Thai PM to pay official visit to China, to attend 2026 WAIC: spokesman

Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand Anutin Charnvirakul will pay a five-day official visit to China starting from Thursday, and will attend the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence (AI) Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Monday.

At a regular briefing, Lin Jian, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman briefed the media the visit information.

"Prime Minister of Thailand Anutin Charnvirakul will attend the 2026 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance in China and pay an official visit to China from July 16 to 20 upon invitation. President Xi Jinping will meet with him and Premier Li Qiang and Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee Zhao Leji will hold talks and meet with him respectively. This will be the prime minister’s first official visit to China after taking office, and the visit fully reflects the high importance both sides attach to China-Thailand relations," introduced Lin.

Lin also highlighted China-Thai ties.

"China and Thailand are good neighbors, good friends, good relatives and good partners. Last year when the two countries marked the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations, His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn paid a state visit to China upon invitation. President Xi Jinping and the King reached important common understandings on advancing the building of a China-Thailand community with a shared future, and opening up another golden 50 years of bilateral relations. Under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, the two sides have deepened political mutual trust, and engaged in fruitful cooperation in areas of trade and investment, digital economy, aerospace, science, education, culture and health," said Lin.

"Amid the changing and volatile international situation, China hopes the visit will galvanize efforts to carry forward the traditional friendship and family-like relationship of China and Thailand, deepen comprehensive strategic cooperation, achieve new outcomes in building the China-Thailand community with a shared future, boost the two countries’ respective modernization, and contribute to regional peace, stability, development and prosperity," said Lin.

Thai PM to pay official visit to China, to attend 2026 WAIC: spokesman

The weak performance of tech stocks has dragged on Asian stocks, said China Global Television Network (CGTN) analyst Timothy Pope.

Hong Kong's stock market ended mixed Monday with the benchmark Hang Seng Index up 0.16 percent to close at 24,213.72 points.

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index gained 0.33 percent to end at 8,065.97 points, and the Hang Seng Tech Index decreased by 0.96 percent to end at 4,676.43 points.

"Energy, industrials and consumer stocks did a lot of the heavy lifting for the Hang Seng in Hong Kong today, while we saw tech stocks dragging and that was a story around the region really. Recent index addition MiniMax tanked by 17 percent to close at a record low. Its shares have been falling since a huge chunk of outstanding shares came out of post-IPO lockup last week, but today the AI company stock sank below its market debut price for the first time," Pope said.

Tokyo stocks closed lower on Monday, while the benchmark Nikkei index, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average, dropped 1,315.00 points, or 1.92 percent.

"Over in Tokyo today the Nikkei225 was down 1.9 percent. Worries about rising oil prices really added to the tension there. There's worry that that's going to fuel company cost rises. Investors seemed a little bit more sensitive to that today as we head into financial reporting season in Japan. AI chain-related stocks retreated again. Heavyweights Tokyo Electron and Advantest were dragging on the Nikkei. There were also some gains, though, for financial and banking stocks, suggesting that perhaps investors are rotating out of AI shares for the moment," said Pope.

Tech stocks drag on Asian markets: analyst