Finbarr Bermingham
@fbermingham
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Irish journalist in Brussels. Europe Correspondent, @SCMPnews. Covering Europe's relationship with China. Fermanagh man. Views are my own.
Brussels
Joined April 2009
New: EU plans for talks with Trump’s team as it seeks to head off a major economic shock . They seek to avoid tariffs and ensure US support for Ukraine. They've already been told what Trump would expect in return: EU backing for his tough agenda on China.
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The Polish Consulate General in Hong Kong finding a novel way to commemorate the #TiananmenSquareMassacre today - and troll the local government - on its Facebook page (via a friend)
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🚨 Breaking: Mick Wallace has lost his seat in the European Parliament. Elimination after the 20th count in Ireland South, follows close ally Clare Daly, who lost her seat earlier this week. Two of China's top defenders in the European Parliament are gone.
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NEW: Xi Jinping told Charles Michel that people in China were protesting because they were frustrated after three years of Covid, per senior EU officials. Xi told them that Omicron is less deadly than Delta, which they sensed "opens the way for more openness of the restrictions".
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“This is the time to stop being naive, also when it comes to China,” says Sanna Marin. Finnish leader warns democratic countries against being ‘naive’ on China - via @FT.
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BREAKING!. Landslide vote in the European Parliament to put the EU's investment deal with China in the freezer. Motion on stopping discussions on CAI passes by a margin of 599 to 30, with 58 abstensions.
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🚨BREAKING: The UN report is finally out, just before midnight. It says that actions of the Chinese government in Xinjiang, "may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity".
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🚨BREAKING: UN human rights office to release Xinjiang report by end of the day, AFP quotes spokesman as saying.
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BREAKING!. China sanctions 10 EU individuals and four entities in response to EU sanctions over Xinjiang.
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"After reunification, we are going to do re-education", says the Chinese ambassador to France, on French TV.
Taïwan: "Après la réunification, on va faire une rééducation", affirme l’ambassadeur de Chine en France
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NEW: European Parliament adopts first ever report calling on EU to ramp up relations with Taiwan. 580 for.26 against.66 abstentions. Landslide.
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BREAKING!. "China recalled its Ambassador to Lithuania and demanded the Lithuanian Government recall its Ambassador to China.". This is over Vilnius' "decision to allow the Taiwan authorities to open a "representative office" under the name of Taiwan".
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Tough words from EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell in European Parliament tonight on last week's EU-China Summit, re Ukraine. "This was not exactly a dialogue, maybe a dialogue of the deaf. we could not talk about Ukraine a lot, and we did not agree on anything else.".
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Landslide: UN vote condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine passes: . 141 in favour.5 against.35 abstentions. China abstained while Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea, Russia and Syria voted against
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Czech President Pavel: “I don’t think China has a real interest to resolve the war in a short time.”. “I believe that it is in China’s interest to prolong the status quo because it can push Russia to a number of concessions.” .
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BREAKING!. UN Human Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet to visit China in May, including a visit to Xinjiang.
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Amazing story. Liz Truss, who has spent much of her post-PM phase lecturing on the need to be tough on China, secretly lobbied the British government to “expedite” the sale of defense equipment to China. This wasn't ages ago, it was in August!.
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Scoop: Leaders of Germany, France, Italy and Spain invited to meet Xi Jinping in China in November.
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The fallacy of Lexit. I can travel the length of Belgium on imperfect but highly functional state-owned trains for a fraction of the price it would cost to travel anywhere in Britain by train. .
It's so strange to hear people in Britain are still repeating that EU law forces private ownership of railways when it's the UK that is the ONLY European country WITHOUT a state-owned passenger rail service company.
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Xi Putin call happened today - translation of the transcript from Chinese state media: . "Xi Jinping pointed out that recently, the situation in eastern Ukraine has undergone rapid changes, which has drawn great attention from the international community.".
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Feels like a pretty seismic week in EU-China relations. I get the feeling that we're not in Kansas anymore. Here is a summary of the major events that have happened, let me know if I missed any, bearing in mind it's still only lunchtime on Friday.
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BREAKING: China's economy shrank since the first time since 1976 in the first quarter of 2020. Minus 6.8%, worse than median forecasts, with contractions in March industrial, retail and investment numbers too
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Two German journalists had talks promoting their book "Xi Jinping - the most powerful man in the world" at German universities cancelled, under "Chinese pressure".
