Chinese and US anti-drug authorities have worked together to crack a cross-border drug trafficking and smuggling case, according to a post on Tuesday by Yuyuantantian, a Chinese social media account affiliated with Chinese state television. The account revealed details of the case, saying that the US side provided some of the key intelligence leads, while Chinese authorities carried out arrests and investigative operations.
The disclosure followed an announcement by China's Ministry of Public Security (MPS) on Monday that anti-drug agencies of China and the US jointly crack a drug trafficking and smuggling case, arresting five suspects, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
The MPS said that the five suspects, two Chinese nationals and three US nationals, were arrested in coordinated operations launched simultaneously in both countries in early April by the MPS's narcotics control bureau and the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida also released information on the case on Monday. According to Yuyuantantian, this marked the first time in recent years that the two sides publicly released information on such a joint anti-drug operation simultaneously.
In its release, the US Attorney's Office detailed a case involving a Chinese national and a Las Vegas man charged in scheme to import a deadly synthetic opioid into the US, and cited Special Agent in Charge David L. King of the DEA Asia Pacific Division as saying, "We commend the Chinese Ministry of Public Security for their thorough and swift investigative work on this case, which was initially presented at the February 2026 Bilateral Drug Enforcement Intelligence Working Group, hosted by DEA Asia Pacific Division in Colorado."
As part of the investigation, China's MPS took law enforcement action in China against Guo, one of the suspects, according to the office, which added that "The Justice Department thanks the Ministry of Public Security for its assistance and coordinated efforts."
According to Yuyuantantian, although China-US anti-drug cooperation mechanisms had been affected in past years due to what it described as actions taken by the US side, cooperation at the practical law enforcement level had never been completely suspended.
Citing professionals familiar with the issue, the account said exchanges in intelligence sharing, evidence transfers and joint investigative assistance had continued throughout the period.
The account added that US law enforcement agencies including the DEA and the FBI had consistently shown strong willingness to cooperate at the working level. When smuggling clues emerged, both sides exchanged information and coordinate investigations.
Professionals who had participated in China-US anti-drug cooperation consultations told Yuyuantantian that the DEA maintains an office in China and even subscribes to the China Anti-Drug News newspaper.
According to the account, such details reflect the "high degree of willingness for cooperation and friendly attitude" maintained by both sides at the operational level.
Yuyuantantian also cited previous examples of cooperation in transnational cases. When US authorities discovered abnormal flows of precursor chemicals or identified drug trafficking chains linked to China, they notified Chinese authorities and provided information on suspects involved. Chinese authorities would then launch investigations, surveillance operations and arrests, while also sharing clues with the US side.
The account noted that in 2017 alone, the Office of China National Narcotics Control Commission provided the US side with more than 400 clues related to fentanyl procurement and over 500 intelligence reports involving US customers purchasing new psychoactive substances.
The report also traced another recent case in which the US repatriated a drug-related fugitive surnamed Han to China in April this year. According to the account, Han was the first drug-related fugitive repatriated to China by the US in recent years.
Compared with ordinary intelligence exchanges, transnational repatriation involves far more complicated procedures, including identity verification, evidence confirmation, coordination of judicial procedures and coordination between immigration and law enforcement authorities, Yuyuantantian said. It added that customs authorities, immigration agencies and even financial regulators may all become involved in such cases.
The account noted that today's transnational drug crimes have evolved into highly cross-border "gray industry chains," with many cases involving overlapping jurisdiction across multiple countries. For example, precursor chemicals may be produced in China while drugs are distributed in the US, with the entire chain spanning different legal systems and jurisdictions.
Under such circumstances, issues including where suspects are tried and which side conducts prosecutions all require coordination, according to Yuyuantantian, which added that the completion of such cooperation itself reflects "a considerable degree of mutual trust" between the two law enforcement systems.
The account also noted that in recent years, the US had attempted to shift responsibility for its domestic drug governance problems outward, but that approach had failed to fundamentally solve the issue. By contrast, it said, returning to pragmatic approaches such as law enforcement cooperation, intelligence sharing and joint investigations has produced tangible results.
The combination of the Tianzhou-10 cargo craft and a Long March-7 carrier rocket was vertically transferred to its launch site on Friday, and the cargo spacecraft will be launched at a proper time in the near future, China Central Television (CCTV) News reported on Friday.
The mission will deliver a brand-new extravehicular spacesuit, a new space treadmill and six scientific experiment payloads to the space station, marking the largest number of uplinked payload projects since the construction of China's space station began, the report said.
