Chinese President Xi Jinping has arrived in Saudi Arabia on a visit hailed by Beijing as “epoch-making” as the proximity between Beijing and Riyadh grows amid the Arab kingdom’s souring relations with the United States.

The Chinese government has announced a broad, nationwide loosening of strict health protocols imposed in the past years due to the outbreak of COVID-19.

China says it is firmly committed to its policy of not using nuclear weapons first, and has denounced a report by the military of the United States on China's alleged plan to triple its nuclear arsenal by 2035.

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin accuses China of seeking to reshape the Indo-Pacific region, saying that the United States will not allow that to happen. 

Japan is set to allocate $295 billion to $318 billion for military spending over five years from the next fiscal year that begins in April.

China has denounced as “illegal” the US stationing of troops in Syria and the smuggling of oil and grain from the war-torn Arab country.

A senior British lawmaker says her delegation discussed military cooperation with Taiwan during a visit to the self-ruled island earlier this week that China denounced as “blatant interference”.