In his 50 years in politics, he made positive contributions to China-India relations, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said.

Instead of "the dragon and the elephant compete with each other", "the dragon and the elephant dance together, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas. Beijing has also made substantial progress in militarising its man-made islands in the past few years, which it says it has the right to defend.

A US RC-135S reconnaissance aircraft on Wednesday flew near the ongoing Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) drills in the South China Sea, a day after another US spy plane, a U-2, trespassed into another PLA exercise restricted zone, state-run Global Times reported.

Trump signed executive orders on August 6 that would prevent TikTok and WeChat from operating in the US as they threatened America's national security and economy.

India has been maintaining that China has no locus standi in commenting on Jammu and Kashmir.

Xi made the remarks in a verbal message to Pakistani President Arif Alvi, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The PLA launched a campaign to stop food waste and cultivate thrifty habits in the military under the "clean plate" campaign launched by President Xi Jinping.

The right path for the two sides is to respect and support each other as this serves our long-term interests, Chinese foreign minister said.

The Central Military Commission, which is the overall high command of the Chinese military, is headed by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

'Terrorists recruited, trained and armed by Pakistan have disturbed peace and order in J&K, with over 450 incidents of terrorist orchestrated violence taking place since August 2019, leading to several civilian casualties'

China, which considers the estranged island of Taiwan as part of its mainland, vociferously objects to any high-level foreign dignitaries meeting Taiwanese leaders.

A netizen surnamed Zhou was arrested by police for "spreading rumours online stating that the poor quality of military vehicles supplied by the Dongfeng Off-road Vehicle Co, Ltd has caused the death of Chinese soldiers during the China-India border clash," a report in Chinamil.com, which is attached to the Chinese ministry of defence, said.

Although China still faces the threat of new outbreaks due to local community transmissions or from imported cases, the country's capability to contain the COVID-19 has been honed, thanks to its experience in battling the virus for months.

It was the 12th day in a row that US military planes have approached the mainland coast, the report said.

This was in response to "unilateral" decision by US to shut the Houston consulate. China's decision is legitimate and necessary response to the unreasonable actions of the US, China said.

The Chinese Mars probe named Tianwen 1, or Quest for Heavenly Truth 1, will fulfil three scientific objectives: orbiting the red planet for comprehensive observation, landing on Martian soil and sending a rover to roam the landing site.

Beijing's political risks are also escalating because of a renewed wave of public anger in many parts of Balochistan against human rights abuses by Pakistani troops deployed to crush the low-intensity insurgency in the province, the report said.

Analysts, however, predict it would be an uphill climb for export-reliant China's economy going forward as it faced intensified conflict with the US and the negative fallout on its external trade due to Beijing's increasingly aggressive policies towards countries like India resulting in bans of its products and services.

When asked for an update on Tuesday's military-level talks, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing in Beijing that both sides reached progress for promoting further disengagement of the border troops at the Western Sector.