Emily Fang

Emily Fang and PR News Tel Aviv.

An Israeli government source who asked to remain unnamed because they're not authorized to speak to media tells NPR, Israel is concerned Iran's regime is not so fragile yet that a U.S.

military attack could completely topple it.

In Iran, mass demonstrations are going into their third week.

And President Trump wrote on social media this week that, quote, help is on its way to Iran without specifying what that meant.

The same Israeli government source also told NPR Israeli cabinet members met on Tuesday to discuss Israel's potential response if the U.S.

attacked Iran.

Emily Fang, NPR News, Tel Aviv.

China's record trade surplus for the last year shows how Beijing has successfully found new markets outside of the U.S.

to export to.

Exports to the U.S.

declined by a fifth last year.

Chinese officials said the surplus showed how China was diversifying who it trades with.

But the surplus also shows how China remains reliant on exports to fuel its economic growth, and consumer demand inside China is still plateauing.

Its leaders want to move away from just manufacturing consumer goods to becoming a profitable global leader in high-tech goods and things like semiconductors and energy, while also tackling ongoing issues of debt among its local governments and property construction companies.

Emily Fang, NPR News.

For more than three decades, contraceptive products had no tax on them in China because officials said the country was in the midst of family planning under the one-child policy that limited families to just one child.

That was back when Chinese leaders feared the country could not support a large population.

But they now have the opposite problem, a shrinking working age population.

In 2016, that one-child limit was raised to two children, and now it's three children as China contends with a falling birth rate.