China

Beijing, Sep 25 (AFP) China said on Tuesday it was impossible to hold trade talks with the United States while Washington is imposing tariffs that are like "holding a knife to someone's throat".

Speaking a day after Washington activated tariffs on 200 billion in Chinese goods, vice commerce minister Wang Shouwen said China is open to negotiations but that the two sides must treat each other "equally and with respect".

Hong Kong, Sep 24 (AFP) Hong Kong banned a political party which promotes independence on Monday, a first since the city was handed back to China by Britain 21 years ago as Beijing ups pressure on any challenges to its sovereignty.

Semi-autonomous Hong Kong enjoys freedoms unseen on the mainland including freedom of expression but the space for political dissent is shrinking in the face of an increasingly assertive China under President Xi Jinping.

Beijing, Sep 24 (AFP) China must come clean about the fate of an estimated one million minority Muslims swept up in a "massive crackdown" in far western region of Xinjiang, Amnesty International said in a new report Monday.

Beijing has ramped up restrictions on Muslim minorities to combat what it calls Islamic extremism and separatist elements in the far western province.

But critics say the drive risks fuelling resentment towards Beijing and further inflaming separatist sentiment.

MOSCOW, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss Syrian issues with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Russia's Sochi on Monday, the Kremlin said in a statement Sunday.

The meeting will take place at a time when the Syrian government forces backed by Russia and Iran are preparing an offensive against rebels' last major stronghold in Idlib province, although Turkey and the United States have repeatedly warned against any operation.

VIENNA, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal will have serious repercussions for the international and regional peace and security, Iranian Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi said in a statement to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) general conference on Monday.

"This ominous move is doomed to have serious repercussions for the international and regional peace and security," said Salehi, who is also the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.

SHANGHAI, September 20. /TASS/. The board of directors of BRICS’ New Development Bank (NDB) approved three infrastructure and sustainable development projects in India and Russia with loans aggregating $825 mln at its 16th meeting in Shanghai, NDB said in a statement.

URUMQI, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- A team of 100 Chinese engineering and medical troops left for a one-year peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday.

Their plane left the Diwopu airport in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, at 3 a.m.

They are the first group of the 22nd batch of peacekeepers that China has dispatched to the central African nation. The rest of the 218-member batch will leave on Sept. 28.

XICHANG, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- China on Wednesday evening successfully sent twin BeiDou-3 navigation satellites into space on a single carrier rocket.

The Long March-3B carrier rocket lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 10:07 p.m. It was the 285th mission of the Long March rocket series.

The twin satellites are the 37th and 38th editions of the BeiDou navigation system. After a series of tests and evaluations, they will work together with 12 BeiDou-3 satellites already in orbit.

BEIJING, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa here Wednesday, calling on the two countries to firmly support each other on issues concerning their respective core interests.

Bajwa conveyed cordial greetings from Pakistani President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan to Xi. Xi expressed thanks and asked Bajwa to convey his sincere greetings and best wishes to them.

BEIJING, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- China announced on Tuesday it will impose additional tariffs on U.S. products worth 60 billion U.S. dollars starting from Sept. 24 in response to the newly announced U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods.

The Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council unveiled lists of 3,571 items of U.S. products to be subject to additional tariffs of 10 percent, and lists of another 1,636 items to be subject to additional tariffs of 5 percent.

The new tax rates will take effect at 12:01 p.m. Beijing time on Sept. 24, said the commission.