A suspect surnamed Cai, who had long been hiding overseas and is accused of organizing illegal border crossings, was successfully extradited back to China on June 8, China's National Immigration Administration (NIA) said on its WeChat account on Thursday.
In February 2024, immigration authorities in Zhenjiang, East China's Jiangsu Province, uncovered a transnational criminal syndicate that organized Chinese citizens to leave the country illegally through third countries.
Investigations found that between 2023 and 2024, a Chinese national surnamed Cai and his accomplices colluded with human smugglers both inside and outside China to organize multiple Chinese citizens to be smuggled abroad for illegal activities. The NIA designated the case as a major case under supervision and listed Cai as a fugitive target, said the administration.
In March 2026, Cai was apprehended by police in a foreign country, which subsequently notified Chinese authorities. Under the guidance of the Ministry of Public Security and the NIA, the case-handling authorities promptly submitted an extradition request. China's foreign affairs authorities actively facilitated coordination efforts, with close cooperation between agencies at home and abroad helping advance the extradition process.
In late May, the foreign country approved the extradition request. Cai has since been escorted back to China, and further investigation into the case is underway.
A spokesperson for the NIA said the successful extradition represents another important achievement in China's efforts to strengthen international law enforcement cooperation and pursue fugitives overseas. It also demonstrates China's firm resolve to crack down on cross-border crimes and bring fugitives to justice wherever they may flee.
The NIA said it will continue working with relevant authorities to deepen international law enforcement cooperation, dismantle transnational human-smuggling networks, and safeguard national security and border stability.
The administration also issued a warning to fugitives still at large, saying that no one can escape the reach of the law. Overseas locations are neither safe havens from prosecution nor places beyond the rule of law. Any attempt to evade justice will ultimately be met with legal punishment, and the only viable option is to voluntarily return to China and surrender to authorities in exchange for possible leniency.
If individuals like Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro are allowed to repeatedly undermine efforts to stabilize bilateral relations, it is ultimately the fundamental interests of the Philippine nation and its people that will suffer, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Friday.
Lin made the remarks in response to a media inquiry on that given Chinese officials recently said criticism from the Philippine side could make it more difficult for China to continue aiding the Philippines, whether China's announcement of sanctions against Teodoro will affect future Chinese aid to the Philippines.
In response, Lin stated that the decision to impose sanctions on Teodoro and his relatives, as published on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, has already explained the specific circumstances involved.
General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a welcome ceremony on Friday for General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee and Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith, who is on a state visit to China.
China launched a special maritime law enforcement operation in the waters east of Taiwan island on Saturday. It is a necessary move in response to Japan and the Philippines' unilateral announcement of the so-called "maritime delimitation talks" on the east of China's Taiwan island, which constitutes a serious violation of China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday.
The operation, launched by China's Ministry of Transport, in coordination with the Fujian and Guangdong maritime safety administrations, the East China Sea Navigation Support Center, and the East China Sea Rescue Bureau, aims to fully exercise China's maritime administrative law enforcement jurisdiction, enhance deep-sea cruise enforcement and traffic control capabilities in key waters, ensure maritime traffic safety, and safeguard national rights and interests, Xinhua reported.
During the Philippine President's recent visit to Japan, the two countries issued a joint statement announcing the start of talks on the delimitation of exclusive economic zone and continental shelf between Japan and the Philippines. The area the two countries announced they will delimit is east of China's Taiwan island.
At a press briefing on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning emphasized that Japan and the Philippines' attempt to bypass China and initiate the so-called "maritime delimitation talks" constitutes a severe violation of UNCLOS and other international laws and basic norms governing international relations.
It also seriously infringes on China's maritime rights and interests and China will not allow this, she continued.
"According to China’s domestic law and international law including UNCLOS, China has exclusive economic zone and continental shelf in this area. As per UNCLOS, the delimitation of the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf between States with opposite or adjacent coasts shall be effected by the States concerned by agreement on the basis of equity. Any delimitation concerning waters to the east of Taiwan must have China as a party to the talks," Mao stated.
At a press conference of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office on Wednesday, spokesperson Zhu Fenglian said the waters slated for "delimitation" by Japan and the Philippines lie east of China's Taiwan island. Their proposed so-called "delimitation negotiations" gravely infringe on China's maritime rights and interests, run counter to international law and the basic norms governing international relations, and are entirely illegal, null and void.
Zhu noted that compatriots across the Taiwan Straits belong to the Chinese nation. They must uphold their national stance, stand for the fundamental interests of the nation, and jointly safeguard China's sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as the overall interests of the Chinese nation.
