China has warned the Australian economy will have a “bitter pill to swallow” if Canberra allows fleeing Hong Kong citizens to settle here.

The Global Times, which is considered a proxy for Beijing, made the comments in an editorial this morning.

The paper said a move to make it easier for Hong Kong citizens to settle in Australia would have a “huge negative impact” on the Australian economy and there would be “immeasurable losses” to Aussie firms.

It comes as a chorus of countries, including the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, have criticised the imposition of a new and highly controversial security law in the one-time British territory.

China is justifying military campaigns near two disputed sets of islands in the Asia-Pacific by claiming sovereignty over the territories while its feud with the United States and several countries over the area heats up.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Monday that China had the right to conduct coast guard patrols going on for nearly 13 consecutive weeks near the Paracel Islands controlled by Japan in the East China Sea and to close off the waters surrounding the Vietnam-claimed Pinnacle Islands for training in the South China Sea from July 1 to July 5 because both are part of the country's territory.

The US military "will continue to stand strong" in relation to a conflict between India and China or anywhere else, a top White House official said on Monday, after the US Navy deployed two aircraft carriers to the South China Sea to boost its presence in the region.

"The message is clear. We're not going to stand by and let China or anyone else take the reins in terms of being the most powerful, dominant force, whether it's in that region or over here," White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told Fox News.

"And the message is clear. Our military might stands strong and will continue to stand strong, whether it's in relationship to a conflict between India and China or anywhere else," Meadows said in response to a question.

The head of the FBI said Tuesday that China is pushing its preferences in the U.S. election as part of broad intelligence operations, whose economic impact he called unprecedented.

Christopher Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, did not say whether China backed either President Donald Trump or his presumptive Democratic rival Joe Biden, both of whom have harshly criticized Beijing.

'China's malign foreign influence campaign targets our policies, our positions, 24/7, 365 days a year,' Wray said at the Hudson Institute.

Last August, Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Zarif, paid a visit to his China counterpart, Wang Li, to present a roadmap on a comprehensive 25-year China-Iran strategic partnership that built upon a previous agreement signed in 2016.

Many of the key specifics of the updated agreement were not released to the public at the time but were uncovered by OilPrice.com at the time. Last week, at a meeting in Gilan province, former Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad alluded to some of the secret parts of this deal in public for the first time, stating that:

“It is not valid to enter into a secret agreement with foreign parties without considering the will of the Iranian nation and against the interests of the country and the nation, and the Iranian nation will not recognize it.”

If the picture of Chinese ‘malign influence’ in the US is as dire as FBI Director Chris Wray painted it, the two nations ought to be at war. Yet Wray doesn’t advise that, suggesting it’s all just Russiagate-like fear-mongering.
“China is engaged in a whole-of-state effort to become the world’s only superpower by any means necessary,” Wray argued on Tuesday, speaking at an event hosted by the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC.

In addition to being able to execute its malign influence projects with “authoritarian efficiency,” China is “calculating, they’re persistent, they’re patient and they’re not subject to the righteous constraints of an open, democratic society or the rule of law,” Wray argued.

Hundreds of aircraft launched from two US carriers in the South China Sea this week are participating in an around-the-clock drill to support free navigation in the South China Sea, the US Navy said in a press release.

"Working together with another Carrier Air Wing provides advanced opportunities for our squadrons to conduct high-end training, and increase our warfighting readiness", Captain Michael Rovenolt, commanding officer of Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5, said. "Our forces provide combatant commanders with significant operational flexibility to respond to regional contingencies".

The US Department of State announced on Tuesday it had imposed visa restrictions on Chinese officials deemed to be responsible for Beijing's policies controlling foreigners' access to the Tibet Autonomous Region.

"Beijing has continued systematically to obstruct travel to the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) and other Tibetan areas by US diplomats and other officials, journalists, and tourists, while PRC [People's Republic of China] officials and other citizens enjoy far greater access to the United States," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in the statement.

China says a move by the United States to place Chinese flags at a table of nuclear arms control negotiations with Russia was an act of “performance art.”

China had said it would not be participating in the talks because the US, under President Donald Trump, had unilaterally withdrawn from international treaty after international treaty.

The negotiations in question were on the replacement of New START, a nuclear arms treaty between the US and Russia that would expire next February and that has nothing to do with China. Washington had invited Beijing nevertheless and had been planning to portray the Chinese government’s refusal to participate as a sign of Beijing’s reluctance to take part in any arms control treaty.

