HONG KONG/BEIJING – When Chinese leader Xi Jinping organized his first parade to mark the anniversary of the end of World War Two, in 2015, he placed his two predecessors by his side in a show of respect and continuity of leadership.

Ten years on and having eliminated domestic opposition as he serves an unprecedented third term as president, Xi was flanked on Wednesday at the 80th anniversary parade by Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

Chinese Communist Party leaders were interspersed among overseas guests.

The parade followed Xi’s high-profile summit with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a weekend meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Tianjin, and the Chinese leader’s rare visit to Tibet last month.

This display of diplomatic clout, stamina and geopolitical ambition has helped quell concerns among some China observers about the 72-year-old president’s vitality, linked to sporadic absences and – so far unknown – succession plans. It has also helped divert domestic attention from slowing growth, experts say.

Longevity was on the leaders’ minds as they walked up to the rostrum at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square – Xi and Putin were caught in a hot mic moment discussing organ transplants and the possibility that humans could live to 150 years old.

“This week of triumphant diplomacy for Xi shows that he remains totally in charge of the elite politics of the Communist Party,” said Neil Thomas of the Asia Society, a New York-based think tank. Unable to get the same legitimacy from economic growth as his predecessors, Xi has turned toward nationalism “to try and make up for it”, Thomas said.

“It’s a way to divert attention from economic challenges and to make his citizens proud to be Chinese, even if it’s harder to feel that from the day-to-day experiences of unemployment, falling house prices and stagnant wages.”

Xi underscored his elder statesman image with fashion choices: a grey suit in the style of those worn by Mao Zedong, matching his greying hair, in contrast to the black suits of his counterparts and his own black attire from a decade earlier.

His number two, Premier Li Qiang, whose role has diminished at home, was charged with relatively minor meetings with leaders of Malaysia and Uzbekistan. High-profile engagements with Kim, Modi, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and several others fell to Cai Qi, who heads the party’s Central Secretariat, responsible for its sprawling administration.

In response to a Reuters request for comment, China’s foreign ministry referred to news conference transcripts related to the recent diplomatic events, showcasing China’s partnerships with developing nations and positioning Beijing as committed to peaceful development and international cooperation.

Many countries that sent their leaders to China in the past week have been hit by U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs this year, including India, which remains a significant buyer of Russian oil, hit by sanctions over Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

In one of the most memorable moments in the flurry of diplomatic encounters, Modi and Putin walked over for a chat with Xi while holding hands, underscoring personal tensions between Trump and Modi, as well as Washington’s failure to draw historically non-aligned India in to counter Russia and China.

“Ultimately one of the biggest driving factors of the SCO show of solidarity has been US policy,” said Even Pay, a director at strategic advisory firm Trivium China.

Trump, who called the military parade “beautiful” and “very, very impressive”, made a barbed post on social media saying China was working with Putin and Kim to “conspire against The United States of America”.

The Kremlin responded that they were not conspiring and suggested Trump’s remarks were ironic.

HIT BY TRUMP, WELCOMED BY XI
Analysts say Xi’s whirlwind of activity underscores China’s ambition in presenting itself as a reliable partner to developing nations on the global stage, offering advantages like investment opportunities and even a new development bank – a major step forward for the SCO, which has expanded markedly over past decades to also include India, Pakistan and Iran.

“China’s message as a more reliable, stable alternative to the United States is resonating with large swathes of the world, particularly across Asia, which sees the United States as an increasingly belligerent force in world affairs,” said Eric Olander, editor-in-chief of the China-Global South Project, a research agency.

“A lot of developing countries and middle-power states may still be a bit ambivalent about what China’s proposing with its new governance and development initiatives, but at least what China is talking about is forward-looking, which is crucial for economies with large populations of young people looking for better employment opportunities,” Olander said.

Xi faces considerable challenges in managing this large and often fractious coalition as he eyes a potential fourth term of office in 2027 to further cement his legacy as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao.

Entrenched Chinese foreign policy positions, including territorial disputes and industrial subsidies that have flooded foreign markets with cheap exports, will likely remain friction points, experts say, while India’s deep distrust of China will not dissipate because of one brief meeting.

“It’s not necessarily a big-picture shift towards a more China-led international order,” said the Asia Society’s Thomas. — Reuters

GENEVA – Wildfires likely to have been made more frequent by climate change made significant contributions to air pollution last year, according to a report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Friday.

The World Health Organization says ambient air pollution causes 4.5 million premature deaths a year, and the WMO report for 2024 pointed to pollution hotspots in places that experienced intense fires such as the Amazon basin, Canada, Siberia and central Africa.

As global warming driven mostly by fossil fuel emissions alters weather patterns, wildfires have become more frequent and extensive around the globe, adding to the airborne particles also produced by the burning of coal, oil, gas and wood as well as transport and farming.

“Wildfires are a big contributor to particle pollution and the problem is expected to increase as the climate warms, posing growing risks for infrastructure and ecosystems and human health,” the WMO said in a statement.

Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett added: “Climate change and air quality cannot be addressed in isolation. They must be tackled together in order to protect our planet, our communities, and our economies.”

