mr blinken touched down in beijing on sunday morning, and embarked on more than five and a half hours of talks, plus a two hour dinner, with his chinese counterpart, foreign minister qin gang. american officials described the talks as candid and constructive, but the only concrete development thus far is a commitment from the two countries to loosen visa restrictions on each other s citizens, and to hold more talks in washington eventually. for its part, china s state media reported that. qin gang pointed out that the taiwan issue is the core of china s core interests, the most important issue in sino us relations, and the most prominent risk. today, mr blinken will meet wang yi, the director of the chinese communist party s office of the central foreign affairs commission, effectively the country s most seniorforeign affairs official. but questions remain as to whether an expected meeting between mr blinken and china s president, xijinping, will materialise. joining me now
hello, i m sally bundock. after a boat capsized off the coast of greece last week, in which hundreds are feared to have died, the bbc has obtained evidence casting doubt on the greek coastguard s account of the tragedy. analysis of the movement of other ships in the area suggests the boat was not moving for at least seven hours before it capsized. our europe correspondent nick beake has this report. the greek authorities have faced heavy criticism over their response to this disaster. their argument has always been that the boat was moving in a steady direction towards italy, that it wasn t in danger, and so the people on board did not need to be rescued. now, we ve been looking at shipping data, looking at the boats that were in this part of the mediterranean sea on the day of the tragedy. we also looked at court records, logbooks, photographs and video. we ve built up a picture which seriously challenges the official greek version of events. last tuesday morning, from the a
since then, at least 78 bodies have been recovered and up to 500 people are still missing at sea. the greek coastguard had claimed that the boat was keeping a steady course towards italy and not in need of rescue. but the bbc s own research suggests that the overcrowded vessel could have been in difficulty hours before it it sank. the greek authorities have yet to respond to those findings. our europe correspondent, nick beake is in kalamata in greece, investigating the ship s final movements. last tuesday morning from the air authorities spot the migrant boat. this is a surveillance photo. civilian boats in the area. coastguard and military vessels do not appear. pin shows where it eventually goes down. at around 1500 gmt, a ship called the lucky sailor which gave us its logbook turned sharply and is asked by the coastguard to supply food and water to the migrant boat. soon after, says the coastguard, its helicopter finds the migrant boat to be on a steady course. but tw
a bbc investigation has found evidence that casts doubt on the greek coastguard s account of its response to the migrant ship, which sank last week with the loss of hundreds of lives. the ship sank about 50 miles off the southern coast of greece and survivors were taken to kalamata. an analysis of the movements of other ships in the area suggests the overcrowded fishing vessel wasn t moving for seven hours before it capsized. the greek coastguard claims that during this time, the vessel was on its way to italy and didn t need to be rescued. the greek authorities have not yet responded to the bbc s findings. our europe correspondent nick beake is in kalamata in greece. the greek coastguard has faced heavy criticism for not doing more to help those people on board. its main justification has been that they did not want their help and that, crucially, the boat was moving in a steady direction towards italy. now, what we ve tried to do is piece together a picture of what really h
and a half hours of talks, plus a two hour dinner, with his chinese counterpart, foreign minister qin gang. american officials described the talks as candid and constructive, but the only concrete development thus far is a commitment from the two countries to loosen visa restrictions on each other s citizens, and to hold more talks in washington in the future. for its part, china s state media reported that. qin gang pointed out that the taiwan issue is the core of china s core interests, the most important issue in sino us relations, and the most prominent risk. right now, mr blinken is meeting with wang yi, the director of the chinese communist party s office of the central foreign affairs commission effectively the country s most senior foreign affairs official. live now to our china correspondent in beijing, stephen mcdonell. i m sure you ve been watching the meetings closely over this whirlwind trip. right now, secretary blinken meeting china s top diplomats. what sh