trying to say during a rambling speech about supposed election interference by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Mark Warner, a US Senator and Vice-Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, clarified that while Beijing is a serious strategic competitor to Washington, and does pose threats, regarding foreign interference in the specific elections mentioned by Trump, ‘the facts have not changed’. It is more likely that the President is ‘distorting’ these threats for political purposes.

This topic was apparently left unmentioned during the recent meeting between the American and Chinese foreign ministers during the sidelines of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit, which began in Manila on Tuesday.

Welcome back to Observing China.