Though the WMO report covers 2024, the WMO also said record wildfires in southern Europe this year had contributed to pollution across the continent.

However, there were some positive signs, with particle pollution in Eastern China falling thanks to reduction efforts. — Reuters

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said on Thursday his administration would impose tariffs on semiconductor imports from companies not shifting production to the U.S., speaking ahead of a dinner with major technology company CEOs.

Since returning to office in January, Trump’s threat of tariffs has alienated trading partners, stirred volatility in financial markets and fueled global economic uncertainty.

“Yeah, I have discussed it with the people here. Chips and semiconductors – we will be putting tariffs on companies that aren’t coming in. We will be putting a tariff very shortly,” Trump said without giving an exact time or rate.

“We will be putting a very substantial tariff, not that high, but fairly substantial tariff with the understanding that if they come into the country, if they are coming in, building, planning to come in, there will not be a tariff,” Trump told reporters.

Trump has made tariffs a pillar of US foreign policy, using them to exert political pressure and renegotiate trade deals and extract concessions from countries and companies that export goods to the U.S.

“If they are not coming in, there is a tariff,” Trump said in his comments on semiconductors.

“Like, I would say (Apple CEO) Tim Cook would be in pretty good shape,” he added, as Cook sat across the table.

iPhone maker Apple recently raised its total domestic investment commitment in the US to $600 billion over the next four years as tech leaders have warmed up to Trump in his second term.

Trump said last month that the United States would impose a tariff of about 100% on imports of semiconductors but it will not apply to companies that are manufacturing in the U.S. or have committed to do so.

Taiwanese chip giant and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have announced investments in chip manufacturing in the United States.

Trump has faced legal pushback in his use of tariffs. His administration has asked the US Supreme Court to swiftly hear a bid to preserve his sweeping tariffs pursued under a 1977 law meant for emergencies after a lower court invalidated most of the levies that have been central to his economic and trade agenda. — Reuters

WASHINGTON/TOKYO – US President Donald Trump signed an order on Thursday to implement the lower tariffs on Japanese automobile imports and other products that were announced in July.

Formalizing the agreement between the US and a key Asian ally comes after months of negotiations, reduces uncertainty for the massive Japanese auto sector and confirms an agreement for $550 billion of Japanese investment in US projects.

The lower tariffs on Japanese autos are set to take effect seven days after publication of the order. Some of the tariff relief is retroactive to August 7.

Trump’s order also means a reduced US tariff rate on Japanese cars, from the current 27.5% to 15%, is set to take effect by the end of this month, Reuters reported earlier, citing a Japanese government source.

Trump’s levies on global shipments have hit Japanese carmakers hard. Last month, Toyota said it expected a hit of nearly $10 billion from Trump’s tariffs on cars imported into the United States.

“Finally,” Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s top trade negotiator, posted to X, in a nod to the months-long trade talks that had frustrated lawmakers in Tokyo. Thursday marked his 10th trip to the US for the negotiations.

Toyota praised Trump’s efforts to reach a trade deal with Japan. “While nearly 80% of the vehicles Toyota sells in the US are made in North America, this framework provides much needed clarity,” the company said in a statement.

Trump’s order says Japan is “working toward an expedited implementation of a 75% increase of United States rice procurements… and purchases of United States agricultural goods, including corn, soybeans, fertilizer, bioethanol (including for sustainable aviation fuel)” and other US products totaling $8 billion per year.

As part of the deal, Japan will buy 100 Boeing planes and hike defense spending with US firms to $17 billion annually, from $14 billion, the White House said in July.

Japan said in July the share of US rice imports may increase under its existing framework but that the agreement did “not sacrifice” Japanese agriculture.

Trump’s order Thursday also reiterates the Japanese government has agreed to invest $550 billion in the United States in projects that will be selected by the US government.

Two-way trade between the two countries reached nearly $230 billion in 2024, with Japan running a trade surplus of nearly $70 billion.

The United States in July agreed to lower tariffs on imports of Japanese automobiles but the timing remains unclear as Trump had yet to sign an executive order.

Japan has said the trade deal ensures the US’s fifth-largest trading partner will always receive the lowest tariff rate on chips and pharmaceuticals of all the pacts negotiated by Washington. It also includes no tariffs on commercial airplanes and parts.

The executive order is also expected to include provisions that the 15% levy agreed in July would not be stacked on Japanese imports that are subject to higher tariffs, while items previously subject to less than 15% tariffs would be adjusted to 15%, the source said.

The investment package, which will come in the form of equity, loans and guarantees from Japan’s government-owned banks, was agreed as part of the July trade deal.

The European Union secured a 15% baseline tariff as part of a framework trade deal with the US in July, averting looming new tariffs on chips and pharmaceuticals.

Last week, the European Commission proposed removing duties on imported US industrial goods in return for reduced US tariffs on European cars, a key part of the trade agreement the EU and the United States. One automaker official told Reuters that as of Thursday, European car imports to the United States are still facing 27.5% tariffs. — Reuters

BEIJING – China’s navy conducted a “routine patrol” in the South China Sea on September 3, a spokesperson for its Southern Theatre Command said on Thursday, while accusing the Philippines of “undermining regional peace and stability” through joint patrols with other countries.