Should the DPP authorities collude with external forces to betray national interests, they will surely be spurned by compatriots on both sides of the Straits and punished by history, the spokesperson said.
A Chinese anti-epidemic medical expert team arrived in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), on Tuesday for a three-month mission to support the Central African country's response to the Ebola outbreak.
Luku Maleyo Marius, a representative of the DRC Ministry of Health, welcomed the team at the airport, saying that China's dispatch of the medical experts represents timely and strong support for the Congolese government and people.
Whenever the DRC faces major public health challenges, China has consistently extended timely assistance, he said, adding that he looks forward to the mission further strengthening the country's epidemic prevention, control and treatment capacities, and helping bring the outbreak under control as soon as possible.
Lu Ming, head of the Chinese expert team, said the team would begin work promptly in line with the Congolese side's needs and would cooperate with local medical and disease control institutions to provide support in epidemic assessment, case management, and other areas.
He added that the team would work closely with the Congolese side to safeguard people's lives and health, contributing China's expertise to helping the DRC control the outbreak at an early stage.
On May 15, the DRC officially confirmed its 17th Ebola outbreak since 1976. Two days later, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
China's National Health Commission announced on Monday the decision to send a medical expert team to support the DRC's Ebola control efforts.
According to the commission, the first group consists of five members with extensive experience in epidemic control. They will also share practical response experience tailored to local conditions and help enhance the DRC's capacity for Ebola prevention, control and treatment.
"The allegation of so-called 'Chinese espionage threat' is entirely fabricated and constitutes malicious slander. We strongly condemn this," said a spokesperson from the Chinese Embassy in UK when asked to comment on the so-called "warning" issued by the UK Security Service (MI5), together with intelligence agencies from other "Five Eyes" countries, alleging that Chinese intelligence services are approaching individuals in Western countries through fake online recruitment schemes in order to steal military, political, and technological intelligence, according to the embassy on Thursday.
It must be pointed out that the "Five Eyes" are the world's largest intelligence network. Its members have engaged in unscrupulous espionage and intelligence-gathering activities around the globe. They are the real threat to peace-loving countries, the spokesperson said.
"We urge the UK side to immediately stop this clumsy self-staged show of thief crying catch thief. Otherwise, it will only bring shame upon itself," the spokesperson continued.
Chinese Foreign Ministry also responded on the same day. Spokesperson Mao Ning said as the world's largest intelligence cooperation network, the "Five Eyes" has long engaged in massive systemic espionage all over the world. It is ironic that such an organization is accusing China of "spy threat."
According to Reuters on Wednesday local time, security agencies from the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand claimed that Chinese military intelligence services ultimately seek to "acquire privileged military, political and economic intelligence that can provide China with a strategic and tactical advantage over the Five Eyes."
A Chinese expert told the Global Times on Thursday that the Five Eyes Alliance's current hype over the so-called "Chinese espionage threat" is essentially a carefully crafted rhetorical trap. Ostensibly framed as an effort to safeguard "national security," the campaign is in reality designed to fuel the "China threat" narrative, the expert stressed.
Regarding similar allegations, China has stated its position more than once. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said during a press conference in November 2025 that China never interferes in other countries' internal affairs and has absolutely no interest in the so-called "intelligence" of the UK Parliament.
The response came after MI5 in 2025 issued an official warning to British politicians about two LinkedIn accounts that it claimed were posing as "headhunters" but were in fact operating on behalf of the Chinese Ministry of State Security.
"Time to stop those phantom allegations and the false projection," the spokesperson said at the time.
In global geopolitics, the Five Eyes ranks among the world's largest intelligence surveillance blocs, having long leveraged its technological advantages to conduct indiscriminate mass surveillance across the globe, Wang Hanyi, a research fellow at the Shanghai International Studies University, told the Global Times on Thursday. Wang noted that the bloc's credibility is therefore highly suspect when it loudly hypes alleged "Chinese espionage threat."
Wang said that the joint initiative results from a mix of domestic pressures and the strategy to contain China. Some Five Eyes countries are plagued by weak economic growth, worsening social conflicts and rising political polarization. Against this backdrop, exaggerating external threats serves as an easy tool to divert domestic disputes and consolidate political consensus, the expert added.
The Reuters report noted on Wednesday that although there have been similar so-called warnings from individual countries in the past, the joint bulletin was described as unprecedented.
