Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 31
HUALIEN, Taiwan (AP) — Rescue teams are searching for a family of five feared trapped in a rockslide following Taiwan's biggest earthquake in 25 years, which has left at least 12 dead. Two bodies have been found in the Taroko National Park, a tourist attraction famous for its rugged, mountainous terrain in Hualien County about 150 kilometers (90 miles) from Taipei. At least four other victims were found in the park. Authorities have yet to verify the identities of the latest victims. The family, surnamed You, had gone on a hike after visiting a...
BEIJING (AP) — Satellite photos show what appear to be armored personnel carriers and other vehicles belonging to the China's paramilitary People's Armed Police parked in a sports complex in the city of Shenzhen, in what some have interpreted as a threat from Beijing to use increased force against pro-democracy protesters across the border in Hong Kong. The pictures collected on Monday by Maxar's WorldView show 500 or more vehicles sitting on and around the soccer stadium at the Shenzhen Bay Sports Center just across the harbor from the Asian f...
HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong is facing its "most severe situation" since its handover from British rule in 1997 following weeks of demonstrations and the central government is considering what measures to take next, the head of Beijing's Cabinet office responsible for the territory said Wednesday. Zhang Xiaoming was speaking to Hong Kong residents attending a seminar in the mainland city of Shenzhen just across the border from the Asian financial hub that has been wracked by daily protests against the administration of Chief Executive Carrie L...
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping offered encouragement for North Korea's focus on economic development in a speech in Pyongyang, turning to a topic Beijing has long pressed with its Communist neighbor amid wider concerns over the North's nuclear weapons program. In an address at a banquet Thursday night, Xi noted that the nation under leader Kim Jong Un had "initiated a new strategic line of economic development and improving people's livelihoods, raising socialist construction in the country to a new high tide," according to China's...
HONG KONG (AP) — Young Hong Kong residents protesting a proposed extradition law that would allow suspects to be sent to China for trial are seeking to safeguard their identities from potential retaliation by authorities employing mass data collection and sophisticated facial recognition technology. Agnes, a second-year college student who declined to give her surname, said she donned a face mask as soon as she left a subway train in the downtown Admiralty district to join Wednesday's overnight protest by pro-democracy demonstrators. "...
BEIJING (AP) — China issued a report Sunday blaming the United States for the countries' trade dispute and said it won't back down on "major issues of principle," but offered no clarification about what additional steps it might take to up the ante. The report from the Cabinet spokesman's office said that China has kept its word throughout 11 rounds of talks and will honor its commitments if a trade agreement is reached. It accused the U.S. of backtracking three times over the course of the talks by introducing new tariffs and other c...
BEIJING (AP) — A year since removing any legal barrier to remaining China's leader for life, Xi Jinping appears firmly in charge, despite a slowing economy, an ongoing trade war with the U.S. and rumbles of discontent over his concentration of power. The Chinese president and head of the ruling Communist Party wields more authority than any leader since Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s and looms large over the annual legislative session that starts Tuesday. Since assuming the party helm in 2012, Xi has eliminated rival factions, gutted civil s...
BEIJING (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reportedly told the leader of his only major ally, China, that he wants to "achieve results" on the nuclear standoff on the Korean Peninsula in a second summit with President Donald Trump. The comments, contained in reports Thursday from Chinese and North Korean state media, came a day after Kim left Beijing on his special armored train for Pyongyang after a two-day visit to the Chinese capital. Kim's trip to China — his fourth in the past 10 months — is believed to be an effort to coordinate w...
BEIJING (AP) — China summoned the Canadian ambassador to protest the detention of a top executive of leading Chinese tech giant Huawei, calling it "unreasonable, unconscionable, and vile in nature" and warning of "grave consequences" if she is not released. A report by the official Xinhua News Agency carried on the Foreign Ministry's website said that Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng called in Ambassador John McCallum on Saturday over the holding of Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, who is reportedly suspected of trying to evade U.S. trade...
BEIJING (AP) — China launched a ground-breaking mission Saturday to land a spacecraft on the largely unexplored far side of the moon, demonstrating its growing ambitions as a space power to rival Russia, the European Union and the U.S. A Long March 3B rocket carrying a lunar probe blasted off at 2:23 a.m. from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province in southwestern China, the official Xinhua News Agency said. With its Chang'e 4 mission, China hopes to be the first country to make a soft landing, which is a landing of a spacecraf...
BEIJING (AP) — "Both ignorant and malicious" was how the official China Daily newspaper recently described comments by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, offering a stinging insight into the current bitter tone of discourse between the countries. The White House's move to expand Washington's dispute with Beijing beyond trade and technology and into accusations of political meddling has sunk relations between the world's two largest economies to the lowest level since the Cold War. A major speech by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Oct. 4 w...
BEIJING (AP) — With China and the United States opening the door to a meeting next month between Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, hopes are rising for a potential easing of tensions in the trade war between the world's two largest economies. Worries about the increased tariffs the two sides have imposed on each other's goods have contributed to this week's dizzying volatility in financial markets. The higher tariffs have elevated costs for companies in both countries, and economists say that if they remain in place indefinitely, they c...
