Global Pulse

分类： politics

  • US Senate clears key hurdle in bid to fund two immigration agencies

    US Senate clears key hurdle in bid to fund two immigration agencies

    A months-long partial shutdown of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security moved one step closer to resolution early Thursday, after Senate Republicans pushed through a procedural vote to advance funding for two of the department’s core immigration enforcement agencies without Democratic support. The late-night session stretched until roughly 3:30 a.m. local time, dragged out by a series of Democratic amendments in a tactic commonly referred to as “vote-a-rama,” and ultimately passed by a narrow 50-48 margin.

    Republicans opted to use a special legislative rule that allowed the spending measure to pass with a simple majority, after weeks of negotiations with Democrats collapsed over Democratic demands for agency reforms. Two Senate Republicans who have frequently broken with former President Donald Trump’s policy positions joined all voting Democrats in opposing the measure, while one Democrat and one Republican abstained from the vote entirely.

    The approved measure would allocate funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) through the end of Donald Trump’s presidential term. A separate bipartisan bill that would fund the remainder of DHS, the parent department of both agencies, previously passed the Senate, but both pieces of legislation now need approval from the U.S. House of Representatives before they can be sent to the president’s desk for signature. It remains unclear when House lawmakers will bring either measure up for a vote, as House Republicans have often diverged from their Senate counterparts on immigration and spending policy in recent months.

    Senate Majority Whip John Thune, the chamber’s top Republican, praised the outcome of Thursday’s vote but acknowledged that the legislative process is far from over. “We still have a multi-step process ahead of us,” Thune told reporters Thursday morning.

    The partial government shutdown, which has left DHS without formal appropriations since February 14, is the longest partial shutdown in U.S. history. The current impasse grew out of a Democratic refusal to approve new funding for ICE and CBP until the agencies adopt major reforms, a response to two fatal shootings of Minneapolis residents Alex Pretti and Renee Good by agency operatives during a January immigration raid in Minnesota.

    As the standoff stretched into March, the funding gap began to directly impact everyday Americans: widespread staff shortages among DHS airport security officers led to travel chaos across the country, with security queues stretching from terminal checkpoints all the way to airport parking lots. Hundreds of officers resigned or skipped shifts after going weeks without pay amid the shutdown. Trump temporarily alleviated the crisis by signing an executive order that redirected existing departmental funds to pay security personnel, easing immediate pressure on congressional negotiators. But that pressure has rapidly built back up in recent weeks.

    Homeland Security Secretary Mark Mullin warned this week in an interview with Fox News that the department will exhaust all available emergency funding to cover employee salaries by the first week of May. “I’ve got one payroll left and there is no more emergency funds, so the president can’t do another executive order because there’s no more money there,” Mullin said. Trump has set a firm deadline of June 1 for a full budget package to reach his desk for signature, leaving congressional negotiators with a narrow window to resolve the months-long standoff.

  • China rolls out guideline to build youth-friendly cities

    China rolls out guideline to build youth-friendly cities

    China has launched a landmark new policy framework to advance the construction of youth-friendly cities, with the core goal of systematically cultivating an enabling environment that makes it easier for young people to establish roots, build careers and thrive in urban areas across the country.

    Jointly released by 15 central-level government departments — including the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China, the Cyberspace Administration of China and the National Development and Reform Commission — the guideline lays out 18 targeted measures designed to make cities more inclusive and supportive of young residents. These initiatives span a wide range of critical areas, from industrial development and innovation support to urban planning, affordable housing, childcare access and employment assistance.

    The policy sets out two clear phased targets for implementation. By 2030, the concept of youth-centered urban development is expected to gain widespread adoption across China, with tangible progress achieved in innovation support, quality of life for young people, green urban development and youth-inclusive governance. By 2035, a complete, mature institutional system for youth development will be fully established, aligned with China’s broader goal of basically completing the construction of modern, people-centered cities.

    Among the key measures outlined, the guideline prioritizes strengthening industrial foundations to support youth innovation, upgrading support systems for young innovators, and expanding skills training opportunities for young people. It also puts a spotlight on youth-oriented urban planning, calling for the integration of young people’s needs into urban spatial design, the construction of compact, affordable dormitory-style apartments near major employment centers and public transit routes, and the promotion of “youth-friendly businesses” within 15-minute community living circles.