"Such an 'unprecedented' scale stems from a collective anti-China anxiety and coordinated escalation of containment strategies against China," Wang said.
Their practice will severely disrupt regular people-to-people exchanges, normal economic and trade cooperation between China and certain Western countries, and erode the long-built foundation for global cooperation, the expert noted.
An academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) successfully performed a prostate cancer surgery on a patient 220 kilometers away from him in Jingzhou, Central China's Hubei Province, by remotely operating a surgical robot via a 5G network, Jimu News reported.
Using clear endoscopic images displayed on a large screen, Zhang Xu, an academician at the CAS, operating from a control console at Tongji Hospital affiliated with Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) located in Wuhan, Hubei, precisely manipulated robotic arms to perform the surgery on the patient surnamed Cao, according to Jimu News.
The display screen showed that the system recorded a network round-trip latency of just nine milliseconds - the complete round-trip time from the doctor issuing an operation command to the surgical robot responding and the doctor receiving feedback, such as image transmission, was only nine milliseconds, or 0.009 seconds, Jimu News reported.
According to Liao Yixiang, director of the Urology Department at Jingzhou Central Hospital, the 57-year-old patient had early-stage intermediate-risk prostate cancer, and the remote robotic surgery helped preserve his urinary and other functions through advanced precision techniques, Jimu News reported.
With close cooperation between the medical teams in the two locations, Cao's prostate tumor was safely and completely removed in about one hour, with minimal bleeding and no intestinal damage, which is expected to help the patient recover faster and return to normal life sooner, per Jimu News.
The youth are the vanguards of our time, showcasing boundless energy and vibrant personalities.
Gen-Zers not only represent the makers of the future but also serve as agents of change in the present. With an open mindset and an international outlook, they actively integrate into the currents of globalization, engaging in deep exchanges, and collaborating with youth from around the world to explore pathways and strategies to address global challenges.
The Global Times has launched the "Voice from Gen Z" series, which focuses on the proactive actions and innovative achievements of young people in areas such as global governance, cultural exchange, environmental protection, and technological innovation. Through this column, we aim to showcase the unique charm and future leadership of global Gen-Zers.
"The youth of China and the US should continue to build strong friendships, improving their understanding of each other, and their countries. This will help lead citizens around the world to interact and communicate with each other." This sentiment was solemnly shared by 17-year-old Colin Millage from Muscatine High School from the US state of Iowa, as he returned to the country after an 8-day study tour in China in late April.
The study tour delegation is called "Inheritance of Friendship," which is part of a China-initiated program that invites 50,000 US youth to China within five years for exchanges and study. The delegation is the second batch from the school.
With all 32 members of Generation Z who came to China for the first time, they embarked on the journey with curiosity about China and a desire to fully embrace the country and its people. Touched by the sincere interactions between the people of China and the US, they are committed to carrying forward friendship in their own way.
Millage believes that their trip can serve as an example to young people, showing that friendships between countries can lead the world in the right direction toward peace and stability.
"We are the future. It's important for the youth all over the world to connect for a better future. I expect there will be many more exchanges between the two countries," Millage's fellow Skye Foster, a 10th-grade student, also shared with the Global Times.
'Beautiful first impression'
With the dazzling light effects, innovative stage design and imaginative program arrangement, the welcome performance titled "Chinese Impressions" by students from Shijiazhuang Foreign Language School on the evening of April 19 in Shijiazhuang, North China's Hebei Province, left a lasting impression on Millage.
"It gave me a beautiful first impression," Millage said, referring to the exquisite performance of his Chinese peers and the profound Chinese culture embedded in the program.
American Gen Zers are always eager to experience different cultures. For example, Foster noted she chose to participate in the school trip to China because she loved learning Chinese.
During the journey, the delegation visited Beijing, Hebei, and Shanghai. They wore traditional Hanfu, climbed the Great Wall, visited the Forbidden City, and explored the Xiong'an New Area. They tasted traditional local cuisine, learned to pay for services using mobile phone QR codes, experiencing a real, comprehensive China that blends the classical and the modern.
In Millage's opinion, China is a country filled with deep culture and history. From the intricate architecture to the meaningful cultural practices, the country beautifully presents itself with an influential cultural identity.
"China is a very big country. There is so much to learn about China. There's so much to see and I had a great experience there," Foster said.
"Sending the second study tour delegation to China in such a short period of time shows how successful the first group's trip to China was," Ryan Scott Castle, principal of Muscatine High School, told the Global Times. He mentioned that many students who had previously visited China signed up again for the second research group and he had to use his authority as principal to "keep them in the US" because more and more students from Muscatine are eager to explore China.
