Gloria Blog

Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi on Friday for their first face-to-face discussion. The meeting will take place on the sidelines of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) summit in former Soviet state Uzbekistan. Mr Xi will meet Mr Raisi in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, Chinese broadcaster CCTV said. The Chinese leader will also meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the meeting, the outlet said. China is one of the key members of the multilateral dialogue — alongside France, Germany, Britain, Russia and the US — that is trying to revive Iran's troubled 2015 nuclear deal. Iran, one of the SCO's four observer states, applied for full membership in 2008 but its bid was affected by UN and US sanctions imposed over its nuclear programme. Mr Raisi said on Wednesday that Iran still intends to pursue membership of the SCO. However, several members do not want a country under international sanctions in their rank...

As gasoline prices soar and the US considers invoking Cold War-era laws to boost production, there’s a massive pool of oil refining capacity on the other side of the Pacific Ocean that’s sitting idle. Around a third of Chinese fuel-processing capacity is currently out of action as Asia’s largest economy struggles to put the coronavirus behind it. If tapped, the extra supply of diesel and gasoline could go a long way to cooling red-hot global fuel markets, but there’s little chance of that happening. That’s because China’s refining sector is set up mainly to serve its mammoth domestic market. The government controls how much fuel can be sent abroad via a quota system that also applies to privately owned companies. And while Beijing has allowed more shipments at times over the years, it doesn’t want to become a major oil-product exporter as that would run counter to its goal of gradually de-carbonizing the economy. “China’s absence in the export market is keenly felt in the broader regio...

China’s spring outbreak of COVID-19 continues to subside, but a single local case in Shenzhen detected on Saturday triggered mass testing and neighborhood lockdowns in some parts of the technology hub. Two cases were eventually reported for Saturday, with none on Sunday. Nationwide, China is reporting the lowest number of new cases since early February. Of its top 50 cities by economic size, none currently have widespread restrictions in place. Recent outbreaks in Beijing and Inner Mongolia look to have been brought under control. Still, targeted curbs have been imposed. In-person teaching at elementary schools in Beijing and Shanghai is still halted, and some specific residential areas are locked down. A growing outbreak in Macau, its first in eight months, has triggered more border restrictions from mainland China. Shanghai is requiring everyone in the city to get tested each weekend. Many districts in Beijing and in other cities are also requiring regular testing, especially for wor...