The vertical transfer operation kicked off at 8 am on Friday, and currently, the facilities and equipment at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in Wenchang, South China's Hainan Province, are in good condition, and comprehensive functionality checks and joint tests are scheduled to proceed as planned ahead of the launch, CCTV News reported, citing the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
Encased in the rocket's top fairing, the Tianzhou-10 cargo craft is set to carry nearly 6.3 tons of supplies to orbit. These vital materials will support the in-orbit work and daily life of the Shenzhou-23 and Shenzhou-24 taikonaut crews, covering more than 220 items for the taikonaut system, space station system, cargo spacecraft system and space application system, alongside 700 kilograms of propellant, the report said.
Something particularly noteworthy about this mission is the delivery of a third brand-new extravehicular spacesuit, CCTV News said. Following the two sets already sent to orbit by the Tianzhou-9 cargo craft, this latest delivery will fully complete the overall upgrade and replacement of extravehicular spacesuits aboard the space station.
Wang Ya'nan, editor-in-chief of Beijing-based Aerospace Knowledge magazine, told the Global Times on Friday that the arrival of the new extravehicular spacesuits is expected to enable taikonaut crews to carry out more extravehicular activities.
Wang noted that these new suits appear to deliver improved overall performance, and this round of extravehicular spacesuit upgrades may suggest that extravehicular tasks at the space station are likely to grow more frequent and intensive in the days ahead.
Also on board the cargo craft are a new space treadmill and six scientific experiment payloads with a total weight of around 280 kilograms. They will support cutting-edge space science research in fluid physics, aerospace technologies and other frontier fields under the space station's microgravity environment, making this mission the most payload-intensive since the space station construction commenced, read the report.
According to Wang, the newly delivered space treadmill can help taikonauts enhance their physical training efficiency while in orbit, maintain physical well-being, and could better prepare them for longer-duration space missions.
Regarding the wide range of scientific experiment payloads carried by the Tianzhou-10 cargo craft, the expert said that this may point to a gradual expansion of research subjects, with each payload designed for targeted space experiments. "As the China space station steps into stable routine operation, the scale and scope of space scientific research could continue to broaden going forward," Wang noted.
CCTV News also said that most cargo items have already been loaded onto the spacecraft, while a small number of low-temperature preserved supplies - including fresh fruits and vegetables, refrigerated consumable kits, as well as biological and cell experiment samples - will be loaded shortly before launch. To ensure seamless pre-launch installation, researchers have conducted full-process rehearsals for the preparation, loading and integration of these experiment samples.
According to the Xinhua News Agency, the Tianzhou-9 separated from the orbiting Tiangong space station combination on Wednesday and re-entered the atmosphere under controlled conditions on Thursday. The space station has thus cleared a docking port to make room for the Tianzhou-10, the CMSA noted.
In addition, the Shenzhou-21 taikonaut crew has completed in-orbit manual rendezvous and docking training, and is well prepared to welcome the Tianzhou-10 cargo craft, per CCTV News.
The report is not true and this is a war that should not have happened in the first place, and its origins are clear to all. China firmly opposes attempts by some to fabricate rumors and link China to the conflict, the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in the UK said in a statement issued on Friday morning Beijing time in response to a Financial Times report alleging that during the recent conflict, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps used a "spy satellite" built and launched by a Chinese company to monitor US military bases and key civilian infrastructure in the Middle East.
The Chinese side is deeply concerned about the attacks on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and firmly opposes any actions that escalate tensions in the region, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Thursday, in response to a question seeking comment on Iranian attacks on Fujairah Oil Industry Zone in the UAE and ships in Strait of Hormuz.
"China consistently maintains that the sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity of Middle Eastern Gulf countries should be earnestly respected, and that civilians and non-military targets should be protected. The immediate priority is to achieve an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire, and prevent further escalation of the conflict," Lin said.
Tourists visit the Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Spring Scenic Area in Dunhuang City, northwest China's Gansu Province, April 27, 2026. As the May Day holiday approaches, the tourism markets across the country are heating up. (Photo by Zhang Xiaoliang/Xinhua)
Some major Chinese cities and provinces released their first-quarter economic data on Monday, showing a strong start to the year. A Chinese expert said that this trend underscores steady and solid economic development, supported by policy measures and consumption upgrades, with the growth of the services sector being a highlight.
Most importantly, the economic growth sends an important signal of a solid start to 2026, the first year of China's 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), as the country works toward its annual GDP growth target of 4.5-5 percent this year, the expert said.
Beijing held a press conference on its economic performance on Monday. In the first quarter, the city's GDP reached 1.29 trillion yuan, up 5.9 percent year-on-year at constant prices, marking a solid start to the economy, according to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics.
