The recent NATO summit in Madrid seems to indicate that NATO is making a comeback in full force. For China, painted as presenting “systemic challenges” to NATO, this should sound a warning that when the time is ripe for the US to contain China, key countries in the Asia-Pacific and the EU will not be on its side.

While virtual meetings between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden have usually followed in-person meetings between the countries’ top diplomats, there is no sign of a virtual summit taking place any time soon after China's Yang Jiechi and US national security adviser Jake Sullivan met in Luxembourg. For the US, internal disagreement over trade tariff issues could be causing the pause. And in the case of China, it has already let go of any false hope for better ties.

China has recently begun a campaign to say that the Taiwan Strait cannot be considered “international waters” based on the UNCLOS. Zaobao’s associate editor Han Yong Hong sees this as Beijing's way to assert its jurisdiction over the Taiwan Strait and that it is ready to boost and expand its scope of military actions over the area.

Given the tough stand of Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe at the previous Shangri-La Dialogue in 2019, and the current tense relations between China and the US, this week’s Shangri-La Dialogue is set to offer some sparks. Zaobao’s associate editor Han Yong Hong examines some points of contention and what previous rhetoric suggests.

The recent removal of high-ranking officials has cast the spotlight on the longstanding issue of local governments fabricating statistics. As officials compete for promotion, they manipulate economic data to show stellar political achievements, but this leads to bad policies, blind optimism and unrealistically high goals. Zaobao's associate editor Han Yong Hong looks into the matter.

On 25 May, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang chaired a teleconference on China’s economy with 100,000 attendees. The sheer scale of the meeting and rhetoric used indicates a sense of urgency. The government is keen to convey that it is well aware that the Chinese economy is faring worse than in 2020 when the pandemic first hit and that it has all hands on deck.

With Ferdinand Marcos Jr achieving a landslide win in the Philippine presidential election, how will the Philippines’ China policy change? In particular, given the legacy of the Marcos family’s good relations with China as well as former President Duterte’s pro-China stance, how will the incoming president handle relations with the US?

It is likely that China got more than it bargained for in the Ukraine conflict that is looking to be more protracted than either Russia or China expected. In this scenario, it finds itself in the awkward situation of professing to stand by its principles yet showing tacit support for Russia. It still has options, but the unity that Europe and the UN has shown in condemning Russia should also put China on notice.

President Vladimir Putin had set the stage for Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine by couching the country’s relations with Ukraine in ethnocentric terms. Would military action taken in the name of reuniting “one people” give a psychological boost to Beijing in terms of a possible armed reunification with Taiwan?