Xi's war machines: combat ‘kill' gives Beijing a boost in arms export race
The recent hostilities between India and Pakistan left both claiming victory, without much evidence on display for either.
One country that could give factual grounds for a sense of triumph, however, was China — and in particular its arms industry. A company based in the country's southwest, Avic Chengdu Aircraft, saw its share price rise 40 per cent in five days alone in the aftermath of the fighting.
In a rare semi-confirmed detail of the conflict, whose participants kept their losses secret, a French Rafale jet flown by the Indian air force was shot down by a much cheaper Chinese-made J-10C fighter flown by the Pakistani side.
The J-10C is manufactured by Avic Chengdu, and its 'score' against the Rafale was met with a
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
22 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump is ‘obsessed' about having a call with China's Xi this week to hammer out trade deal, insiders reveal
President Donald Trump has grown increasingly focused on calling Chinese President Xi Jinping this week to get closer to a deal to end the ongoing trade war between the world's two largest economies. The White House has said that Trump and Xi will 'likely' speak this week. However, it may not be the barrier-breaking conversation the president is aiming for. 'The president is obsessed with having a call with Xi,' a person familiar with the talks told Politico. Trump believes he can untie the knot even though the U.S. is trying to change a trade relationship worth $600 billion and doing so without losing too much political capital in the U.S. The person familiar with the discussions told the outlet that the administration is 'under a lot of pressure' following China 's critical minerals blockade, which blocks U.S. access to essential components in auto and electronics manufacturing as well as the production of munitions. 'I don't think Xi is too interested in exporting any more rare earths or magnets to the United States; he's made his position clear,' the person noted. But they added that Xi would likely take Trump's call. 'The president has some leverage, and the question is when he's ready to impose maximum pressure on the Chinese government,' they said. Meanwhile, a former Trump official who remains close to the White House told Politico that the president 'feels like a call between principals is a way to cut through a lot of this noise, and get right to the heart of the matter.' However, some observers think Trump will struggle to get Xi on the phone. Obama's assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Daniel Russel, told Politico that China 'has a sharp nose for weakness, and for all his bravado, Trump is signaling eagerness, even desperation, to cut a direct deal with Xi.' 'That only stiffens Beijing's resolve,' he added. Beijing has reportedly also been disturbed by Trump's very public showdowns with world leaders, such as with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. This has made the Chinese hesitant to participate in high-level discussions. Biden National Security Council deputy senior director for China and Taiwan, Rush Doshi, told the outlet that China 'sees President Trump as unpredictable, which poses risks reputationally for President Xi.' 'It's not usual practice for PRC diplomats to put the leader at risk of a potentially embarrassing or unpredictable encounter,' he added. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that Xi and Trump would 'likely talk this week,' but a call has yet to be scheduled, a White House official told Politico. Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said, 'I have no information to share' regarding a call. Last month, China and the U.S. reached an agreement to lower U.S. tariffs from 145 to 30 percent. Beijing cut back on levies on imports from the U.S. to 10 percent, and they said they would remove barriers on the exports of essential minerals. The agreement included a 90-day deadline to begin fresh discussions on a wider trade deal to take into account U.S. concerns regarding Chinese trade practices. However, these new talks have gotten off to a bad start with miscommunication and differing expectations. The Trump administration has argued that China has slowed its new shipments of critical minerals and rare earth magnets. Appearing on CNBC on Friday, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said: 'When they agreed in Geneva to remove their tariff and their countermeasures, they removed the tariff like we did. But some of the countermeasures, they've slowed on.' While a business official told Politico that 'Everyone agrees that for any additional progress to happen on tariffs, the gateway is fentanyl,' the U.S. hasn't responded to two proposals put forward by Beijing to deal with the issue. The proposals have been described as being designed by Beijing to provoke talks about what the Chinese can do to stop the flow of components that Mexican cartels use to make the drug. However, many officials in the Trump administration don't believe China would actually take the steps required to adhere to any fentanyl agreement. Former Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush assistant U.S. trade representative Harry Broadman told Politico that while 'Trump is a deal maker,' Xi is not. 'He's a Party guy at the top of an administrative superstructure,' he said. 'I cannot imagine that Xi would get into specifics — at most, they might agree on certain principles, but that's not likely to satisfy Trump.'
