Beijing will spend $210 billion on defence amid high government debt and coronavirus as ruling Communist Party sees economic growth of "over 6 percent" this year.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel had video calls with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and President Xi Jinping, where they discussed ties, as well as China's security law for Hong Kong.
The global coronavirus pandemic has affected more than five million people, with over 334,000 deaths. Here are coronavirus-related updates for May 22:
The most controversial move at the National People's Congress opening was the introduction of a proposal to impose a security law in Hong Kong –– immediately denounced by critics who called it a death sentence for the territory's unique freedoms.
The Chinese president donned a face mask and had his temperature checked while visiting medical workers and patients affected by the deadly coronavirus that has killed at least 1,011 people.
Carrie Lam is in Beijing for talks with Li and Chinese President Xi Jinping. It's her first visit to Beijing since pro-democracy candidates swept local Hong Kong elections last month.
Beijing has turned to tax cuts to counter both the slowing economy and the US tariffs.
The two-week gathering of the congress's 3,000-plus delegates in the Great Hall of the People is a grand political spectacle. But it does little law making, serving as a platform to highlight the government's plans for the year and earn endorsement.
The world's largest trade deal, also called RCEP, is pushed back to next year as trade ministers of Asia-Pacific countries fail to agree key terms at a summit, ahead of ASEAN meeting, in Singapore.
A senior Chinese diplomat says more talks will take place to fix details regarding economic support to Islamabad, as visiting Pakistani PM Imran Khan tells Chinese of "a very difficult economic situation" at home.
Multiple agreements signed during Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Beijing for the first formal Sino-Japanese summit in seven years, as Asia's two biggest economies look to cement ties amid trade friction with US.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang says "unilateralism" does not offer solutions, a day after US and China swapped tit-for-tat trade tariffs, adding further, Beijing will not use yuan depreciation to boost exports.
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