Drones, missiles and other crucial components of Europe’s rush to rearm itself rely on an increasingly unsteady supply of minerals from China.

China has begun modest purchases of U.S. farm products after the leaders of both countries met last week, but traders still await significant soybean buys after the White House said Beijing pledged to buy 12 million tons by year-end.

President Trump and the officials from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are holding an evening summit and dinner on the heels of Trump managing at least a temporary thaw with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Jason Tower, an expert on China and Myanmar, thinks it likely that the Wa produced the transcript and shared it with rebel allies, who leaked it more widely. Verbatim accounts of Chinese diplomatic meetings are exceedingly rare.

It isn’t just rare earths. Three products show how Beijing built supply-chain dominance that it can use to hurt its trading partners.

Starbucks is forming a joint venture with Chinese investment firm Boyu Capital to operate Starbucks stores in China.

China's government is expected to issue more import quotas and buy millions of tonnes of additional corn in the new crop marketing year, three industry sources said, amid a surge in animal feed demand and tightening supplies.

Starbucks announced Tuesday that it sold control of its stores in China to Boyu Capital for $4 billion. Starbucks will keep 40% and its intellectual property

In September the Dutch government took control of Nexperia, which is based in the Netherlands but owned by a Chinese company, citing national security concerns.

A Chinese court has sentenced five top members of an infamous Myanmar mafia to death as Beijing continues its crackdown on scam operations in South East Asia. In all 21 Bai family members and associates were convicted of fraud, homicide, injury and other crimes, said a state media report published on the court website.

The coffee giant is planning a joint venture with private-equity firm Boyu Capital for its more than 8,000 stores.

By Greg Torode, James Pomfret, Michael Martina and Trevor Hunnicutt HONG KONG/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump appealed directly to China's Xi Jinping to free jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai when the two leaders met in South Korea last week,