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NEWS IN CHINA

• President Xi inspects Guangdong and urges deeper reform and development: Chinese President Xi Jinping, on the 8th of November, called for deepening reform and opening up for high quality development and advancement of  the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, during his inspection tour of Meizhou and Guangzhou in the Southern Chinese province of Guangdong. He hailed the southern province as a pacesetter, pioneer and pilot zone for reform and opening up. Xi inspected various technological and industrial innovation exhibits during his visit to the province. 

• Chinese boat capsizes near South Korea : Two people were killed and three went missing after a Chinese boat capsized off the South Korean coast, approximately 420 kilometers (km) southwest of Seoul, South Korea’s capital. The South Korean coast guard reported that around 6:50 am, the 98-tonne ship was overturned in international waters, some 81 km away from the South Korean island of Gageo. Among the eleven members of the fishing vessel, six were saved by another Chinese fishing boat nearby, two were found by the Korean Coast Guard, but they died of cardiac arrest. Three sailors are still unaccounted for, with the South Korean Coast Guard along with a Chinese Coast Guard vehicle conducting operations to find the missing people around the waters of the accident.

• Official commencement of the 15th National Games:  On the 9th of November, the flame was lit to mark the beginning of the 15th National Games on the banks of the pearl river in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The National Games will see 23 major events and around 11,000 professional athletes competing in them, it will also see millions participating in the mass participation events held on the sidelines of the games under the "I Want to Participate in the National Games" campaign. The first day saw table tennis, cycling, wushu and other competitions. Notably, this is the first time the National Games are being held in part in the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau, also marking the first time in history when the games are being organised by multiple regions jointly.. President Xi announced the opening of the National Games as he presided over the opening ceremony. The first torchbearers were Ma Lin, who won 3 Olympic gold medals and 15 world gold medals in table tennis, and Chen Ruolin, who won 5 Olympic gold medals and 21 world gold medals in diving.

• Chinese Military spokesperson urges Philippines to cease provocations in South China Sea: Tang Bin, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry for National Defence urged the Philippines to stop its ‘infringement, provocation and propaganda’ in the South China Sea, a region contested by China, Philippines, Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. These remarks came in response to the joint military exercises that the Philippines held with its extra regional partners recently in the region. The spokesperson held the Philippines responsible for the tensions in the contested sea, criticizing it for calling ‘outside forces’ to conduct infringement and provocation. 

• China-India flights resume after five years:  At 13:02 hours Beijing time, on the 9th of November, the China Eastern Airlines’ flight MU563, carrying 248 passengers, departed from Shanghai Pudong International Airport for Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi, India, ending the 5 year long hiatus, and official resumption of the “China-India route” of air traffic. The newly resumed route operated by China Eastern Airlines is operated by an Airbus A330 wide-body aircraft, with three flights per week, on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. The flight connects Shanghai, China with New Delhi, India, with a total flight time of 8 hours, and aims to connect the most strategically important air corridors between the two countries. China Eastern Airlines further plans to resume the Kunming-Kolkata route and launch the Shanghai Pudong- Mumbai route as well. 
  
  

SOCIAL MEDIA CHATTER IN CHINA

Child who donated 140 yuan in 1999 for China to build an aircraft carrier goes viral: On 9th November, the hashtags #The Person Who Donated 140 Yuan to Build an Aircraft Carrier Speaks Out and #ChildDonated140YuanToBuildAnAircraftCarrierIn1999 went viral on Weibo. Date daily, a newspaper, posted on its Weibo page a story about a boy, Chen Yuwen, who in 1999 donated 140 yuan in four installments to China’s Defence Ministry for the construction of an aircraft carrier. The relevant departments then promptly replied with refunding his money and praising him. In an interview, Chen revealed that he was influenced by NATO’s bombing in Yugoslavia and thought to himself that aircraft carriers would prevent his country from being bullied. The thread brought out patriotic sentiments in people, with netizens commenting things like “we have three aircrafts in place of one, no one can bully us now”, some wished prosperity and strength to their China, while others stated that the Chinese people are always ready to contribute money and manpower when the country requires. Many netizens were surprised by the sheer amount a 5 year old was able to donate in 1999, with one netizen joking that 140 yuan was roughly equal to their monthly income then.  

INDIA WATCH

Chinese media reports on China-Pakistan naval cooperation and implications for India: An article published by the South China Morning Post (SCMP) on 8th November,  highlighted China’s scheduled delivery of submarines to Pakistan in 2026, and the implications the deliveries would have on India. The piece stated that Pakistan’s purchase of the submarines and Beijing’s overcoming of a major technical hurdle was practically testing New Delhi’s dominance over the Indian Ocean. Pakistan is China’s biggest defence importer with 63% of Beijing’s total arms exports between 2020-2024 going directly to Pakistan. The article also highlighted that the Hangor class submarines would enhance Pakistan’s defence capabilities in the Indian Ocean and complicate its maritime strategy and would ultimately contribute to China’s broader regional ambitions. Experts quoted in the article also noted that “while the development would not cause a decisive tilt, Pakistani submarines would bring a meaningful and sustained increase in Islamabad’s undersea leverage and China’s operational familiarity in the waters west of Malacca. In 2016, the then Pakistani government informed the Pakistani National Assembly that the first four submarines built by China would be delivered in 2023, while the remaining four would be made domestically and be ready by 2028, none of which have been received yet.

Prepared By

Kanav Aggarwal

Kanav Aggarwal is an undergraduate student majoring in International Relations and minoring in Literary and Cultural Studies at FLAME University. He is Passionate about geopolitics, defence strategy, and international security. Through his studies and research experience, he aims to deepen his understanding of global power dynamics and contribute analytical insights to the team’s ongoing projects.