    Additional policy focus is placed on addressing young people’s top practical concerns: marriage, childcare, housing and employment. Specific support measures include government-subsidized childcare services and after-school care programs, guaranteed access to compulsory education for children of migrant workers, and the expansion of “youth hostels” that offer free or low-cost short-term accommodation for new graduates seeking employment.

    Central-southern China’s Hunan province has emerged as a pioneer in this national initiative. Back in April 2024, Shen Xiaoming, Party Secretary of Hunan, stated at a provincial work meeting that building a youth-friendly province is a strategic move that matters deeply to Hunan’s long-term development prospects. Since then, Shen has repeatedly extended open invitations to young talent from across the country, and provincial leading officials have led recruitment delegations to multiple regions across China to attract young skilled workers. A series of targeted policies have also been rolled out to support college students’ entrepreneurship and accelerate the aggregation of young talent in the province.

    During this year’s annual Two Sessions, Shen highlighted Changsha, Hunan’s capital, as a model for youth-friendly development. He noted that Changsha boasts among the lowest housing prices and living costs of all provincial capitals in China, while its education and healthcare systems rank among the country’s highest. “Changsha is a unique presence in the world,” Shen said, adding that the city is ideally positioned to build a global R&D hub centered on young innovators.

    Local government data shows that Changsha has already constructed 115,000 units of government-subsidized rental housing, of which more than 34,000 units have been specifically allocated to young talent, covering all urban districts and counties under the city’s administration.

    One early beneficiary of the local youth support policies is He Xu, a computer science master’s graduate from Hunan University and founder of a technology startup based in Changsha. He credits his entrepreneurial success to the robust support system the province has built for young founders. His company received nearly 1 million yuan (approximately $146,500) in cloud computing subsidies, as well as one year of rent-free office space. This support allowed his team to claim 30 domestic awards in artificial intelligence competitions. By 2025, the company earned national high-tech enterprise certification, and participated in a provincial youth talent program that brought additional financial rewards.

    Expressing gratitude for the support he has received, He has committed to giving back to Hunan’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. He has launched a national AIGC competition to connect young emerging entrepreneurs with high-quality collaboration opportunities, and serves as an entrepreneurship mentor at Hunan University and other local higher education institutions, sharing his practical experience with aspiring young founders.

    “In Hunan, as long as you dare to try, you will get a response,” He said, calling on young entrepreneurs across the country to pursue their career goals in the province. “We have incubators with real market orders, competition-driven business opportunities and mentors who never leave.”

  • SPP releases first bilingual white paper on IP prosecution work

    SPP releases first bilingual white paper on IP prosecution work

    On April 21, 2026, China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) made a landmark move in intellectual property (IP) governance by publishing the *White Paper on Intellectual Property Prosecution Work (2025)*, marking the first time the document has been released in both Chinese and English, with the full English version hosted on the SPP’s official English website for global access.

    This comprehensive report combines empirical data, visual charts, and on-the-ground case studies to paint a full picture of the progress China’s national procuratorial system has achieved over the past year in advancing the country’s innovation-driven development strategy and cultivating a world-class, market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment.

    The white paper outlines how procuratorial organs at all levels carried out their statutory duties across all four litigation domains—criminal, civil, administrative, and public interest litigation—related to intellectual property rights (IPR) throughout 2025. Adhering to the criminal justice policy of tempering strict punishment with lenient mercy, procuratorial bodies cracked down on IPR infringement offenses in full compliance with Chinese law. In total, procuratorates accepted and reviewed 11,341 criminal IPR infringement cases involving 25,160 suspects, ultimately prosecuted 9,135 cases encompassing 19,102 individuals, and issued non-prosecution decisions for 5,105 people in line with the principle of proportional justice.

    Beyond criminal enforcement, the national procuratorial system also expanded its work in other litigation domains: it handled 1,251 civil IPR procuratorial supervision cases and 1,795 administrative IPR procuratorial cases. For public interest litigation in the IPR space, procuratorial organs received 741 case clues and formally opened investigations into 612 of those leads.

    The report structures its key achievements across three core thematic sections: “Focusing on the Core Mission, Serving High-Quality Economic and Social Development”, “Coordinating Efforts to Build an Overall IPR Protection Framework”, and “Consolidating and Further Deepening Comprehensive Procuratorial Performance”. It places particular emphasis on consistent improvements to the quality and efficiency of procuratorial supervision, which have strengthened safeguards for judicial fairness in IPR cases.