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I always thought the breaking of the protocol would be an open goal for Beijing once the UK then talked about the joint declaration. Here we are.
"2 years ago we made a promise to the Northern Ireland Protocol. We are determined to break it."
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62% of Europeans think their countries should remain neutral in a US China war over Taiwan, ECFR polling shows
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"China supports Russia and Ukraine to resolve the issue through negotiation. China's basic position on respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries and abiding by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter is consistent.".
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China and Xi Jinping are “absolutely complicit” in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the chief of MI6 said at a rare public appearance in Prague .
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🚨BREAKING!🚨. It's official: EU member states have voted to adopt tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles.
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China's best friends in the European Parliament facing a scrap to be relected. Clare Daly is polling at 6%, Mick Wallace at 3%.
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Scoop - . Beijing has admitted that a Chinese-owned ship damaged a critical Baltic Sea gas pipeline running between Estonia and Finland last October, but says it was an accident.
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Interesting report from Baltic-Nordic-Polish summit. Finnish PM: "Behind Russia there is more and more China. I am concerned. I hope they have heard Europe’s message. It’s not good for relations between Europe and China.”.
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Confirmed: Germany allows China's Cosco to take 24.9% stake in its largest port.
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Wow. China's ambassador to the UN in Geneva said that Beijing would not cooperate with the UN human rights office after the release of a long-awaited report on alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
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Scoop: Duisburg, Germany's "China City", has halted all collaboration with Huawei in light of “the current relations between Russia and China”.
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NEW: UN human rights chief Bachelet at human rights council this morning:. "I was not able to speak to any Uyghurs currently detained or their families during the visit.".
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Beijing-backed Chinese language schools in UK to be replaced with teachers from Taiwan. Good scoop from @nivincent .
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"China decides its position based on the merits of the Ukraine issue itself. Necessary to abandon Cold War mentality, attach importance to & respect legitimate security concerns of all countries & form balanced, effective & sustainable European security mechanism thru negotiation.
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Borrell: "China cannot pretend to be a responsible great power but close its eyes or cover its ears when it comes to a conflict that obviously makes it uncomfortable. because it knows very well who the aggressor is, although for political reasons, refuses to name them".
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I just got a PR reply from McKinsey saying they are "not able to comment on topics related to US-China relations nor decoupling". A firm that publishes long reports on supply chain trends, now afraid to comment on one of the biggest global trends. This is getting ridiculous. .
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Feels like I picked a good week to move to Brussels 🇧🇪☀️
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Breaking: G7 slams China response to Pelosi visit. "We are concerned by recent and announced threatening actions by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), particularly live-fire exercises and economic coercion, which risk unnecessary escalation".
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Zelensky says China working hard to 'prevent' countries from attending peace summit. Wow - Zelensky has totally changed tack. Previously very reluctant to criticise Beijing.
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The Chinese government today dismissed my report saying Beijing had asked 4 big EU member states to meet Xi Jinping in November as "fake news". Asked about Beijing's denial, my sourcing confirms that these approaches have indeed been made - informal invitations at this point.
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Lithuania wants the EU to cancel the summit with China "until we see which side China is on" .
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NEW:. ‘The whole supply chain is subsidised’: inside the EU’s blockbuster EV probe. Two dozen case handlers, 250 mission days in China, 100 company visits, thousands of pages of evidence. How Brussels went after one of Beijing’s crown jewels.
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This note was circulated to media by the Russian Embassy in Beijing. Far from showing willingness to negotiate. "Our goals are simple: demilitarization and seizure of foreign arms that are used against the people of Donbas, and to stop the neo-Nazis and their ideology."
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Li Hui, China's envoy who toured Ukraine, EU and Russia to discuss the war, gave a presser in Beijing today, a few highlights:. Li: "risk of escalation remains high. I stayed in Kyiv 3 days, air raid sirens were sounding every single day and there were 2 massive air strikes"
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Taiwan confirms it is in talks with Slovenia to open representative offices on each other’s soil, after the Slovenian PM Jansa accused China of “lecturing about democracy and peace” .
