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NEWS IN CHINA

• Xi meets the King of Tonga: Chinese President Xi Jinping met King Tupou VI of Tonga in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, during King Tupou’s state visit to China. Xi Jinping affirmed that China and Tonga are true friends who have supported each other through difficulties and built a comprehensive strategic partnership based on mutual respect and support of core interests. Xi said China will remain a trustworthy partner for Tonga regardless of international changes and reiterated support for Tonga’s sovereignty and independent development path. Xi announced China’s readiness to expand investment opportunities and cooperation in trade and investment, agriculture and fisheries, infrastructure, clean energy, and healthcare, amongst others. King Tupou thanked China for its selfless assistance and reaffirmed Tonga’s firm adherence to the one‑China principle and opposition to Taiwan independence, and voiced support for China’s reunification efforts and Xi’s global initiatives.
  
  
• Xi Holds a Telephonic Conversation with Trump: Chinese President Xi Jinping had a telephone conversation with U.S President Donald Trump, weeks after their recent meeting in Busan, South Korea. Xi said the Busan summit produced many important consensuses that helped stabilise and improve China–US relations and sent a positive signal globally, reiterating that cooperation benefits both, confrontation harms both and calling on both sides to lengthen the list of cooperation and shorten the list of problems. Xi recalled how China and the US once fought fascism and militarism side by side, which he argued should translate today into jointly safeguarding the outcomes of World War II. Trump said he fully agreed with Xi’s assessment of bilateral ties and noted the U.S’s understanding of the importance of the Taiwan question to China.​
  
  
• China urges Multilateralism in Chemical Weapons: China has called on member states of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to uphold true multilateralism in and strengthen solidarity in implementing the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), during the 30th Conference of the States Parties (CSP‑30) in The Hague. Wang Daxue, deputy director‑general of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s arms control department and head of the Chinese delegation, urged all parties to resist politicisation, focus on consensus‑based decision-making, and to safeguard the convention’s authority and integrity. China proposed four initiatives in its position paper, including adhering to the object and purpose of the Chemical Weapons Convention, upholding multilateralism, safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries and enhancing solidarity and coordination. China’s motion was supported by delegates from  Brazil, Uganda, Venezuela, Russia, Qatar, and Mongolia, among others. 
  
  
• China, Russia Universities Launch Joint Tech Institute in Chongqing: Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications and Russia’s Far Eastern Federal University have launched a Joint Institute in Chongqing to cooperate in information and communications fields, marking the first approved Sino‑Russian engineering education institution linking China’s central and western regions with Russia’s Far East. At the unveiling ceremony, Boris Korobets, president of Far Eastern Federal University, said that the project reflects the China–Russia comprehensive strategic partnership and aims to build a “unique and harmonious educational ecosystem” that fuses both countries’ academic traditions into a shared platform for technological leadership.​ The institute will offer four‑year undergraduate programmes in computer science and technology, digital media technology and internet of things engineering, as well as three‑year master’s degrees in information and communication engineering, computer science and technology, and control science and engineering. It has already enrolled an initial cohort of 100 IoT engineering students from eight provinces and plans to expand to about 1,650 students within four years, with graduates receiving degrees from both universities and priority access to tech, communications and international business roles in China and Russia.
  
  
• China Expands Use of Green Electricity Certificates: China issued over 370 million green electricity certificates in October, bringing its total issuance in the first 10 months of 2025 to 2.478 billion, according to data from China’s National Energy Administration (NEA). Out of the October batch, 158 million certificates were tradable, accounting for about 42.6 percent of that month’s total, while trading activity remained brisk with 66.7 million certificates changing hands nationwide and cumulative trades for January–October reaching 596 million.​ The green electricity certificates were first issued in 2023, having had a pilot run back in 2017. China has the world’s largest clean power system and carbon trading market, with a growing green industry sector. 
  
  

SOCIAL MEDIA CHATTER

Power Bank “3C” Certificates Stir Alarm on Weibo: The statement by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) under its new "Technical Specification for Safety of Mobile Power Banks" that existing 3C safety certifications for many portable chargers will no longer be recognised has caused a stir in Chinese Social media. Hashtag like #PowerBank3CCertificationtoBecomeInvalid has quickly trended in Weibo. The topic has triggered a wave of confusion and anxiety among users who rely on power banks for daily commuting and travel. Many netizens complained that frequent rule changes have made them feel frustrated and redundant.  They are worried that they will have to buy new chargers just to pass airport or railway security checks. Some wondered if prices would keep going up and if people would ever be able to buy them happily. Still, others supported stricter regulations, saying that they were put in place for consumer protection, with one netizen commenting they hoped that food safety regulations were this strict. 

INDIA WATCH

Guancha Highlights Socialist Roots of Kerala’s Extreme Poverty Eradication Strategy: A Chinese media outlet, Guancha, recently published an article arguing that Kerala’s recent announcement of having eradicated extreme poverty is a product of its long‑standing socialist governance under the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The article gave credit to CPI(M)‑led governments for using land reform, class‑based welfare and “decentralised people’s planning” to address structural inequalities, and frames Kerala’s November 1 announcement as a response to what the author calls global “capitalist” development models. Guancha’s article draws explicit parallels of the scheme with China’s “targeted poverty alleviation” campaign and suggests that Kerala’s experience demonstrates, in the author’s view, how a socialist government can combine ideological commitment and “scientific governance” to deliver both social justice and, in a planned second phase, industrial upgrading and growth. The article emphasised Kerala’s shift from broad welfare schemes to household‑level “micro plans” designed on the basis of detailed multidimensional poverty data and field surveys. 

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.