The first full-route patrol of the 134.2-kilometer Pinglu Canal was completed on Saturday, marking a breakthrough in navigation tests using an actual vessel ahead of its scheduled opening in September.
The two-day patrol was carried out by the Guangxi Maritime Safety Administration using the patrol vessel Haixun 1003.
Starting from the canal's seaward entrance, the vessel traveled northward along the entire waterway, passing through the Qingnian, Qishi and Madao ship locks, which remain under construction, while inspecting construction vessels operating along the route. It arrived at the Pingtang River estuary on Saturday afternoon.
Stretching from the Pingtang River in Hengzhou City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, to the Beibu Gulf in the South China Sea, the Pinglu Canal is the backbone of the country's New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, a key initiative enhancing global trade connectivity for China's western inland regions.
China completes first full-route patrol on Pinglu Canal
U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that he is "likewise demanding compensation from Iran," noting that he has instructed his representatives to put this into any future negotiations.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that he saw that "Representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran are asking for compensation for the damage done to them during the last five month Military Conflict," but claimed it was "never mentioned" in any negotiations or meetings.
Calling it "an interesting idea," Trump said that he is "likewise demanding compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts."
In another post shortly after, Trump said that "Iran should be responsible for the damages and death caused to the people of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Gaza."
Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said that the Strait of Hormuz will not be reopened until the United States "corrects its behavior," Iranian media reported Saturday.
Zolghadr noted that the reopening of the strait depends on the United States meeting a series of conditions: it must permanently end the war against Iran and its armed allies in the region; it must stop threatening Iran; it must lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports; it must compensate Iran for war damage; and it must lift sanctions and "unconditionally" release frozen or seized assets.
Trump says he is "likewise demanding compensation from Iran"
