Russian fighter jet escorts Chinese President Xi's plane

A Russian fighter jet is seen from the cabin escorting Chinese President Xi Jinping's plane before it lands in Kazan, Russia for the BRICS Summit.

Xi is in Kazan, the capital city of Russia's Republic of Tatarstan, to attend the 16th BRICS Summit, at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Xi is set to attend small- and large-group leaders' meetings and the BRICS Plus leaders' dialogue, and will deliver important speeches. Xi will also have in-depth exchanges with other state leaders on the current international situation, practical BRICS cooperation, the development of the BRICS mechanism and other important issues of common concern.

Xi's entourage, including Cai Qi, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau and director of the General Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and Wang Yi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and foreign minister, arrived on the same plane.

BRICS is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The upcoming summit is the first to be held after the BRICS expansion in January when Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were included into the bloc.

Russian fighter jet escorts Chinese President Xi's plane

Russian fighter jet escorts Chinese President Xi's plane

Russian fighter jet escorts Chinese President Xi's plane

Russian fighter jet escorts Chinese President Xi's plane

Russian fighter jet escorts Chinese President Xi's plane

Russian fighter jet escorts Chinese President Xi's plane

A surge in summer holiday travel and the growing demand for high-quality services helped push China's consumer prices higher in August, with the consumer price index (CPI) rising 0.8 percent year on year, experts said Wednesday following the release of key economic data.

The National Bureau of Statistics reported that the CPI in August increase accelerated by 0.3 percentage points from July, with both consumer goods and service prices rising 0.8 percent.

"Since the beginning of this year, new domestic consumption scenarios in areas such as cultural tourism have become increasingly diverse. In particular, during the summer peak season in August, residents' travel demand was released intensively, driving up prices for tourism services, hotel accommodations, and related sectors. In addition, as residents' demand for high-quality service consumption continues to grow, prices for household services such as housekeeping have also risen," said Liu Nancun, an economist at the Analysis and Forecasting Division of the Price Monitoring Center of the National Development and Reform Commission.

On a month-on-month basis, the national CPI turned from a 0.1 percent decline in the previous month to a 0.4 percent increase. This was mainly driven by rising international crude oil prices, which led to higher domestic refined oil product prices and pushed up transportation fuel costs. In addition, driven by factors such as the rapidly growing demand for computing power, prices of products including tablet computers, computers, and mobile phones also rose.

Summer travel, service demand push August CPI higher in China