China's Premier Li Keqiang
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday Beijing will further open up its economy in the face of rising protectionism, as he headed for meetings with Asia-Pacific leaders in Singapore that are expected to focus on trade tensions.
Li's remarks in an article in Singapore's Straits Times newspaper, ahead of his arrival in the city-state later in the day, came as Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong called for more regional integration, saying multilateralism was under threat from political pressures.
"China has opened its door to the world; we will never close it but open it even wider," Li said in the article, in which he called for an "open world economy" in the face of "rising protectionism and unilateralism". He did not directly refer to China's bruising trade war with the United States.
Notably absent from this week's meetings is U.S. President Donald Trump, who has said several existing multilateral trade deals are unfair, and has railed against China over intellectual property theft, entry barriers to U.S. businesses and a gaping trade deficit.
China has confirmed a new outbreak of African swine fever in the eastern province of Anhui.China, home to the world's largest hog herd, has reported more than 50 cases of the highly contagious disease, including in Anhui, since the first detected outbreak in early August.The fever was found on a farm with 8,339 pigs in Qingyang county in the south of Anhui, infecting 96 of the animals and killing 47 of them, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said in a statement.Transportation of pigs in and out of the area has been banned, as has movement of pork products outside the area. Last month, the ministry said it would lift African swine fever-related restrictions in four Anhui cities hit by previous outbreaks.In a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Sunday, Tangrenshen Group, a major Chinese pork producer, said the fever was found in feed samples provided by its 51 percent-owned subsidiary, Bili Meiyingwei Nutrition Feedstuff, during inspections in the aftermath of the Qingyang outbreak.Tangrenshen said the origin of the detected fever remained unclear and the matter was still under investigation. It said the impact on its operations would be "relatively small," with Bili Meiyingwei accounting for only 2.27 percent of the group's net profit in the first nine months of 2018.
China reports new African swine fever outbreak in Anhui province
Vice President Mike Pence will attend instead of Trump, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are among those also expected to join Li and the ten-member member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
It was not clear if Li and Pence will hold separate talks on the sidelines of the meetings, which would be a prelude to a summit scheduled between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of the month in Buenos Aires.
The encounter, if it happens, would come on the heels of high-level talks in Washington where the two sides aired their main differences but appeared to attempt controlling the damage to relations that has worsened with tit-for-tat tariffs in recent months.
Meanwhile, in remarks at a business summit on Monday ahead of this week's meetings, Singapore PM Lee said:
Around $57.83 billion worth of deals were agreed for the year ahead at the China International Import Expo (CIIE), the official China Daily said on Saturday.The Nov. 5-10 CIIE, which brings thousands of foreign companies together with Chinese buyers in a bid to demonstrate the importing potential of the world's second-biggest economy, closed on Saturday.Deals for intelligence and high-end equipment were set to total $16.46 billion, while those for consumer electronics and home appliances were around $4.33 billion, the paper said on its official Twitter-like Weibo site.US presses China to halt militarization of South China SeaSales agreed for the automobile sector goods hit $11.99 billion, while clothing and consumer goods inked $3.37 billion, and food and agricultural products made $12.68 billion, the paper said.In addition, $5.76 billion worth of medical devices and medical care goods were sold, the paper added.The trade expo is designed to demonstrate goodwill amid mounting frictions with the United States and others. On Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping promised to lower tariffs, broaden market access and import more from overseas.China cracks down on celebrity hype and fake click
China's import expo logs $57.8 bln of deals: China Daily
"ASEAN has great potential, but fully realising it depends on whether we choose to become more integrated, and work resolutely towards this goal in a world where multilateralism is fraying under political pressures".
Lee has previously warned that the U.S.-China trade war could have a "big, negative impact" on Singapore, and the city-state's central bank has warned it could soon drag on the economy.
Both Singapore and China are expected to rally support for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) pact now being negotiated, showcased to be the free trade deal that will encompass more than a third of the world's GDP.
The pact includes 16 countries, including China, India, Japan and South Korea, but not the United States. Li said China would work to "expedite" RCEP negotiations this week.
Also on Monday, the ten-member ASEAN group reached their first ever deal on e-commerce aimed at helping boost cross-border transactions in the region.
Chinese broadcasters and online entertainment sites should avoid celebrity hype and crack down on fake audience and click-through rates, state media quoted the National Radio and Television Administration as saying.The edict comes after Beijing ordered A-list movie star Fan Bingbing to pay about 884 million yuan ($129 million) in taxes and fines, spurring widespread discussion on the moral health of China's film industry.Some programmes overpaid celebrities, destroying industry order and leading teenagers into worshipping stars and money, Xinhua news agency said, citing the administration.Radio and television stations, along with online audio-visual service providers, should scrap vulgar content, promote core socialist values and keep children away from entertainment and reality shows, it said.The providers should also cut down on game shows, reality shows and singing contests that feature celebrities.In a letter posted on her official account on the Twitter-like platform Weibo last month, Fan said she would overcome "all difficulties" to pay her penalties."I'm ashamed of my behaviour and I apologise here to everyone," Fan wrote. "Every bit of my achievement is inseparable from the support of the state and the people. Without the good policies of the Communist Party and the state, without the love of the people, there is no Fan Bingbing." 
China cracks down on celebrity hype and fake click