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NEWS IN CHINA 

• President Xi Jinping Discusses Regional Issues with the Saudi Crown Prince: President Xi Jinping held a phone call with the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman. Xi stated that China attaches great significance to developing relations with Saudi Arabia, as this year marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of a comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries. Xi emphasised that China is willing to further deepen strategic mutual trust, strengthen pragmatic co-operation and expand exchanges with Saudi Arabia. Regarding the current situation in the Middle East, Xi stressed that China advocates an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire and supports all efforts towards restoring peace while adhering to dispute resolution through political and diplomatic means. Xi underscored that the Strait of Hormuz should remain open in the common interest of all regional countries and the international community. Mohammed bin Salman highlighted that the current conflict has caused damage to the security of the Gulf states and has severely impacted global energy supplies and economic operations. He further stated that Saudi Arabia is willing to strengthen communication and coordination with China to achieve a ceasefire, prevent the resumption of hostilities and ensure safety and freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.
  
  
• Premier Li Qiang Calls for Deepening Reforms in Energy Systems: Premier Li Qiang called for efforts to optimise China's energy structure and deepen reforms in energy systems to provide solid energy support for the country's green transition and high-quality development. Li made these remarks while presiding over a State Council group study session on energy development. Li emphasised that amid changes in the international landscape and continued growth in China's energy consumption, there is a need to enhance the resilience of energy systems and energy security capacity. Li highlighted the importance of strengthening scientific and technological innovation in the energy sector, accelerating efforts to develop a new energy system, and promoting a green and low-carbon transformation in energy production and consumption. He noted that efforts should be made to tap the potential of renewable energy supply, continuously promote the clean and efficient use of fossil fuels, and accelerate the construction of a new type of power grid. Li highlighted the significance of deepening institutional reforms and innovation for coordinating energy security and green transition as a systematic undertaking. He also called for developing a unified national market in the electricity sector.
  
  
• Second Batch of Special Treasury Bonds Allocated for Key Projects: The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) released the second batch of major project lists for 2026. The projects are part of the initiative for implementing major national strategies and building security capacity in key areas. The NDRC allocated 216.8 billion yuan of ultra-long special treasury bonds to support 336 key projects. The projects span across key areas of artificial intelligence, urban underground pipeline renovation, transport infrastructure along the Yangtze River Economic Belt, high-standard farmland and higher education upgradation. The total funding for supporting projects for implementing major national strategies and building security capacity in key areas has reached 606.5 billion yuan, accounting for 76% of the yearly allocated amount of 800 billion yuan. An official from the NDRC emphasised that further efforts will be made to improve investment and financing mechanisms, accelerate the implementation of soft infrastructure measures and strengthen supervision of central investment funds.
  
  
• Supreme People's Court Moves to Draft Guidelines on AI-related Disputes: The Supreme People's Court (SPC) released a work report detailing the Court's overall intellectual property (IP) protection performance. As per the report, courts have strengthened intellectual property trial work in emerging fields and heard civil cases involving emerging technologies, including disputes related to AI-generated content and AI model parameters. The SPC is speeding up the drafting of guidelines on the lawful and proper adjudication of AI-related disputes. The Vice President of the SPC, Tao Kaiyuan, stated that the SPC is aiming to advance beneficial, safe and fair development of AI. Tao stated that in 2025, the courts handled 64,000 first-instance civil cases involving technology-related IP disputes in fields such as integrated circuits, industrial machine tools, high-end instruments, foundational software, advanced materials and biomanufacturing. The courts have imposed penalties on about 19,000 individuals for IPR infringement crimes in 2025, marking an increase of 6.2% from last year. Due to rapid development and the complex nature of rights and ownership in fields such as data and AI, the SPC is acting swiftly to clarify rules. The efforts by the SPC are targeted towards providing better judicial protection of data rights while balancing protection with data development and use.
  