China has slammed what it calls the United States flexing its muscles in the South China Sea to try to provoke tensions and conflict among countries of the region. But the Pentagon has called the maneuvers by two supercarriers sent to the region days ago, namely the USS Ronald Reagan and USS Nimitz, an act of standing up “for the right of all nations to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows” and further as a “symbol of resolve”.

Each carrier has 90 or more aircraft and about 6,000 personnel, making it a significant display of force off China's coast. Given this, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is said to be tracking their movements closely, with Chinese vessels said to be within eyesight of the US carriers.

The carriers have been conducting flight drills since exercises commenced on July 4. Nimitz commander Rear Admiral James Kirk told reporters in a telephone interview: “They have seen us and we have seen them” - in reference to a nearby Chinese flotilla.

China and India began pulling back troops from the site of a deadly border clash, as Beijing opened another front in the region’s territorial disputes with a new claim in nearby Bhutan.

Chinese and Indian troops both started to withdraw from some friction points in disputed areas along the two countries’ Himalayan border, Indian security officials said Monday, following talks between senior diplomats and military commanders to calm tensions.

...

China and India have moved their soldiers away from the site of a deadly June skirmish along the disputed border in the Himalayas, reports say. The news comes a day after senior officials agreed to expedite mutual disengagement.

Chinese soldiers have moved their tents and other structures away from the site of the bloody melee in the Galwan River valley that took place last month, Indian media reported, citing official sources. Indian troops are said to have pulled back as well, and a buffer zone was set up between the soldiers from both sides.

Indian military sources told AFP that that the disengagement of the Chinese troops began in accordance with the agreement reached during talks between high-ranking army officials from both countries.

A suspected case of bubonic plague has been registered in China’s north, according to local health authorities. The news comes after two similar cases were detected in neighboring Mongolia.

The case was registered at a hospital in China’s Inner Mongolia region, its health commission said in a statement on Sunday.

This prompted a third-level warning of a potential epidemic in the region. The alert comes into force immediately and will be in place until the end of this year. It’s believed the patient in question is suffering from the bubonic form, which causes swollen lymph nodes, and is considered to be the most easily treated variant of the disease.

US President Donald Trump is purportedly considering several executive orders targeting China as well as manufacturing and immigration, amid heightening tensions between Washington and Beijing.

Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, broke the news at a press briefing on Monday, declining to provide further details.

"It's dealing with a number of executive orders that may go all the way from dealing with some of the immigration issues that we have before us, to some of the manufacturing and jobs issues that are before us, and ultimately dealing with China, in what we need to do there in terms of resetting that balance," Meadows said.

Two bullet-ridden bodies lay sprawled on bloodstained concrete steps. Alongside, relatives of the victims are wailing and collapse to the ground. In another part of the city, a gang of youths use spray paint to disable security cameras before robbing a corner store. Later, video footage captures police officers sitting helplessly in their patrol car as a baying crowd hurls glass bottles at them.

This is lawless New York – a city that was once America’s glittering crown jewel but which risks descending into mob rule.

Murder figures have skyrocketed and a combination of the coronavirus pandemic, Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests and weak political leadership is in danger of achieving what Osama Bin Laden never could: bringing the Big Apple to its knees.

Now that the Senate has joined the House in its condemnation of China's National Security Law, and on Thursday passed by unanimous consent a bipartisan bill to impose sanctions on Chinese officials who threaten Hong Kong’s limited autonomy, as well as the banks and firms that do business with them, we eagerly await when (and perhaps, if) Trump will sign the legislation into law (according to a WSJ report from Thursday, the White House hasn’t responded to a request for comment over whether the president will support the bill).

And since it is unlikely that Trump will object to the veto-proof law - after all, the last thing he wants is to be seen as easy on China ahead of the election - on Friday, the State Department warned top American companies including Walmart, Apple and Amazon over risks faced from maintaining supply chains associated with human rights abuses in China’s western Xinjiang region, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Thursday.

In late June, a Chinese government think tank warned of a possible military conflict due to the US military’s "unprecedented" deployment to the Asia-Pacific region.

War Zone has reported about "substantial improvements" to the secretive US military base on Wake Island, described by the news outlet as “America's remote outpost deep in the Pacific”.