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🚨BREAKING!. The European Commission has published its final decision on definitive duties on Chinese made EVs. Full steam ahead - will now be written in the official journal
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More than 100 UK MPs and Lords inc shadow FM & LibDem leader, sign letter to Boris Johnson calling for sanctions on top CCP official in Xinjiang Chen Quanguo, and Magnitsky sanctions against officials and entities "responsible for the crackdown on the democracy movement in HK"
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Exclusive: China tried to add a last minute clause to EU investment deal that would have frozen benefits for EU states that banned Huawei.
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"The European side make clear that this. compartmentalisation isn't feasible. for us Ukraine is the defining moment on whether we live in a world governed by rules or by force.".
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Interesting read. "Xi's brain trust thought in the face of Russia's overwhelmingly powerful forces Zelensky would quickly flee. Ukr military would surrender & fighting would end within few days. China made such judgments based on intel from Russia".
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Have loved being part of @SCMPNews election team. Three times this week I helped write our newspaper front page. Twice went to bed fearing egg on our face. Today's paper went to print under an hour before Biden was confirmed, so we missed the call but I think we got the essence
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Outside the EU buildings in Brussels today, protest banners to mark the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover from British to Chinese rule. Organised by some MEPs.
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NEW!. EU to imminently launch WTO case against China over economic coercion campaign against Lithuania.
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In a sign of how nervous EU is about leaks, the discussion on China at today's European Council will be without phones. For security reasons. No such precautions for the long discussion on Ukraine today. .
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After his trip to China was cancelled at the last minute, German finance minister Lindner has called for a tougher stance towards Beijing. “We will not let our liberal values be bought for good business deals.".
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NEW: European Parliament to call for Beijing Winter Olympic boycott and sanctions on Hong Kong leaders over Apple Daily closure on Thursday .
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China is bolstering military ties with Europe’s enemies, and is increasingly seen as a security threat across the continent. My report.
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Italy has signaled to the US that it intends to pull out of China's belt and road initiative before the end of the year.
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🚨 EXCLUSIVE 🚨. Brussels pulls trams branded with slogans marking 25 anniversary of Hong Kong handover following complaints about China's human rights record.
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🚨🚨BREAKING 🚨🚨. EU confirms additional 21% duty on made-in-China electric vehicles.
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NEW: Xinjiang's exports to the EU soared by 131% in the first half of 2021, led by surges in some goods that have been flagged as being linked to forced labour by the United States.
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New: European Parliament resolution calling for an end to Hong Kong's special trading status passes by a landslid. 473 votes for .23 against .98 abstentions . Resolution also ask the EU to review the city's economic office in Brussels
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NEW: European Parliament adopts resolution on Hong Kong media freedom by a landslide margin. 585 for, 46 against.
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In case you missed it last night: . My story on the full-blown diplomatic row that erupted after China's archetypal wolf warrior ambassador in Paris questioned the sovereignty of post-Soviet states.
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German embassy in Beijing commemorates the 35th anniversary of Tiananmen Square.
Last night, we lit some candles in the windows of our Embassy.
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Belgian PM De Croo just spoke on China at the Brussels Forum. His remarks closely echoed those of Dutch PM Rutte last weekend: . "I think the last thing we could, we should do is turn our backs to China the way we are turning our backs to Russia.".
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Story: Clare Daly, the rabble-rousing Irish lawmaker who became one of the Chinese government’s staunchest defenders in the European Parliament, has lost her seat.
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Qin Gang to be the next Chinese foreign minister. It was he that doled out China's retaliatory sanctions on EU last year, in language described to me as an "exact replica of Yang Jiechi" in Anchorage 3 days before.
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This comes after the Chinese foreign ministry office in HK warned several Western consulates not to openly commemorate June 4, following a ban on an annual vigil in the city to mark the anniversary of the massacre.
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"We condemn Russian aggression against Ukraine and support this country's sovereignty, democracy, not because we follow the US blindly, as sometimes China's suggests because but because it is our position. this was an important message for the Chinese leadership to hear".
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New: large group of independent UN experts call for a special convention of UN Human Rights Council to discuss last week's Xinjiang report.
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NEW: . UN & China accused of fabricating a “mutually convenient stalemate” after confirming it won't publish a report on human rights abuses in Xinjiang before this month’s Winter Olympic Games.
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US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman in Brussels: . "Beijing is seeking to undermine the very system that they benefited from to return instead to a system where might-makes-right and big nations can coerce smaller countries into acting against their own interests".