"Before departure, I told the kids: As soon as the plane lands, put away your phones, absorb like a sponge, breathe in the air of China, enjoy the food of China, seize every opportunity to communicate with the people around you… Since you are in China, embrace it with your whole heart," said Luca Berrone, Chairman of the Muscatine-China Initiatives Committee, who accompanied the delegation to China.
To Berrone's relief, the teenagers did just that. Millage said he would tell all his family and friends that China should be their next vacation.
Millage noted that some media sources in the US made China out to be restrictive on some level, but he thought that mainly stems from the US' superiority complex about being "the most free country" when most other countries are also free.
"After being in China, I completely disagree with any portrayal of the country being restrictive… While some Americans may be cautious when visiting the country due to negatively preconceived notions, they should look past that and appreciate the beauty the country can offer," he stressed.
Exemplary tales of exchanges Hebei Province and the Iowa State signed their sister-state relationship in 1983. For over 40 years, Hebei and Iowa have written many exemplary tales of friendly exchanges.
In the spring of 1985, Chinese President Xi Jinping, at that time a county leader in Zhengding, Hebei Province, took his initial steps on US soil. From then on, Xi never forgot his American friends and believes that people hold the key to state-to-state relations.
Now, this friendship is being further strengthened with new initiatives.
For Foster, her most memorable experience in China was going to her Chinese partner's home and spending more time with her.
As the host school for the US students, the Shijiazhuang Foreign Language School requested students from China and the US to form one-on-one friendly partnerships. They studied Chinese poetry, played table tennis, and each US student also visited the home of his or her Chinese partner and had dinner together.
"The teachers were very kind and caring. The students were so welcoming and nice," Foster said.
More importantly, these young people from China and the US have the opportunity to sit together and listen to their elders tell stories of the sincere interactions between the two countries throughout history.
Berrone, who was involved in Xi's first visit to the US, still remembered the first dinner that the Hebei delegation led by Xi had in Iowa, which was a traditional American "potluck dinner," at which each family brought a dish to share.
The delegation immediately blended in with the local residents, Berrone recalled. "Meeting for the first time, local residents were also very excited and attracted to them, wanting to know more about Hebei and China," he said.
American Gen Zers also value the ties of friendship; they were encouraged by the stories of the elderly generation. "They taught me to cherish these bonds, especially cherish those with Chinese partners that span thousands of miles," Millage said. "American and Chinese people speak different languages and have different cultures, however, Chinese people are hospitable, and so are we."
During his trip to China, Millage and his friends exchanged their ideals and looked forward to becoming closer friends, growing together to become better individuals.
"Ultimately, both countries should look toward to these similarities to find common ground and build a stronger relationship," he said.
The US released a final rule on Friday stating that electric vehicles (EVs) using materials from China will not be eligible for tax credits, amid its attacks on China's EV industry with so-called "overcapacity" rhetoric.
Chinese experts said the limited access to tax credits targeting China, as well as the hype about China's "overcapacity," showed stepped-up trade protectionism and revealed US uneasiness about China's growing advantage in the global EV market.
The US Treasury Department announced final regulations for the credits under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Americans buying EVs will no longer be able to claim federal tax credits of up to $7,500 if their cars contain Chinese materials, The Washington Post reported.
China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said in December that China's EVs and auto parts are welcome in the global market, and excluding Chinese firms from these tax credits is a typical non-market-oriented policy.
The discriminatory subsidy policy violates the basic principles of the WTO, seriously disrupts international trade and investment, and undermines the stability of global industry and supply chains, the MOFCOM said.
Unlike the draft version in December, the final regulations allow carmakers to continue purchasing Chinese graphite until 2027 and still qualify for subsidies. According to US media reports, major manufacturers warned that without this extension, every EV on the market would be ineligible for the credit.
It indicates that the US has reached a deadlock in accelerating the energy transition and facing the consequences of forcing out the Chinese supply chains, experts said.
The Washington Post said that if the Biden administration moves too quickly to choke off Chinese supplies, it could miss its target for half of new cars to be zero-emission by 2030.
The Biden administration has been aggressively smearing Chinese EVs, hyping "overcapacity" in China's new-energy industry.
Chinese experts argued that the US claims are merely a guise for trade protectionism, reflecting its growing worry about China's advantage in the global market for new-energy products.