“The major expansions to the [Wake Island] airfield began early this year and are still underway today”, War Zone said, referring to new satellite imagery that it obtained from the private American imaging company Planet Labs.
The improvements include a large apron expansion on the eastern side of the airfield, construction in the support area to the north, and a complete rebuilding of the runway.

War Zone editor Tyler Rogoway pointed to Wake Island’s “key fallback position” in case of a possible armed conflict with China, which he said would almost certainly affect a key US naval base on the island of Guam.

On the eve of Independence Day, the White House is once again stoking tensions with Beijing, as President Trump continues to embrace aggressive rhetoric toward China as a key campaign issue that (he hopes) will help bring out more Trump voters worried about Biden and/or members of his family's dubious business ties to China and Ukraine.

The exercise will involve the two carriers as well as 4 other warships along with round-the-clock fights and missions.

The news comes as Peter Navarro, who has seemingly been relegated back to a supply closet office in the West Wing now that the trade deal is dead in the water, has apparently been let out of his cage long enough to rant about Beijing and the CCP leadership's unforgivable failure to contain the coronavirus.

Perhaps it's because China has seemingly been on a agricultural commodity buying spree in Latin America?

Beijing has warned that it won’t stand back and watch the UK grant citizenship to millions of Hong Kongers. If China’s opposition to the move isn’t heard, some “corresponding measures” will come into play.

PM Boris Johnson said earlier on Wednesday that if China pursues hotly-debated national security laws in Hong Kong, millions of its residents will be eligible for the British National Overseas (BNO) passport.

The United States has strongly backed New Delhi as tension rises between India and China amid stalled border talks. But Washington has its own motives for encouraging aggressive action from the Indians.

Following a bloody confrontation between Indian and Chinese troops at Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh on June 15, attempts to reduce tensions by the two sides seem to have reached a deadlock, even though a broad “consensus to disengage” has been reported.

Little else is known of the ongoing military or diplomatic talks as troops from the two countries stand face to face along at least four points on the disputed 3,500-kilometer Line of Actual Control or LAC – Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Hot Spring and Depsang.

What is clear, though, is that the United States is taking a keen interest in events. As tensions between India and China escalate, the Americans have very publicly given their backing to the Indians.

Hong Kong Sprays Rioters With Indelible Blue Dye. Hey America – wake up, this is a way to I.D. rioters and arrest them at your convenience, and there’ll be no resistance.

US anti-China legislation dates from the mid-19th century, including measures to prohibit or limit emigration of its nationals to America.

Today, US war on China by other means rages with no end of it in prospect, things worsening, not improving, a situation fraught with dangers.

Joint exercises by the Indian and Japanese navies in the Indian Ocean at the weekend suggest the two countries are drawing closer to face what they perceive as a common threat from China, analysts say.

While joint military exercises involving the two countries are not uncommon, the latest activity comes amid tensions both are experiencing with Beijing.
Indian and Chinese troops remain locked in a face-off along the disputed Himalayan border where 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a recent clash with their Chinese counterparts, while Japan and China are locked in a war of words over a Japanese move to change the administrative status of the Senkaku Islands, which China claims and refers to as the Diaoyu Islands.

The India-China row in the disputed Ladakh border region isn't over, despite military leaders on both sides last week announcing a cooling and deescalation after the June 15 Galwan Valley clash which left 20 Indian troops dead and an untold number of PLA casualties.

Both sides continue military build-up in the area, despite delegations planning to meet for a third time on Tuesday to attempt a diplomatic way forward and reestablish escalation avoidance mechanisms.

China reportedly has tank and heavy artillery units there, based on satellite images which grabbed headlines days ago, while by the weekend India reportedly deployed quick reaction surface-to-air missile defense systems known as the Akash anti-air system into the northern Himalayan region.

China's top legislative body passed, and president Xi signed, a new controversial law for Hong Kong that would allow authorities to crack down on pro-democracy protesters and "foreign forces" who attempt to destabilize the semi-autonomous region, reported Reuters. The National People's Congress Standing Committee swiftly approved the landmark national security law on Tuesday, signaling Communist Party leader Xi Jinping's desire to seize more control to squash pro-democracy protests in the city to stop subversion, terrorism, separatism, and collusion with external forces.