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The reaction of Chinese academics at Shanghai International Studies University when EU top diplomat Josep Borrell told them that on "issues of socioeconomic rights, we are more advanced than you. we are more Communist than you!"
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Janet Yellen has urged the EU to intervene urgently to dampen exports of Chinese cut-price green technology including solar panels and wind turbines, pushing European leaders to move to a full-scale trade war.
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NEW: EU to propose ban on forced labour goods on Tuesday, amid pushback over China’s alleged Xinjiang abuses. Story and thread outlining what is in the long-awaited proposal - and what is not.
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Exclusive: EU leaders plan to personally ask Xi Jinping to put a halt to China's sanctions circumvention in Beijing next week. If he is not amenable to helping, 13 Chinese entities will likely end up on the EU's sanctions blacklist .
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Ukraine has officially designated Hikvision and Dahua "international sponsors of war". Kyiv alleges the Chinese firms "freely supply Russia with" dual use military goods, e.g. drones, thermal imagers, anti-drone guns.
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BREAKING: China's manufacturing bounced back v strongly in March. PMI 52 in March, up from all-time low 35.7 in Jan-Feb. Non manufacturing PMI also roared back at 52.3 from 29.6 in Jan-Feb. Could be short-lived w' demand shock ahead, but quite a bounce.
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Very interesting interview of Chinese ambassador to the EU Fu Cong by @MacaesBruno. Asked why China hasn't condemned Russia. "We have our own diplomatic style. I think at this stage actually a simple condemnation does not solve the problem. It may reduce your space for diplomacy"
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Some personal news from me. Excited to be taking on the role of Europe Correspondent for @SCMPNews, covering the Europe-China relationship at this crucial point in history. I will be moving to Brussels in the near future but in the interim, I will cover remotely from Hong Kong.
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Said a senior EU diplomat:. "You'll never summon an ambassador in the middle of the night if you're not going to declare war". EU diplomats said they were told by Qin Gang: "Now you shut up. There's a new boss in town called China. You're going to obey and we're going to teach".
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🚨New Chinese data this morning shows overall trade with the EU grew just 0.4% in 2024. Chinese exports to the EU up 3% vs 2023.Chinese imports from the EU down 4.4%. China's annual imports from:.Germany -10.7%.Netherlands +11.2% (ASML chip making kit).France -5.9%.Italy -3.2%
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Surely the scoop of my life. Five years after a registry office service in Hong Kong, we were able to celebrate our wedding in proper Irish style. Back on deck next week ☘️
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Breaking: After months of speculation, Olaf Scholz confirms he is going to China next month.
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Latvian and Estonian leaders asked about Scholz visit to China with a biz delegation, both called for a 27+1 approach rather than member states freelancing.
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BREAKING!. The EU has suspended its WTO case with China over coercion of Lithuania!
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BREAKING! . Chinese rail company CRRC withdraws from public procurement tender in Bulgaria after it was subject to investigation under the EU's foreign subsidies regulation.
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Story: Chinese President Xi Jinping believes ‘frustrated students’ are behind Covid protests.
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Chinese drone manufacturer Xi'an Bingo Intelligent Aviation Technology has agreed to manufacture and test 100 kamikaze drones, before delivering them to the Russian military, der Speigel reports .
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Biden and Xi set to pledge a ban on use of AI in autonomous weaponry, such as drones, and in the control and deployment of nuclear warheads, sources confirmed to the Post. Important scoop by colleagues @ipatrickbr @markmagnier, Amber Wang in DC .
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China more 'destructive than constructive' on Ukraine - Lithuanian President. "Unfortunately, I see the aim of China is to continue this war, make this war even more bloody and in such a situation that China is in hidden or open form supporting Russia".
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In a hawkish speech last night, UK foreign sec Liz Truss said China's "rise isn't inevitable". "They will not continue to rise if they don’t play by the rules. China needs trade with the G7. We represent half of the global economy. And we have choices.". (via @BeijingToBrit).
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NEW: Hong Kong officials owning properties in West accused of benefitting from ‘protections and freedoms’ while overseeing crackdown on rights in HK .
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Ahead of the G20 this week, IPAC delivered the banned Pillar of Shame to the Chinese embassy in Rome. Exiled Hong Kong protest leader @nathanlawkc and World Uyghur Congress director @MahmutRahima among those who gave speeches. Pic via @lukedepulford
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