China's industrial profits fell at a slower clip in November, official data showed on Friday, but the annual decline in earnings this year is expected to be the worst in over two decades due to persistently soft domestic consumption.

China’s industrial firms saw their profits drop in November for a fourth straight month, on track for the sharpest annual decline since records began in 2000.

China has sanctioned seven military industrial companies and related senior executives over U.S. arms assistance and sales to Taiwan, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday.

China on Friday slapped sanctions on seven US companies after Washington's approval last week of a $571.3 million military aid package to Taiwan.

By Liz Lee and Sakura Murakami BEIJING/TOKYO (Reuters) -Talks on seafood trade are expected to be on the agenda on Wednesday as Japan's foreign minister visits China, Japan's largest export market for aquatic products until Beijing placed a blanket ban in protest against Tokyo releasing treated radioactive wastewater into the ocean.

China and Japan agreed that Beijing’s top diplomat should visit in 2025, adding to the signs the two nations are repairing ties that have been strained in recent years.

China and Japan have agreed to set up talks on often contentious security issues. The two countries are seeking to improve a relationship riven in recent years by a range of issues, from territorial disputes to the discharge of water from Japan’s tsunami-wrecked nuclear power plant.

China's President Xi Jinping will visit Russia in 2025, Russia's state-run RIA news agency quoted Moscow's ambassador to Beijing as saying early on Friday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Russia in 2025. He has met with Vladimir Putin multiple times since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to Reuters. "What can be said that is no secret, in terms of priority,