Beijing officials last month set a target of around five percent growth for the year -- a goal they admitted would "not be easy" and which analysts said was ambitious given the headwinds the country is confronting.

The maritime activities took place days before US President Joe Biden was due to hold the first trilateral summit with the leaders of the Philippines and Japan, with growing tensions over the hotly contested South China Sea on the agenda.

A surge in cheap exports from China in industries like electric vehicles could create an oversupply and hurt economies, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned in a speech on Wednesday.

In rare and detailed public accusations against China -- Washington, London and Wellington described a series of cyber breaches over the last decade or more, in what appeared to be a concerted effort to hold Beijing accountable.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made a rare visit to New Zealand on Monday, stressing the need to work with "friends" in the face of the "tumultuous international situation".

The performance of China's economy in the first two months of 2024 was mixed, official figures showed Monday, with sluggish household consumption alongside increased industrial production reflecting an uneven recovery.

China has sharply criticised the approval, slamming what it called Washington's "bandit" mentality and accusing lawmakers of "unjustly suppressing foreign companies".

China's leaders on Monday wrap up a week-long key conclave at which they admitted more was needed to revive a sluggish economy battered by an ailing housing market, poor domestic demand and record high youth unemployment figures.

Sergeant Korbein Schultz, who held a top-secret security clearance, was taken into custody at Fort Campbell, a military base on the Kentucky-Tennessee border, the Justice Department said in a statement.

China described the war in Gaza as a "disgrace to civilisation" and called on Thursday for an immediate ceasefire as the conflict stretched into its sixth month despite efforts by mediators to reach a truce.

The Philippine Coast Guard said one of its ships was damaged Tuesday in a collision with a China Coast Guard vessel during a resupply mission to Filipino troops on a remote outpost in the South China Sea.

China's annual political conclave kicks off in Beijing on Monday, with officials saying the flagging economy and youth unemployment are of "great concern" as they lay out plans for the coming year.

The decision, outlined in a new Army document, aligns with the Pentagon's refocus on countering Chinese and Russian military capabilities after decades of concentrating on the fight against terrorism.

The trove of documents from I-Soon, a private company that competed for Chinese government contracts, shows that its hackers compromised more than a dozen governments, according to cybersecurity firms SentinelLabs and Malwarebytes.

Mike Gallagher heads a five-member delegation that met on Thursday with Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen and Vice President Lai Ching-te, who won last month's presidential election and will take office in May.

Chinese sporting officials have also confirmed Argentina's friendly games next month have been cancelled due to "the reasons that everyone knows".

The Asia-focused lender and its peers have been buoyed by rising interest rates for more than a year, but are bracing for greater economic uncertainties in 2024.

Guatemala is one of the rare countries that continues to maintain a formal connection with Taiwan as last year, Honduras broke its connection with Taiwan and shifted towards China. In return, Honduras received around $2.5 billion in aid from Beijing.

The Southern neighbor surpassed China

Australia's government said Monday writer Yang Jun has been given a suspended death sentence in China, describing it as "harrowing news".

Apple chief Tim Cook on Thursday promised the tech titan has artificial intelligence news in store as shares suffered despite sales growth in the final three months of last year.

Four Hong Kong men were convicted of rioting Thursday over the storming and ransacking of the city's legislature in 2019, part of a pro-democracy movement that posed an unprecedented challenge to the Beijing-backed government.

China overtook Japan as the world's biggest vehicle exporter last year, data from the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association showed Wednesday.

A Hong Kong court on Monday issued the liquidation of battered Chinese property giant Evergrande after lawyers failed to convince a judge it had a working restructuring plan.

FDI into large-scale infrastructure projects has been reduced and redirected to smaller, yet more numerous, investments into high technology

China's vice foreign minister was in Pyongyang on Friday for a meeting with his North Korean counterpart.

China's top diplomat Wang Yi will on Friday meet with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in Thailand, as the two powers seek to improve relations after years of tensions.

The European Union will unveil a raft of measures Wednesday to better coordinate action on protecting sensitive technology and stopping critical infrastructure from falling into the hands of geopolitical rivals like China.

The number of publicly disclosed investigations into senior-level officials rose by 40 percent last year compared with 2022, according to a tally by the Hong Kong-based news outlet South China Morning Post.

Rescuers raced Tuesday to find dozens of people still trapped after a landslide struck a remote and mountainous part of southwestern China, killing 11.