Notably, the capital's tertiary sector, or services industry, saw stronger-than-average growth at 6.4 percent year-on-year compared with 5.2 percent at the national level. Next-generation information technology and the platform economy continued to drive development, while rising demand for computing power boosted faster growth in integrated circuit design services, according to the statistics bureau.
Also on Monday, Central China's Henan Province announced its first-quarter economic performance, showing a good start to the year. The province's GDP reached 1.59 trillion yuan, up 5.2 percent year-on-year at constant prices, according to the Henan Province Bureau of Statistics.
The value added of the tertiary industry reached 926.846 billion yuan, up 5.1 percent year-on-year.
Notably, in January and February, the operating revenue of services enterprises above designated size in the province rose 8.5 percent year-on-year, 1.1 percentage points higher than the national average. About 80 percent of industries recorded growth, with eight out of 10 major services industry categories above designated size posting growth, according to the provincial bureau of statistics.
Central China's Hubei Province announced on Monday that its GDP grew 5.4 percent in the first quarter, with the value added of the services sector up 5.1 percent year-on-year.
Some other major cities and provinces also announced their first-quarter economic data, including Southwest China's Sichuan Province, which reported 5.5 percent year-on-year growth, and Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, which recorded 4.5 percent growth.
Many regions achieved a strong and solid start to their economic performances in the first quarter, which reflected continued improvement of the industry growth structure, with the services sector accelerating to become key forces supporting the economic recovery, Hu Qimu, a deputy secretary-general of the Forum 50 for Digital-Real Economies Integration, told the Global Times on Monday.
Hu said that from consumption-related services to producer services, areas such as tourism, transportation, and information services have been recovering well, as the tertiary sector becomes an important engine for stabilizing economic growth.
Policies have also been strengthened to promote the development of the services sector. In January, the General Office of the State Council issued a notice on the Work Plan for Accelerating the Cultivation of New Growth Drivers for Service Consumption, emphasizing the strengthening of fiscal and financial support. It called for the coordinated use of existing funding channels to support the development of services consumption and foster new growth points in this sector, according to the notice.
Li Changan, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies at the University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times on Monday that based on the current data, overall economic performance across regions shows positive momentum, with the recovery trend continuing to strengthen.
Regions such as Chongqing and Henan have delivered relatively strong performances, reflecting the accelerating release of development momentum in central and western China, Li said, noting that these areas are increasingly becoming an important new source of support for overall economic growth.
Amid ongoing industrial upgrading, Li said that the services sector, which was highlighted in first-quarter economic data, has seen its contribution to economic growth further increase, paving the way for a strong start to the 15th Five-Year Plan.
China welcomes more US-funded enterprises, including GE HealthCare, to keep deepening mutually beneficial cooperation with China and share the opportunities brought by China's vast market and high-quality development, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng said on Tuesday.
He, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks during a meeting with Peter J. Arduini, president and CEO of GE HealthCare.
He noted that China's economy has made a good start this year, showing strong resilience and vitality.
During the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), He said, China will unswervingly expand high-level opening up and keep building a first-class business environment.
Arduini said that GE HealthCare is fully confident in its long-term development in China, will continue to deepen its presence in the Chinese market, and is willing to contribute to promoting economic and trade cooperation between the United States and China.
A zoo in Central China's Henan Province has introduced hotel rooms featuring floor-to-ceiling windows that allow guests an up-close view of tigers, sparking public concerns over safety. Located in Qinyang, Henan Province, the Hesheng Forest Zoo is offering 30 “tiger-view rooms,” with these rooms situated within the tiger observation area, Beijing News reported. In addition to the hotel accommodations, the observation area also contains the tigers' living quarters, which house Siberian tigers, Bengal golden tigers, and white tigers, according to the report.
Guests are able to view two to three tigers through the transparent glass windows from a single room, Beijing Daily reported, citing a staff member from the zoo.
Online booking platforms show that a tiger-view room is a twin-bedded standard room of 25 to 35 square meters, priced at 168 yuan ($24.65) and includes two tickets to the zoo.
This unique accommodation has drawn widespread attention from netizens. Some expressed curiosity and called on those who have stayed there to share their experience, while others raised concerns about the quality of lodging given the low price.
Several people expressed concern over safety. The zoo addressed the concerns, stating that the viewing area and the tigers’ living quarters are separated by three layers of professional glass, ensuring complete safety, Beijing Daily reported.
According to the Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism Bureau of Qinyang, the “tiger-view rooms” have met safety standards and passed local inspection, based on information provided by the Xingwan town people's government, the responsible regulatory body, according to Beijing News.
The report also noted that the zoo is a privately operated facility. Corporate information platform Tianyancha shows that the zoo, founded in 2021, is an enterprise primarily engaged in the entertainment business.