China has deployed a new howitzer designed for rugged terrain to its border regions, as tensions mount with India in the aftermath of a deadly clash in the Himalayas earlier this month.

Most of the country’s five military jurisdictions, known as theatre commands, have been equipped with PCL-181 155mm vehicle-mounted howitzers, according to state media reports.

The most recent recipient of the artillery is the Southern Theatre Command’s 75th Group Army headquartered in Kunming, Yunnan province, which took delivery earlier this month.

Nevertheless US efforts to undermine Chinese power have been steadily growing over the past 30 years, in part spurred on by the Soviet Union’s demise in 1991, partially also due to China’s increasing clout.

The well informed Brazilian historian, Luiz Alberto Moniz Bandeira, wrote that,

“The CIA’s operations sought to do the same to China, as they had done to the Soviet Union during the war in Afghanistan: Fight their enemy via proxies, i.e., through third parties such as terrorist organisations and countries like Turkey, a puppet state that nourishes pan-Turkish and pan-Islamic ideas”. (1)

Yet one market which seemed stubbornly immune to any counterfeiting was that of physical gold in China, which was odd considering that over the past decade China had emerged as the world's biggest counterfeiter of various, mostly industrial metals used to secure bank loans, better known as "ghost collateral", and which adding insult to injury, would frequently be rehypothecated meaning often several banks would have claims to the same (fake) asset.

All that is about to change with the discovery of what may be one of the biggest gold counterfeiting scandal in recent history. And yes, not only does it involve China, but it emerges from a city that has become synonymous for all that is scandalous about China: Wuhan itself.

With that preamble in mind, we introduce readers to Wuhan Kingold Jewelry Inc., a company which as the name implies was founded and operates out of Wuhan, and which describes itself on its website as "A Company with a Golden future."

Last week, militantly hostile to Iran Pompeo said the following:

The Trump regime is “clear about our expectations (and) goals (sic).”

“We (demand that) the Islamic Republic of Iran behave like a normal nation (sic).”

“We’re happy to engage in conversations with them when the time is right (sic)…”

“(C)onditions that suggest somehow we give a bunch of money to the Iranians so they can foment terror around the world is simply ludicrous (sic).”

“It’s just not how (the Trump regime) behaves (sic).”

Fact: Intentions of both right wings of the US one-party state are crystal clear — seeking dominance over planet earth, its resources and populations by whatever it takes to achieve its objectives, war by hot and other means its favored strategies.

Fact: Even-handed US engagement with other nations was long ago abandoned. Demanding subservience to its interests replaced it.

China reinforced its troops near the Indian border with mountain climbers and martial arts fighters shortly before a deadly clash this month, state media reported.

With tensions between the US and China at an all-time high, experts warn the two powers are closer to a military confrontation than ever before. A war with China should be unthinkable in Washington since the conflict could be catastrophic to the entire world as the threat of it erupting into a full-blown nuclear war is very real. But with a deteriorating trade relationship, tension over the Covid-19 pandemic, increased US Navy activity in the Pacific, new sanctions aimed at Chinese officials, and hostile rhetoric coming from the Trump administration, the unthinkable is becoming more and more likely.

Days after India and China engaged in a bloody border confrontation, Russia, a common strategic partner to each, is this week playing host to the two sides. Can Moscow influence the outcome of their dispute?

The Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral foreign ministers’ virtual meeting yesterday, hosted by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, was the first time that India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had spoken face-to-face since the recent military confrontation – now in the process of disengaging – along the Line of Actual Control, the de facto India-China boundary.

Reportedly, Jaishankar and Wang had an angry phone exchange just days ago over the border clashes, in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed.

New Delhi (Sputnik): The Indian Army on Tuesday announced that it had reached a consensus with the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) to disengage from the Galwan Valley and Pangong Tso. Army sources said that the disengagement process started on Wednesday evening.

China has moved thousands of troops, artillery units, and armoured vehicles to a new area of northern Ladakh. Confirming the Chinese deployment, government sources claimed that in addition to troops they have attack helicopters and armoured vehicles to counter any eventuality in the region.

The sources added that for the past two weeks, deployment by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has increased in the region, which is 21 km from an Indian Army post in Depsang and southeast of Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO). Daulat Beg Oldie is very close to the Karakoram Pass separating China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region from Ladakh.

No less than two new separate reports in The South China Morning Post are warning of a coming US-China military conflict, saying the prospect is now higher than ever given that amid a rising number of naval incidents, including a recent near-collision incident, communication channels used for deconfliction have fallen silent.

The observation is based in large part on new studies by China's National Institute for South China Sea showing a steep drop-off in intergovernmental communications channels between the two sides.

This observed sharp decline in communication is also in regard to the military hotline between the Chinese and Taiwan defense ministries. No doubt the report was released in response the no less than three US carriers patrolling the western Pacific this week, including the USS Ronald Reagan, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, and the USS Nimitz. Needless to say, Beijing and the People's Liberation Army (PLA) are pissed.

China has dismissed widespread Indian media claims that its side suffered 40 casualties during the June 15 night border clash which left 20 Indian soldiers dead as "fake news". It has further condemned New Delhi giving its troops "freedom of action" to respond with deadly fire if under attack by PLA troops.

But despite the soaring tensions which many feared could see war break out along the disputed Ladakh border region, the two nuclear armed neighbors have agreed to deescalation and disengagement at the border.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian confirmed at a news briefing on Tuesday that talks between the two sides' top regional commanders resulted in a positive breakthrough. They "agreed to take necessary measures to promote a cooling of the situation," Zhao said.

The decline of the American empire has been outlined to readers over the years.

A new report shows the US has stumbled into the new decade, losing a competitive economic edge that it had firmly retained in the post–World War II economic expansion.

For the second consecutive year, the US has been dethroned as the world's most competitive economy, thanks partially to President Trump's trade war. The US now ranks 10th (3rd in 2019), according to the Institute for Management Development's (IMD) new report on the ranking of most competitive world economies.

"Trade wars have damaged both China and the USA's economies, reversing their positive growth trajectories. China this year dropped to 20th position from 14th last year," IMD said.

The annual rankings, now in their 32nd year, show Singapore, Denmark, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Hong Kong as the top five most competitive economies.

On the same day White House trade advisor Peter Navarro told Fox News the trade deal with China is "over" (and immediately, the White House reversed Navarro's comments because of market gyrations) - a massive show off force, likely directed at China, took place Monday at a Japanese airbase involving stealth fighter jets.

Navarro's comments suggest the phase one trade deal is trouble. It also signals tensions are rising between both countries over the origins of COVID-19 and China's assertion of power over Hong Kong. At the moment, China is lagging significantly behind phase one targets it promised, and as we've noted, Chinese buyers ditched U.S. markets for Brazilian ones.

Now it's hard to say if around the time Navarro made the comments that a fleet of warplanes conducting an "elephant walk" at the Misawa base in Japan was connected - but it certainly implies tensions are heating up.

New Delhi (Sputnik): India and China have been engaged in an unprecedented border face-off at the Line of Control in the Ladakh region over the last two months. Despite around a dozen high-level talks, the agreed upon disengagement is yet to take place at Pangong Tso and the Galwan Valley.

Despite a "mutual consensus" to de-escalate tensions on the Indo-China border, satellite images purportedly show the Chinese People’s Liberation Army allegedly continuing a military build-up in the Ladakh region, along with India increasing motor boat patrolling in Pangong Tso.

Cognitive Dissonance

Amid the election race Trump may take risky steps leading to a dangerous military standoff with China in the Asia-Pacific. Ironically, his reelection could be the only chance to avoid a new Cold War or even WWIII.
When future historians write the chronicles of the 21st century, they will probably flag 2020 as a turning point marking the start of a genuine antagonism between the world’s strongest powers, the US and China.

New Delhi (Sputnik): Over the last few days, the two Asian giants - India and China - have been involved in diplomatic talks as the situation on the border is tense following the face-off between troops from the two countries on 15 June that left 20 Indian soldiers killed and many others injured. China hasn't confirmed any casualties so far.

Undated videos showing Indian soldiers engaged in a fierce stand-off with Chinese troops supposedly at a border area in Sikkim Sector are going viral on social media.

In one such video, a group of Indian soldiers can be seen jostling and pushing back Chinese troops. They can also be heard asking the People's Liberation Army to go back.

The U.S. determination to resist China’s attempts to exert its power in the Western Pacific has grown still stronger after Beijing imposed a new national security law on Hong Kong in May, greatly diluting (if not negating) that territory’s guaranteed political autonomy. The Trump administration, with bipartisan congressional support, rescinded Hong Kong’s special trade status and adopted other punitive measures.

U.S. leaders also sought solidarity from America’s allies in both Europe and East Asia for a joint statement of condemnation and the imposition of sanctions in response to the PRC’s erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy. The lack of support from European capitals creates serious doubts about how much assistance Washington could expect if a showdown with China emerges at some point over Taiwan’s de facto independence. Allied backing on the Hong Kong issue was tepid and grudging, at best.

Beijing is enraged over current widespread Indian media reports that the Indian Army has been given orders to shoot or use "complete freedom of action" in hostile engagements with Chinese PLA forces along the disputed Ladakh border region.

The reports come following last week's major border incident with China that resulted in 20 Indian Army troops killed, and an undisclosed number of Chinese PLA casualties in the disputed Galwan Valley area of East Ladakh.

Chinese state-media Global Times editor Hu Xijin called out the reports, saying that if the new 'rules of engagement' are true, it's a serious violation of prior treaties implemented for deescalation.

One month after unexpectedly keeping its 1 and 5-year Loan Prime Rates unchanged at 3.85% and 4.65% respectively following the April 19 rate cut (which came just as China was supposedly V-shaped recovering), moments ago Beijing did it again and kept China's so-called Libor flat, with the benchmark LPRs for 1 and 5-year tenors unchanged at 3.85% and 4.60%.

As a reminder, the LPR is a recently launched market indicator of the price that lenders charge clients for new loans, released around the 20th day of every month.

While there was some speculation that after last month's People's Congress where the PBOC vowed it would ease financial conditions further including broad and RRR-based rate cuts, in its preview, SocGen correctly said that it expects "no change to China’s Loan Prime Rates, as the PBoC left the MLF rate unchanged last week."

Authored by Peter Pry, op-ed via The Hill,

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed dangerous weaknesses in U.S. planning and preparation for civil defense protection and recovery, and those weaknesses surely have been noticed by our potential enemies: China, Russia, North Korea, Iran and international terrorists.

The U.S. spent decades, and billions of dollars, supposedly preparing for biological warfare. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the departments of Defense and Homeland Security are supposed to have contingency plans to protect the American people from lethal biological weapons such as anthrax and genetically engineered smallpox, which could have mortality rates of over 90 percent.

India is reportedly seeking to beef up military purchases from Russia following last week's major border incident with China that resulted in 20 Indian Army troops killed, and an undisclosed number of Chinese PLA casualties in the disputed Galwan Valley area of East Ladakh.

Indian government sources were cited in New Delhi-based ANI News Agency as saying "the Indian Air Force (IAF) has pushed a proposal to the government for acquiring 33 new fighter aircraft, including 21 MiG-29s and 12 Su-30MKIs from Russia."

For the seventh time this month, Chinese warplanes approached Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Monday in what could be a deepening phase of geopolitical turmoil between Beijing and Taipei, reported Reuters.

The People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) flew at least one H-6 bomber and J-10 fighter jet into the ADIZ at the island's southwest territory.

In his book due to be released on 23 June, John Bolton, in particular, accuses US President Donald Trump of misusing his powers and claims that POTUS was manipulated and easily influenced by the foreign leaders of China, Russia, Turkey, and North Korea.

John Bolton’s lawyers have filed a motion in court to dismiss a Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit against the former US national security adviser aimed at blocking the publication of his upcoming book for reportedly containing highly classified information.

According to the motion, "[…] Defendant John R. Bolton moves to dismiss the [DOJ’s] complaint for failure to state a claim".

More than 18 months have passed since Michael Kovrig, a former Canadian diplomat working for an NGO on the mainland, and Michael Spavor, a Canadian businessman specializing in running novelty tours to North Korea, were abruptly arrested by police in China and informed they were under investigation (in China, police can take you into custody before the investigation even begins) for threatening China's national security - an extremely serious charge.

India has said its soldiers were mutilated after being beaten to death by Chinese troops and revealed the nail-studded clubs used at the disputed Himalayan border.

Twenty Indians were killed in the clash on Monday night, the first deadly conflict between the two nuclear-armed countries since 1975.

China said it suffered 43 casualties, but did not specify whether any of its men had been killed in the grisly hand-to-hand combat in the Galwan Valley, Ladakh.