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Beijing confirmed on Tuesday that China had been invited to join US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace”.
“China has received the United States’ invitation,” foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a regular news briefing, without specifying whether Beijing would accept the invitation.
The board was originally conceived to oversee the rebuilding of war-torn Gaza, but the charter does not appear to limit its role to the occupied Palestinian territory.
Washington has asked various leaders to sit on the board, chaired by Trump, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hungarian premier Viktor Orban and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Guo said China-US relations had achieved overall stability in the past year, despite a trade war that saw both countries impose tit-for-tat tariffs on each other’s products.
“Over the past year, China-US relations have experienced ups and downs, but have maintained overall dynamic stability,” Guo told reporters.
“Cooperation between China and the US benefits both sides, while confrontation harms both,” he added.
China’s People’s Liberation Army staged a second day of large-scale military drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, unleashing a live-fire show of force as part of what it called “Justice Mission 2025″ to demonstrate its ability to deter any external support for the island it claims as part of its sovereign territory.
Taiwanese officials said some of China’s live rounds landed closer to the island than before.
The maneuvers increased tension around the Taiwan Strait as 2025 drew to a close, but the impact extended beyond military pressure into everyday life. Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration was notified that seven temporary “dangerous zones” had been set up around the strait. The schedules of Taiwan’s four international airports on Tuesday afternoon showed over 150 international and domestic flights had revised times, delays or cancellations.
