China

BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Tuesday urged the United States to offer apologies and compensation to victims of secret experiments.

Spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks at a daily press briefing when asked to comment on a Danish Radio documentary which exposed the secret human body experiments practiced on 311 Danish children in the 1960s, allegedly funded by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong authorities said Tuesday that they will kill about 2,000 small animals, including hamsters, after several tested positive for the coronavirus at a pet store where an employee was also infected.

The city will also stop the sale of hamsters and the import of small mammals, according to officials from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department. The pet shop employee tested positive for the delta variant on Monday, and several hamsters imported from the Netherlands at the store tested positive as well.

BEIJING, Jan 17 (APP): Chinese scholar Prof Cheng Xizhong on Monday said if the Hindutva-Modi government did not stop its cruel suppression of Muslims, Kashmiris, ethnic minorities in the northeast and non-Hindu groups throughout the country, the current nationwide commotion in India would evolve into an all-out civil war and eventually the country would move towards national division and disintegration.

New Delhi/Davos, Jan 17 (PTI) Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday said joint efforts are the only way to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and called for fair distribution of vaccines and expedited inoculation drive globally.

In a special address on 'state of the world' on the first day of the week-long online Davos Agenda summit of the World Economic Forum, he said that humanity will certainly move on but the world needs to jointly defeat the pandemic.

BEIJING (AP) — China has restored railway freight traffic with North Korea that had been suspended over pandemic concerns, its foreign ministry said Monday.

Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the connection across the Yalu River between China’s Dandong and Sinuiju in North Korea had been restored after “friendly consultation between the two sides.”

Zhao said normal trade would be maintained while pandemic controls stay in place, but gave no other details.

BEIJING (AP) — China’s economy expanded by 8.1% in 2021 but Beijing faces pressure to shore up activity after an abrupt slump in the second half as the ruling Communist Party forced its vast real estate industry to cut surging debt.

Growth in the world’s second-largest economy sank to 4% over a year earlier in the final three months of 2021, government data showed Monday. That was down from the previous quarter’s 4.9% and an eye-popping 18.3% in the first three months of 2021.

Beijing, Jan 16 (AP) Beijing has reported its first local omicron infection, according to state media, weeks before the Winter Olympic Games are due to start.

The infected person lives and works in the city's northwestern district of Haidian and had no travel history outside of Beijing for the past two weeks. The individual experienced symptoms on Thursday and was tested on Friday for COVID-19, officials said in a news conference Saturday during which they confirmed the infection.

BEIJING, Jan 15 (APP): More than 200 personnel related to the 2022 Winter Olympic Games are expected to arrive in Beijing this weekend, an official from the organizing committee said the city is well prepared for the arrival and departure service of those people, including routine COVID-19 prevention and control procedures and adjustment of inbound flights to Beijing if necessary.

Local media reported that a total of 12 flights with over 200 related personnel will arrive in Beijing from abroad this weekend, three weeks ahead of Beijing 2022 event.

BEIJING, Jan 15 (APP): Chinese Vice Minister of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China, Zhang Xu expressed his sincere expectations for further strengthening and deepening China-Pakistan cultural exchanges and cooperation, and extended his sincere greetings to the people of Pakistan.

BEIJING, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- The United States has witnessed multiple nightmares in 2021, with everything from the U.S. Capitol riot to a catastrophic response to the COVID-19 pandemic and from the debacle in Afghanistan to surging gun violence across the country.

   Risks and chaos bred in different fields of the country show no sign of abating and may well spill over to impact other countries, further dampening the world's recovery from the pandemic in 2022.

 GOVERNANCE PLIGHT