    A standout priority highlighted in the white paper is the procuratorial system’s targeted efforts to support the development of China’s new quality productive forces. Procuratorial organs have prioritized enhanced legal protection for IPR in high-growth emerging and future-focused industries, including next-generation information technology, artificial intelligence, new energy, high-end manufacturing equipment, and biomedicine. They have strengthened criminal judicial safeguards for IPR tied to independent corporate innovation and key core technologies. At the same time, they have expanded civil and administrative procuratorial supervision for technology-related IPR cases covering patents, integrated circuit layout designs, new plant varieties, and computer software.

    As 2026 marks the opening year of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030), it is a critical juncture for IPR procuratorial work to advance national development goals and achieve new breakthrough progress, according to the head of the SPP’s Intellectual Property Procuratorial Department. Moving forward, centered on the core national goal of building China into a global leader in IPR protection, procuratorial organs will continue to strengthen specialized case-handling institutions and professional talent teams, while refining working mechanisms for full-scope comprehensive procuratorial performance. The goal of these efforts is to better support and incentivize innovation and creativity, drive cultural prosperity, uphold fair market competition, and protect public well-being through high-quality, efficient IPR prosecutorial work.

  • Trump likes a naval blockade. But Iran presents big differences from Venezuela and Cuba

    Trump likes a naval blockade. But Iran presents big differences from Venezuela and Cuba

    U.S. President Donald Trump has increasingly leaned on naval blockades as a core coercive tool to force policy changes from adversarial governments, first targeting Venezuela and Cuba, and now bringing the tactic to the Middle East against Iran. However, national security experts warn that the Iran confrontation carries vastly different strategic and economic risks that set it apart from the administration’s previous blockade efforts in the Caribbean.

    Unlike the Western Hemisphere targets Cuba and Venezuela, Iran controls direct access to the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints through which roughly 20% of global oil shipments pass on a normal basis. A prolonged standoff over the waterway creates immediate, far-reaching spillover effects that threaten to drag down the entire global economy, a risk that did not exist in the Caribbean blockades. Additionally, Iran maintains a far more capable conventional military force than either Venezuela or Cuba, and any sustained naval pressure requires a large, permanent U.S. military deployment thousands of miles from American shores, a far costlier and more complex commitment.

    Security analysts note that Iran’s geographic leverage gives it significant upper hand during the current shaky ceasefire. With the United States facing an upcoming midterm election cycle, rising domestic gasoline prices and broader economic disruption from blocked shipments could create enough political pressure to force the Trump administration to roll back its port and coastal blockade of Iran before Tehran meets its demands. “It’s really a question now of which country, the U.S. or Iran, has a greater pain tolerance,” explained Max Boot, a military historian and senior fellow for national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

    The overall effectiveness of Trump’s pressure-by-blockade strategy remains a hotly debated topic among experts. Many argue that the perceived success of pressure efforts in Venezuela had far less to do with naval interdiction of sanctioned oil tankers and far more to do with a direct U.S. military raid that led to the ousting of former president Nicolás Maduro. For Cuba, meanwhile, a years-long U.S. oil embargo has gutted the island nation’s economy, pushing it into its most severe financial crisis in decades. Despite this extreme economic pressure, the tactic has failed to deliver the Trump administration’s stated goal of forcing a leadership change in Havana, even after recent rare bilateral talks between U.S. and Cuban officials on the island.

    Todd Huntley, director of Georgetown University’s National Security Law Program and a retired U.S. Navy captain and judge advocate general, notes that the visible outcome in Venezuela likely emboldened Trump to expand the blockade tactic. But he stresses that the two scenarios are fundamentally unalike across geographic, military, and political lines.

    While the U.S. blockade has certainly dealt a major blow to Iran’s economy, restricting imports of critical goods and limiting oil export revenue, ship tracking and maritime intelligence firms confirm that Tehran has still managed to move a substantial amount of sanctioned oil through the region despite the naval presence. Iran has rejected U.S. demands to reopen full transit through the Strait of Hormuz, and has resumed firing on commercial shipping in the area this week. Prolonged disruptions to Hormuz traffic have driven global gasoline prices sharply higher, pushed up costs for food and a vast range of other consumer goods worldwide, and created a major domestic political vulnerability for Trump ahead of November’s midterm elections.

