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Liu Runjie, a fourth-year electronic engineering student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, was part of a maritime exchange programme with 20 young people from China and the United States. They visited Ningbo in Zhejiang province and Shanghai for two weeks in March and April. They wrote to the Chinese president to share their experiences. Xi Jinping wrote back and encouraged them to continue cultural exchanges.

The US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke at the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference in Singapore. He is demanding that Asian partner countries invest more in their own defense capabilities. The economic consequences of the war for the region have triggered a deterioration in the reputation of the United States in Asia. China did not send a senior delegation to the conference.

Shinjirō Koizumi rejects accusations from China that Tokyo's recent defense buildup amounts to a "new militarism" while emphasizing that the "door is always open" to bilateral dialogue. He also criticized China's rapidly expanding military footprint and high level of defense spending for its lack of transparency. Japan is deepening security ties with other Indo-Pacific nations concerned by Beijing's maritime ambitions, including moving forward with military equipment transfers to the Philippines.

GE Appliances will start producing clothes washer and dryer in the U.S. next spring. It will be a milestone in GE's $6.5 billion, 13-year bid to boost domestic manufacturing. GE Appliances was sold to China's Haier Group for $5.6 billion in 2016.

The initiative builds on the growing convergence of artificial intelligence and finance. It will help channel and leverage offshore renminbi capital into cutting-edge technology and emerging industries. The initiative aligns with the nation’s latest five-year plan, which calls for Hong Kong to enhance its role as an international financial hub and expand its off-shore yuan business.

Teodoro delivered strong words for China in the final panel of the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore. He took aim at Manila’s long-time maritime rival for disregarding an international arbitral tribunal which ruled in favour of the Philippines in 2016. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China have been negotiating the code since 2002 to reduce tensions in the contested waterway by setting rules for maritime behaviour and crisis management. Talks have repeatedly stalled over the years amid tensions over territorial claims and competing national interests.