The difficulties and challenges that US car companies face are evident. In the first quarter, EV sales only grew by 3.3 percent to nearly 270,000, accounting for only 7.15 percent of total vehicle sales.
The so-called overcapacity rhetoric is a desperate attempt to suppress Chinese EVs in the global market, where the US cannot compete with China's high-quality and low-cost products, Qiu Wenxu, a research fellow with the Silk Road Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Saturday.
"The US can only try to hinder China's EV development through its usual trade suppression tactics. However, history tells us that trade protectionism has never been able to stop the globalization of goods, and will only increase the cost for consumers," Qiu said.
China's advantage in the new-energy sector has been built through continuous technological research and innovation, a complete industrial chain and mature manufacturing capabilities, Liu Chunsheng, a professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times on Saturday.
According to the International Energy Agency, global demand for EVs will significantly increase and China, as the world's largest EV market, is expanding its production capacity based on reasonable expectations, Liu added.
In contrast to US' protectionist moves, China has taken steps to remove restrictions on foreign investment in the manufacturing sector.
A Chinese industry association recently released a list of 76 models of intelligent connected vehicles that meet the country's auto data security requirements, including those from Tesla. This development is seen as a positive step for Tesla's self-driving technology in the Chinese market.
Despite the "overcapacity" hype by some US officials, the recent visit of Tesla CEO Elon Musk to China and Tesla's development in China have offered successful examples of China-US economic and trade cooperation.
Experts said that it is crucial for the US government to rectify its discriminatory industrial policies to safeguard the stability of the global EV industry chain and uphold global climate change efforts.
China, the second-largest economy, and the EU, the largest trading bloc, have formed a strong foundation for economic and trade cooperation thanks to the intrinsic complementarity of the two economies.
The practical and mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Europe can help both leverage their economic strengths and fully unleash their economic growth potential, which will generate positive momentum for the global economy.
China and Europe have great complementarity in a wide range of industrial categories. Due to China's strong production capacity and lower labor cost, it exports a significant amount of essential and intermediate goods to Europe each year, with bilateral trade between China and the EU hitting $783 billion in 2023.
China and Europe are becoming more intertwined in nurturing important industrial chains, especially in sectors including automobile manufacturing and new-energy production. The synergy between the two economies is evident in these fields.
The complementarity could also be seen in traditional industries, with each economy having unique advantages. China is increasing imports of European agricultural products due to rising Chinese demand, resulting from increased spending power across the country.
Many China-Europe joint ventures are manufacturing products that not only cater to the demands of Chinese and European markets, but they are also exported to third-party markets. This synergy is evident throughout their shared industrial chains.
To further enhance economic and trade cooperation between China and Europe, it is essential to focus on practical cooperation. Politicizing economic issues disrupts economic and trade cooperation, while imposing trade restrictions will hurt normal production activities.
Cooperation between China and Europe should start from the needs of both sides and take into account the construction of the entire industrial chain. The integration of the industrial chains of China and Europe is conducive to sustained development of both economies.
China and Europe also need to actively promote third-party cooperation, which will further complement the advantages of both sides, and integrate their respective strengths to explore a broader market.
Cooperation in the traditional fields needs to be continuously upgraded to adapt to the changing technological landscape and market demands. Opportunities between China and France in the fields of nuclear energy and aviation are good examples of this. In areas that meet the development needs of both economies, such as green technology, the alignment of policies between the two sides should be better coordinated and implemented.
Increased cooperation between China and Europe has the potential to enhance economic and trade prospects for both. This collaboration could encompass various sectors such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, digital economy, big data, quantum computing and other fields.
The combined share of China and Europe in the world economy comes in at more than 40 percent. If both sides can avoid the trap of politicizing economic issues and continue to cooperate and open up in a mutually beneficial way, it will have a positive impact on maintaining the current trend of globalization.
China and Europe, in terms of industrial cooperation and free trade, can deepen their cooperation to provide a good example for the world. Currently, certain countries are putting their own interests before others, by taking protectionist approaches in global trade.
Whether it is anti-globalization or protectionism, it should not be allowed to develop into a trend, because once it becomes a trend, it will force different economies to take similar approaches. Therefore, for China and Europe, it is necessary to uphold free trade and open economy, because only by sticking to this direction can the two sides better respond to the impact of anti-globalization and protectionism.
And, through enhancing third party cooperation between China and Europe, the two sides can help improve economies and market conditions outside of China and Europe. This collaboration can help in better achieving the United Nations' sustainable development goals, such as poverty alleviation and creating new jobs.
