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Guan Heng secretly filmed detention facilitates in Xinjiang before escaping to the US in 2021.

Lawyer for Guan Heng, whose exposed evidence of persecution of Uyghurs, says he is ‘textbook example of why asylum should exist’
A US immigration judge has granted asylum to a Chinese national who he said had a “well founded fear” of persecution if sent back to China after exposing alleged human rights abuses against Uyghurs there.
Guan Heng applied for asylum after arriving in the US illegally in 2021. He has been in custody since being swept up in an immigration enforcement operation in August last year as part of a mass deportation campaign by the Trump administration.

A Chinese team will visit Australia to help search for a man who allegedly randomly attacked a baby with hot coffee before fleeing the country. China’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, announced on Wednesday that investigators will travel to Queensland to work with police to investigate the 33-year-old accused attacker. The stranger allegedly dumped a Thermos of coffee on a nine-month-old boy, Luka, at a Brisbane park on 27 August 2024 before fleeing to his home country, China, with which Australia has no extradition arrangement

Mike Hawes casts doubt on Labour’s plan to double production by 2035, as Starmer visits China with carmaker delegation
A target of building 1.3m cars a year is likely to be missed unless a large new UK factory is built in the coming years, an industry group has said, as Keir Starmer prepares to hold trade talks in China.
Labour aims to have 1.3m vehicles rolling off production lines by 2035, a central ambition of its industrial strategy. That would nearly double the 764,715 cars and vans made in 2025, according to new data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

PM is first UK leader to visit China in eight years and hopes to strengthen bond with superpower amid uncertainty over US alliance
Keir Starmer has met the Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday for historic talks he hopes will deepen economic ties at a time when some inside government fear the US is no longer a reliable partner.
The prime minister’s meeting with Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing is scheduled to last about 40 minutes before a number of cultural and business receptions.

Stranger allegedly threw Thermos of coffee on nine-month-old boy in Brisbane park in 2024

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A Chinese team will visit Australia to help search for a man who allegedly randomly attacked a baby with hot coffee before fleeing the country.
China’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, announced on Wednesday that investigators will travel to Queensland to work with police to investigate the 33-year-old accused attacker.

Starmer’s team is wary of spies but such fears are not new – with Theresa May once warned to get dressed under a duvet
When prime ministers travel to China, heightened security arrangements are a given – as is the quiet game of cat and mouse that takes place behind the scenes as each country tests out each other’s tradecraft and capabilities.
Keir Starmer’s team has been issued with burner phones and fresh sim cards, and is using temporary email addresses, to prevent devices being loaded with spyware or UK government servers being hacked into.

The prime minister cannot wish away the contradictions between upholding democratic values and pursuing commercial interests with Beijing
It has been clear for many years that China’s status as a second global superpower poses challenges to the world’s democracies. Donald Trump’s marauding behaviour as president of the first-placed superpower makes those challenges more acute. In the past, the UK’s relationship with Beijing has been anchored, and , by the alliance with Washington. Mr Trump’s contempt for former allies, expressed as sabotage of Nato and a scattergun imposition of tariffs, scrambles the old strategic calculus.
This is an ominous backdrop for Sir Keir Starmer’s visit to Beijing. The prime minister is trying to perform a difficult balancing act, looking for commercial opportunity in a while protecting national security from an authoritarian behemoth.
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Keir Starmer has landed in China to meet Xi Jinping, in the first trip to the country by a British prime minister in eight years. But Starmer is facing myriad issues, including pressure to try to secure the release of Jimmy Lai, the jailed former media tycoon and one of Hong Kong’s most significant pro-democracy voices, as well as raising other human rights concerns.
On top of that he has the difficult task of trying to boost trade with China without triggering the fury of Donald Trump.

Nosheen Iqbal speaks to the Guardian’s political editor, Pippa Crerar, who joins from Beijing.

Keir Starmer has landed in China to meet Xi Jinping, in the first trip to the country by a British prime minister in eight years. But Starmer is facing myriad issues, including pressure to try to secure the release of Jimmy Lai, the jailed former media tycoon and one of Hong Kong’s most significant pro-democracy voices, as well as raising other human rights concerns.
On top of that he has the difficult task of trying to boost trade with China without triggering the fury of Donald Trump.
Nosheen Iqbal speaks to the Guardian’s political editor, Pippa Crerar, who joins from Beijing –

Starmer’s ‘control freakery’ could end up leading Nigel Farage into No 10, Unison boss Andrea Egan says
Badenoch is now taking questions.
Asked if she agreed with Reform UK that Britain is broken, Badneoch said she believed that it can be fixed.
I was not elected to reheat the party with 1990s policies, and I was not elected to dismantle the party so that Nigel Farage can finally have a go.
I was elected by Conservative party members to renew and rebuild. That is exactly what I am doing.