In August, “the subindices for output and total new orders again hit their highest levels since January 2011,” the report said. The gauge for new export orders also entered expansionary territory for the first time this year, as the coronavirus outbreak slowed overseas, added Wang.

Strong investment into real estate and into infrastructure projects likely boosted manufacturing activity, said Helen Qiao, chief Greater China economist at Bank of America Securities

German foreign minister warns China against making threats  
 
The meeting promised to be tricky for Maas, a Social Democrat who has struggled to find his footing as foreign minister, even before Wang threatened the speaker of the Czech senate this week: Wang, who has been on a two-week tour of Europe, said the Czech politician, Miloš Vystrčil, would “pay a high price” for making a trip to Taiwan, the island democracy which China insists belongs to its territories.

The German-Chinese relationship has been strained of late by the crackdown in Hong Kong, the violent repression of the ethnic Uighur minority as well as China’s lack of transparency on the origins of COVID-19.
 
Maas, who had been under pressure from the opposition and human rights groups to confront Wang, said he raised such issues and planned to restart a “human rights dialogue” with China next week. He stressed that he called the Czech foreign minister Monday to express his solidarity, adding in Wang’s direction: “We treat our international partners with respect and expect the same.”

@ZuzanaCaputova
 
#Slovakia stands by the Czech Republic. #EU-#China relations are based on dialogue and mutual respect. Threats directed at one of the EU members and its representatives contradict the very essence of our partnership and as such are unacceptable.

Most observers think an outright ban is unlikely, not because Berlin underestimates the security threat, but because of the damage such a step would inflict.
 
“A decoupling of the relationship between the EU and China is not in our interest,” Maas said. “It’s in no one’s interest.”

Billionaire Clive Palmer says the Chinese economy would collapse if the communist state didn't have access to Australia's iron ore .

"China’s totally dependent on Australia for its iron ore and resources," Mr Palmer told Sky News host Peter Gleeson.

"If it didn’t have access to that iron ore, certainly you’d find that the Chinese economy would collapse".

The ebullient resources player and former member of the Australian Parliament, Clive Palmer became a billionaire in 2019.
His fortune soared after a court ordered a flow of iron-ore royalties to his company, Mineralogy, to resume.
He started Mineralogy in 1984 and has built a portfolio of iron-ore, thermal-coal and hydrocarbon assets.
He also owned Queensland Nickel, which operated a nickel-and-cobalt refinery, but the company collapsed in 2016.

La France a exprimé mardi 1er septembre sa solidarité avec la République tchèque après des menaces, qu'elle a jugées inacceptables, de la Chine à l'encontre d'un responsable politique tchèque en visite à Taïwan. «Les relations euro-chinoises doivent reposer sur le dialogue, le principe de réciprocité et le respect mutuel, conditions essentielles de l'approfondissement de notre partenariat», a déclaré la porte-parole du ministère français des Affaires étrangères. «À cet égard, aucune menace visant un État membre de l'Union européenne n'est acceptable et nous exprimons notre solidarité à la République tchèque», a ajouté Agnès von der Mühll.

The Trump administration said it would now require Chinese diplomats to seek permission before visiting US universities, meeting local government officials or hosting large cultural events in America.
 
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who made the announcement on Wednesday, said the new requirements were “a direct response to the excessive restraints already placed on our diplomats” by China and aimed to provide further transparency on the Chinese government’s practices.

Mr Pompeo has previously warned state governors to be wary of overtures from Chinese officials, including direct approaches to high schools and efforts to pressure Chinese students to report back to Beijing on fellow nationals studying at American universities.
 
“Chinese Communist party officials . . . are cultivating relationships with county school board members and local politicians — often through what are known as sister cities programmes,” Mr Pompeo told state governors at a speech in February.
 
Mr Pompeo told reporters on Wednesday that the US was “simply demanding reciprocity,” arguing that China had imposed “significant barriers” on American diplomats in China that went far beyond diplomatic norms.  

Students in Inner Mongolia Protest Chinese Language Policy
The new directive is creating fear among ethnic Mongolians in the region that they will lose their mother tongue.  
 
Ethnic Mongolians, including students and parents, in China’s Inner Mongolia region are demonstrating their anger in rare public protests against a new bilingual education policy that they say is endangering the Mongolian language.
 
A high school student in the city of Hulunbuir said students rushed out of their school on Tuesday and destroyed a fence before paramilitary police swarmed in and tried to return them to class.
 
“We senior students were talking and we thought we had to do something,” said the student, Narsu, who like most Mongolians has only one name. “Although this doesn’t directly affect us now, this will have a huge impact on us in the future.”  
 
The policy, announced on Monday ahead of the start of the new school year, requires schools to use new national textbooks in Chinese, replacing Mongolian-language textbooks. Protesters say they were aware of demonstrations and classroom walkouts in Hohhot, the provincial capital, as well as in the cities of Chifeng and Tongliao and Xilin Gol prefecture.

Nouvel affrontement militaire entre la Chine et l’Inde dans l’Himalaya
 
Les deux géants asiatiques s’accusent mutuellement d’intrusion sur la rive sud du lac Pangong, une région prisée par les touristes et les amateurs de treks.
 
Les tensions ont été exacerbées au cours des derniers jours dans cette région himalayenne prisée par les touristes et les amateurs de treks. Les deux parties s’accusent mutuellement d’intrusion, dans la nuit du samedi 29 au dimanche 30 août, de nouveau autour du lac Pangong, mais, cette fois, sur la rive sud. New Delhi assure que Pékin a violé les accords conclus entre les deux pays pour assurer la paix dans la région. Pour contrer l’imminence d’un mouvement chinois, destiné à conquérir du territoire sur les hauteurs du lac, les soldats indiens auraient « pris des mesures défensives ». Des incidents se sont reproduits lundi.  

Le Pentagone estime que la marine chinoise compte 350 navires de guerre contre seulement 293 pour l’US Navy. Les américains gardent toutefois l’avantage dans le domaine technologique.

Même si l’US Navy n’est plus la première marine du monde sur le plan numérique, elle reste tout de même supérieure à l’armée chinoise dans le domaine technologique et dans sa capacité à projeter ses forces partout sur le globe. En effet, les États-Unis disposent de 11 porte-avions nucléaires capables d’embarquer des centaines d’aéronefs de tous types, alors que Pékin n’en possède que deux. Ces derniers sont d’ailleurs moins performants que les modèles américains. Ils fonctionnent grâce à des turbines à vapeurs alimentées par huit chaudières ce qui leur offre une autonomie et un rayon d’action moins importants que ceux d’un porte-avions à propulsion nucléaire.

Cependant, le rapport du Pentagone estime que l’avance technologique et logistique de l’US Navy sur la Chine se réduit d’année en année. Selon le secrétaire américain de la Défense, Mark Esper, le gouvernement de Xi Jinping a fait appel aux industries les plus innovantes du marché civil pour moderniser et repenser l’organisation de l’armée chinoise. Ainsi, Pékin n’aura pas seulement l’avantage du nombre dans le domaine maritime mais construira bientôt plus de missiles balistiques que les industries américaines.

C'est le 1er août 2017,  que la Chine a inauguré sa première base militaire à Djibouti. Elle est située précisement à proximité d'un port international qui se veut compétitif à l’instar de celui de Dubaï. 250 soldats chinois environ y sont postés en permanence. Selon les projections, ils pourraient être 10 000 en 2026.