    “Blockades are usually just one tool of a mechanism used in a conflict,” said Salvatore Mercogliano, a maritime history professor at Campbell University in North Carolina. “They can be important. But it’s only one element. And I don’t think it’s going to be enough to convince the Iranians.”

    U.S. Central Command head Adm. Brad Cooper claimed last week that “no ship has evaded U.S. forces,” noting that as of the prior Wednesday, the command had ordered 31 vessels to turn around or return to port. But global merchant shipping groups and intelligence firms contradict that assessment. Lloyd’s List Intelligence reports that a “steady flow of shadow fleet traffic” has continued moving in and out of the Persian Gulf, with 11 tankers carrying Iranian cargo departing the Gulf of Oman outside the strait since April 13. Another maritime analytics firm, Windward, confirmed this week that Iranian shipping traffic continues to move “via deception.”

    Mercogliano explains that Iranian vessels use multiple tactics to evade the blockade, including spoofing their automatic identification system location data and routing through Pakistani territorial waters. He adds that the sheer volume of commercial traffic passing through the region makes full screening an enormous logistical challenge for U.S. naval forces.

    The last comparable U.S. naval blockade of an adversary took place in the early 1960s, when the Kennedy administration implemented a quarantine of Soviet shipments to Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis — a measure deliberately not labeled a blockade for political and legal reasons, Huntley notes.

    History shows that blockades can produce strategic effects: Britain’s World War I blockade of Germany is a prominent example of a successful large-scale maritime interdiction campaign. But Boot points out that successful historical blockades generate results over years or decades, while the Trump administration is seeking quick, short-term policy changes ahead of elections.

    Boot argues that Trump misattributed the outcome in Venezuela to the blockade, when the successful leadership change actually stemmed from the direct military ousting of Maduro and subsequent cooperation from his former vice president Delcy Rodríguez. “There is no Delcy Rodríguez in Cuba or Iran,” Boot explained. “I think his success in Venezuela led him astray, thinking that this was a template that could be replicated elsewhere. He sees it as a huge success at little cost. And, in fact, it turns out to be a unique set of circumstances.”

  • UK and France strike new £662m small boats deal

    UK and France strike new £662m small boats deal

    Cross-channel irregular migration has emerged as one of the most divisive policy issues in UK politics in recent years, with arrivals of migrants via small boats rising steadily over the past three years to hit 41,472 in 2025 alone. As the existing 2023 enforcement agreement between London and Paris was set to expire next month, UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood signed a new £662 million three-year deal on Thursday aimed at ramping up efforts to block dangerous crossings and dismantle people smuggling networks.

    Under the terms of the new agreement, France will expand its border enforcement capacity dramatically in northern France, the primary departure point for small boats heading to the UK. The deal will see 50 additional riot and crowd control-trained police officers deployed to northern French beaches to respond to violence and unruly groups of migrants. France will also invest in new surveillance technology, including millions of pounds worth of drones, two dedicated helicopters and an advanced coastal camera system to track smugglers and intercept migrants before they can launch boats.

    When the new deal enters into force this summer, the total number of French law enforcement, intelligence and military personnel assigned to curb crossings will increase by 42% to nearly 1,100. France will also add a new coastal patrol vessel and more than 20 additional maritime officers to target smuggling “taxi boats” that transport migrants out to waiting small craft. Of the total £662 million UK contribution, £501 million is earmarked for beach enforcement operations, with an extra £160 million available if the new tactics deliver results. For the first time, the UK has secured a clause that allows up to £100 million of British funding to be redirected or withdrawn after 12 months if insufficient progress is made on reducing crossings, though the UK government has not publicly disclosed what specific performance targets France must meet to retain full funding.

    Mahmood framed the agreement as a landmark step forward in bilateral cooperation, noting that joint work with France has already stopped tens of thousands of migrants from boarding boats bound for the UK. “We must do more,” she said. “This landmark deal will stop illegal migrants making the perilous journey and put people smugglers behind bars.”

    But the deal has drawn fierce criticism from opposition parties, who argue it lacks meaningful accountability and wastes British taxpayer money. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp of the Conservative Party condemned the agreement as an unconditional handover of hundreds of millions of pounds, pointing out that French authorities only stopped around a third of attempted embarkations last year and allowed detained migrants to make another attempt to cross. “France shouldn’t get a single penny unless they stop the vast majority of the boats,” Philp said.

