The US-led joint patrol in the Red Sea following Houthi militia attacks against ships heading toward Israel shows that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in Gaza is not only affecting the whole region, but also the international community. Chinese analysts pointed out that the root cause of the trade route problem is the ongoing conflict in Gaza, and only a sustainable cease-fire and allowing humanitarian aid to enter Gaza via land and sea routes can solve the problem in the Red Sea. 

China will pay close attention to the situation, and Chinese naval vessels that conduct UN authorized anti-piracy missions in the region will keep performing their duty, analysts said, adding that China will stick to the priority of realizing a cease-fire and clear the way for humanitarian aid for the people in Gaza, rather than joining the US to conduct any military operations without UN authorization to escalate the crisis in Gaza. 

The US and a host of other nations are creating a new force to protect ships transiting the Red Sea that have come under attack by drones and ballistic missiles fired from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced Tuesday in Bahrain, the AP reported.

The UK, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain have joined, Austin said. Some of those countries will conduct joint patrols while others will provide intelligence support in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The Houthi militia attacked two commercial ships in the Red Sea with naval drones on Monday. The recent attacks have caused concerns about the impact on the passage of oil, grain and other goods on what is an important global trade route, and have pushed up the cost of insuring and shipping goods through the Red Sea, Reuters reported.

The Shanghai-based news website The Paper reported on Tuesday that following other international shipping companies including Denmark's Maersk and France's CMA, Chinese shipping giants like COSCO and Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) also suspended transport through the Red Sea.

Ma Xiaolin, dean of the Institute for Studies on the Mediterranean Rim at Zhejiang International Studies University, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the trade route via the Red Sea is truly important for China as it connects Europe, Asia and Africa, so China will pay close attention to the situation.

"However, although China has naval vessels in the region, their mission is about anti-piracy, rather than intervening in regional issues and other countries' internal affairs. Only a solution to the ongoing crisis in Gaza can effectively solve the problem in the Red Sea," Ma said. 

On December 9, Al Jazeera reported that the armed group in Yemen claimed that "it will target all ships heading to Israel, regardless of their nationality, and warned all international shipping companies against dealing with Israeli ports."

"If Gaza does not receive the food and medicines it needs, all ships in the Red Sea bound for Israeli ports, regardless of their nationality, will become a target for our armed forces," the group's spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday, according to Al Jazeera.

Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the "Houthis are specifically targeting Israel, so it's unlikely it will attack Chinese vessels. China doesn't need to be too worried about the situation and the Chinese warships in the region will stick to their plan."

"China will keep making efforts to realize a sustainable cease-fire and clear the way for humanitarian aid to get into the Gaza Strip. This is the real priority that needs to be done," Wang Jin, an associate professor at the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies at Northwest University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

If Washington and its allies want to solve the Red Sea problem, they should play a responsible role in the UN Security Council to pass a cease-fire resolution and to put concrete efforts into improving the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which would be more effective than sending warships to conduct joint patrols, experts said. 

The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains severe. According to Reuters on Tuesday, Israeli missiles and air strikes on the Rafah area in southern Gaza struck three houses killing at least 20 Palestinians, Gaza health officials said on Tuesday. Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have crammed into Rafah on Gaza's border with Egypt to escape Israeli bombardments.

The lack of unity in the UN that is mainly caused by the US is another key reason why the situation is far from easing. The UN Security Council delayed until Tuesday morning a vote on an Arab-sponsored resolution calling for a halt to hostilities in Gaza to allow for urgently needed aid deliveries to a massive number of civilians as members intensified negotiations to try to avoid another veto by the US, the AP reported.

Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a routine press conference on Tuesday that "the UN General Assembly has adopted two resolutions with an overwhelming majority. We hope the US will listen to the voice of the international community, stop single-handedly blocking Security Council resolutions, and play its due role to promote an immediate cease-fire and prevent an even larger humanitarian catastrophe."

Search and rescue efforts are drawing to a close in the aftermath of the devastating 6.2-magnitude Jishishan earthquake. The focus is now shifting to the treatment of the injured, resettlement, and debris removal across earthquake-stricken areas, emergency management authorities in Northwest China's Gansu Province said at Thursday morning's press briefing.

Phased progress has been achieved in earthquake relief work, a local official said at the briefing. The death toll caused by the devastating earthquake that rattled Northwest China Monday night had reached 137 as of Thursday - 115 in Gansu Province and 22 in Qinghai Province.

As of 6 am on Thursday, the housing authorities have organized engineering and technical experts to complete the preliminary inspection and assessment of kindergartens, schools, and hospitals in Jishishan county. The emergency assessment of all houses in 19 villages in two towns, which were the most severely affected, has been completed. Water and gas supplies in the county have been restored to normal, while heating has basically restored. The damaged pipe network is being repaired to restore normal heating in the county as soon as possible, according to an official at the press briefing.

Various regions across China, including North China's Tianjin, South China's Guangdong Province, Northeast China's Liaoning Province, East China's Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang provinces have provided disaster relief funds and extended assistance in terms of medical care, emergency rescue operations, and essential supplies, according to the briefing.

Meanwhile, some regions have organized professional rescue, aviation rescue, and emergency communication support teams to provide assistance to the earthquake-stricken areas in personnel search and rescue, geological disaster inspection, aviation emergency rescue, and medical care services.

Under the guidance of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of China, Gansu provincial housing and urban-rural authorities established an earthquake relief command headquarters, and initiated a Level II emergency earthquake response. The ministry has dispatched personnel to the affected areas to provide guidance for disaster relief, according to the local officials.

