NATO in the area; Russia signs economic deals with China, while scrutinizing a scientist of passing secrets to Beijing

Here’s what you need to know about China today:

Top story: NATO Defense College confirmed a previously unreported meeting in Taiwan in March in a note to The China Project. It’s just one of an array of regional and global moves aimed at restraining China’s future military options.

China and Russia inked a slew of economic agreements during a meeting in Beijing between Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Chinese Premier Lǐ Qiáng 李强, despite growing pressure from the West over Beijing’s alignment with Moscow. “Relations between Russia and China have grown to an unprecedented level,” Mishustin said according to the Kremlin, while noting “the desire to jointly stand against the new challenges created by the increased turbulence on the international stage and the illegal sanctions pressure on the part of the collective West.” Neither side mentioned the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Chinese state media: Xinhua News Agency’s top story today is about a meeting between Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin during which Xi “emphasized that China is willing to continue to firmly support each other with Russia on issues concerning each other’s core interests.”

The print edition of Party newspaper People’s Daily today headlined the first meeting of the 20th Central Audit Committee where Xi Jinping emphasized “the unique role of auditing in advancing the Party’s self-revolution.”

A top Russian scientist stands accused of betraying secrets to China, adding to a number of such academics who have been arrested by the Kremlin in recent years for allegedly betraying secrets to Beijing. Alexander Shiplyuk, the 57-year-old director of Siberia’s Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ITAM), is suspected of giving classified material at a scientific conference in China in 2017. He was earlier arrested alongside two other ITAM colleagues, all of whom worked on hypersonic missile technology, on “very serious accusations” of treason. Shiplyuk has maintained his innocence against the charges, and colleagues of the three scientists have published an open letter in their defense, warning that their cases risk damaging Russia’s science sector.

Cathay Pacific fired three airline crew members accused of discriminating against non-English speakers on a flight from Chengdu in southwest China to Hong Kong on Sunday. Click here for all the details.

China urged the Netherlands for access to top chipmaking technology following The Hague’s decision to join the U.S. and Japan on their sweeping curbs of advanced semiconductor equipment to China. Chinese Foreign Minister Qín Gāng 秦刚 called for a “fair, open, and non-discriminatory business environment” for Chinese companies and to “oppose decoupling and severing supply chains” in a meeting with his Dutch counterpart Wopke Hoekstra yesterday in Beijing. Qin also called the Netherlands the “gateway” for cooperation between China and Europe, while Hoekstra noted Beijing’s “pivotal role” in finding a solution to global conflicts.