The decision to not attend the forum attended by 28 heads of state and 130 national delegations is a clear break from its usual policy of going along with the crowd.
The city has prepared a 10-day plan to test all its residents after six new coronavirus cases were reported in a residential community.
Notwithstanding how the current impasse is solved, at some point in the future, Russia will realise that just as centuries ago it developed the paradigm of securing its heartland's safety through annexing vast buffer zones between itself and the enemy, a more modern security is possible only through friendly relations and sustainable peace, observes Shyam G Menon.
'By not even acknowledging China's occupation of Indian territory Modi signalled to Beijing that he was not prepared to used forceful means to vacate the Chinese occupation, and that his government was reconciled to this loss of territory and accepted the fait accompli engineered by the PLA.'
'That the two sides allowed such a situation to arise exposed the level of inaction and inefficiency in China-India border management.' 'The Modi-Xi meeting in Xiamen initiated a process to to avert such contingencies in the future.'
At a time when Donald Trump is making belligerent noises, Chinese President Xi Jinping responds by overhauling the People's Liberation Army and restructuring the command of the PLA Navy to emphasise Beijing's resolve to dominate the South China Sea.
The Chinese capital reported 106 domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases since June 11 and a senior city official warned that the situation is "extremely severe" in Beijing where authorities have mounted massive containment measures including mass testing of about 90,000 people.
China on Friday operationalised its first fully electrified bullet train in the remote Himalayan region of Tibet, connecting the provincial capital Lhasa and Nyingchi, a strategically located Tibetan border town close to Arunachal Pradesh.
Over the last few weeks, bipartisan support for India against China has been increasing.
A u-turn by the BJP will be an apocalyptic occurrence in Indian politics and society, argues Amulya Ganguli.
Xi, also the general secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China, arrived in Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus outbreak, on Tuesday for an inspection of the epidemic prevention and control work in Hubei province and its capital city Wuhan, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Criticising the Indian media and opposition parties for "creating trouble" for Sino-India ties, an official daily in Beijing on Thursday blamed New Delhi for "maintaining silence and ambiguity" over "provocative" reports of intrusion by Chinese troops into Despang valley in Ladakh.
The onus today is on China, but it also requires a little diplomatic finesse from India, backed by a modernised armed force, argues BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in this excerpt from his new book, Himalayan Challenge: India, China And The Quest For Peace.
In his message to the Buddhist community from his home in McLeodganj, the Tibetan spiritual leader asked people to recite the 'om mani padme hum' mantra. With this practice, you will create some roots of virtue that you can dedicate to me -- Avalakiteshvara's messenger -- to live for 110 or 108 years or so, the Dalai Lama said.
'Earlier we had been told we were the crown of India.'
China's GDP took the worst hit since the disastrous Cultural Revolution in 1976, plummeting by 6.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2020 as the country took unprecedented measures to fight the coronavirus pandemic that brought the world's second largest economy to a standstill. China's gross domestic product stood at 20.65 trillion yuan (USD 2.91 trillion, approx) in the first quarter of 2020 amid the Covid-19 impact, down 6.8 per cent year on year, China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Friday.
'From the very start, PM Modi was insistent that visiting foreign leaders should be exposed to an India beyond its capital.' 'Through these experiences, he felt that the full Indian narrative would be much better understood across the world,' explains External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. A riveting excerpt from Bluekraft Digital Foundation's Modi@20: Dreams Meet Delivery.
Chinese President Hu Jintao on Friday got the backing of the country's powerful military for his call to retain the supremacy of the Communist Party over the army, measures to speed up defence modernisation and the war against corruption.
'If a 'two-front war' develops, Iron Brother may only turn out to be a drag on the PLA, since Pakistan is in no position to wage a war with India,' argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
A Chinese firm said the unmanned aircraft was not sold to any government.
Though growth in China is unlikely to slow down soon, India should prepare to take advantage of a shifting of gears there.
The Politburo Standing Committee -- the most powerful body in China -- is unveiled, but in a break from Communist party convention, no successor to Xi Jinping is named.
China on Tuesday hoped that Congress president Sonia Gandhi's upcoming visit to the Communist nation would promote mutual understanding between the two countries and enhance bilateral ties as well as cooperation in various fields.
Chian it was open to international efforts to identify the source of the deadly virus.
No country has achieved a faster, deeper modern transformation than China, says former ambassador Kishan S Rana.
Jaishankar maintained that New Delhi is engaged with Beijing in defusing tension through diplomatic channels.
Bracing for leadership changes in the ruling Communist Party of China due for next year, Chinese legislators on Sunday approved plans to change the course of their export-driven economy while firmly ruling out multi-party democracy. "Political development path of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the only correct road for China's development and progress as proved by practice," read a resolution approved by Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
A 55-year-old from Hubei province could have been the first person to have contracted the viral infection on November 17 last year and cases rapidly began piling up since then, it said, without revealing the gender of the individual.
'It doesn't look as if any sensible, worldly wise, person is in charge in China.' 'If at all anybody is in charge, it can only be a bunch of bumpkins of whom Xi has become a puppet,' observes B S Raghavan, the veteran civil servant.
Zhu, 56, was found to have hanged himself in the office's garage, a report on the online edition of Chinese magazine Caixin said.
The telephonic talk between Modi and Xi came a day after Modi congratulated Xi on Chinese social media.
'India's relationship with China has been and will continue to be complex, delicate and sensitive,' says Rup Narayan Das.
An independent Taiwan under President Tsai Ing-wen's Democratic Progressive Party is anathema to China, observes Rup Narayan Das.
'If we play our cards right, we may even benefit from the competition between the US and China as seen from increased investment from each of these countries into India.' 'The size of our market gives us an important lever of power which we shall have to play adroitly and intelligently,' points out Ambassador Gautam Bambawale -- who served as India's envoy to China -- in the Professor V M Dandekar Memorial Lecture 2019, delivered on March 8, 2019 in Pune.
China on Monday slammed a United States media report alleging that Premier Wen Jiabao's family had amassed over $2.7 billion assets, saying its critics, plotting to create instability in the country, were 'doomed to fail'.
'The killings are a worrisome escalation of tensions, but little is known about the immediate causes or results of the fight in Galwan and it is not possible, at this point, to assign blame'
'Given the way in which the PLA operates today, I don't believe local commanders were necessarily acting without approval of higher levels.' 'They were acting in a way which they believed they were carrying out the intent of the higher levels.'
A whitepaper released by the Chinese government gave a lengthy explanation to refute the allegations of cover up and delay by Beijing on reporting the COVID-19 outbreak last year in Wuhan. United States President Donald Trump and leaders of several countries have accused China of not being transparent in reporting the deadly disease, leading to huge human casualties and economic crisis across the world.
We have seen great strides in all-around cooperation, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said.
D S Rajan analyses the outgoing Chinese president's keynote address to the once-in-a-decade Congress and his take on corruption, foreign policy and political reforms