"The United States and other countries will be welcome to use civilian facilities China is building in the South China Sea for search and rescue and weather forecasting 'when conditions are right', China's navy chief has told a senior U.S. officer. China claims 90 percent of the South China Sea, which is believed to be rich in oil and gas, with overlapping claims from Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan. Recent satellite images show China has made rapid progress in building an airstrip suitable for military use in the disputed Spratly Islands and may be planning another," reports Reuters.
According to The Wall Street Journal, "In his Wednesday speech before a joint session of the U.S. Congress - the first by any Japanese prime minister - Shinzo Abe declared, 'History is harsh. What is done cannot be undone.' But while he declared he felt 'deep repentance' regarding Japan's actions during World War II...he stopped short of the outright apology for Japan's wartime aggression that China has long agitated for. In Chinese state media, reaction to the speech was fairly muted, stressing Mr. Abe's lack of an outright apology over Japan's wartime past. China's official Xinhua News Agency noted that while Mr. Abe used words like 'remorse' and 'repentance' in his speech, he didn't go further.
Reuters writes, "The head of Taiwan's ruling Nationalist Party said on Friday he will talk to Chinese President Xi Jinping about joining global organizations such as the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) when they meet next week. Eric Chu's meeting with Xi, who also heads China's Communist Party, will be the first meeting between the heads of the two parties since defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. Chu said he would talk about issues that are tough but of concern to many Taiwanese when he meets Xi in Beijing on Monday. Among them is the name that Taiwan would use to join the AIIB and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a proposed East Asian free trade deal."