'China, US to consider boosting commercial flights'
China and the United States agreed to consider expanding commercial flights between the two countries to improve people-to-people contact, the top US diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Kritenbrink, said. He told a Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank event in Washington on Wednesday that the countries agreed "to look at increasing in a phased manner the number of commercial flights between the United States and China." There were about 350 flights a week between the two countries prior to the coronavirus outbreak, compared to 24 a week currently, Kritenbrink said. "I think we can do better," he added. He said the agreement was reached during US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to China earlier this month.  Kritenbrink also said he wanted to see an imbalance reversed in the number of Chinese students in the United States and American students in China, which he put at 300,000 Chinese students to 350 US students. (Reuters)