    Reform UK’s Shadow Home Secretary Zia Yusuf went further, calling the deal an astonishing abhorrent misuse of public funds that could have been better spent on domestic priorities like hiring new nurses and police officers in the UK. Even the Liberal Democrats, a minor opposition party, argued the deal fails to address the root of the problem, saying that only permanent disruption of smuggling networks and a large-scale returns agreement with France can effectively deter crossings.

    Beyond political opposition, humanitarian and migration experts have also raised questions about the new agreement’s chances of success. The Refugee Council, a leading UK charity supporting asylum seekers, argued that the government’s singular focus on increased policing misses the mark, because desperate vulnerable people seeking safety will continue to turn to smugglers as long as there are no legal safe routes to enter the UK. “Policing alone will not prevent desperate people from turning to dangerous small boats in the first place,” said Imran Hussain, the council’s director of external affairs.

    Meghan Benton, a Paris-based director at the Migration Policy Institute think tank, added that increased funding and tougher performance targets may not overcome a key structural constraint: French authorities are wary of using overly aggressive tactics that could cause crowded small boats to capsize, leading to mass casualties at sea. “It is not obvious to me that more money and tougher targets will overcome what is a safety concern or risk aversion on the part of the French authorities,” Benton told BBC Radio 4’s *Today* programme. “There is a real floor on how aggressive the French are willing to be.”

    During a BBC visit to a migrant camp in northern France, migrants explained the persistent draw of the UK that drives them to risk the dangerous crossing. One homeless man told the BBC he hoped to live “as a normal human being” in the UK, while a woman seeking asylum cited the UK’s democratic protections as her primary motivation. “There’s a democracy in the UK – everything they give you is good, they protect us,” she said.

    The new deal replaces a 2023 agreement that allocated £476 million in UK funding for increased French patrols and was set to expire next month. That agreement included confidential performance metrics and a commitment to boost interception rates, deploying roughly 700 officers to northern French beaches. Separately, the UK’s current Labour government reached a controversial “one-in-one-out” returns deal with France in August 2025, which allows the UK to return small boat arrivals to France in exchange for accepting an equal number of migrants who have not attempted irregular crossings. As of February 2026, 305 people have been returned to France and 367 have entered the UK under that scheme. The government says it has removed or deported nearly 60,000 irregular migrants and foreign criminals since taking office.

    As of the most recent weekend reporting, 602 migrants arrived in the UK port of Dover on nine small boats, pushing the total number of irregular arrivals in 2026 past 6,000. Crossing numbers fluctuate with seasonal and weather conditions, but the persistent flow has kept pressure on the UK government to demonstrate progress on its flagship immigration policy goal.

  • More than 500 people killed in Tanzania election violence, inquiry finds

    More than 500 people killed in Tanzania election violence, inquiry finds

    Weeks after the conclusion of Tanzania’s highly contested October presidential election, an official commission of inquiry has for the first time released a public death toll tied to the widespread post-election unrest that rocked the country: 518 people lost their lives to unnatural causes, commission chair Mohamed Chande Othman confirmed in his official presentation of the inquiry’s findings. Of the fatalities recorded, Othman noted, 490 were male, a stark demographic breakdown of the unrest that followed the presidential vote. The commission was launched by President Samia Suluhu Hassan on November 20, with a broad mandate to unpack the root causes of the violence, identify involved parties and their motives, assess the government’s response to the unrest, and outline policy recommendations to prevent similar future conflicts. Over the course of its investigation, the panel collected testimony and evidence from a wide range of stakeholders across Tanzania, including ordinary residents, victims of the violence, opposition political leaders, and national security agencies, holding some of its deliberations in closed, private sessions. In his findings, Othman avoided assigning direct blame for the 518 deaths, stopping short of naming responsible parties and instead calling for additional targeted investigations to clarify who perpetrated the fatal violence. The chair framed the unrest as the outcome of a mix of long-simmering structural issues and immediate post-election triggers. “We are dealing with both long-standing issues that have persisted over time and immediate triggers that ignited tensions on the ground,” Othman stated, adding that the commission attributes the unrest to a combination of economic, political, and social grievances. These included public demands for broader political reform, widespread youth unemployment, and what the report described as “lack of patriotism” among dissident groups. The inquiry concluded that politicians and activist organizers leveraged these existing frustrations to mobilize citizens to join post-election protests, and that the demonstrations themselves were neither peaceful nor legal, meaning they did not qualify for standard legal protections. The election outcome that sparked the unrest remains deeply contested: President Samia was officially declared the winner of the October 29 presidential vote, securing a landslide 98% of the vote, a result the country’s opposition parties immediately dismissed as a “mockery” of democratic process. The president has repeatedly defended the election as free, fair, and fully transparent. In response to the unrest, Samia has blamed foreign actors for instigating the violence, framing it as part of a coordinated plot to overthrow her democratically elected administration. Since the unrest unfolded, opposition parties and independent human rights organizations have repeatedly accused Tanzanian security forces of carrying out a brutal, lethal crackdown on anti-government protesters, a charge that has not been confirmed or refuted by the inquiry’s findings. Opposition leaders have already raised sharp questions about the credibility of the nine-member commission itself, noting that all members were directly appointed by President Samia. The opposition argues that this direct executive appointment strips the panel of the independence and impartiality required to fairly investigate violence tied to the administration, leaving key questions about accountability unresolved more than a year after the election. This death toll marks the first time that Tanzanian authorities have publicly confirmed the scale of fatalities from the post-election unrest, a long-awaited disclosure that comes amid ongoing domestic and international scrutiny of the country’s political climate.

