China

SHANGHAI/BEIJING, March 17 (Reuters) - To keep factory lines open in the face of COVID curbs Chinese firms are asking workers to eat, sleep and work in bubbles isolated from the wider world, sterilising premises as often as three times a day and testing for COVID daily.

Dubbed "closed-loop management", this approach has been part of China's efforts over the past two years to keep local transmission extremely low by global standards.

It was used for example at the Winter Olympics in Beijing to seal event personnel off from the public.

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock prices surged for a second day Thursday after the Federal Reserve announced its first interest rate hike since 2008 and China promised support for its real estate and internet industries.

Hong Kong’s benchmark jumped more than 6% and Tokyo gained more than 3%. Shanghai, Seoul and Sydney also advanced.

Oil prices gained nearly $2 per barrel but stayed below $100.

BEIJING, Mar 16 (APP): The adoption of the resolution by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to proclaim March 15 as International Day to Combat Islamophobia was a major victory for Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts, Cheng Xizhong, Visiting Professor at Southwest University of Political Science and law said on Wednesday.

BEIJING, March 16 (APP): Pakistan is importing silk worth 67 billion rupees. If we produce more silk in our country, it will provide employment to 600,000 people, most of whom will be of rural women, said Muhammad Farooq Bhatti, Deputy Director, Sericulture Punjab, Forest Department, Lahore.

But lack of Mulberry trees has been restricting Pakistan to fully tap its potential.
“In the 1990s, the area of mulberry trees shrank, leading to a decline of the sericulture industry, now we are trying to bring it back,” he told China Economic Net (CEN).

BEIJING, March 16. /TASS/: The Chinese authorities are demanding that Washington make sure that the activities of US military biolabs are fully transparent, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a briefing on Wednesday.

"We once again insist that <...> the US should ensure full transparency of the activities related to military biological technologies," he said in response to a TASS question as to how the Chinese Foreign Ministry viewed Washington’s attempts to dodge responsibility amid the revelation of US military biological activities in Ukraine.

BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Tuesday urged the United States to make tangible efforts to ease the situation in Ukraine.

Spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks at a daily press briefing in response to a question on recent allegations reportedly made by an unnamed U.S. official on relations between Russia and China with regard to the Ukraine crisis.

BEIJING (AP) — China’s government tried Wednesday to reassure jittery investors after regulatory crackdowns caused stock prices to plunge, by promising support for its struggling real estate industry, internet companies and entrepreneurs who want to raise money abroad.

Regulators should issue market-friendly policies to “invigorate the economy,” officials said at a Cabinet meeting led by Vice Premier Liu He, President Xi Jinping’s top economic adviser, the official Xinhua News Agency said

BEIJING (AP) — The U.S. customs agency says it is holding imported goods from Chinese sports brand Li Ning after an investigation indicated they were made by North Korean labor.

U.S. law prohibits imports of goods made in North Korea or by North Korean citizens without proof they weren’t made by forced labor, according to a notice from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Washington.

The goods will be forfeited if Li Ning Co. cannot provide “clear and convincing evidence” within 30 days that it wasn’t made by convict, forced or indentured labor, the agency said.

HONG KONG (AP) — As a COVID-19 outbreak overwhelms Hong Kong, it’s hard for its 7.4 million residents to know what’s next.

Uncertainty is the only certainty as store shelves are stripped of goods, mainland Chinese companies throw up sprawling isolation and testing centers and the government sends mixed messages on whether it will lock down the population for a citywide mass testing.

BEIJING, Mar 15Â (APP): Cheng Xizhong, Visiting Professor at Southwest University of Political Science and law on Tuesday observed that after launching a supersonic missile into Pakistan due to India’s alleged ‘technical malfunction’ during maintenance and blatantly violating Pakistan’s airspace, the international community, including India’s mainstream media, has been strongly demanding a joint investigation. Unfortunately, India has remained silent for so many days.