In a season of summitry, China seeks stabler major-country ties

This photo taken with a mobile phone shows Alexander Badrow (C), mayor of Stralsund, and Peter Paul (R), president of the Stralsund City Council, striking a bell on a traditional culture street in Huangshan, east China's Anhui Province, on May 28, 2026.

Over 2,000 years ago, during the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC-25 AD), Chinese envoy Zhang Qian embarked on a journey from Chang'an, known as Xi'an today, to the Western Regions via Central Asia. His expedition laid the foundation for the ancient Silk Road, creating an early model for transcontinental exchange.

A flock of Asian openbill storks, a national second-class protected species in China, was recently seen soaring above the UNESCO-recognized Honghe Hani Rice Terraces in Honghe county, southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Chinese President Xi Jinping awarded Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic the Friendship Medal of the People's Republic of China in Beijing on Monday.

A farmer transplants rice seedlings in a paddy field with the Tianshan Mountains in the background in Midong District, Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, May 18, 2026.