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Xi Jinping gets red carpet at Brics summit amid thaw in India-China relations

Chinese president’s arrival in Delhi seen as step towards reconciliation after deadly 2020 military clash The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has received a red-carpet welcome in India for a summit of Brics developing nations, as regional rivals Beijing and Delhi make a public display of thawing relations while quietly competing to lead at a time of shaky US global dominance. As Xi stepped off the plane, he was walked past an honour guard of Indian soldiers and traditional dancers in colourful dresses. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Oliver Holmes12 Sept

The Guardian view on controlling AI: humanity cannot outsource its survival | Editorial

Keeping people in charge means little if supercomputers determine the evidence, choices and time on which their decisions depend If there were a 10% chance that AI could wipe out humanity, no responsible government would leave its development to companies racing to build it. Yet until recently, that seemed to be the case. The warning was all the more ominous because it was made by a researcher at Anthropic , the trillion-dollar AI company behind the Claude chatbot. The dangers of AI-enabled pandemics or attacks on nuclear systems are real. Countries need not agree on democracy or trade policy to accept this. The US and China will hold, reportedly , their first bilateral AI-safety talks before a planned White House summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. Despite their tech rivalry, neither Washington nor Beijing can make the most advanced AI safe on their own. A US-China settlement won’t be able to say how AI works everywhere. Countries deploying AI must help write the global rulebook. The odds on an extinction event are shortening. This week Anthropic said that it identified five cases in which attempts were made using its models to support biological weapons development. It banned the accounts. In one case, a platform sent requests rejected by Claude to a rival with weaker safeguards . AI safety, clearly, cannot be that of the least responsible model. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here . Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Editorial11 Sept

China Wants Citizens to Report ‘Illegal’ Religious Practice

Click to expand Image The eight members of Zion Church who remain detained. Top from left to right: Gao Yingjia, Wang Cong, Wang Lin, Lin ShuchengBottom from left to right: Wu Qiuyu, Liu Zhenbin, Yin Huibin, Wang Zhong © Private Chinese lawyer Ruth Wang fled to Taiwan on September 2 after authorities threatened to shut down her law firm. Her offense? Representing members of China’s Zion Church, a prominent underground Protestant congregation. While founding pastor Ezra Jin was freed from custody in July following high-level US intervention, eight other church members have remained wrongfully detained since their October 2025 arrests. Chinese leader Xi Jinping launched his “Sinicization of religion” policy in 2016, which included government regulations tightening controls over religious life. Beijing is not only punishing people for independent religious practice but also those defending their rights. Recently, authorities have continued to tighten surveillance over religious activities. In the first half of 2026 alone, more than a dozen cities across the country introduced measures encouraging or rewarding people to report religious activities the government labels “illegal.” The reporting rules are sweeping. In February, authorities in Honghe prefecture, Yunnan province, listed 35 categories of reportable “illegal religious activity.” These include holding collective religious activities or ceremonies in private homes or other “unapproved” venues, clergy preaching through livestreams or WeChat groups, distributing religious materials in public places, and organizing religious education or training without official approval. Authorities in Haidong, Qinghai province, extended reporting obligations to businesses, ordering hotels and travel agencies to screen the events they host and report any “suspicious situation.” Almost all of the new regulations offer informants rewards. In Chengdu, Sichuan province, authorities are offering up to 800 RMB (US$120) for verified tips about vaguely defined “illegal” religious conduct. These measures, which appear to build upon similar ones in Xinjiang since 2013 and in Guangdong since 2019, send yet another chilling signal to Christians, Muslims, and Tibetan Buddhists in China who have faced intense pressure to closely reflect and follow Han Chinese culture and Chinese Communist Party ideology. The new measures followed changes to the Public Security Administration Punishment Law, which took effect on January 1. For the first time, the law made “illegal religious activities” grounds for 5 to 15 days of administrative detention. The Chinese government insists that people in China can freely worship. While many people in China continue to practice religion, they can only do so strictly within the authorities’ ever-tightening bounds. That is what “Sinicization” means in practice. Beijing’s claims won’t be taken seriously so long as churchgoers and other religious adherents are being detained for exercising their religious freedom.

Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch•Human Rights Watch9 Sept

China’s Warrior Scientists: Insights from Recent Operations Around Taiwan

China’s marine scientific research ships are expanding their operations around Taiwan, and they are not just there to advance the frontiers of human knowledge. Their operations serve to undermine Taiwan’s independent political status and to force international acceptance of Beijing’s claim of sovereignty over the island and its surrounding waters. This pressure campaign by the People’s Republic of China began intensifying in 2022. While media coverage of this development has focused on the activities of the People’s Liberation Army and the China Coast Guard, China’s civilian survey ships operate among them often unnoticed and in unprecedented numbers. Because of the

War on the RocksWar on the Rocks•Ryan D. Martinson8 Sept