Missiles for Taiwan

News briefing for March 2, 2023

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

Top story: The Chinese and Indian foreign ministers met at the G20 meeting in New Delhi, in the latest awkward dance move between the two Asian giants who have an unresolved border dispute and different reasons for saying nothing about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Scroll down for a summary or click through for the whole thing.

The U.S. approved $619 million worth of arms sales to Taiwan to support its fleet of F-16 fighter jets, in Washington’s latest move that will anger Beijing. The new missiles and other equipment will be provided by American defense giants Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, which China had sanctioned last month for arming Taiwan with such sales.

Xi will pick the people who will lead China’s economy at the country’s biggest government reshuffle in a decade. For the first time since the end of COVID zero, the National People’s Congress, or Two Sessions, the rubber-stamp annual parliament, will bring together nearly 3,000 officials on Sunday to confirm China’s new economic team — many of whom are expected to be those most trusted by Xi.

Walmart released its 2022 results, and it’s doing fine in China thanks to its wholesale members-only chain Sam’s Club.

The Chinese government is preparing a 6G mobile network action plan, sales of electric vehicles in February amounted to around 400,000 units, and CNOOC has discovered a huge oil field of 100 million tons in the Bohai Bay. Click through to today’s Business Briefs from the Chinese media for more.

A new tool enables exiled Uyghurs to search through more than 700,000 leaked police files from China to find details of their family members and friends who have been incarcerated or died while in detention camps.