Several netizens also raised concerns over whether the operation of the tiger-view rooms will affect the tigers’ daily lives.
Zhang Minghai, director of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration Feline Research Center and Professor at the College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry University, was quoted by Beijing Daily as saying that whether tigers’ daily lives are disrupted mainly depends on whether their activity space is restricted and whether the materials of the barrier facilities could harm the animals.
“If both of these factors are acceptable and the associated facilities meet standards, these ‘tiger-view rooms’ will generally not cause additional adverse effects on the tigers,” Zhang added.
Zhang also said that the protection and utilization of wild animals are mutually reinforcing, with protection as the prerequisite for utilization. “It would be ideal if the revenue generated can be used to improve the tigers’ welfare and form a virtuous cycle,” he said, according to Beijing Daily.
America's ability to understand and manage its most consequential strategic relationship is eroding. Fewer than 2,000 Americans per year are currently estimated to be studying in China compared to 11,000 in 2019, according to a latest report released by the Washington-based non-profit US-China Education Trust (USCET).
If this pattern persists, the critical shortage will become a reality "as today's specialists with deep in-country experience retire without replacement," David M. Lampton, 80 years old, chair of the working group of the report and a renowned "China Hand" in the US, said in the foreword of the report.
At the launching ceremony of the report on March 20, Nicholas Burns, the US ambassador to China under President Joe Biden, said it would be "a national security imperative," referring to American students studying in China, according to The South China Morning Post.
Not only in the research sphere, in the politics circle, the US is also witnessing a downward trend in the number of officials with practical experiences in dealing with China. "US leaders need to see what's happening in China," read the title of an opinion article published by The New York Times on March 22.
If these trends continue, the US will get ill-informed and disoriented in formulating its China policy, putting the entire American China studies system - which the US itself built after World War II - at risk of generational collapse, warned Mei Yang, an expert in China-US defense and security affairs from The Institute for International Affairs, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen).
Declining China experts
China experts in the US refer to American specialists in overseas China studies with a focus primarily on political science, strategic studies and international relations, and are mainly devoted to research on contemporary and practical issues concerning China, according to Mei.
Among them, some actively participated in the two sides' exchanges and exerted influence in the US' China policies, for example, Henry Kissinger, the eminent US diplomat and strategist who played a pivotal role in shaping China-US relations as he spearheaded the historic normalization process. This group is also dubbed China Hands. Veteran China Hands like Kissinger usually maintained close connections with various sectors of Chinese society, possessed a solid command of Chinese and conducted regular field research in China. This allowed them to develop a relatively profound understanding of Chinese culture and realities. Even when they held personal differing views, these were rooted in on-the-ground observations of China, with Robert D. Barnett, an affiliate of the Lau China Institute at King's College of London, being one such example, Mei explained.
Other renowned American China Hands include Kenneth Lieberthal, Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan, and Thomas Christensen, Director of the China and the World Program at Columbia University.
Many veteran China Hands began studying China in the 1960s and 1970s. They saw their research coincide with the gradual normalization of China US relations, as well as China's shift from isolation to reform and opening up and from underdevelopment to progress. Thus, they generally held optimistic and favorable views toward China, Da Wei, director of Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times.
However, the group of veteran China Hands is facing a risk of a generational gap with no adequate successors to take over. "If we take 1975 as the dividing line, or classify middle-aged and young experts from senior ones by the age of 50, the US has already encountered a serious generational gap among veteran China Hands. Scholars under 50 are few while most scholars over 50 are generally over 70 and facing retirement," Mei told the Global Times.
In 2015, China Foreign Affairs University released a list of influential China Hands in the US, based on their impact on US policy-making, academic influence and social influence. Lampton topped the list, followed by David Shambaugh, the founding Director of the China Policy Program in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, and Avery Goldstein, the Inaugural Director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China at the University of Pennsylvania. The Global Times found that all 10 candidates on the list were born no later than 1975, and eight of them were aged over 70 as of 2026.
The youngest among the top 10 was M. Taylor Fravel, director of MIT Security Studies Program who focuses on international security, China, and East Asia, according to an introduction of him on MIT website. He was reportedly born in 1971.
Beyond general gap risk, veteran China Hands in the US have increasingly returned to academic research at universities, with their students similarly gravitating toward higher education. Consequently, the discourse power over China policy has gradually shifted to think tanks. A growing divide has thus emerged in US' China studies between the university-based "academic camp" and the think tank-led "policy camp," with policy-oriented research from think tanks increasingly gaining the upper hand, Mei said. According to Mei, the younger generation China experts also present a notable shift in research interest toward military and security issues.
