China

XI'AN, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- A train set off from Hanzhong City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, on Sunday bound for Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, marking the launch of a new China-Europe freight train service from the city.

The train by way of the provincial capital of Xi'an carried 767 tonnes of merchandise including baby carriages, clothes, stationery, ceramic tea sets and sanitary wares. It is expected to leave China via the land port of Horgos in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region en route to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

BEIJING, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese researchers have demonstrated that algae can survive in a Mars-like environment during four experiments since 2019, raising the hope that mankind might be able to turn the barren planet into an earth-like green one in the future.

BEIJING, Dec 26 (Reuters) - China has replaced Chen Quanguo, who as Communist Party chief in the Xinjiang region oversaw a security crackdown targeting ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslims in the name of fighting religious extremism.

Chen, in his post since 2016, will move to another role and Ma Xingrui, governor of the coastal economic powerhouse Guangdong province since 2017, has replaced him, the official Xinhua News Agency said on Saturday. It gave no other details.

BEIJING, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- Close to 2.76 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered on the Chinese mainland as of Saturday, data from the National Health Commission showed Sunday.

More than 1.2 billion people had been fully vaccinated as of Saturday, said the commission. 

BEIJING, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- China's Shenzhou-13 Taikonaut Ye Guangfu has been out of the space station core module Tianhe to start extravehicular activities (EVAs), the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said on Sunday evening.

The Shenzhou-13 Taikonauts are conducting EVAs for the second time, the CMSA said.

BEIJING, Dec 25 (APP): Pakistan’s National Pavilion on JD.com, China’s famous e-commerce platform was launched aimed at providing a useful platform to Pakistani and Chinese traders to promote Pakistan’s high-quality products through China’s huge online market.

Pakistan Ambassador to China, Moin ul Haque inaugurated Pakistan’s first online national pavilion in China at a simple ceremony held at the Embassy of Pakistan.

Vice President of Prestige International, Ms. Sisy Ge, Senior Advisor of Prestige International, Luo Xiangdon and senior Pakistani officials were present.

BEIJING, Dec 25 (APP): China and Pakistan are closely cooperating in marine information research and marine environmental data sharing, revealed by the recently held 3rd China-Pakistan Marine Information Workshop by China’s Harbin Engineering University and COMSATS University Islamabad.

As a comprehensive and interdisciplinary field, ocean information involves multiple areas including electronics, information, communication, computer science, network, artificial intelligence, etc.

Dec 23 (Reuters) - Three doses of Sinovac's CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine do not produce adequate levels of antibodies to fight the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, researchers from Hong Kong said in a statement.

Their analysis revealed Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was more effective, as a third dose of the shot administered after two doses of the same or China's Sinovac vaccine provided "protective levels" of antibody against Omicron.

BEIJING, Dec 22 (Reuters) - China "fully affirms" the work of Hong Kong's chief executive, Carrie Lam, and her government, Premier Li Keqiang has said, according to media in the Asian financial hub.

Lam is visiting Beijing this week to deliver an annual briefing to Chinese leaders.

24 Dec 2021; MEMO: China on Friday lashed out at the US over a new law related to Uyghurs, saying it "should save the labels of 'forced labour' and 'genocide' for itself", Anadolu Agency reported.