Chinese vice premier meets senior officials from Micronesia, Mongolia

Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang on Wednesday separately met with Micronesian Vice President Aren B. Palik and Mongolian First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Development Luvsannyam Gantumur.

Both Palik and Gantumur were in China to attend the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) 2025 Annual Conference, which opened in Boao Town of south China's Hainan Province on Tuesday.

At the meeting with Palik, Ding, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that the important consensus reached between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Micronesian President Wesley W. Simina during their talks held last year charts the course for the development of China-Micronesia relations.

The two sides should enhance political mutual trust, firmly support each other's core interests and major concerns, and actively explore cooperation in trade, investment, infrastructure and the maritime economy, said Ding.

The Chinese vice premier also said China and Micronesia should work together to cope with climate change and make new progress in China-Micronesia comprehensive strategic partnership.

Palik said that Micronesia is firmly committed to the one-China principle, and firmly support China's positions on issues concerning its core interests, such as those related to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and the South China Sea.

The Micronesian side will deepen cooperation with China in jointly coping with climate change, Palik said.

When meeting with Gantumur, Ding said that developing long-term good-neighborly relations with Mongolia serves the fundamental interests of the two peoples.

Ding said China is ready to work with Mongolia to implement the important consensus reached between the heads of state of the two countries, consolidate political mutual trust and further expand cooperation, so as to bring China-Mongolia relations to new heights.

Gantumur said that Mongolia firmly abides by the one-China principle, and is willing to promote cooperation with China in various fields including connectivity, energy, minerals, and high and new technology in the interest of the two peoples.

Chinese vice premier meets senior officials from Micronesia, Mongolia

Chinese vice premier meets senior officials from Micronesia, Mongolia

Chinese vice premier meets senior officials from Micronesia, Mongolia

China's domestically developed C919 large passenger aircraft began flight transport service on two new routes on Sunday.

At 11:19 on Sunday, a C919 aircraft smoothly landed at the Shenyang Taoxian International Airport in Shenyang City, the capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, from Shanghai in east China some 1,000 kilometers away, marking the C919's first commercial flight in northeast China. The airport celebrated the occasion with a water salute.

"The seats are very spacious, and the flight experience is excellent," said a passenger.

"Flying on a homegrown plane feels especially smooth. I took the inaugural C919 flight to Chengdu, and unexpectedly, within a year, more than a dozen routes have been launched. I think the airline operations in our country are particularly impressive," said another passenger.

The other new air route opened on the day for the C919 is the one from northwest China's Xi'an City to south China's Guangzhou City about 1,400 kilometers away.

The Xi'an-Guangzhou service became the third domestic air route operated from Xi'an to use the C919, following China Eastern Airlines' earlier introduction of this aircraft on its Xi'an-Beijing and Xi'an-Shanghai routes. This also means that the Xianyang International Airport in Xi'an has become a major airport in China in terms of flights performed by the C919.

Notably, China Eastern Airlines in January 2025 started using the C919 jetliner for regular flights between Shanghai in east China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in the country's south -- which is the airline's first scheduled commercial flight service to Hong Kong using the C919.

The C919 is a narrow-body passenger aircraft with a maximum capacity of 192 seats. It is China's first self-developed trunk jetliner, built in accordance with international airworthiness standards and featuring independently registered intellectual property rights.

China initiated the C919 project in 2007, and it was developed by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. (COMAC). The first C919 aircraft rolled off the production line in Shanghai in November 2015.

China's homegrown C919 aircraft begins to serve two new domestic air routes