More than 500 specialists and technicians have been dispatched to the affected area to survey the damage to residential and facilities, conducting emergency assessments of building structures, and carrying out urgent repairs.

Meanwhile, local hospitals have received a total of 784 injured people, and the health authorities are currently conducting psychological counseling for those impacted by the disaster. In addition to all county and village medical institutions operating normally, 19 more medical treatment points and a mobile hospital have been established to meet the medical needs of the people in the disaster-stricken areas.

China's men's national volleyball team were relegated from the FIVB volleyball Nations League after a disappointing run in the league's preliminary phase, raising questions about the future of the men's national team.

Following Sunday's 3-1 defeat by Canada in the final match of the preliminary phase, China finished the annual international tournament at the bottom of 16 teams with a 2-10 win-loss record. 

The relegation sends China into the FIVB Challenger Cup to be held in Qatar from July 27 to 30. They will be able to return to next season's Nations League only if they win the Challenger Cup, which is a big question mark for the team.

A bigger question mark lies ahead when China turns its focus to the Hangzhou Asian Games in September and then participating in the Paris Olympic Games qualifiers in Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, from September 30 to October 8. 

Only the top 24 teams in the world rankings will be eligible for the Olympic qualifiers and China is out of the loop, ranking world No.25 currently.

The relegation sounds the alarm for China's volleyball team to reflect on its missteps and focus on the basics.

Wu Sheng, head coach of the national team, said in June that it would be difficult to emerge from the Olympic qualifiers. If they fail in the qualifiers, the team will have to fight for an Olympic berth through better world rankings. But volleyball fans are of the mind that only miracle could help China qualify for the Paris Olympic Games.

Fans also vented their anger toward the coach for the team's error-strewn performance in the Nations League, blasting him for substitutions, ill-timed challenge calls and his inability to adjust to instantaneous changes on the court.

Wu takes full responsibility for the team's performance but that does not paper over the widening gap between China and world heavyweights that has been laid bare in the league as the team was blown out in serving, reception, blocking, offense and setting. 

Wu said after the relegation that the worst problem lies in setting. 

"I'm not happy with all three setters. We don't have a consistent starting lineup," he said.

When we look up to the other end of the Nations League table, Japan sits second with a 10-2 win-loss record. 

Statistics indicate that it all boils down to basics. It has been Japan's solid reception and defense that enabled it to prevail against physically stronger opponents. Miracles came from years of hard work in honing the team's basic skills.

China's university swimming team concluded their seven-day FISU Games campaign on a high note on Monday as they tallied 18 gold and two bronze medals to sit atop the leader board in swimming.

Butterfly specialist Zhang Yufei remains the biggest contributor to China's medal haul as she scored gold medals out of all nine competitions in which she participated. 

Monday night saw her win two gold medals in women's 50 meters freestyle and 4x100 meters medley relay at the Dong'an Lake Sports Park Aquatics Centre.

The Southeast University student was participating in the FISU University Games back-to-back with the World Aquatics Championships, which ended on July 30, a day before the FISU swimming competition began.

"The University Games competition is more like training for me. Even though I'm tired, I have to wake up when I step into the arena. Regardless of my mental state, once I'm on the competition stage, I have to give my all and take the race seriously," Zhang told reporters. 

The 25-year-old threw all the gifts she received at the award ceremony to the audience on Monday. 

Zhang, also a two-time Olympic champion and a two-time world championship title holder, said she is trying to get used to participating in back-to-back tournaments.

"It can be exhausting joining back-to-back events like the World Championships, University Games and the upcoming Asian Games, but it's all about building myself up," she said. 

"A significant portion of my training is done on dry land. Through these exercises, I enhance my physical fitness to improve my ability to compete in multiple events. Since I will be participating in many events at the Olympics next year, I started preparing from this year, making multiple races a habit for myself," she added.

Distance freestyle specialist Li Bingjie, 21, representing Shanghai Jiao Tong University, also had to swim back-to-back after winning the 400 meters freestyle. 

The last swimmer in the women's relay, she was struggling to stand thus was carried by her teammates after the final as her efforts ended with China leading the second-place Poland team with a one-second-sharp lead. 

Li, a Tokyo Olympics gold medalist and six-time world championship medalist, totaled eight gold medals at the FISU Games, including a clean sweep in the women's 400, 800 and 1,500 meters freestyle.

Li has said that she hopes to narrow the gap between her and the world's most decorated swimmer, Katie Ledecky of the US, in the lead up to the Paris Olympics, but she insists that she will continue to focus on her own rhythm rather than following others.

"I've made mistakes in this aspect before, allowing others' pace to dictate my pace, which ended in the later stages with me losing control of myself," Li told reporters. 

"Now I primarily focus on swimming according to my own rhythm."

Also that night, the Chinese university men's 4x100 meters medley relay team, headed by breaststroke world champion Qin Haiyang, set a new FISU record of 3:32.58 seconds. 

Speaking about the physical fatigue of participating in back-to-back races, Qin emphasized the importance of mental relaxation.

"My primary focus after training is on relaxing my mind. Physical fatigue can be recovered through a good sleep, but mental relaxation is more crucial because training is usually quite intense," Qin, whose given name Haiyang means "ocean," told reporters. 

"As my journey into swimming was also a serendipitous process, I feel that there is a sense of destiny associated with swimming," Qin said, speaking about his given name.

Qin thanked the home audience for their continuing support to the team. 

"The spectators are truly enthusiastic," Qin Said.

"Only during home games can you hear such fervent cheers and shouts!"