  • Trump not viewing Iran’s ships seizure near Hormuz Strait as breach of ceasefire: White House

    Trump not viewing Iran’s ships seizure near Hormuz Strait as breach of ceasefire: White House

    On Wednesday, the White House made clear that former U.S. President Donald Trump does not classify Iran’s forced seizure of two commercial vessels near the strategic Strait of Hormuz as a violation of the extended bilateral ceasefire between Washington and Tehran. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt laid out the administration’s position during an interview on Fox News, emphasizing the targeted ships were neither U.S.-flagged nor Israeli-owned, but rather two commercial vessels operating under international registration.

    Leavitt launched sharp criticism of Iran’s actions in the incident, framing the operation as outright maritime piracy. She claimed that Iran’s once-dominant regional naval force has devolved into acting like organized pirate gangs, adding that Iran has no legitimate claim to exclusive control over the busy international waterway that carries nearly a fifth of the world’s annual oil trade.

    The confrontation developed after Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) announced earlier the same day that it had detained the two ships, justifying the action by stating the vessels were operating without valid navigational authorization, had repeatedly violated local maritime regulations, and were tampering with their official positioning systems to avoid detection.

    According to Iranian semi-official Fars News Agency, the IRGC conducted a third interdiction operation the same day, targeting a Greek-owned bulk carrier named the Euphoria that the force labeled another rule-breaking vessel transiting the strait. The Euphoria was disabled in the operation and has since run aground along Iran’s coastline, leaving the ship and its crew stranded in Iranian territorial waters.

    The Strait of Hormuz has long been one of the world’s most geopolitically tense chokepoints, with repeated encounters between Iranian security forces and commercial shipping dating back to heightened tensions over Iran’s nuclear program and regional rivalries. The incident comes amid a fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran that had been extended in recent weeks to de-escalate tensions across the Persian Gulf region.

  • Macao to help China-Portugal cooperation reach new level, says Macao SAR chief executive

    Macao to help China-Portugal cooperation reach new level, says Macao SAR chief executive

    During an official visit to Portugal in late April 2026, Sam Hou-fai, Chief Executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), has announced that both sides have agreed to leverage Macao’s unique positioning as a cross-regional platform to advance bilateral economic cooperation between China and Portugal to new heights. The visit, which launched in Lisbon on April 19, marked a key diplomatic engagement focused on strengthening historical ties and expanding multi-dimensional collaboration.

    Over the course of his trip, Sam held one-on-one strategic meetings with top Portuguese leadership, including President Antonio Jose Seguro, Speaker of Parliament Jose Pedro Aguiar-Branco, Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, and Supreme Court of Justice President Joao Cura Mariano. In these closed-door discussions, Sam delivered a detailed update on the successful implementation of the “one country, two systems” framework in Macao, highlighting how the policy has sustained the region’s social stability and long-term economic vitality over more than two decades since its handover.

