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(Bloomberg) -- A top deputy to Chinese President Xi Jinping reaffirmed China’s commitment to market-based economic reforms, while warning that the international order “was under attack.”Vice President Wang Qishan, who’s one of China’s best known economic reformers, told Bloomberg’s New Economy Forum on Thursday that the country would follow through on policy changes despite facing serious challenges at home and aboard. He said the country would continue to let the market play a “decisive role” in the allocation for resources and stick to the path of peaceful development.“Between war and peace, the Chinese people firmly choose peace. Humanity cherishes peace,” Wang said in his keynote address in Beijing. “We should abandon the zero-sum thinking and cold war mentality.”The New Economy Forum is being organized by Bloomberg Media Group, a division of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News. Other guests include Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.Wang’s speech comes as the U.S. and China work to assemble a partial trade agreement, even as broader tensions mount in the U.S.-China relationship from human rights concerns over Hong Kong and the western region of Xinjiang to strategic competition in the South China Sea. The sides are making progress in key areas, according to people close to the talks, even as concerns grow that efforts to nail down the first phase of a broader deal are stalling.U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign legislation passed by Congress supporting the Hong Kong protesters, a person familiar said, after the bill was approved unanimously by the Senate on Tuesday and passed the House 417-1 on Wednesday.Trump -- facing an impeachment inquiry at home -- may seek a political win by reaching a trade deal with China. Policy makers in Beijing face their own troubles with a slowing economy at home, as well as factory-price deflation, a fragile financial system and spiraling food costs in the wake of a catastrophic disease epidemic among the nation’s pig herd.“Development must be balanced and inclusive,” Wang said Thursday. “We need to work together to make economic globalization work for all people across the world.”Wang struck a less confrontational tone than when he addressed the same forum last year in Singapore as trade tensions were at a crescendo. In his remarks last year, he both reaffirmed China’s desire to move forward with trade talks and warned that his country wouldn’t again be “bullied and oppressed” by foreign powers.\--With assistance from Dandan Li and Tian Ying.To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Peter Martin in Beijing at pmartin138@bloomberg.net;Miao Han in Beijing at mhan22@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Sharon ChenFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Wed, 20 Nov 2019 20:56:22 -0500

Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., took issue with a defense of President Trump floated by Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas.

Wed, 20 Nov 2019 20:26:09 -0500

The United States is considering a significant cut to its troop numbers in South Korea if Seoul does not contribute more to the cost of the deployment, South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reported on Thursday. Washington broke off defense cost talks with South Korea this week after demanding Seoul raise its annual contribution to $5 billion, more than five times what it pays now, in a rare public display of discord in the alliance. Neither side has publicly confirmed the numbers, but U.S. President Donald Trump has said the U.S. military presence in and around South Korea was "$5 billion worth of protection".

Wed, 20 Nov 2019 18:14:41 -0500

A group of Democratic U.S. senators is questioning Amazon about the security of its Ring doorbell cameras following reports that some Ukraine-based employees had access to video footage from customers’ homes. A letter to Amazon Wednesday from Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and four other Democrats said the internet-connected devices may pose national security concerns. News site The Intercept reported in January that Ring employees in the U.S. and Ukraine had access to personal data from cameras around the world.

Wed, 20 Nov 2019 17:25:01 -0500

A former deputy working at a South Carolina high school had sex with a 17-year-old student in his patrol car while in uniform, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said Wednesday. Lott said 40-year-old Jamel Bradley is charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct and the investigation into his conduct with other students at Spring Valley High School in Columbia continues. Bradley, a star basketball player at the University of South Carolina at the turn of the century, had been assigned to the school since 2009 but was removed in 2018 when he was sued in federal court over a relationship with a different student.

Wed, 20 Nov 2019 17:15:52 -0500