Archaeologists from the Shanghai Museum embarked on a 40-day excavation mission to Sri Lanka on Monday.The group will be working in ancient ruins in Jaffna alongside representatives from the Central Cultural Fund and a local university in Sri Lanka
The Indian government has denied a report that a Chinese company would be printing its currency notes, calling it “baseless” amid social media outrage. The report by the South China Morning Post claimed a Chinese company had been contracted to print international currencies, including the Indian rupee. The news spread quickly on social media, prompting outrage over how this could endanger national security.
The Maldivian opposition coalition backed Presidential candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has assured that the growing ties between Maldives and China will remain intact. Responding to queries on a RaajjeTV program, the opposition presidential stressed the importance of maintaining close ties with foreign ‘partners’, and noted China is a “great ally” that has assisted significantly in the infrastructural and economic development of the island nation.
In his post-victory speech, Imran Khan expressed his admiration for China, and said he would send a team there to learn from our neighbor’s experience.Since he has also announced an austerity policy, I thought I’d save the next government a lot of time and money by letting Khan know how China got to where it is. The first thing to remember is that the country is a one-party dictatorship that appears to brook no opposition, cautions Irfan Husain in Dawn.
With climate change and disaster management grabbing world attention, the study of the Eastern Indian Ocean, in which Sri Lanka is located, has begun in right earnest, with China taking a deep interest in it. Although the Eastern Indian Ocean has been studied since the 1950s, it is only now that research into it is gaining the kind of importance that it deserves in the matter of allocation of resources and deployment of scientific personnel.
To avoid annoying Beijing, New Delhi has of late stayed away from an initiative launched by United States, Japan and Australia earlier this week to counter the Belt-and-Road Initiative of China in Indo-Pacific region.
The Sri Lankan government has secured a US$ 1 billion Chinese syndicated loan, the Governor of the Central Bank Indrajit Coomaraswamy told themedia last week. China had stated its loan portfolio in Sri Lanka was $ 5.5 billion as of July 2018, that is, just over a tenth of Sri Lanka’s total external debt of US$ 51.82 billion.
The Chinese Central Military Commission (CMC) Vice Chairman General Zhang Youxia called on Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa in Rawalpindi on Sunday. He told Gen.Bajwa: “China deeply appreciates the achievements of Pakistan Army in counter-terrorism…China values the efforts of Pakistan Army in fighting against all terrorist groups including East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM).”
China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, seemed indomitable when lawmakers abolished a term limit on his power early this year. But months later, China has been struck by economic headwinds, a vaccine scandal and trade battles with Washington, emboldening critics in Beijing who are questioning Mr. Xi’s sweeping control. Censorship and punishment have muted dissent in China since Mr. Xi came to power. So Xu Zhang Run, a law professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, took a big risk last week when he delivered the fiercest denunciation yet from a Chinese academic of Mr. Xi’s hard-line policies, revival of Communist orthodoxies and adulatory propaganda image.
The pact will mobilise investments in energy, transportation, tourism and technology infrastructure to curb China’s rising influence with plans like the Belt and Road Initiative. The United States (US), Japan and Australia agreed to invest in infrastructure projects in the Indo-Pacific in a move that will be seen as a counter to China’s rising influence in a region that stretches from the east coast of Africa, through Australia to Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean