Blinken meets with China’s President Xi
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BEIJING, April 27, (Agencies): US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and senior Chinese officials, stressing the importance of “responsibly managing” the differences between the United States and China as the two sides butted heads over a number of contentious bilateral, regional and global issues.
Talks between the two sides have increased in recent months, even as differences have grown. Blinken said he raised concerns with Xi about China’s support for Russia and its invasion of Ukraine, as well as other issues including Taiwan and the South China Sea, human rights and the production and export of synthetic opioid precursors.
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Blinken sounded a positive note on recent progress made in bilateral cooperation, including in military communications, counternarcotics and artificial intelligence, on which the two sides agreed to start a dialogue on how to reduce risks from the rapidly emerging technology.
“We are committed to maintaining and strengthening lines of communication to advance that agenda, and again deal responsibly with our differences so we avoid any miscommunications, any misperceptions, any miscalculations,” he said.
But he stressed that “even as we seek to deepen cooperation, where our interests align, the United States is very clear-eyed about the challenges posed by (China) and about our competing visions for the future. America will always defend our core interests and values.”
Notably, he said he raised ongoing concerns about Beijing’s supply of materials, including machine tools and micro electronics, to Moscow that President Vladimir Putin is using to boost Russia’s defenses and its war on Ukraine.
“Russia would struggle to sustain its assault on Ukraine without China’s support,” Blinken told reporters after his meeting with Xi.
He said he urged China to use its influence “to discourage Iran and its proxies from expanding the conflict in the Middle East ” and convince North Korea “to end its dangerous behavior and engage in dialogue.”
Blinken also discussed with Xi China’s maritime maneuvers in the disputed South China Sea, and reiterated “ironclad” American support for the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia.
Xi Jinping said Friday China and the US should be partners rather than
and run. My sister, who lived on the third floor, ended up being burned to death,” 56-year-old Marcelo Wagner Schelech told daily newspaper Zero Hora.
rivals and seek common ground and reserve differences rather than engage in vicious competition, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
Also: HANOI, Vietnam:
The head of Vietnam’s parliament has resigned, according to state media, making him the latest senior member of government to leave office amid an ongoing anti-corruption campaign that’s shaken the country’s political and business elites.
The resignation of National Assembly Chair adds to growing instability in the country. President resigned in March - just over a year after the previous president,
resigned to take political responsibility for corruption scandals during the pandemic.
“It also highlights the extreme uncertainty in a political environment that’s often boasted of its stability, as three top leaders have been axed in just a year,” said
an analyst at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.
Hue’s resignation came days after his assistant was arrested
Phuc, Giang, Vuong Dinh Hue Vo Van Thuong Nguyen Xuan Nguyen Khac Singapore’s Pham Thai Ha
Known as Garoa Floresta, the hotel is part of the Garoa group, a chain that has 22 other small hotels in Porto Alegre. In 2022, a fire broke out in another one of the
on charges of abusing his position and power for personal gain on April 21, according to state media outlet VN Express.
❑ NEWCASTLE,
Muslim groups in Australia on Friday criticized the disparity in the police response to two stabbing attacks in
this month, saying it had created a perception of a double standard and further alienated the country’s minority Muslim community.
The Australian National Imams Council said an attack at a Bondi Junction shopping center was “quickly deemed a mental health issue” while the stabbing of a Christian bishop at a Sydney church two days later was “classified as a terrorist act almost immediately.”
“The differing treatments of two recent violent incidents are stark,” the council’s spokesperson, Ramia Abdo Sultan, said in a statement with the Alliance of Australian Muslims and the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network.
“Such disparities in response create a perception of a double standard in law enforcement and judicial processes,” she said.
❑ ❑ Australia:
hotels, killing one person and injuring 11.
Porto Alegre Mayor Sebastião Melo said in a press conference his administation had signed an agreement with the company in 2020 for the use of 400 of its rooms to shelter homeless people. (AP)
❑ ❑ ❑ Mexican family protests: Sydney
The family and supporters of a missing woman who may have been the first victim of a Mexico City serial killer protested Friday at the site where the bones and possessions of a half-dozen women were found last week.
Protesters covered the facade of the apartment building with placards after investigators found the bones, cell phones and ID cards of several women at rented rooms there, apparent mementos of the killer’s 12-year trail of victims.
Most of the placards taped to the nondescript apartment building on the city’s east side Friday asked variants of a single question: Why did it take prosecutors 12 years to investigate the disappearance of Amairany Roblero, then 18.
The high school student vanished in 2012 and her parents never heard from her - or investigators - until last week, a pattern all too familiar in missing persons cases in Mexico, where prosecutors often leave it up to relatives to investigate. (AP)