The tweet (and sources for the graph)

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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has told Chinese President Xi Jinping it is important for economic activity to be on a “a level playing field”, when the pair met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil on Tuesday.

Xi also met French President Emmanuel Macron, Chinese state media announced later on Tuesday.

According to Reuters, Scholz told Xi it is important for China and Germany to talk about difficult topics such as trade and the Ukraine war.

“It is important that we ensure that a level playing field accompanies the economic activities of companies on all sides, that is central to the conditions for future work,” Scholz said.

Xi said China was ready to work with Germany to consolidate an all-round strategic partnership, according to Xinhua.

“China regards Germany as an important partner in promoting China-style modernisation and will continue to provide broad market opportunities for German companies,” Xi said, according to the state news agency. “China believes that Europe is an important pole in a multipolar world, and is committed to cooperating with Europe to jointly meet challenges.”

The Chinese president said he also hoped Germany could play an important role in China-EU negotiations regarding the bloc’s punitive tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.

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Final section of the east-route natural gas pipeline between China and Russia completed seven months ahead of schedule.

Russian gas is expected to power households in Shanghai by the end of the year after Chinese workers finished building the final section of the east-route natural gas pipeline between the two countries, China’s state television said on Monday.

The 5,111km-long gas route, a signature project underscoring tightening economic ties between China and its resource-rich neighbour, would provide “stable natural gas supply” for a combined 130 million households each year, it added.

The project, touted as having the world’s largest single-pipe capacity, would “make important contributions to optimising China’s energy consumption structure, promoting green transformation, and helping to achieve the ‘dual carbon’ goals,” CCTV said.

China has set a target of reaching peak carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.

Chinese construction workers have accelerated the building progress of the southern section, which starts in Hebei province and ends in Shanghai, since it broke ground in 2020, and finished the whole project seven months ahead of schedule, PipeChina official Cui Zong told CCTV.

Energy trade between China and Russia has jumped in recent years as Western economies have boycotted commodities from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

Last year, pipeline gas supplies from Russia climbed by 61.7 per cent from a year earlier to US$6.4 billion, making China its second-largest importer after Turkmenistan, according to Russian state agency TASS.

The volume of Russian crude shipped to China also rose by 24 per cent in 2023 from a year earlier to 107.02 million metric tonnes – equivalent to 2.14 million barrels per day – according to China’s General Administration of Customs.

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The Yuan Xiang Fa Zhan was the first container ship to sail directly between the two countries in decades.

The first cargo ship in decades to sail directly from Pakistan to Bangladesh successfully unloaded its containers, port officials said on Sunday, as both sides seek to rebuild ties after decades of frosty relations.

The two countries, once one nation, split in 1971 after a brutal war, with Bangladesh then drawing closer to Pakistan’s rival India.

But its ties with New Delhi have frayed after a student-led revolution in August toppled Bangladesh’s autocratic leader Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India by helicopter.

The 182-metre (597-foot) long container ship – the Panama-flagged Yuan Xiang Fa Zhan – had sailed from Pakistan’s Karachi to Bangladesh’s Chittagong.

The route will “promote new opportunities for businesses on both sides”, Maroof wrote on Facebook.

In September, Bangladesh eased import restrictions on Pakistani goods, which previously required a mandatory physical inspection on arrival which resulted in long delays.

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A senior Taliban diplomat urged the international community to aid Afghanistan’s recovery during a meeting in Kabul on Sunday, emphasising the destruction caused by decades of conflict.

Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Shir Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai called on the United Nations and international NGOs to provide support to Afghanistan in the form of technical help, economic development initiatives and agricultural cooperation.

He particularly addressed countries that were previously militarily involved in Afghanistan, claiming they have a moral obligation to help rebuild the country based on the Doha Agreement.

Stanekzai indirectly pointed to Nato countries that took part in US-led operations, claiming that for 20 years these countries bombed Afghanistan and conducted military missions that led to fatalities and destruction of the country.

“Cooperate with Afghanistan in all fields, especially in politics, economy, agriculture and medicine, so that Afghanistan reaches self-sufficiency,” he said.

The United States and the Taliban signed a peace agreement in Doha that led to the ending of the US occupation of Afghanistan and the subsequent return to power of the Taliban in August 2021.

Since then, the Taliban government has been seeking international recognition and aid, while also facing criticism over its governance practices. As a result, no country has officially recognised the Taliban government yet.

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Eight people have been killed and 17 others wounded in a knife attack at a vocational school in Wuxi city, eastern China, police said.

The attack occurred at the Wuxi Vocational Institute of Arts and Technology in Yixing County at about 6:30pm local time (10:30 GMT), the Yixing police said in a statement.

Police said the suspect was a 21-year-old former student at the school, who was meant to graduate this year, but had failed his exams.

“He returned to the school to express his anger and commit these murders,” police said, adding that the suspect had confessed.

This is the second deadly attack within a week after a man drove his car into people at a sport facility in the southern city of Zhuhai, leaving 35 people dead and injuring 43 others.

And there has been a spate of other attacks in recent months.

In October, in Shanghai, a man killed three people and wounded 15 others in a knife attack at a supermarket.

And the month before, a Japanese schoolboy was fatally stabbed in the southern city of Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong.

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Viktor Orbán has turned Hungary into the main home for Chinese capital in Europe, capturing more than a quarter of all Chinese investment coming into the continent over the past two years.

The outsized share, including a wave of investment into EV factories, has been a fillip to an otherwise struggling Hungarian economy hit by the EU withholding about €20bn of funding over rule of law concerns.

Orbán’s challenge now is pulling off the diplomatic gymnastics required to simultaneously remain an ally to Xi Jinping and Donald Trump’s incoming administration of China hawks, while managing the threat of a chronic decline in EU funds.

Even against the backdrop of his rule of law dispute with Brussels, Orbán has exacerbated tensions with other EU capitals by maintaining strong diplomatic ties with both Beijing and Moscow.

Márton Nagy, economy minister and a former adviser to prime minister Orbán, told the Financial Times that China’s investments had helped maintain the country’s car industry as “a very strong core” of its economy, which is eventually expected to account for almost a third of GDP.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv would like to end the war with Russia next year through "diplomatic means" as both countries prepare for President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House.

In an interview with the Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne, Zelenskyy said he is certain that the war will end "sooner" than it otherwise would have once Mr. Trump becomes president.

The prospect of Trump returning to power in the United States next year has raised questions about the future of the conflict, as the Republican has been critical of U.S. military aid to Kyiv.

Zelenskyy said that Ukraine "must do everything so that this war ends next year, ends through diplomatic means."

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