Xi Jinping

The geopolitical benefits are on display this week with Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu’s first state visit to China, breaking convention with previous Maldivian leaders and handing Xi a victory over regional rival India.

Indians constitute the largest number of tourists in the tourism-dependent Maldives.

Muizzu, who is regarded as 'pro-China', is accompanied by his wife Sajidha Mohamed and a high-level delegation.

The two presidents met on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco in November and agreed to cool down the raging tensions between the top two economies of the world.

The appointment was made by Chinese lawmakers, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, on Friday.

During the visit a multi-billion-dollar rail link and mining of rare earth projects are likely to be finalised between the two sides.

Xi, also the General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party, emphasised the need to implement the thought on socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics for the new era.

Xi Jinping, who got a standing ovation, reiterated that China will never pursue hegemony or expansion, and will never impose its will on others...His conciliatory tone was well-received

Central banks are trying to bring inflation further down and a soft-landing doesn’t look certain as yet

Europe's moves saw the STOXX 600 slip from a more than one-month high, Wall Street look set for an early dip, and Taiwan's dollar rise after China's President Xi Jinping and US counterpart Joe Biden agreed to reopen key military communications channels between the two superpowers.

The two leaders also affirmed the need to address the risks of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems and improve AI safety through US-China government talks during their meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco.

Clashing economic and geopolitical interests are unlikely to make the Washington-Beijing equation easy and with the US a year away from the presidential election, the relationship will face increased scrutiny at home and abroad

An embarrassed Xi Jinping said he had been up to his eyeballs in statesmanship and the date had passed him by, officials said.

The plan is to revive the regular talks under what's known as the Military Maritime Consultative Agreement, which until 2020 had been used to improve safety in the air and sea, said a US official, who requested anonymity to preview the leaders' expected announcement.

Taiwan's chief delegate will be a civilian rather than a government figure or head of state, under an unwritten rule that satisfies China's contention that members of the organisation participate as economic entities rather than state players.

The US and Chinese Presidents may seek to navigate issues of economic cooperation, military relations, and global stability.

The meeting is expected to push some key areas of mutual interest between both the nations. The ties had been impacted recently after a Chinese spy balloon had wafted across the US earlier this year.

Biden and Xi are due to meet on Wednesday on the sidelines of a Pacific Rim summit in California for the first face-to-face encounter in a year between the leaders of the world's two biggest economies.

The meeting is not expected to lead to many, if any, major announcements and differences between the two powers certainly won’t be resolved.

The case DouYu CEO Chen Shaojie going missing follows a pattern of top Chinese executives and senior members of the country’s ruling CCP (Chinese Communist Party) going incommunicado, only to be eventually revealed that they were being investigated for irregularities.