    In a press briefing concluding the visit, Sam emphasized the productive outcomes of the diplomatic trip, noting that it met core objectives of deepening mutual political understanding, reinforcing centuries-old traditional friendship between the two peoples, and laying the groundwork for expanded all-round cooperation across sectors. He expressed firm confidence that Macao’s distinct advantages as a bridging hub between Chinese-speaking markets and Portuguese-speaking countries will allow the region to make new, greater contributions to the China-Portugal comprehensive strategic partnership.

    For his part, President Seguro reaffirmed the solid foundation of bilateral ties between China and Portugal, noting the two nations established formal diplomatic relations in 1979 and upgraded their relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2005. Over the decades, Seguro noted, the two countries have built consistently close, friendly relations marked by growing political mutual trust, regular high-level exchange, and productive collaboration across a broad spectrum of sectors. He also reaffirmed Portugal’s unwavering commitment to the one-China principle, adding that the country is eager to expand all-round cooperation with China in the coming years.

    Beyond meetings with top national leaders, Sam’s schedule also included working discussions with multiple Portuguese cabinet ministers and a public presentation showcasing Macao’s decades of successful development under the “one country, two systems” framework. The engagement comes as Macao continues to expand its role as an official platform for economic and trade cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, opening new channels for trade, investment, and cultural exchange between the two sides.

  • Britain and France will sign a 3-year deal to curb small-boat Channel crossings

    Britain and France will sign a 3-year deal to curb small-boat Channel crossings

    PARIS — In a landmark step to address the long-standing challenge of irregular migration across the English Channel, the United Kingdom and France are scheduled to formalize a new multi-million pound agreement on Thursday, which ramps up joint enforcement and surveillance measures along France’s northern coastline to cut down on small boat crossings.

    The three-year accord will be signed during a joint site visit by UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, marking a deepening of bilateral cooperation on one of the most contentious migration issues in Western Europe. The framework of the deal sets out a clear funding structure and measurable performance benchmarks that tie additional financing to tangible progress in stopping crossing attempts.

    Under the terms of the agreement, the UK will commit an initial 500 million pounds (equivalent to $675 million) to bolster counter-migration operations in northern France. A further 160 million pounds ($216 million) in additional funding will be disbursed only if the new tactics deliver successful results, the UK Home Office confirmed. If intervention efforts fail to meet agreed targets, this supplementary funding will be terminated after the first year of implementation.

    France’s Interior Ministry outlined sweeping planned increases to on-the-ground enforcement capacity: the total number of deployed security officers will rise from the current 907 to 1,392 by the 2026-2029 period. France will also fund the creation of a dedicated new police unit focused explicitly on dismantling irregular smuggling networks that facilitate Channel crossings.

    A core component of the new deal is targeting the increasingly common smuggling practice of so-called “taxi boats” — small, usually inflatable motorized vessels operated by smuggling rings. Unlike craft carried into the water by migrants themselves, these “taxi boats” depart empty from hidden, isolated coastal spots before picking up groups of migrants at pre-arranged beach meeting points along France’s long northern shoreline. New surveillance technology will be deployed specifically to disrupt these coordinated departures.

    Surveillance capabilities will be significantly expanded across the region, with the deployment of more drones, helicopter patrols and electronic monitoring systems to detect and intercept crossing attempts before they can depart French territory. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer emphasized that existing bilateral cooperation has already delivered meaningful results. “Cooperation between our two countries has already stopped tens of thousands of crossings,” Starmer said, adding that “this historic agreement means we can go further — ramping up intelligence, surveillance and boots on the ground to protect Britain’s borders.”

    Early data from the French Interior Ministry shows that intervention efforts are already moving in the right direction: total migrant arrivals in the UK so far this year have dropped by more than 50% compared to the same period in 2025. Last year alone, joint police operations led to the arrest of 480 people suspected of involvement in people-smuggling networks.

    Most of the new resources allocated under the agreement will be deployed ahead of early summer, the annual peak period for crossing attempts when milder weather makes the dangerous journey more likely to be attempted by smugglers and migrants.

    The announcement of the new deal comes in the wake of a recent fatal incident that underscored the deadly risks of irregular Channel crossings. Earlier this month, four migrants — two men and two women — died while attempting to board an inflatable boat off northern France’s coast. British law enforcement arrested a Sudanese national on Friday on suspicion of endangering life in connection with the tragedy.

    This new agreement is the latest update to bilateral migration cooperation, building on the 2018 Sandhurst Treaty that was most recently renewed in 2023. Both governments have framed the accord as a pragmatic, results-focused approach to tackling a shared challenge that has strained bilateral relations and posed major humanitarian and security risks for years.

