US presidential debate reaction, Jilin park stabbing: 7 reads about US-China relations

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Beijing promises not to take Taiwan by force. Washington vows not to work towards overthrowing the Chinese Communist Party. These are among the difficult, perhaps politically impossible, steps that would be needed to avoid a US-China war and approximate some version of coexistence, according to former CIA, Pentagon and other strategic experts. And many are convinced that conflict is more likely than not.

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Despite a subdued performance by the incumbent, the debate between US President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump did not tilt the race definitively towards the challenger, according to diplomacy experts in China who watched the event. Regardless of which candidate wins in the November election, the result would be the same "harmful competition" with China seen as a strategic rival, despite their different tactics, they said.

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted American lawmakers, including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, in New Delhi on June 21, shortly after they had an audience with the Dalai Lama, a meeting that defied stern warnings from Beijing. "India has once again indicated that it is willing to gradually ramp up pressure on issues like Tibet and Taiwan," said Harsh Pant, an international relations professor at King's College London.

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Washington's envoy to Beijing said in early June that he was "angered and deeply troubled" by a knife attack on four instructors from an Iowa college, an incident that China's foreign ministry has said is under investigation. The ministry had confirmed earlier that the instructors from Cornell College had been attacked in a park in the northeastern province of Jilin on Monday, calling it an isolated incident.

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The US Defence Department did not deny a report published in June accusing the Pentagon of orchestrating a campaign meant to discredit Chinese Covid-19 vaccines, and suggested that the move was an attempt to counter "malign influence campaigns" run by Beijing. The report said the campaign began in the spring of 2020 and expanded beyond Southeast Asia before it was terminated in mid-2021.

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Ratings agencies S&P Global and Moody's drew fire at a US congressional hearing on Wednesday for failing to reflect the risk of a multi-trillion-dollar "time bomb" that China's local government financing vehicles pose for global financial markets.

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For the first time in more than 20 years, giant pandas are travelling from China to the United States. The five-year-old male Yun Chuan and nearly four-year-old female Xin Bao are expected to arrive at the San Diego Zoo in California later this week after setting off from China on Wednesday. The pair will travel more than 11,000km (7000 miles), accompanied by caretakers who will help them adjust to their new environment.

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This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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