The statement came as the Philippines concluded on Wednesday joint maritime exercises with Australia, Canada, and the United States in the South China Sea.

The drills featured anti-submarine warfare exercises, logistics operations, and personnel exchanges, highlighting interoperability and coordination among the four nations.

Philippines’ Armed Forces Chief General Romeo Brawner said in a statement that the maritime activity “reaffirms our collective resolve to protect our seas and uphold rules-based international order.”

A spokesperson for the Philippine Navy said two Chinese navy vessels were observed following the international group, but were not conducting synchronized movement that would indicate a patrol.

“Such messages are part of their malign influence operations to justify their illegal presence in the country’s exclusive economic zone,” said Rear Admiral Roy Trinidad. — Reuters

PARIS – A viral French X account has tapped into rising generational tensions in France, where squeezed millennials rallying under the slogan “Nicolas foots the bill” say that better-off baby boomers should do more to fix the country’s huge deficit.

With the government facing collapse over how to plug the euro zone’s biggest deficit, younger workers are increasingly accusing the boomer generation, those born between 1945 and 1964, of saddling France with unsustainable debt.

The creator of the “NicolasQuiPaie” X account, which has drawn over 74,000 followers, told Reuters he launched the movement to defend his generation, arguing politicians tend to cater to pensioners who vote more reliably.

“They have so much voting power that no effort is ever demanded of them. So politicians keep squeezing workers,” he said in a written interview, asking to remain anonymous to protect his career.

French pensioners retire early, and their generous pensions have risen with inflation, unlike wages, helping to shield them from cost-of-living crises. As they live longer, they are straining a post-war pension system that is struggling to keep pace with modern demographics. Meanwhile, their once-affordable homes are increasingly inaccessible for first-time buyers.

On social media, the hashtag #NicolasQuiPaie has gone viral, with thousands identifying with “Nicolas,” a fictional millennial – people born in the 1980s and 90s – whose taxes they say disproportionately fund France’s generous welfare state.

While the left has largely dismissed #NicolasQuiPaie, politicians from the right and far right have sought to court the movement, hoping to marshal the grassroots anger at a time when every vote counts in France’s deeply polarised parliament.

“There’s a form of hypocrisy because those who want to take advantage of the movement are those who have constantly defended pensioners,” Maxime Sbaihi, a demographics expert, told Reuters, adding that people over 50 now account for a majority of voters.

A self-styled libertarian and “minarchist,” a proponent of minimal state intervention, the creator of the X account told Reuters he comes from a middle-class background.

His memes often show a burned-out, 30-year-old Nicolas in a work shirt paying to sustain the lifestyle of 70-year-old “Bernard and Chantal” sipping cocktails on a chaise longue. He says clashes with older users have been “very tense.”

“Even when you raise the issue of pension-funding calmly and factually, there’s a wave of hatred toward young people,” he said, adding he had received insults like “slacker” or replies such as “do you want to euthanasia us?”

His portrayal of “Nicolas” also funding a fictional “Karmic” – a typically North African name – has sparked accusations of xenophobia and far-right leanings, which he denied.

He says the movement has no formal structure, doesn’t feel represented by any existing party, but hopes to exert pressure on governments and influence parties ahead of elections.

“It’s up to them to get off the beaten track and bring concrete solutions to the economic and security problems we’re going through,” he said.

NON-PARTISAN, BUT POLITICALLY COURTED
Some older French rejected being blamed for France’s woes.

“We don’t have a boomer problem, we have a budget problem,” said Patrick Sorel, 67, as he walked in Paris with his baguette under his arm. “We paid for Nicolas’ education and Nicolas’ studies. Politicians need the courage to ask everyone to contribute.”

Yet some politicians – including several boomers high up in the government – have shown a degree of sympathy for the concerns of “Nicolas”.

Conservative Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said “there’ll be a revolt” if employed people like “Nicolas” are the only ones asked to contribute to cutting the deficit, while centrist Prime Minister François Bayrou, who looks certain to lose his job in a parliamentary confidence vote on September 8, recently criticized “boomers who think everything is fine”.

According to an Elabe opinion poll published on Thursday, a majority of the under-35 agree with Bayrou, while 84% of the over-50 reject this view.

Bayrou, 74, had proposed not indexing pensions to inflation in next year’s budget to help reduce the deficit, prompting an outcry across party lines.

Economists say millennials have a point.

Sbaihi said that while generational inequality is widespread in developed countries, it’s especially stark in France.

The pension system relies on intergenerational transfers, meaning today’s workers don’t save for their own pension but fund retirees directly via mandatory levies on their payslips. With longer lifespans, millennials now support an unprecedentedly large cohort of aging boomers.

“No country has ever treated pensioners better than today’s France,” Sbaihi said. “The baby-boom generation lived through a golden age, but doesn’t quite grasp the impact of its demographic weight.” — Reuters