PARIS (AP) — He left his home in Lyon, France, for a visit to his homeland, and then vanished — putting the International Criminal Police Organization, best known as Interpol, at the center of its own missing persons case. Meng Hongwei, Interpol's president, boarded a plane and arrived in China, according to a French judicial official. But then, nothing. His wife, who put out a call on Friday, said she hasn't heard from her 64-year-old husband since the end of September, the official said. To make matters murkier, Meng is not just the head of...
BEIJING (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who has accused China of "intimidation and coercion" in the South China Sea, is visiting Beijing this week as the countries increasingly spar over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and Beijing's expanding military presence overseas. Mattis will be the first defense secretary in President Donald Trump's administration to visit China. His trip highlights the need for the U.S. and its chief rival in East Asia to engage each other despite increasingly stark differences and mutual suspicion. Mattis' m...
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping told North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday he hopes Pyongyang and Washington can fully implement the outcome of last week's nuclear summit at which Kim pledged to work toward denuclearization in exchange for U.S. security guarantees. State broadcaster CCTV said Xi told Kim that through the "concerted efforts of the relevant countries" negotiations regarding issues on the Korean Peninsula are back on track and the overall situation is moving in the direction of peace and stability. The summit b...
BEIJING (AP) — China, Japan and the European Union condemned Thursday the Trump administration's decision to launch an investigation into whether tariffs are needed on imports of vehicles and automotive parts into the United States. President Donald Trump invoked a provision authorizing the president to restrict imports and impose unlimited tariffs on national security grounds. The move is seen as an effort to gain a bargaining chip in stalled talks with Canada and Mexico over the North American Free Trade Agreement. Mexico is the top e...
BEIJING (AP) — A U.S. government employee in southern China reported abnormal sensations of sound and pressure, the State Department said Wednesday, recalling similar experiences among American diplomats in Cuba who later fell ill. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described it as a "serious medical incident." In an emailed notice to American citizens in China, the department said it wasn't currently known what caused the symptoms in the city of Guangzhou, where an American consulate is located. "A U.S. government employee in China recently r...
BEIJING (AP) — China's ambition to soft-land a spacecraft on the far side of the moon later this year faces considerable challenges, but if successful would propel the country's space program to the forefront of one of the most important areas of lunar exploration, experts say. China hopes to be the first country to complete such a landing. On Monday, it launched a relay satellite to facilitate communication between controllers on Earth and the upcoming Chang'e 4 mission. The moon's far side is also known as the dark side because it faces a...
BEIJING (AP) — A peace agreement with North Korea will go far toward easing the impoverished nation's chronic food security woes, the head of the United Nations' World Food Program said Friday, a month before President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a historic summit in Singapore. Fresh from a four-day visit to the North, Executive Director David Beasley also told The Associated Press that he detected a "certain degree of euphoria" among the North Koreans he met and a feeling of momentum toward a b...
BEIJING (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a northern Chinese port city and pledged his continuing commitment to denuclearization ahead of his expected summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, state media said Tuesday. The meeting Monday and Tuesday in Dalian is the second between Xi and Kim in recent weeks, following Kim's March visit to Beijing — his first since taking power six years ago. In comments carried Tuesday night by Chinese state media, neither leader was quoted as directly referring to...
BEIJING (AP) — Research by Chinese geologists suggests that the mountain above North Korea's main nuclear test site has likely collapsed, rendering it unsafe for further testing and requiring that it be monitored for any leaking radiation. The findings by the scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China may shed new light on North Korean President Kim Jong Un's announcement that his country was ceasing its testing program ahead of planned summit meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald T...
BEIJING (AP) — China's defunct and reportedly out-of-control Tiangong 1 space station is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere sometime this weekend. It poses only a slight risk to people and property on the ground, since most of the bus-size, 8.5-ton vehicle is expected to burn up on re-entry, although space agencies don't know exactly when or where that will happen. Below are some questions and answers about the station, its re-entry and the past and future of China's ambitious space program. ___ WHAT WILL HAPPEN AND HOW GREAT IS THE D...
BEIJING (AP) — A mysterious armored train traveled from North Korea to Beijing and then headed back without revealing its key secret: Was Kim Jong Un on board? Speculation about a visit to Beijing by North Korea's reclusive leader or another high-level Pyongyang official ran high Tuesday amid talk of preparations for a future meeting between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump. The visit by the special train to Beijing and unusually heavy security at a guesthouse where prominent North Koreans have stayed seemed to point to the possibility t...
BEIJING (AP) — President Xi Jinping vowed Tuesday to protect "every inch" of China's territory, improve the lives of its people and promote the resurgence of Chinese culture and creativity as he kicked off his second term, poised to rule indefinitely. Xi, China's most powerful leader in decades, sounded a stark warning clearly directed at the government of self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory, and advocates of independence in the southern Chinese city of Hong Kong. "Every inch of our great motherland absolutely cannot and a...
BEIJING (AP) — China is set to give President Xi Jinping a powerful new weapon as he prepares to rule indefinitely — a Communist Party-led anti-corruption agency to police not only the party's cadres, but also doctors, teachers, entertainers and other state employees. The move is part of a sweeping government reorganization to boost the authority of the party headed by Xi, who has firmly established himself as China's most formidable leader since Mao Zedong. On Sunday, China's rubber-stamp legislature scrapped a two-term limit on the pre...
