Bangladesh and China elevated their ties during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to Beijing this week, according to the consensus in Chinese media outlets, a preponderance of which happen to be state-owned. The two countries on Wednesday upgraded their relations to a ‘comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership’. Xi-Hasina meeting: China to cooperate with Bangladesh in grants and loans China’s state-led international broadcaster, CGTN, which broadcasts in English, reported the upgrade with an emphasis on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s speech during the meeting.  Xi said that since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1975, the two countries have always shown mutual respect and support, treated each other on an equal footing and engaged in win-win cooperation, according to CGTN. He also said the relationship between China and Bangladesh stands as a shining example of amicable interactions and mutually beneficial partnerships, particularly among Global South nations. Chinese PM announces 1 billion RMB for Bangladesh as economic assistance: Hasan Mahmud Xi urged the two sides to make efforts for the Year of People-to-People Exchanges between China and Bangladesh next year to promote exchanges and cooperation in fields such as culture, tourism, media and sports, CGTN reported, adding that he said China is ready to work closely with Bangladesh on international and regional affairs, and strengthen coordination and cooperation within the United Nations and other multilateral frameworks. The website of the People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party's flagship newspaper, had Xinhua News Agency’s report on the visit as its lead item on Wednesday night, under the title: “Xi meets Bangladeshi PM.” PM’s China visit not shortened; programmes unchanged: Foreign Minister Global Times, another one of the CCP’s official mouthpieces, in a piece titled “China, Bangladesh elevate ties, broaden cooperation” on Wednesday, repeated most of the things CGTN reported from Xi’s speech, and carried the prime minister’s assurances that  “Bangladesh firmly adheres to the one-China principle, supports China's stance on the Taiwan question, resolutely opposes external forces' interference in China's internal affairs, and firmly supports China in safeguarding its core interests”. The report quoted Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, as saying that the visit by Hasina is a link between the past and the future for bilateral relations, especially in promoting high-level cooperation in the field of economy and trade. The development strategies of the two countries will be further synergized, and more economic and trade cooperation projects are expected to be implemented in the future, injecting more substantive connotations into the duo's strategic cooperative relations, Qian told Global Times. Another expert that Global Times spoke to, Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow with the Institute of International Relations at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said the visit would further promote the traditional friendship between the two countries. Through cooperation over the past years, Bangladesh has clearly seen how China's development ideas and experience have played a huge role in promoting the economic and social development of Bangladesh, Hu said. Read more: Dhaka, Beijing announce 7 outcomes, including completion of feasibility study on FTA The Global Times report also noted the Indian angle, reporting: “[S]ome Indian media outlets viewed Hasina's China visit as ‘a balancing act to keep the two key players happy,’ as ‘she needs India to be in power, and China for economic support.’ Some Indian media also talked down the cooperation between Beijing and Dhaka.” In this context, Hu told Global Times: “India always uses various excuses to obstruct and create hype whenever a South Asian leader visits China, but New Delhi should not be overly concerned that other countries' engagement with China will damage their relations with India.” Meanwhile Qian, the other expert quoted in the report, said: “For Bangladesh, in the face of pressure from India, the development of China-Bangladesh relations also provides a valuable choice for Dhaka to better safeguard its diplomatic independence and development opportunities.” Global Times also reported separately on ‘The Summit on Trade, Business, and Investment Opportunities between Bangladesh and China’ that took place on Tuesday, and on the day of the PM’s arrival in Beijing, Monday, carried an op-ed titled ‘China-Bangladesh bonhomie benefits both’ by Zhang Xiaoyu, an expert in South Asian Studies at the Communication University of China. The South China Morning Post, one of the few privately-owned media outlets in the country, based out of Hong Kong, titled its report “China and Bangladesh pledge to fight external interference and boost economic cooperation” on Wednesday. It said Hasina reassured Xi over Taiwan, calling it ‘Beijing’s most sensitive issue’, and quoted the prime minister as saying, “Bangladesh firmly adheres to the one-China principle, supports China’s position on the Taiwan issue, and resolutely opposes external forces interfering in China’s internal affairs”. SCMP also quoted Xi via the other state broadcaster CCTV, which broadcasts in Chinese, as saying, “China is willing to strengthen communication and coordination with Bangladesh in multilateral fields, oppose hegemony and power politics, and better safeguard international fairness and justice and the common interests of developing countries.” The newspaper noted that China’s loans to “the debt-ridden country” have raised fears that Bangladesh will be caught in a “debt trap” and struggle to repay them. It said Hasina met Jin Liqun, president of the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, to ask for the country’s interest payments to be reduced, and recalled Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud’s announcement prior to the trip that a $5 billion loan would be sought from China. SCMP reports that there has been “no immediate response from China to the requests”. China’s official Xinhua News Agency quoted Wang Huning, a member of China’s Politburo Standing Committee who met with Hasina, as saying that “China and Bangladesh have respected and treated each other with equality, setting a good example of friendly coexistence and mutually beneficial cooperation between countries.” Read more: Dhaka, Beijing sign 21 cooperation documents; announce 7 outcomes to strengthen ties on diverse fronts

China’s space agency said a core segment of its biggest rocket reentered Earth’s atmosphere above the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and most of it burned up early Sunday. Harvard astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, who tracked the tumbling rocket part, said on Twitter, “An ocean reentry was always statistically the most likely. It appears China won its gamble… But it was still reckless.” China’s official Xinhua News Agency said reentry occurred at 7:24 p.m. local time Saturday. “The vast majority of items were burned beyond recognition during the reentry process,” the report said. Despite that, NASA Administrator Sen. Bill Nelson issued a statement saying: “It is clear that China is failing to meet responsible standards regarding their space debris.” Also read: South Korea, US discuss joint responses to falling Chinese rocket debris Usually, discarded rocket stages reenter the atmosphere soon after liftoff, normally over water, and don’t go into orbit. The Long March 5B rocket carried the main module of Tianhe, or Heavenly Harmony, into orbit on April 29. China plans 10 more launches to carry additional parts of the space station into orbit. The roughly 30-meter (100-foot) -long stage would be among the biggest space debris to fall to Earth. The 18-ton rocket that fell last May was the heaviest debris to fall uncontrolled since the former Soviet space station Salyut 7 in 1991. China’s first space station, Tiangong-1, crashed into the Pacific Ocean in 2016 after Beijing confirmed it had lost control. In 2019, the space agency controlled the demolition of its second station, Tiangong-2, in the atmosphere. In March, debris from a Falcon 9 rocket launched by U.S. aeronautics company SpaceX fell to Earth in Washington and on the Oregon coast. China was heavily criticized after sending a missile to destroyed a defunct weather satellite in January 2007, creating a large field of hazardous debris imperiling satellites and other spacecraft.