A Chinese aircraft carrier sailed between two Japanese islands near Taiwan for the first time, Japan’s military said yesterday, in the latest move by Beijing to anger the close US ally.

The Chinese military tailed a US aircraft that was passing through the politically sensitive Taiwan Strait yesterday, Beijing’s army said, vowing to “resolutely defend national sovereignty”.

Chinese and Russian defence officials took swipes at the West at a military diplomacy forum in Beijing on Friday, with China courting the Global South and Russia saying the United States was shifting military conflicts to the Asia-Pacific. 

China’s central bank on Friday said it had signed an agreement with the Maldivian authorities to strengthen trade and investment, as the debt-distressed Indian Ocean nation strives to avoid default.

Chinese consumer inflation ticked up slightly in August to a six-month high, official data showed Monday, but the reading missed expectations and did little to soothe worries about sluggish spending in the world's number two economy

Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen told his US counterpart on Saturday that a modern China was an economic “opportunity” not a “threat” to the United States, the ministry said.

A school bus ploughed into a crowd of people outside a middle school in eastern China on Tuesday, killing 11 people including five students, state media reported

China and the Philippines accused each other on Saturday of deliberately ramming their coast guard ships near a flashpoint shoal in the South China Sea, the latest in a spate of similar incidents in recent weeks.

A joint declaration by Pacific leaders was reissued yesterday morning with mentions of Taiwan removed after China slammed an earlier version as a “mistake” that “must be corrected”.

China lashed out at a declaration by Pacific Island leaders that upheld decades of engagement with Taiwan on Friday, branding it a “mistake” that “must be corrected”.

China said Wednesday it was “willing to engage” with the UN Human Rights Office over its northwestern region of Xinjiang but rejected efforts to “smear” its policies there.

The Philippines and China clashed in disputed waters of the South China Sea yesterday over what Manila said was a resupply mission for fishermen, the latest in a series of sea and air confrontations in the strategic waterway.

Chinese President Xi Jinping held his first conversation with new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer yesterday, emphasising that China hopes to achieve “common wins” with the United Kingdom, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

China’s top diplomat Wang Yi will visit Myanmar and Thailand from August 14 to 17, Beijing’s foreign ministry said yesterday.

China flew its biggest-yet unmanned cargo aircraft designed for civilian use, as the world’s top drone-making nation steps up test flights of autonomous aerial vehicles (UAVs) that could ultimately ferry everything from takeouts to people.

China supports Iran in defending its “sovereignty, security and national dignity”, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi told Iran’s acting foreign minister in a phone call yesterday, according to a statement by China’s foreign ministry.

Torrential rains in China have killed at least 30 people and left dozens more missing, state media said yesterday, as the country grinds through another summer of extreme weather.

A vehicle crashed into pedestrians in a major city in central China early yesterday, killing eight people and injuring five, authorities said, without specifying whether the act was intentional or not.

China will “respond resolutely” to any violation by the Philippines of a recent deal to calm tensions between the two countries in the South China Sea, its top diplomat told his Filipino counterpart, Beijing said yesterday.

Typhoon Gaemi roared into southeastern China yesterday after sweeping across Taiwan, where it killed three people, triggered flooding and sank a freighter before barrelling west across the Taiwan Strait.