This not only underscores the growing adversarial dynamics in future China-US relations, but also suggests that the new generation of China Hands who will shape the bilateral relationship over an extended period may adopt a more objective, and even detached, attitude toward China. They treat China as a country for calm, dispassionate analysis, rather than a field for in-depth exploration of its historical and cultural connotations, infused with personal sentiment and academic idealism. Against this backdrop, many China Hands are no longer broadly knowledgeable about China; instead, they focus narrowly on specific issues concerning the country, he analyzed.
In this point, Michael S. Chase, former US deputy assistant secretary of defense for China, whose expertise lies in China's maritime security and military modernization, serves as a typical example.
"While well researched on military reforms and naval capabilities, Chase shows little interest in other dimensions of China. This shows a sharp contrast to his mentor Lampton, who grasps China holistically and practices empathetic understanding. Chase maintains an objective and distant stance," Mei said.
Chilling effect
Apart from the internal elements, the toxic political environment and intensified policies play a more vital role in the declining of America's China experts. "Undoubtedly, a 'chilling effect' has emerged in the US regarding engagement with China. China-US people-to-people and cultural exchanges have been significantly 'securitized,'" Zhao Minghao, an expert at the Institute of International Studies, Fudan University, told the Global Times.
According to the USCET report, in the US, federal funding for China-focused study has declined sharply, and many longstanding exchange programs have been suspended. Heightened US university research security rules and new state-level restrictions on university engagement with China have further reduced opportunities for academic travel.
Since the US adopted the "great-power competition" strategy toward China in 2017, the US government has imposed a host of restrictive measures on people-to-people exchanges between the two countries, particularly educational interaction. During that period, the US Department of Justice launched the "China Initiative," and agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation targeted Chinese American scientists with ties to China, Zhao said.
During the Biden administration, while Washington formally scrapped the China Initiative in name, it has continued to restrict China-related cooperation at US universities and research institutions. Under this circumstance, many US colleges and universities have suspended partnerships with Chinese institutions, even explicitly restricting faculty and staff travel to China, and warning American students that visiting or studying in China carries security risks such as "wrongful detention," according to Zhao. Li Cheng, a Chinese American political science expert and a China Hand listed on the abovementioned list, returned to China in 2023 after living in the US for nearly 40 years. He is now a professor of political science and founding director of the Centre on Contemporary China and the World at the University of Hong Kong.
In an interview with the Lianhe Zaobao in July 2023, Li said that life in the US has grown more uncomfortable for Chinese Americans. He said that he is increasingly asked to clarify which side he represents during public speeches. "When I say 'we,' people ask: Who exactly do you mean by 'we'?" Li was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
The "decoupling" from China pushed by the US government in recent years has effectively weakened Americans' access to professional knowledge about China in the name of national security. Any American scholar whose research agenda involves China may face investigations by the federal government, or be denounced by the US officials on social media for assisting China's development. This has further reduced the number of young people coming to China to study the Chinese language and culture, Mei said.
As the USCET report noted, today, American students and scholars are deterred from studying in China because of a widespread perception that such experience will prevent them from obtaining a security clearance for a US government job in the future.
Mei deemed the Trump administration's two terms in office were eight years that witnessed the declining of America's China Hands. He noted that some hardline China experts, such as Miles Yu and Michael Pillsbury (who emphasized the "China threat" rhetoric, claiming that China seeks expansion and to surpass the US), were hired during the Trump administration's first term. However, now, in its second term, even hardline China experts have been excluded from the government's decision-making circle.
Exchanges needed
In the eyes of Da, China is developing and updating its concepts at a rapid pace, yet the current generation of American China Hands lacks on-the-ground experience and is unable to develop a nuanced and accurate understanding of the country.
Universities and institutes in the US have been aware of this crisis and are making sincere efforts to restore bilateral exchanges, including the National Committee on US-China Relations, the Asia Society, and the Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins University. Former US Ambassador to China Max Baucus, a native of Montana, has in recent years personally led student delegations from the state on visits to China on multiple occasions, Zhao noted.
The launch of the initiative to invite 50,000 young Americans to China for exchange and study programs over a five-year period has also helped to boost educational and cultural exchanges between the two countries. As of January 2026, over 40,000 US youth have actively participated in the initiative, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Da called for more favorable policies to make it easier for American students to study and work in China. "Over time, these students will grow into a new generation of China Hands."
This year is a vital year for the China-US relationship with a series of planned interactions between the two sides. We also hope that renewed engagement in the field of education between the two sides will achieve fresh progress as this represents a major and positive development serving the long-term interests of both countries, Zhao said.