  • Mutual gains via Five-Year Plan welcomed

    Mutual gains via Five-Year Plan welcomed

    On a Monday gathering of nearly 500 global business leaders from China, the United States and dozens of other nations, Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Xie Feng delivered a keynote address at the 56th Annual World Trade Centers Association (WTCA) Global Business Forum, framing China’s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) as both a domestic development roadmap and an open invitation for the international community to tap into new mutually beneficial growth opportunities.

    Xie laid out four core pillars of the new five-year plan to illustrate its direction and global impact. First, the blueprint centers people-centered development: more than one-third of the plan’s 20 key national indicators are dedicated to improving lifelong public well-being, marking a shift from expanding basic access to boosting the quality of social services across all age groups. Second, innovation is positioned as the primary engine of growth, with a strong focus on integrating technological breakthroughs with industrial upgrading to cultivate new quality productive forces. Third, the plan prioritizes accelerated expansion across green technology, green energy and green finance to advance China’s low-carbon transition. Fourth, openness remains a core feature of China’s modernization path, with the country set to align its regulatory frameworks with high-standard international rules in key sectors including finance and healthcare services.

    Throughout his speech, Xie emphasized that over the coming five years, the world will encounter a China brimming with economic vitality and untapped potential. He highlighted the enormous opportunity presented by China’s rapidly growing consumer market, which is on track to become the world’s largest and most dynamic consumer market in the near term. Xie specifically welcomed foreign investment in high-value sectors including value-added telecommunications, biotechnology, and wholly foreign-owned medical institutions.

    He also pointed to China’s globally leading innovation ecosystem, which enables rapid scaling of laboratory innovations to mass production, and framed China as both a global testbed and deployment platform for cutting-edge green technologies backed by the world’s largest clean energy infrastructure system, inviting global partners to join the ongoing global new energy revolution.

    Turning to China-U.S. bilateral relations, Xie stressed that a stable China-U.S. relationship is foundational to global stability. Comparing the relationship to the first button on a shirt, he noted that getting this first button right is critical, calling on both nations to adopt a correct strategic perception that frames the two countries as partners rather than strategic rivals. Citing the healthy competitive dynamic between U.S. automaker Tesla and Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers as a model, Xie advocated for fair, mutually beneficial competition over zero-sum, win-lose confrontation. He called on both sides to clarify reasonable boundaries for national security policy, restore common sense and rationality to bilateral economic cooperation, and break free from the harmful chilling effect that has constrained cross-border exchange in recent years.

    Xie also shared his expectation for expanded high-level bilateral engagement in 2026, including confirming hopes for a planned visit to China by U.S. President Donald Trump later this year.

    Other key speakers at the forum echoed Xie’s call for open trade and constructive bilateral engagement. Thomas Young, president and CEO of the World Trade Center of Greater Philadelphia, the event’s host, noted that global markets are rapidly shifting and supply chains are continuing to evolve, meaning regions that position themselves strategically for cross-border collaboration will shape the next decade of global economic growth. He described the WTCA forum as a critical space to build professional relationships, exchange open and honest ideas, and facilitate tangible cross-border business deals.

    David L. Cohen, former U.S. Ambassador to Canada, observed that international trade does not develop in a vacuum—it grows from face-to-face connections between stakeholders in forums like this one. He emphasized that few bilateral relationships carry as much global economic weight and opportunity as the partnership between China and the United States, adding that sustained dialogue and mutual understanding are absolutely essential to expanding both global economic growth and shared prosperity for both nations.

    John E. Drew, chairman of the WTCA, centered his remarks on the foundational role of trust in global trade. “Trade is something that is in our genes as human beings,” Drew said, arguing that the single most important ingredient for successful cross-border trade is trust. When trading partners can rely on each other’s words and commitments, he explained, they can create unique, long-term value that benefits all sides.

    During panel discussions, Kellie Meiman Hock, senior counselor at global advisory firm McLarty Associates, echoed a common sentiment among business attendees, noting that global companies crave policy certainty around trade rules of the road and tariff schedules to plan long-term investments.

    As the global governing body for the World Trade Center brand, the WTCA supports more than one million enterprises across the world. Its annual Global Business Forum is the association’s flagship event, hosted each year by a different local World Trade Center to foster cross-border economic cooperation and connection.