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
South Korea's liberal new president Lee Jae-myung vows economic revival, judgement against martial law
SEOUL, June 4 (Reuters) - South Korea woke on Wednesday to a new liberal president, Lee Jae-myung, who vowed to raise the country from the turmoil of a martial law crisis and revive an economy reeling from slowing growth and the threat of global protectionism. Lee's decisive victory in Tuesday's snap election stands to usher in a sea change in Asia's fourth-largest economy, after backlash against a botched attempt at military rule brought down Yoon Suk Yeol just three years into his troubled presidency. With 100% of the ballots counted, Lee had won 49.42% of the nearly 35 million votes cast while conservative rival Kim Moon-soo had taken 41.15% in the polls that brought the highest turnout for a presidential election since 1997, according to National Election Commission data. The 61-year-old former human rights lawyer called Tuesday's election "judgment day" against Yoon's martial law and his People Power Party's failure to stop the ill-fated move. "The first mission is to decisively overcome insurrection and to ensure there will never be another military coup with guns and swords turned against the people," Lee said in a victory speech outside parliament. "We can overcome this temporary difficulty with the combined strength of our people, who have great capabilities," he said. Lee was officially confirmed as president by the National Election Commission early on Wednesday and immediately assumed the powers of the presidency and commander in chief. An abbreviated inauguration is planned at parliament within hours of the official confirmation. A slate of economic and social challenges await the new leader, including a society deeply scarred by divisions following the martial law attempt and an export-heavy economy reeling from unpredictable protectionist moves by the United States, a major trading partner and a security ally. The martial law decree and the six months of ensuing turmoil, which saw three different acting presidents and multiple criminal insurrection trials for Yoon and several top officials, marked a stunning political self-destruction for the former leader and a drag on an economy already slowing in growth. Lee has pledged to boost investment in innovation and technology to fuel the country on another growth trajectory while increasing support for middle and low-income families. Lee is expected to be more conciliatory toward China and North Korea, and has pledged to continue the Yoon-era engagement with Japan.
Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
Pakistani men more likely to be suspects in grooming cases
Pakistanis are more likely to be suspects in child grooming cases than the general population, police data suggest. Figures from the 43 police forces in England and Wales show that nearly one in 10 (9.7 per cent) of the suspects in group-based child sexual exploitation cases were Pakistani in the period from January 2023 to September 2024. This is more than three times their representation in the general population, where Pakistanis account for 2.7 per cent, according to the 2021 census. The figures were disclosed under freedom of information laws by the team behind the first national police scheme to collect and analyse police-recorded 'group-based' child sexual abuse, including the ethnic background of perpetrators. The Hydrant Programme was set up by police after criticism in the 2022 Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse by Prof Alexis Jay of the 'widespread failure' to collect 'good quality' data on the abusers, victims and the offences. Her report warned that failure to provide accurate data had contributed to a 'one-sided and often uninformed debate' about the ethnic backgrounds of perpetrators, and hampered the pursuit of offenders and support for victims. Since then, recording the ethnicity of child grooming gang members has been a requirement for police. Historically, police forces and prosecutors have failed to take action against groomers, some of whom are of British-Pakistani origins, amid fears they would be branded racist or Islamophobic. In 2012, while head of the Crown Prosecution Service, Sir Keir Starmer admitted that in 'a number of cases presented to us' there was 'an issue of ethnicity that has to be understood and addressed', saying that prosecutors must not 'shy away from that'. Deputy chief constable Becky Riggs, the police lead on grooming in England and Wales, acknowledged that there was an over-representation of Pakistanis but rejected suggestions that they were 'predominantly Pakistani men'. She said: 'We can only go with the data because that is presenting the evidence base for us. There is a truth that there is a proportion of perpetrators – whom we will relentlessly pursue in terms of these crimes – who are Pakistani men. Our data tells us that.' The data show that 67 per cent of suspects were white, 2.6 per cent Indian, 2.4 per cent black African, 1.5 per cent black Caribbean and 1.1 per cent Bangladeshi. By contrast, 90 per cent of victims were white, only 0.1 per cent Pakistani or Bangladeshi and zero per cent Indian. Some 1.4 per cent were black African and 0.8 per cent black Caribbean. Grooming, which is defined by police as a form of group-based child sexual exploitation, accounted for 717 offences reported to police in 2023 and 572 in the first nine months of 2024. This represents 17 per cent of group-based child sexual offences, with the biggest threats to children being abused within the family or by other children. Group-based abuse itself accounted for 4,228 offences, or 3.7 per cent of all 115,489 child sexual abuse and exploitation crimes in 2023, including online.