  
• Campaign to Remediate Abandoned Mines to be Launched in 2026: Lu Lihua, Deputy Head of the Department of Land Space Ecological Restoration in the Ministry of Natural Resources, stated that the Ministry will launch a dedicated campaign on the remediation of abandoned mines from 2026 to 2030. Lu stated that China has restored 223,300 hectares of land from historical mines during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), exceeding the target by nearly 20 percent. Lu further added that a tailored approach that fully considers the local conditions in the remediation of mines has been adopted. The Yangtze and Yellow river basins, the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, and the belt covered by the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program are key regions in the remediation efforts. These projects eliminated 7,000 geological hazard sites, treated approximately 16,670 hectares of slopes and mining pits, and added 1,733 hectares of farmlands and orchards and increased forest, grass and wetland area by over 10,000 hectares. The ministry will accelerate the cleanup of remaining untreated abandoned mines while pushing for the simultaneous extraction and restoration of land at active mining sites. The central government will cover 60 percent of project costs through subsidies, with each project eligible for up to 300 million yuan for funding, under the new policy. 

SOCIAL MEDIA CHATTER

Actors Signing AI Authorization Agreement Sparks Debate on Weibo: The hashtags#LawyerDiscusses100CelebritiesSigningAIAuthorisationAgreementswithiQiyi, #LawyerSaysPackageAIAuthorisationisExtremelyUnfavorabletoCelebrities, and #LawyerWarnsCelebritiesAuthorisingiQiyiAItoBewareofTraps# are going viral on the social media platform Weibo. An online video streaming service platform, iQiyi, announced that the platform's self-developed AI intelligent body platform has signed agreements with over 100 celebrities. The agreements imply that the facial data of these celebrities and their performance images will be authorised by the agreement for use by the platform in AI content generation. Many netizens expressed concern over the development, with comments expressing that AI licensing can be detrimental to artists, to calls for protecting the rights of the actors. Netizens also questioned the extent to which the privacy of the actors would be protected on the platform, while many pointed out that agreeing to be on the platform should not be equated to authorisation to use their images. A majority of the netizens also criticised iQiyi as attempting to monopolise the market and called the terms unfair, and also expressed fears of fraud and information leakage. Most netizens raised questions on the extent to which the rights and privacy of the actors would be protected following the authorisation agreement.


INDIA WATCH

Global Times Highlights the Trend of Growing India-China Air Connectivity: An article in Global Times notes that Air China will resume its direct flight routes between Beijing and New Delhi from 21 April. This marks the second route to India resumed by Air China in April. Earlier this month, China Eastern Airlines resumed its direct flight between Kunming and Kolkata. This was the latest expansion of China Eastern Airlines in its China-India route, following the resumption of flights on the Shanghai-Delhi route in November 2025. The article notes that this resumption of flights by Chinese airlines comes amid a similar push by Indian airlines such as Indigo. The article further highlights Indigo’s statement that it will continue to enrich travel operations between India and China to meet the growing demand for economic, trade and tourism exchanges between both countries. It cites Qian Feng, Director of the Research Department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, who states this trend signals a growing momentum in bilateral ties between the two countries. He further argues that it indicates practical measures to reduce supply chain costs and support travel for technology and manufacturing companies. The article mentions that India approved ease of restrictions on Chinese investments in select sectors last month to mark a reset of economic ties after six years of friction. It highlights that, signalling renewed momentum in India–China ties, Wang Wentao met Piyush Goyal on 27 March and emphasised strengthening economic cooperation to help stabilise bilateral relations.

Prepared By

Rituja Ghosh

Rituja Ghosh is a Research and Administrative Intern at Organisation for Research on China and Asia (ORCA). She holds a master's in International Relations from South Asian University, New Delhi. She has presented her work in several prestigious conferences, such as the paper titled "Sinicization in the People's Republic of China: An Analysis of Language Policies" at the 16th All India Conference on China Studies. She has previously worked as a Security Analyst with a corporate firm and as an Academic Associate at the Kautilya School of Public Policy, Hyderabad. Her interests lie in studying the politics of South Asia, India-China relations and China’s social and cultural policies.