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Photo Composite: Diana ChanIn speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky , Chinese leader Xi Jinping addressed two problems in his country’s increasingly tense relationship with Europe. The first was a short-term mess created by China’s ambassador to France, Lu Shaye , who seemed to question the sovereignty of Ukraine and other countries formerly under Soviet rule. The second was a longer-term question of how much Mr. Xi’s closeness with Russian President Vladimir Putin has hurt its credibility in a bloc that China has long courted—and that has moved decidedly closer to the U.S. over the past year.

China is dispatching anticorruption enforcers abroad to chase down fugitives and recover stolen assets, a new extension of Beijing’s international reach aimed at strengthening Chinese leader Xi Jinping ’s crackdown on graft. The Communist Party’s top antigraft body and other government offices tasked with tackling corruption have begun stationing officials in some Chinese embassies, where they would coordinate with foreign authorities on law-enforcement matters, among other duties, according to people familiar with the plan.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang takes on the job at a challenging time. China’s new premier pledged to shore up growth and restore business confidence in the world’s second-largest economy, seeking to assure the world that Beijing can overcome domestic difficulties and diplomatic tensions that have buffeted his country in recent months. Li Qiang, at his first press briefing in his new government role, acknowledged China won’t find it easy to meet its relatively conservative target of expanding gross domestic product by about 5% this year, as the government focuses on delivering stable prices, creating jobs and supplying ample housing.

Li Qiang is set to be confirmed as premier by China’s legislature on Saturday. China’s incoming premier, Li Qiang, is showing he is more than the mere loyalist to Chinese leader Xi Jinping that many expected him to be. Since rising to No. 2 in the Communist Party hierarchy last fall, Mr. Li has played leading roles in freeing China from zero-Covid and refocusing the government on economic growth, according to people familiar with the matter. Those moves have kindled cautious optimism among entrepreneurs, investors and political analysts that he may be able to exert a moderating influence on his boss, Mr. Xi.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping secured an unprecedented third term as his country’s head of state, completing a transition into the second decade of his rule as he seeks to reassert himself as a global statesman and navigate an increasingly fractious rivalry with the U.S.Mr. Xi is set to become China’s longest serving head of state since the Communist victory in 1949 after the country’s rubber-stamp legislature formally vested him with another five years as president on Friday. His reappointment, approved unanimously by more than 2,900 lawmakers assembled in Beijing, had been considered a formality after the 69-year-old took a norm-breaking third term as Communist Party chief last fall.

Fan Bao, founder of China Renaissance Holdings, was detained last month by antigraft investigators. Chinese financier Fan Bao , who went missing last month, has been detained by authorities in mainland China in connection with a corruption investigation targeting a former senior executive at the investment bank he founded, according to people familiar with the matter. The investment bank, China Renaissance Holdings Ltd., disclosed on Feb. 16 that it had been unable to contact Mr. Bao, who serves as the bank’s chairman and chief executive. On Sunday, it said in a regulatory filing that it had since discovered Mr. Bao is aiding an investigation being carried out by authorities in China, which it didn’t name.

Tensions over the U.S. military’s downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon are set to culminate this weekend in Munich, where Secretary of State Antony Blinken and top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi are scheduled to attend a security conference. In recent days, the U.S. and China have been discussing setting up a meeting between Messrs. Blinken and Wang, according to people familiar with the matter. The meeting could take place at the Munich Security Conference, which runs Feb. 17-19, the people said, though they cautioned that nothing had been decided and the negotiations are fluid. Vice President Kamala Harris is set to attend and give a speech on supporting Ukraine, officials said.

China is likely to nominate Xie Feng , a vice foreign minister and a U.S. specialist, as its new ambassador to Washington, according to people familiar with the matter, continuing a gradual tempering of the abrasive “Wolf Warrior” style that has defined Chinese diplomacy in recent years. Beijing has been recalibrating its foreign policy in a bid to stabilize fraught ties with Washington and mitigate damage done to China’s global standing by its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and forceful pursuit of security, industrial and territorial interests, according to people working inside the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The hard-charging ethos that took hold among Chinese diplomats during the Trump administration, when Beijing saw itself as being under assault from the West, needs to be adjusted to reflect a changing international environment, they said.

A letter from the founder of the world’s largest iPhone assembler played a major role in persuading China’s Communist Party leadership to accelerate plans to dismantle the country’s zero-tolerance Covid-19 policies, according to people familiar with the matter. In the letter to Chinese leaders, Foxconn Technology Group founder Terry Gou warned that strict Covid controls would threaten China’s central position in global supply chains and demanded more transparency into restrictions on the company’s workers, the people said. Mr. Gou sent the letter a little more than a month ago as Foxconn’s factory in the city of Zhengzhou was rocked by turmoil over Covid restrictions.

China has begun to ease some of its Covid restrictions after following a strict containment policy. A letter from the founder of the world’s largest iPhone assembler played a major role in persuading China’s Communist Party leadership to accelerate plans to dismantle the country’s zero-tolerance Covid-19 policies, according to people familiar with the matter. In the letter to Chinese leaders, Foxconn Technology Group founder Terry Gou warned that strict Covid controls would threaten China’s central position in global supply chains and demanded more transparency into restrictions on the company’s workers, the people said. Mr. Gou sent the letter a little more than a month ago as Foxconn’s factory in the city of Zhengzhou was rocked by turmoil over Covid restrictions.

Chinese President Xi Jinping at The Great Hall of People in Beijing in October, he is planning to visit Saudi Arabia next month, according to people familiar with the matter. Chinese leader Xi Jinping is planning to visit Saudi Arabia before the end of the year, according to people familiar with preparations for the trip, as Beijing and Riyadh seek to deepen ties and advance a vision of a multipolar world where the U.S. no longer dominates the global order. Officials are completing the details for a summit between Mr. Xi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that would underline Beijing’s growing influence in the Middle East, where the U.S. long reigned supreme, and growing links between the oil-rich Saudis and Washington’s top global rivals.

China’s Communist Party set the stage for its leader Xi Jinping to extend his rule into a second decade, nudging his rivals into retirement and positioning his loyalists for promotion into the top echelons of power. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang , the country’s No. 2-ranked leader, who has at times issued signals on economic policy that contradicted Mr. Xi’s views, was left off the party’s new 376-strong Central Committee, elected at the end of a twice-a-decade party congress in Beijing on Saturday.

A summit in Central Asia last week served as a public stage for Moscow’s biggest backers to express misgivings about the Ukraine war, with Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledging that China had concerns and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying, “Today’s era is not an era for war.”Despite those public expressions of doubt, China is staying the course in its relationship with Russia and even seeking to deepen the economic ties between the two countries, said Chinese officials familiar with Beijing’s thinking. For its part, although India is growing increasingly frustrated with the impact the war is having on the economy and developing world, New Delhi hasn’t altered its close ties with Moscow, Indian officials said.

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